Day 50: Snake Penis Wine

Today was the day we would finally do something touristy. We had a wee lie in before going into the centre of Taipei to meet Brad and Eric for lunch! We went to this nice restaurant which had lots of bookcases, so it was like we were in the middle of a library. I had fish and chips as I was beginning to miss British food haa. After lunch Wayne and I headed to Longshan temple, making our way through lots of backstreets and almost getting hit by mopeds several times. The temple itself was absolutely gorgeous, so vibrantly colourful. We walked in during the middle of a buddhist chant, it actually sounded really amazing, was great to witness. We walked around, me taking lots of pictures and looking at all the different statues. Wayne told me what each one was for, hilariously the one that was for love was the busiest. After that we headed to the tourist night time market. So many weird and wonderful foods on display. Then we saw it, the snake soup restaurant. For like 4 pounds, you could have a set meal of snake soup, with shots of snake penis wine, snake bile and snake venom. I thought what the hey, when am I ever gonna get this chance again. The snake soup itself wasn't too bad, the shots were all vile. I was terrified I would actually die from the venom but I was told it was safe. It did give me some nasty heartburn.

We headed over to Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. I was super excited to goto the top! We had some food first downstairs, before getting our tickets to go up. We got our photo taken in front of a green screen. Because I was wearing green shorts and wayne a green t-shirt our bodies mashed together with the background scene which was pretty funny to see. We went up in the elevator, my ears must have popped like 4 times. It is apparently the fastest elevator in the world! So cool! The view was absolutely incredible from the top and we even got to go out on the rooftop. After we were done we headed quickly back to Wayne's apartment to have a quick nap before heading out.

We went to meet Wayne's friend Johnny before going to this really cool gay bar. It was themed to be like an outside park, so cue lots of fake grass and crazy amounts of A/C. The drinks were incredibly strong and although I vowed to take it easy tonight found myself drinking a bit too many cocktails. Once we were done there we headed to this other gay bar that was completely packed. So difficult to move and I almost fell down the stairs. I've never seen so many hot asian guys packed into one room in my life. I NEEDED to come back here in the future. We all had a really great night before getting a taxi home to go get some much needed sleep.