Taiwan Typhoon Morakot, Sushi Express, Wu Lai, Bing Lang, Mister Donut, Vieshow Cinemas / G.I. Joe - Day 2 of Taiwan Trip

The second day I'm in Taiwan and Typhoon Morakot hits. Since I am staying in Taipei, the typhoon did not affect me as much, though I have to say that it was still pretty intense. The southern part of Taiwan got hit the hardest and most of the things people see on the news comes from the south, however, Taipei did get some strong gusts and heavy rains. At least the heavy rains helped against the hot and humid weather. Though still humid, at least it feels slightly cooler.

One of the first stops of the day was at Sushi Express for lunch with some friends. Sushi Express is a franchise that serves sushi on a moving belt. I have to say that I am really impressed with the quality of food that you can get and the variety of sushi available. Everything in the store is NT$30, which makes each plate that you eat slightly less than $1 USD.

After that we hit up the mountainous regions near Wu Lai. I am not too familiar with the area of culture but it was still a beautiful place to be. Supposedly it was also near a place where the Taiwan aborigines are. There was a beautiful waterfall as well as some crazy landscape to look at. Definitely a lot of green :).

On the way there, we also picked up some 'bin lang' which is commonly known as betel nut. There was no bin lang princess aka the girls that wear skimpy outfits to attract your attention near Wu Lai because there aren't as many commercial trucks around the area to merit a princess. The way that the betel nuts (aka areca nuts) are prepared is that the areca nut itself is surrounded by betel leaves. The leaves are there to add to the flavor while chewing. Trying to chew the betel nut for the first time was difficult because my body just wanted to spit it out after around 5 seconds. After chewing, I felt a numbing sensation in the areas where the juices were in my mouth. Supposedly bin lang is a form of natural stimulant, similar to drinking caffeine.

For the night, we went to the Vieshow cinemas near Taipei 101 to watch G.I. Joe which just came out. On the way to the cinemas we stopped at Mister Donut, which is another popular franchise found in Taiwan. They basically sell donuts of different flavors. I got the mini 5 donut sampler that had a miniaturized donut of their popular flavors: original (w/o anything), chocolate, strawberry, sesame, and caramel (I think). The donuts were quite chewy compared to American donuts and had a unique flavor. Definitely recommended if you are in the area. We also hit up the food court around the area and got some dinner. I got hainan chicken rice, which only cost me NT$130 I believe. It was surprisingly delicious and much better tasting than the stuff back in the states. I'm still stunned by how cheap and great tasting the food is in Taiwan.

I noticed that American films tend to be quite popular in Taiwan since there are not as many big budget movies that originate from Taiwan. Though definitely a lot of smaller movies, I do not see nearly as much advertising for them as compared to the American movies. G.I. Joe was a decent movie. It was definitely fast paced and sometimes the CGI graphics in the movie were not as polished during some scenes. The movie felt as if it was setting up the plot for a chain of G.I. Joe movies to come, since the movie tried to focus on the backgrounds of all the main characters in the movie quite a bit.

My G.I. Joe rating: 6/10