A day out in Taipei
Today’s plan was to go out into Taipei and to visit some of the things that we wanted to see most in the capital. There were many things that we wanted to do while we were here, but I think that today we only wanted to go to Taipei 101 and to visit the National Palace Museum.
The first thing that we did today was go to get Shao Long Pao or Taiwanese styled dim sum. It was pretty good and a great way to start off the first real day of our stay in Taiwan. We picked up one of Lee’s friend at Taipei station and we got to hang out with each other for most of the day. It was nice to meet up with some of his friends.
After that brunch, we headed towards Longshan Temple to do some praying. It was very nice and interesting to see. Lee and his friend Vivian told us what each of the gods were and how to pray to them. That was very educational since I always pray, but I end up leaving out a lot of details that I should have included. I made a lot of the same wishes with each of the Gods, but at different times.
From there, we grabbed some tea at the original tea station. It was a nice little coffee house and something that I haven¡¦t seen before anywhere that I've been. They had a nice little setup and the thing I ordered (Chrysanthemum tea with honey) was damn good. I really enjoyed it and was surprised at the quality. I really missed the true style of milk tea, but I guess I will grab some later. We are still early into the Taiwan trip.
We walked down the street some and found a place that we will be going to later on in the week. It's a place called Snake Alley and I think that you could figure out what the feature of the street is. You could see live snakes in containers and people preparing them. It was still very early in the day, so no one was really there and no one was eating snakes, although we did see some dead ones and live ones. It was a pretty interesting place to be and to think about eating them later on in the week, I think I'm just preparing myself for it.
We had wakue, which is a southern Taiwanese dish of rice. It doesn't look very good, but it does taste very good. I was a bit surprised when I saw it. But when I tried it, it was actually very tasty and something I wouldn't mind eating again.
After all those things, we jumped into the car and went to the National Palace Museum. We saw a ton of cool things on the way there. We passed by the National Theater and then Chiang Kai Shek Memorial hall and then the Grand Hotel. It was a bit hard to get some pictures of them, but I think that it was pretty cool, just to see it. It was beginning to rain a little bit harder, but still I wouldn't even consider it rain. It was more of a light sprinkle.
Most of the National Palace Museum was under renovation, but we did and could see a lot of things. It was pretty interesting and the artifacts that were there were plentiful. We really couldn't see all the things with enough time to enjoy them. At the end we were rushing a little bit so that we could make a 4:45pm departure from the museum. We only took about an hour and a half there to see most of the exhibits there. We took some pictures, even though we weren't allowed to take pictures, but they weren't of anything in the exhibit. It was only of the sign of the museum.
From there, we left to take the MRT, which is the subway system here in Taipei. We were taking the stop to the Taipei City Hall exit, which is the closest to Taipei 101. From there, we parted ways with Vivian, who was our guide for most of the day and providing some translation for us on many things. We wanted to go into the tower first and go onto the observatory deck. We took the elevator to the 89th floor of the building and had a great view. It was nice even though it was raining outside. There are actually a lot of lights in Taipei, which makes it a great view.
In the observatory, we had some ice cream, the world's highest Ice cream shop and it was good. We took the world's fastest elevator up to the top, which took about 40 seconds go up about 80 something floors. They have many world records for the building. I even took a piss in the world's highest restroom. Although I'm sure that's not a world record or anything, but just something that I noticed. We went outside at the very top for the outside observatory. It was windy and rainy, but it was fun. The wind was very strong and when you're up at that altitude, it can get scary as hell. But I enjoyed it and it was a very liberating experience to be that high. It had an awesome view too.
After that little trip up the world's tallest building, we decided to do some shopping and looking for some dinner. I wanted to stop by the Sony store to see how much the laptops would be, but they are about the same as they are in Japan, but they lack some of the cool things that are in the Japanese versions. I think that it would need to come from Japan to make it worth it. We went to the food court in the building to get some food. We decided to get some Taiwanese styled food since we were in Taiwan. I didn't get what I really ordered, but it was still good. I thought that the thing that Eigo got was a bit better than the one that I got though. It was still enough for me, probably too much for me, but I thought that it was good.
After dinner, we started to go shopping for some electronics, but Eigo was having some troubles finding the store. We went into the wrong building and then we went on the wrong floor. But we ended up finding our way to the right place. We didn't have much time to do anything there though. We did look around for a little bit, but nothing really and nothing in too deep. I thought that it was a bit overpriced since I could buy the same laptop in Japan for about the same price, but this is Taiwan, where the laptops are supposed to be much cheaper. But we didn't have much time since the store was closing and they were kicking us out. We walked around outside for a little bit to see what we could do. We still had about 30 minutes left before Lee would come and pick us up, so we went around to different game centers to see if we could do anything. We got stuck in one watching the trailer for a new movie that will be coming out during Christmas time. It was for the new movie about the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, witch and the wardrobe. It looks very good so far from what we saw on the trailer.
Then we got picked up right outside of the building. He showed up pretty promptly, which I was surprised at since I don't know the traffic patterns of Taipei. I would think that it would take more time, but it didn't.
We also had the time and pleasure of going to the night market at Shilin. That was pretty interesting and I bought some things to keep your hands warm when it gets cold out. It's actually pretty cool and I bought one for everyone in my family for when they come to Japan and it will be very cold so they can use it. I felt really sick in the stomach today and I think it was because of the dinner that I ate at Taipei 101. My stomach is still very weak and I'm not sure that it's a good thing to always be traveling with this kind of problem.
When we came back, we stopped by the supermarket, which was a first for us in Taiwan. I didn't think much of it, but it does look similar to any other market place. Staying at this place is a whole lot better than staying at a presidential suite at a 5 star hotel because we don't have to pay for it, we have a personal tour guide to take us everywhere, introduces us to his friends, has a stellar view of the city of Taipei, enough entertainment to keep us busy for years and is just kick ass. This is the life that all people strive to have. It's very inspirational for me. This is exactly what I want and now it's here in the material world and not just in my imagination.
I've learned a lot about what I want and how I'm going to start working on it from this trip. I need to stay focused and stay the course to get here. But it's definitely an eye opener. I really have been thinking a lot while I've been on this trip and I think that I've got to work out some of the priorities in my life to see if I'm heading in the right direction to meet my needs. I think that after seeing and touching all of this, I just want more and I can't go back to where I'm at. I did sacrifice a lot to get here, so I'll have to figure out what's the next step for me. It's nice and I decided that I'm having a very pleasant vacation here. I'm going to take things slowly and enjoy it here. I have decided that I will indeed come back to visit Taipei often. Not only are things much cheaper, but the standards of living is good and the way of life is good. I really do feel comfortable here compared to Thailand.
