Rewind to Hong Kong

Before coming to Taiwan i was in Hong Kong for a week. Hong Kong is a city with so many cultural influences from all over the world making it almost like a asian version of New York. I love how you can walk down a big street with a row of almost every luxury brand you can possibly imagine showing of their latest fashion in HUGE, amazing window displays and which have people queuing up outside them on a daily basis because they apparently have to buy a bag for 100 000 HKD (?). Just walking  down a sidestreet you discover small inspiring boutiques selling clothing and furniture  and next to it a food market with fresh fish and smelly foodstands.

Here are my somewhat lame recommendations for Hong Kong since its always best to discover a place by yourself!

-Lan Kwai Fong and Soho for bars and restaurants at night and for the small shops in Soho during the day

-Causeway bay for shopping

-Sushi at June mmmmm

-Teppanyaki (Japanese cuisine where you have a chef that prepares the food in front of you on a large heated surface)

                           

-Go to Stanley or the Peak on a nice day!

-Walk along the water on Kowloon side to see the famous skyline of course...and take the Star Ferry over to the other side.

ART- Art Revolution Taipei

I went to an art exhibition the other day called Art Revolution Taipei. I typically don´t enjoy just walking around looking at paintings and really "abstract" art but they had a wide selection of really creative and fun artists.

One particular artist which caught by attention was Wut Chiu from Taiwan. He had some really colorful "kitsch" portraits of men and women sitting in couches singing karaoke. A woman explained to me that they were supposed to be taiwanese gangsters having a karaoke party and above them is the name of their loved one (if i understood it correctly). He had incorporated alot of small humoristic details which is what made me curious about it.

The first couple of pictures are Wut Chius paintings and the rest are other mainly taiwanese artists.

Welcome to TAIPEI!

My first impressions of Taipei are definitely good! Im loving it! People are so friendly and happy to help even if they dont understand or speak a word of English. Its a mix between the genuine asian culture and the new and modern asia (of course with some western influence). I feel like Taipei has managed to stay more genuine due to the lack of Westerners and tourists and this is definitely a good thing. No one bothers you when entering stores for example... or if they do its because they are fascinated or excited to see someone looking so different. Since I didnt know anything about Taiwan a couple of months ago i didn't know what to expect which is really exciting when traveling to a new place.

Since arriving in Taipei about a week ago iv actually been up too alot so far!

-Getting to know the area around where i live (close to Xinpu MRT station) 

-Walking around Dunhua and Shida

-Been to Shida Night market

-Attended a day in Taiwanese university (Supply chain management class and Chinese!)

-Been to Taipei Zoo

-Been to Ximen, Sometimes called "Little Tokyo"

-Been to Chang Kai-shek memorial hall

-Been to a art exhibition called Art Revolution

-Ate lots of street food, been to nice cafés and interesting restaurants

Here are a random selection of pictures from the past week.