A Day in The Life of a Nomad: Taipei

This is a continuous series of posts about random, nonspecific but typical days in the life of my nomadic lifestyle method. –view all days

* TAIPEI, TAIWAN

7:15 AM The loud rustling from plastic bags a backpacker is organizing to leave for his flight wakes me up. After what seems like an eternity he finally finishes packing but wakes up the entire dorm of this hostel in the process. I fall back asleep nonetheless.

10:02 AM I gradually and pleasantly wake up from the aroma of fresh coffee brewing, must be that French couple that travels the world just to try different coffees. ‘Chocolate Box Backpackers’, the hostel I’ve been at since arriving in Taipei 2 weeks ago has become one of my many “homes” and of course a pattern emerged. The like-home-lifestyle pattern.

10:54 AM Freshened up, Tim and I leave to get breakfast. I met this Australian backpacker 1 country over in Seoul and have traveled with him for a couple of months now. Good travel buddy, great friend – one of the many benefits of the hostel lifestyle.

11:49 AM Having already tried all the wonderful foods in Taipei, we both settle on our favorites, we have traditional beef noodles at ShiDa Night Market, although it’s not even the afternoon.

12:02 PM We get to a YouBike station, swipe our metro cards and each take a bicycle for a bit of riding. Not sure of where to go or what to do since we already did everything, we decide to go to the top of the Taipei 101 Tower again – the 5th tallest building in the world.

1:57 PM After a while of aimless cycling around Taipei, we almost crash into a couple of local Taiwanese girls also on YouBikes. We quickly make friends with them despite the near perfect language barrier.

3:31 PM The 4 of us end up at Daan Forest Park exhausted and drenched in sweat and each crack open a “Taiwan Beer”. That’s the actual beer, uninventive name but excellent brew. We chill…

4:34 PM In trying to explain if the girls wanted to have lunch with us, we follow them to what we thought was going to be a restaurant… After going through some intricate maze like alleyways, we finally get to wherever we are… As it turns out, it was their apartment and apparently they thought we were asking if they could cook us lunch, not to go get lunch.

5:59 PM And what do you know they cooked us beef noodles, probably because we were foreigners and it’s the unofficial Taiwanese dish. But it was good, more importantly however, this whole situation was quite an experience. A happy accident.

7:26 PM As we left, we exchanged Facebooks, LINE and made a second date for tonight at Club Luxy. I think that’s what happened, we’ll see tonight.

8:08 PM On the way back to our hostel, we make a stop at Ximending. It’s a favorite spot of ours. It’s crazy busy, filled with young energetic people with some interesting traits – like a subculture. Prime people watching and shopping.

9:20 PM There’s nothing quite like walking into a completely booked hostel with everyone present. It’s almost beautiful, actually it is beautiful.

10:05 PM About to step out with Tim for a late dinner, our new friends from Austria trades us some dumplings for a few of our beers. We drink and eat making plans for the rest of night.

10:42 PM With a crew of 7 from the hostel, we take the metro and head to Club Luxy.

11:07 PM I didn’t expect much from a Taiwanese club as I’ve been around but was impressed enough. Tim and I look for those local girls we met earlier but quickly forget about them as we party like animals.

1:31 AM The party already dying out, I find the remaining 4 of us and leave Club Luxy… As soon as I step out of the building, I get surprise attacked hugged from behind. After regaining my balance, I realize it’s one of the girls we were suppose to meet. Before I can have a second thought, she kisses me, I push her away and I spit out some nasty black stuff. She was chewing on betel nuts and some of it got in my mouth. She apologizes profusely. The ice now broken, our group joins her group for the 3rd act of this day.

2:14 AM After picking up a case of beers, the 9 of us go on the rooftop of a structurally questionable building… The view was quite magnificent and reminded me of home. Hammocks and patio furniture was set up everywhere with the sound of the urban nature below unheard from this high. There was a long moment of silence as if everyone was collecting a thought.

3:00 AM A total of 9 people that just met, coming from 5 different countries on this 1 roof top in Taipei at 3 in the morning. This is my life, a vagabond’s life.