Sunrise over Taipei 101

Jack the Italian guy woke us up to our alarm this morning. Super early for sunrise to go to elephant hill. We had to take a taxi as there was no buses or mrts running at that time. After walking very fast to the top we realised that we were in the wrong place for the proper sunrise and it would take 30 minutes to get there. There were masses of old Chinese people doing very strange exercises. Couldn't help but laugh at quite a few of them. So of them would slap themselves on their arms and legs and even hit their back again a tree!! The people that didn't make it for sunrise would scream something spiritual which was funny. So on the mountain you heard masses of screams of people who haven't made it. We all sat and watched the view for a bit before we headed back down. We saw 2 huge spiders. They were crazily big, biggest I have ever seen! We came across the 'six big rocks' and we all climbed to the top of one and sat again and took in the view. A Chinese woman got such a fright as I jumped off the rock from half way!! On our walk to find a MRT we scanned for breakfast. We ate something really bizarre from a little bakery that hadn't opened but they let us in. We figured out they were moon cakes later on. Think they have an egg yolk in the middle. We then found some dumplings on the way. They were really yummy. We walked quite a while until we asked a women where the metro was and turns out we need to take a bus to get there. Took a bus to the MRT in Taipei city hall and then metro to Taipei zoo. We wandered along to the lifts to take us up the mountain. We took the crystal lift to the top. It had glass on the bottom so you could see everything underneath you on the way up. It was a fun ride to the top with really good views. We all get on too well and laugh too much! When we got to the top Jack looked at maps to see where a good tea place is to go. So we walked along the little road to find this place with 'many, many variety of teas'!! Not sure if they had as many as we were told from the lady at the help desk. It was a really funny process. We had a big kettle of hot water boiling on a stove on our table, 3 little cups and other very strange utilises. We had to put the tea into a little teapot and let it brew, then put it into a filter, poor it into our cups and then poor it out of our cups. We had to do this 3 times before we drank it. Was a funny process. They lady showed us how to do it the first time and she was pouring over the side of the pot so we all looked like pros! Jack wanted to try some of the food so we all ordered some wheat bread. It took forever to come and we kept thinking it was coming but it was for the two ladies sitting next to us. They ate a crazy amount but they are so skinny. They had plates after plates!! Our wheat bread finally came. They were all different colours. Red tasted strawberryish... Etc. Really strange. Back around the mountain and we took the lift down. Jack had a disgusting sausage cooked on the side of the street. Crazy how much garlic the locals took for the sausage. Whole cloves! We had a
dilemma on where to go next. We were either thinking beach or golden waterfall. We flipped a coin and beach it was. Rather embarrassing flipping the coin as almost hit someone on the metro with it!
Went to T main station. Tickets were a bomb so we headed back to room to take a rest. Plan was to get up in 2 hours but we all had a pretty good sleep. We went to find the art museum. Jack is the worst at maps ever. We should of tired to find it instead of him. Eventually got there but it was obviously closed!! Bit of a bummer. Watched small guy do the diablo, he was incredible. Huge arty spinny thing. You could go inside it and spin it around. It was made with masses of wood. We all got hypnotised by a weird bird video that changed image every half second with another children's picture of a bird coloured in. We took the MRT to Taipei 101. Tried to find woo bar for hours on end. Walked around for a rather long time and saw so cool unexpected places before we found lady who took us there as she works in the building! It was a big hotel with woo bar in it which we had no idea about that is why it was hard to find! It was a pretty cool bar but both Morag and I felt a little under dressed! We had one drink there before going meeting some people in the lift as we went to the wrong floor
We asked them if it was a good view from the bar and they said that we probably had a better one in our room. We laughed as they have no idea we are staying in a hostel. It is funny as it feels like we have known the Italian guy for ages. We joked to the Chinese girl that he like boys and she was like 'really, ohhh' Thought we found a club they were talking about but we couldn't get it. Went up and down lift for ages and lost Jack as the doors closed which we thought was funny at the time and then we realised we had to wait at every stop before getting back to his one!! Never press all the buttons on a lift.
Club was $500 for all you could drink. Sounds amazing but afterwards we weren't so sure! In the club someone elbowed me in the face and I got a nosebleed. Wasn't the best! Fun night. All got a taxi back to our hostel. The man in our room started chatting to Morag which I found too funny at the time!