Thinking Allowed: Li Ho Taiwan!

We are in Taiwan! I arrived on Thursday, the night before Tamar and the girls, my internal clock reeling from having travelled Fukuoka-Riyadh-Ottawa-Riyadh-Taipei in a week and a half. I rode the train into the city, looking out at lush green rice paddies and jungly terrain. It was foggy, but I could see shaggy misty mountains in one direction and about 100 skyscrapers in another.

My darlings arrived the next day, and we've had a good time exploring the city so far. Food has, of course, been a major theme. Having been tasked by Tamar to research Taiwanese food as part of Smarts, Aurora has become a bit of an expert on the topic. She can tell you every permutation of eggs and scallions rolled up with pig intestines and fried dough. Our first night we went out to the Raohe Night Market, hoping to find the fabled Taiwanese Stinky Tofu. As we approached the market, a horrible stench filled our noses ... surely not? Yep! Stinky Tofu is actually so stinky that we have to scurry past the stalls where stoic men churn fermented goop, in up to their elbows. Tova clamps her mask tightly to her face and Tamar turns slightly green. We got some, of course - it was very weird, like a mix of tofu and salty blue cheese. Scallion pancakes with a generous handful of basil mixed in were much more popular.

We've also found a couple of amazing local restaurants with sesame dumplings, steamed bao with green vegetables, and various tofu soups. Everyone who works in these places is either over 60 or under 13, and it's affordable and delicious.

Our hostel is on the fringes of the city centre, nestled between two massive highways in a dilapidated residential/industrial neighbourhood; a bit noisy and gray. All the apartment buildings have mold-stained facades, and all the security guards we meet are fast asleep. But our hostel room is beautifully spacious and quiet, with six little cubbies for us to crawl into at night. Breakfast is included, but it's congee with unidentifiable vegetables in soy sauce, which none of us love.

Over the weekend we went to the Taipei Cultural Centre, a sprawling tobacco factory that's been repurposed into a design hub. My favourite was Not Just A Library - literally one of the most peaceful spaces I've ever been in. Sophia and I tried reading the exhibition of Italian children's books together, but not a single one had any words in it. Tova liked the maglev rotating air freshener, and Zadie smeared her whole hand with stamp ink by accident. We also hiked up Elephant Mountain, a steep climb up hundreds of stairs teeming with locals. Tova and Zadie sprinted up to the top ahead of us, where they found a genial guy in his seventies doing chin-ups. So all the girls did chin-ups atop the mountain with their new friend.

And lots of other interesting experiences. Tamar and I went to our first Michelin-starred restaurant, but it turned out we needed a reservation (who knew?) so we were turned away, and our date night turned into a mochi-sesame bun, buddha bowl and nutty fried rice, and chocolate bubble tea instead. I took the girls to a nice bouldering gym in the east end of town - climbers here are much noisier than Japan, cheering each other on with gusto. We saw a street performer balance upside-down on five stacked chairs. The girls have already played in three or four playgrounds we've passed.

Taiwan's definitely an adjustment from the calm and order of Japan; people blow whistles, scooters buzz down the sidewalks, the night market is a crush of people and odours ... but we're having a lot of fun and are looking forward to a ton of new experiences as we explore the island over the next ten days.