Taipei Day #2: Curse of the Smelly Tofu!

Too bad I don't have photos from breakfast, headed down before work to get some chow and didn't bring my camera, will remember tomorrow.

Had a good start to my day, Jane my colleague in Taipei picked me up with a taxi - I think everyone's pretty worried I'd get lost in this city, they kept calling her to make sure I was ok and when we finally made it through the archway of the office, she announced quite loudly, "she's here safely!"...I half expected them to burst into cheers, but no, they didn't - much to my delight.

Was given the usual tour, the usual brief (although I must add, they have lots of post-it notes in this office! yup, 3M was once they're client) and taken to my seat, which apparently belonged to a part-timer who was shipped off to a nearby purple desk because of me, must remember to apologize to her before I leave - poor girl :(

Anyway, got some lead time to work on my presentation, finally! And headed out to lunch with the Tech team, which cost them a whopping RM 230 for a normal chinese meal, apparently, that's the norm around here.....

We spent at least 2 hours there...and we finally went back to work all sleepy and such.

But the night was the fantabulous one, I had many firsts on this second day, my first:

[+] night market on Tong Hua street

[+] cup of Bubble Tea in Taiwan

[+] fried rice cake covered in duck blood

[+] tianbula (Taiwanese version of Tempura)

[+] oyster omelette a.k.a o-chien, and

[+] SMELLY TOFU!

Zhien, that's 4 out of the list of 13 things to eat and I've done the additional duck blood thingy! At the rate I'm going, I think we're going to have to find new food to swallow when you come :)

Oooohhh...can I just say that the tofu is really really disgusting, it looks better than it tastes, it doesn't smell as bad but when you put it in your mouth and start chewing, it really taste like you're eating pooh - and I only had the fried version! Apparently if you eat the boiled one, its even worse because the juice is simply *yuckylicious*....and they find durians smellier than this - no way! I'd eat the durian anytime! As you can tell, this is one of those once-and-never-again situations :)

But it was a good night, both Elsa (my guardian) and Jenny went to great lengths to get me back to my hotel, even walked me all the way there...and then went home. I'm really so grateful they're taking real good care of me, Elsa would know because she didn't receive the same courtesy when she was in Beijing and understand what it was like to be in a new city by yourself.

They're awsome! They've planned all my lunches and nights out til next week so I'll be able to blog lots of stories :) You girls rock!

Going to work by bus tomorrow, Jane's meeting me at my drop-off point and we'll walk to work together. After this, I should be able to get to work and back on my own, these girls are really the bomb :)

I'm off for now....eeks, curse of the smelly disgusting tofu!

*out*