Klara and I scoot off to the tea rooms in the mountains to the south of the city. Here is a quick view of what it may feel like to be a on a scooter… The awesome power of 150cc’s.

At the tea room, and here is the tea set we are presented with. It is a real pleasure to hang out and look out over the city. The green tea is very delicate in flavour, though it is surprisingly difficult to get the taste really good, due to over brewing, under brewing, the wrong temperature, too many leaves… and no doubt a multitude of more spiritual factors related to the stars or feng shui.

And here is an image over the city where Taipei 101 actually looks good and tall for once (it is the tallest building in the world, and yet it looks like a stack of American Chinese Take Out boxes stacked on top of one another.

On the way back we went to Ting Tai Fung – one of the most famous restaurants in Taipei. It serves the most delicious Shanghai dumplings, and the queue outside to get seats is about 40 minutes. However, they are truly a special flavour. They cook each set in a bamboo basket that pile up into a steam chimney. Quite ingenious, I think, and the food stays warm for ages. Here is the kitchen:

Klara and I in the Shi Da district of Taipei. Near here is a quite splendid ‘Shaved Ice’ cafe – they create what is effectively a pile of snow and top it with sweet, delicious mango. mmmmm….

And here is the coolest dude I have ever seen (below, not above – that’s me). This is the absolutely standard pose of people in photos in Taiwan. I have no idea why… but if a camera appears, this is the effect.

And here is the offending Shaved Ice… this time in fact at a place in Shilin food market. The expression explains things I don’t understand….