After waking up at around 5 AM, still slightly jet lagged, I ate breakfast and then set out to explore our area, as I had plans to visit a few shops and buy a couple necessary items – a laundry bag, tote, umbrella, etc. To my dismay I discovered that most places don’t actually open till around 11, so my options were more limited. Still, I was able to visit a couple shops and start buying some gifts/souvenirs to bring back for my friends. I also tried Xing Fu Tang’s famous brown sugar boba, which was tasty but little too sweet for me. I ventured out again a little later, after more shops opened, and bought a couple more things before running back to our hotel so I could make it on time for our bus ride to Computex Taipei – an AI exhibition held in a large convention center in eastern Taipei. To be honest I don’t know much about AI and computer hardware, but our tour of Gigabyte was still quite interesting and it was pretty fascinating to really see how much of our world’s future will largely be built around AI technology. That night I went out again and explored the night market in Ximen, which was very lively and bustling with people, as it was a Friday evening. This was probably my favorite part of the day – I had a ton of fun just walking around the area and going to whatever places looked interesting. I visited dozens of different shops and started to get a better grasp for the area – I feel like I know now what shops and streets are most worth visiting. I definitely want to explore other night markets, though, as I’d like to see what different areas have to offer.
