Taipei: hot, smelly, dirty and AMAZING

Angry women yelling at the side of the road trying to get you to buy what they’re hawking. Shopkeepers in stores stalk you, making you feel bad if you don’t buy something.

This is why I love Taiwan.

The city of Taipei is what one would expect of any Southeast Asian country — a place with extreme disparity between rich and poor, a society where westernization begins in the the city’s heart, a landscape filled with skyscrapers that is really only an illusion — because a thirty minute walk out will show how the majority of people truly live.

I don’t want to live in the heart of the city amidst Gucci and Louis Vuitton, but away from it all — where female shop owners aren’t even a bit subtle about their intentions when they speak to me.

There, I wear my flip flops on the streets for thirty minutes and my feet turn as black as charcoal. Mosquitoes attack me and I’m left with bites that swell to the size of ping pong balls.

AsI stroll down the night market, I see people at little stalls telling people to come eat their food. My favorite stall is there — it’s probably the worst possible health hazard on the street. The vendor fries over 30 different foods, whatever I want I can get. It’s amazingly delicious, even though it’s just fried food. As I order the food, I see the black oil — oil that has probably not been changed the entire day despite the constant customers. It’s aite tho. My tummy and its appetite come first — health is not too much of an issue with the statewide healthcare system…right?

 

AsI move along the night market, I begin to smell something so familiar: the sewers.

Just kidding. It’s not actually sewers, It’s the food of the night market, which smells terrible. Let me introduce to you the famous stinky tofu.

The idea and origination of stinky tofu is actually disgusting. People take leftover veggies they don’t need and let it ferment for 2 months. Pretty gross right? (My food studies minor taught me how gross this yummy dish is). It’s quite the controversial dish, but anything that is is worth trying.

The night is calm and humid as I hear mopeds roaring around town.The heat sticks to my body as I try to keep myself sane. Yet this walk is the only thing that keeps me from putting on the pounds from eating all that street food. But with all the heat and sweat, I wonder if it’d be better to be fat instead.