Taiwan Part 2 — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Onward!
Taiwan Part 2 will be shorter than Part 1, in that I will talk about the sights we visited and things we did with less rigor and elaboration than the previous post.
The weekdays of the trip comprised of just Jeff and I mostly, with Evan being around when class / other errands didn’t intervene / had already seen what we were going to go see. As a result, I got to practice my very limited Mandarin vocabulary (“Wo yao!”, meaning “I Want!”; “Bu yao…”, meaning “I Don’t Want”; “Ni hao!”, meaning “Hello!”; “Xie xie”, meaning “Thanks”; “Bu ka chi”, meaning “No problem!”; and “Dwei bu chi”, meaning “I’m sorry”), impressing some of the locals that I actually gave their language a try (note: I think I want to learn more now).
Monday morning started off with visiting a bakery that Evan had recommended that was on our way to the National Palace Museum. I never really cared much for Chinese bakeries in North America. My opinion has dramatically changed — really tasty stuff! Also, ordering was rather easy — bring tray of food over to counter, Wo Yao, pay, Xie Xie / Xie xie ma (I think this actually means “Thank You”, whereas the first means “Thanks”). Rinse and repeat. They understood that I was a foreigner and that I suck at Mandarin, so they seemed okay with it, or at least they were probably used to it.
Jeff and I then headed to the National Palace Museum. This museum was fantastic, and a major highlight of the trip for me. The museum contains a collection of famous ancient Chinese artifacts that were brought over to Taiwan for safekeeping during Japanese occupation and wars with China. Apparently many Chinese call Taiwan “Treasure Island”, and some equally feel this collection should be back in China, as the pieces contain a large source of imperial Chinese history.
The museum was fascinating in that most of its historical pieces were also very artistic. The museum had collections based on jade, bronze, ivory, bamboo, calligraphy and writing, silk, and then the usual paintings and documents — it was as if the museum was also an art gallery. I especially found the ivory exhibition to be stellar — the pieces had plenty of intricacies that could only be observed by a magnifying glass. What I found so amazing about this detail was that these pieces were created a long time ago, and I found it astonishing to think about how they could possibly achieve that level of detail with the naked eye and really basic equipment. I also found the bronze collection interesting because all of the pieces centered around basic utensils and tools the Chinese used in the past, but were made slightly more ornate and had many inscriptions that essentially defines the current Mandarin written language. I found this particularly interesting because they made artistic pieces out of objects like stoves and wine glasses, and that these were the pieces that essentially formed the Mandarin language (as far as I gathered). Really cool stuff.
We also went to an exhibition on Marc Chagall that was featured. I don’t have much to say about it other than I wondered why we went to a Marc Chagall exhibition while visiting Taiwan. Seemed a little out of place. Furthermore, Marc Chagall’s work palled in comparison to what I had just seen in the main exhibition hall. Just my opinion (don’t get angry Jeff).
Afterwards we scuttled our way back to the Taipei bus station to meet with Evan at 2:30 (though it ended up being 3:50). We didn’t eat by then, so we went to a mall. I suck at putting straws into bubble tea. I also got to practice saying “I’m sorry” numerous times to the bubble tea girl as I spilled drink all over their counter. We ate, and it was good.
After that we headed over to the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. Along the way we went through a really nice memorial, laced with traditional Chinese pagodas. Not much to note, but it looked really nice. We continued along and saw the Presidential Building (I think that’s what it’s called) but thought it was a library so continued.
Chiang Kai-Shek memorial was another big highlight of the trip. This place was huge! The gate to it alone was enormous. The whole place looked really awesome at night, too — it was just really spectacularly lit. The construction of this place, I thought, must have taken years, if not a decade. We took a lot of pictures of this place (and I tried to take photos of Jeff, but I am not a photographer and none of them turned out spectacularly well — I guess I should get a camera so that next time I don’t suck so much). I’d love to have a memorial built in my name like this one — maybe some day. I recommend reading up on Chiang Kai-Shek, interesting fella and very important to Taiwanese history.
I guess the only other thing to note is that people like to do choreographed dancing there.
We also went through a nice park with fountains and stuff. We became kids again and fooled around with a jungle gym and swings. We fed some ducks. We saw stray cats forming its own society inside a set of rocks at the park. Cool stuff.
We then met up with Megan and had Ru-Chao, which is kung pao style hot food. We had a lot of chicken (which was pork, but we said it was chicken so Jeff would eat it — he knew whenever we said chicken not to trust us). I don’t remember this meal particularly well, so I’ll leave it at that, but I remember it being tasty (all of the food we had was tasty).
We chilled at night time. Apparently Evan likes memes, as we had been discussing them at length for a while during the day. So we partook in a GI Joe meme-athon. Then I slept on a cot that may as well haven’t been there :) (But I still slept will, as many people can attest to my sleeping capabilities)
Tuesday, we did a few things. First, we went up to a temple on a cliff just near Evan’s place and what seemed to be basically retirement in Taiwan. They had GYM EQUIPMENT up there. That really blew my mind. Oh and the view was fantastic, but seriously, GYM EQUIPMENT (AND RINGS TO BOOT). It was quite the stairclimb, too, and we saw a lot of elder folk around, showing why Asians don’t die of obesity. Then, we went to the Grand Hotel, which was extremely red, grand, and ornate. (I’m sure Jeff will have the photos up on Facebook soon so you can see just how red, grand, and ornate it is) Evan then had to go learn more Mandarin, so Jeff and I decided to head over to another temple. I don’t remember the name of it at this point, but it’s on the line towards Danshui from Taipei Main Station.
This leg of the trip was kind of the “smell the roses” part of the trip for me. The temple’s area looked a lot more run down than the rest of the trip had been, and to see people in this environment was a little solemn to me. The path leading to the temple was marked by red lanterns, and along it were a lot of down-trodden homes. You could tell though that people were still very happy, and that’s what kind of struck me as inspirational. As it turned out, it seemed everyone here was also very spiritual, as we found a lot of people at the temple we visited. Very nice temple, but nothing I could really describe here with any distinction. It was really large and the rooftops were decorated with dragon sculptures and insignias laced throughout. The inside of the temple was spacious and filled with candles, and felt very calming. Just an overall “nice” feeling.
We also ran into a pack of stray dogs defending a pregnant one. We got out of there cautiously and quickly. They’d chase us if we turned our back to them (reminded me of Boo from Mario Brothers), so we had to slowly step back, stand still and stare them down intimidatingly, and then continue. First time in my life I had ever run into a hostile dog. Thankfully, I also remembered that if they ever attacked that all one should do is put something in front of me, like a stick or a bag, as they’d attack that first. Didn’t have to do that but I felt safer knowing what actions to take had they actually attacked.
We left the temple and headed to Danshui. Danshui’s a pretty large coastal city north of Taipei, and seemed very touristy and rich, in stark contrast to the temple. Likewise, we saw a stark contrast in dog temperament; the people of this area actually owned dogs, mostly small toy dogs (exactly like Fremont in Seattle). We didn’t stay in Danshui very long, but it was a nice stroll. We got to eat roasted squid from a night stand, I got this really ridiculously tall ice cream cone, and we had “frog eggs” (which are actually just tapioca balls you’d find in bubble tea, much to my chagrin). We walked around taking pictures. Not much more than that.
Headed back to meet up with Megan and Evan, who just got what sounded like a full spa treatment for the price of a normal haircut here (neck massages, free coffee and tea, haircut, and other ritzy things). I will note at this point how everything in Taipei was considerably cheaper than in North America — this will be prevalent on my description of Kaoshung, so more on this later. Anyway, we went to eat at a little noodle place near where the two had gotten their haircuts. Good place, and again very cheap — the mall reminded me a lot of the small strip mall restaurants in Richmond, BC. We had fun trying to order, as they didn’t have a peanut noodle as Megan kept trying to ask, and Evan had no idea which item that mapped to on their menu. It was at this point I realized communication issues don’t really exist when you travel, since people seem genuinely nice enough to try to help you order (I mean, you are trying to pay them, so why wouldn’t they).
Before the end of the night, I got a Taiwanese doughnut from Mr. Donut. They have this really different kind of doughnut where it’s really a series of mini-doughnuts that are put together to shape a ring (think of it sort of like a ring of Timbits). The doughnut dough was really fluffy, unlike North American ones — it was nice and light. I wouldn’t claim it was the best doughnut I’ve ever had, but I certainly wouldn’t complain about it.
Afterwards we got giant mounds of frosted ice with toppings. These were enormous and really damn good. I got one with chocolate, which really hit the spot.
Finally, we went to a place called Snake Alley, as Evan and Megan recommended we go see a local painter who does “personalized” paintings. Snake Alley is also a night market, but one could say it was “seedy”; if it existed in the States it would be construed as that, but in Taiwan it absolutely didn’t feel seedy at all. The reason it would seem “shady” is that you’d see a lot of uncommon goods being sold. More specifically, the place was known for selling snake’s blood, where they literally take a vial of blood from a live snake and mix it into a drink that you’d consume. I didn’t try it, so I can’t tell you how it tasted, but there were definitely snakes around (in tanks) the size of holy-shit-I’d-run-from-that.
Again, a lot of people were around shopping, despite it being 10 or 11 pm. Jeff went overboard on spending, but that doesn’t come as a surprise; he bought 3 paintings from one place (though, considering how much they’d cost in the States, I probably should have bought some too) before even getting to the scrolls guy.
Scroll guy (I wish I remembered his name) had a really small yet amazing shop. All of the paintings were done on what I think were silk scrolls (not sure of the fabric, but note that they’re really delicate), and were some of the best paintings I had ever seen. An added bonus was that he’d add anything you wanted to your scroll at no additional cost. This bonus added way more value to the painting, since it was both personalized and, seeing as his calligraphy was impeccable, added even more of his artistry to the painting. I bought one as a gift for the family — I haven’t shown it to them so I won’t describe it here. Eventually I’ll post a photo on Facebook once I’ve presented it to my dad and brother. Jeff bought 5. His painting peen is higher than mine by a factor of 5. (Admittedly, he bought one that I really liked as well; the scroll was enormous and had 100 storks on it in a very vivid environment). We absolutely got a good deal getting paintings from him — any of these would go for considerably more in North America. Since we collectively bought 7 scrolls from the guy, and I told Evan to tell him I thought he was amazing (I had no idea how to say that in Mandarin), he bought us all beer. We drank it with him and got a photo with him. This part of the trip is very close to the top thing I did in Taiwan, if not the top thing, since it just showed how friendly and non-threatening people are, even foreigns interacting with foreigns.
He also remarked that Canada is basically the same as the States. I didn’t feel a need to comment, despite my personal disagreement :) (most people to whom I said I was from Canada more or less felt the same or had never heard of Canada).
Tuesday was an excellent day.
Wednesday was the last day in Taipei for Jeff and I before the weekend trip started. The day was spent mostly again sight-seeing. First we went to the Sun Yat-Sen memorial. This dude’s a big deal throughout Taiwan and China altogether; he overthrew dynastic rule and brought in China’s first ever Republic government. So, as you can likely understand, the Chinese love this guy and were out in droves to come see him.
The building housing his memorial was pretty big. It didn’t have the same grandeur as Chiang Kai-Shek’s, but it also felt far more rooted in nature as there were lots of flower gardens surrounding the building, so it was very nice in a different way.
The memorial itself was actually a bit of a disappointment, as a lot of the exhibitions were closed for unknown reasons. I got to read a very brief history of Sun Yat-Sen’s role in bringing revolution to China via some pop-out placards placed throughout the building, so I at least got a glimpse of his history told by native Taiwanese people. We also saw the changing of the guard happening just in front of a monument of Sun Yat-Sen himself — had I not seen the Canadian change of the guard numerous times, I would have been thoroughly impressed, but realistically it’s the same everywhere, so I wasn’t that engaged in it. I think the only major highlight was seeing how many people were present for this event and the sight of their faces; it was clear that these people were very proud of Sun Yat-Sen, so that made the trip eventful.
Then we headed to Taipei City Hall. The tour guides there were really friendly, and really wanted us to go on their free audio guide. We sort of did, but since we had a tight schedule, we ended it promptly and left. I felt a bit sad for doing this to these people, but we had to get going, and although I was interested in learning more about Taipei, we figured we could read up on it.
We left promptly so that we could go visit the immense Taipei 101 building. What a huge building! (2nd tallest in the world, behind the one that was just built in Dubai) the insides of the base of the tower felt like a mall, so I won’t detail that very much. Going up to the top cost 400NT — about 10 dollars — each (how much is it to go up the Space Needle? Answer: Too much, considering). The trip up was awesome — 2nd fastest elevator on the planet (behind the same building in Dubai) travelling at 68 km/h. My ears popped pretty much immediately as we ascended to the 89th floor.
The view was pretty good, though due to pollution the view is a little hazy at the top. Either way, still a major wow moment. We couldn’t go to the outside observatory (closed for construction), but still got to see all of Taipei from inside. The tower also displayed much of the technological marvels of both the building and the elevator itself. There was also an entrance to see the tuned mass damper, which was proportionally huge as well. I’ll admit, Taiwanese people are really good at constructing enormous things very quickly — just as an alternative example, they’re adding lines to their light rail system way faster than Seattle is.
We then had a beer float (ice cream and beer), and left. The beer float was okay.
Eventually, we went back to the bottom of the tower and got lunch at Mosburger. This meal was our first “fast food” encounter (and we didn’t choose one that was American on purpose). We got a burger whose bun was made of rice and stuffed with seafood — basically, the burger was an enormous sushi roll (no seaweed). It was good considering it was fast food, and really different. Too bad they would never expand to the States as it absolutely wouldn’t sell well here.
We ventured back towards Taipei Main Station to meet up with Evan. Once we did, we had some time to kill so we went to a Handicraft Market. It was a nice shop (note: not market); 3 floors of various crafts and delicate objects: teasets; sculptures made of bronze, glass, jade, and ceramic; unique wines; paintings and scrolls; etc… I bought some Sakura wine, particularly because it was neon pink and I had never seen neon pink wine ever. I still have it, and plan on just placing it on a table at home. I actually have no intention of drinking it any time soon.
Anyway, it was a nice stopover, but not much more can be said of it. Jeff bought more stuff.
After the craft market we headed to meet Megan at a Korean Barbeque place. I think this restaurant was the best (or if not best, very close) Korean BBQ places to which I’ve been. It was an 8 course meal per person, with: a giant platter of meat, sorbet, appetizer, salad, soup, dessert meal, dessert drink, and lettuce (for the meat). This cost 580NT — about 12 bucks. All the guys also got a huge 1.5L beer, also super cheap. It was gooooooood.
We ended off the night with more internet memes and foolery.
That’s it for this chapter. I promised it’d be shorter, but it absolutely wasn’t. I tried and wasn’t successful. Oh well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next few will be individual days because they were all very eventful days just on their own.
