You need a so-called visitors visa when you stay in Taiwan for less than 6 months. So, this is applicable for me.  When you enter Taiwan you get a visa for 3 months and you have to extent it within 15 days before expiration. For me the time was there so went to the National Immigration Agency. Once I was there I filled in a form and copied some documents before I moved to the counter. There they told me that I was at the wrong NIA. Why? Well, I live in Taipei County and that means you have to go to the SAME agency at another place… No matter what I tried, rules are rules. So next day I went to the other place and here it as done within a minute! Stupid bureaucracy…

The Taiwanese government has a nice way to overcome that shops and other firms exempt tax payment. There is a code of 8 numbers on every receipt and with this code you can win prices up to 3 million NT. The lottery is once in the two months and this was the first time for me to check the numbers. I collected all my receipts for the months September and October. At least 300 so I expected to win something. However, didn’t even won the lowest price, 200 NT. Damn, Im pissed now…

I had to fill in the application letter for the NTU before I came to Taiwan. This included my personal information as well as a questionnaire: Are you addicted to chewing betel nut? Hmmm, I have no clue what that is, but to be honouts Im not addicted. After some research I found out that this is the Asian type of chewing on tabocco. The nuts are often sold at traffic lights or by so-called ‘betel nuts girls’! Taxi drivers use it a lot, because it keeps you awake. One betelnut has the same amount of cafeine as 6 cups of coffee!!

One week ago was not the best weekend here in Taiwan. I went to the nightmarket and enjoyed the Indian chicken there. The taste wasn’t good, but I was hungry so I finished it. This was on saturday and the whole sunday I felt horrible. Nevertheless, I was still able to undertake things and eat. However, during the night I felt warm, cold and warm again. Also needed to go to the toite every 15 minutes! So the next day, Ashley and her mom wanted (forced :P) me to go the hospital! First I refused, but maybe it was the best option so let’s go!!! After 10 minutes we arrived at the ER room of the General Veterans Hospital in Taipei. They immediately wanted to know my pulse, asked for my symptons, checked my blood and I had to give them a poop sample. What an experience… I was forced to stay in bed during the time my blood and poop were checked. Overall it took 2 hours. The final result was, what a suprise, that I ate something wrong! I could only drink water and at toast for the coming 3 days. In addition, I had to take 3 pills, 3 times a day after every meal! At the end of the day I felt better and took my last pill…
It is funny to see for what reason Taiwanese people go the hosptital. Even a cold is a reason and they get a package full of pills to combat the cold!! In the Netherlands, in most places I think, you just stay home for one day and the next day you feel better!! Nevertheless, it was a lovely experience to stay in the ER with all those old and sick people…

On tuesday night I enjoyed tasteful Chinese breakfasat. In the Netherlands we would call this ‘fast food’! However, the Chinese fast food is somehow different than in Europe. No kebab or fries! Here you enjoy papaya milk, omelet on a sandwich and some typical Taiwanese dumplings. Mostly, these kind of restaurants are open 24 hours and they have customers 24 hours longs! The food is not expensive and, I have to admit, the food is good!!

Finally, the month december is there!! This means Christmas and in the Netherands we normally have a 2 week Christmas break. In Taiwan we don’t have a Christmas break. Moreover, not even a day of on 25th or 26th!! They still decorate the shops and try to give you a Christmas feeling besides the fact that local Taiwanese don’t celeberate Christmas here the way we do in The Netherlands. There is a big Christmas tree in front of Taipei 101, the employees of the big malls all have a Christmas outfit and the shops sell gifts! In addition, shopping malls like the SOGO also have special Christmas discounts. So it is the best to avoid those places during weekends! I don’t have concrete plans for Christmas yet. Maybe, I try some cooking or go to a nice place  with friends to enjoy an extensive meal!!

Last weekend was nice weekend. Especially compared to the weekend where I was sick! Me and Ashley went on a trip on Saturday. We visited Yilan which is a place to the east! 1 hour driving away from Taipei! Yilan is not mentioned in the Lonely Planet and now I know why. There is not much to see except a, according the Yilan citizins, ‘famous’ alcohol/beer distillery. Well, I don’t really understand why this is famous, because there was really nothing interesting to see. So we decided to move on to the Taiwan Traditional Art Center. This is very popular among Taiwanese people thus it was a busy happening. Performance by people dressed up as animals, shows for the children and all kind of different shops selling local food and souvenirs. A nice place to walk around!! We decided not to take the same road back to Taipei, but to go via the coast road! It turned out to be a road with some beautiful scenery. We stopped by at a local fish market to buy fried crab and also walked around on the beach! It was already getting dark and it was only 12 degrees, but we decided to go to Jufen as well. Now we are there… However, the route we took wasn’t the fastest one. We drove 20 minutes up a mountain road. No other cars, no lights and no sign of life!! Once in Jufen we walked around in the old street. Again with food stalls, souvenir shops and teahouses! Dinner was a surprise for me, and it was a good one! We went to a Taiwanese chain famous for its dumplings!! In addition to the dumplings I had fried rice and fried noodle!! Overall, a lovely saturday!!

On sunday afternoon we visited the Taipei Zoo. Only for 1,5 hours which was too short, because the Zoo was really nice! The Taipei Zoo is really nice, especially compared to the zoo where I went to in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In Taipei they have many animals, the cages are quite big, not expensive and it is clean!!! We didn’t have time to go to the Pingui House! That was a pitty, because I like those animals!!! But Taipei Zoo is definitely a nice place to go to for a day trip. I would advice not to go there during the summer. It can be hot there, because there is not much shadow!!!