Day 1

Taipei

Day 1: On a Clear Day, You Can See Taipei 101

Arrived around 11PM in Taipei after about 8000 miles and 16 hours on airplanes. Chandler picked me up at the airport and we arrived at his house around midnight. I went to bed pretty quick after we got there. Around 7AM the next morning, Chandler’s grandmother accidentally woke me up. She was really embarrassed and speaks very little English, and I don’t speak Chinese, so that was interesting.

Chandler’s parents’ condo is amazing and huge. It has an amazing view of Taipei, and you can see the Taipei 101. First thing in the morning, Chandler, his parents, and his grandmother took me out to breakfast to Mr. Brown Coffee then we went to a flower market. There were an awful lot of flowers, more than I’ve ever seen in one place. After that, Chandler and I went into the city around 10AM. We hopped on a bus to the nearest MRT (subway) station. I can’t imagine how many miles we rode the MRT, but it must have been about 20 total for the whole day, and it cost about $100Taiwan, or about $3USD.

Anyway, our first stop was Longshan Temple, a Buddhist Temple that was pretty cool. Chandler wasn’t very knowledgeable about what everything means, but we did light incense for the 7 gods. Our next stop was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, a giant city square roughly attributable to the National Mall with a memorial to President Chiang Kai Shek that is kind of like the Lincoln Memorial. That was cool, and very large. We also watched a Changing of the Guard that was very similar to what they do at the Tomb of the Unknown. From there we walked to the President’s Palace and Peace Park then to a mall to get some lunch. Beforehand Chandler got us each a giant bubble tea that was actually pretty good but was so filling that I barely at anything for lunch.

We had been playing phone tag with Alan all day and agreed to meet him at Taipei 101 at about 4PM. We walked around a giant (and very high-end (I couldn’t afford anything.)) mall at the base of Taipei 101 for a bit then went up to the observation deck on the 89^th floor. We were there for a couple hours and it afforded pretty sweet views of Taipei. When we got there it was light out, and we stayed long enough for it to get dark and the lights came on around the city.

From there the three of us rode the MRT to Shi-Da night market where we were going to find dinner. This was crazy. It’s a market that’s only open at night and is full of stores and eateries. We walked around and found a place that we liked and concocted a dish for $280Taiwan, about $9USD, that fed all three of us and it was awesome. It was a crazy place where you put your food in a basket and they boil it is some soy sauce like liquid. It was delicious. We had planned on eating more at other places, but we were too stuffed.

After this we met up with some Taiwanese girls that Chandler and Alan knew and went to a club for a couple drinks. I was totally whipped by this time as it was about 11:30 PM and I was a bit jetlagged so we only stayed for about an hour. I had a ‘Taiwan Beer’ on tap that was actually pretty good – better than Bud Light, anyway. We took a taxi back to Chandler’s as the MRT had discontinued operation by this time. I took a shower and went to bed.

Right now it’s about 10:30AM on Sunday and it’s raining. We’re supposed to meet a lot of Chandler’s family (like 20 people) for lunch in about 2 hours. The rain has put a damper on our afternoon plans, and I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do. The itinerary changes about every 15 minutes.

Cheers.