Taipei Weekend, Um Yes

We went to Taipei back in November. Melissa hasn't quit nagging me about finishing this post. So Melissa - here it is, I finally finished it. 

We arranged a morning tour to the Northern Coast and Chiufen Village in the afternoon.  The tour guide's English was pretty good except for the fact that he would finish every single thought with ... "um yes" like he was not sure what he was saying.... and I do mean every single thought.  During his intro alone I must have counted a few dozen "um yes's" in a matter of two minutes. I am not critiquing his English as I know it is infinitely better than my non-existent Mandarin but that is something I plan to change starting next month. I'll be starting Mandarin classes. We'll see how it goes... 

It was not raining when we left Taipei but as we made our way north, the rain started and it didn't stop until we started heading back south. Our first stop was a temple in Keelung City (Chung Cheng Park) where Melissa rang the largest bell in Taiwan!

Inside the temple there were these large columns with thousands of little Buddha statues. It turns out that the temple raises money by selling the slots for the year. These are all names of people who have donated to the temple this year.

Our last stop for the morning tour was Yehliu Park where the eroded sandstone reveals the rocks below and the wind and ocean spray erosion makes this look like another planet. Like most things when you stare at them long enough you will see an image appear and these rock formations are no different. The guide pointed out one that looked like the island of Taiwan, but the showcase here was the queen's head. We just saw it from the backside as the line was LONG and we had had enough of the rain.

Do you see the queen's head with her long slender neck? The wind side is battered by the wind and rain so it is full of pot marks, but the other side is smooth and if you look long enough you can see her... I think....

As there was not a full day tour we were interested in, we booked a morning tour and then an afternoon tour. We were in luck because we had the same tour guide for the afternoon portion, "um yes."

After we dropped the last of the morning group back off at their hotels, we headed out for lunch with him at a local place. We were a little skeptical as the driver kept on saying it was "cheap, cheap local food" but after getting there we were pleasantly surprised, though for a minute there I thought Melissa and I were back in high school again getting a cheap Chinese buffet. The buffet was like US$4 a person!

The afternoon tour was on the northern side of the island also, so back into the rain. We stopped along the way at the Nanya Rock Formations to have a look at some sandstone cliffs that have some interesting designs and colors exposed by the erosion. After the brief stop we then headed uphill to the mountain mining village of Chiufen. 

The driver dropped us off and pointed down an alley telling us to meet at a certain tea house at a designated time, "um yes." The alley was absolutley packed with people - shoulder to shoulder, but what made the situation absolutley miserable was the fact that everyone still had their umbrellas out.

It was very slow moving but we finally made it to the tea house - a bit before the designated meeting time. We sat at our own table to enjoy a pot of Taiwan high mountain oolong tea. As we sat down we noticed it was going to be a different experience as the waitress brought over the kettle and placed it on a smoldering hump of coals just beside me. Man, that tea could not have been better considering we had been walking around in the cold rain all day!

In the evening we headed to the Shilin Night Market. We were glad the taxi understood where we wanted to go but once we got there, he just kind of pointed in the general direction of where we needed to go.
We saw a lot of people heading out of an alley eating street food so we knew we were heading in the right direction. Half way down the alley we saw people huddled around large pans with shrimp. It took us a minute to figure out exactly what they were doing but from what we gathered, they were fishing for shrimp. Was this a kid's catch and release? I hope so as there are easier ways than waiting for an unlucky shrimp to swim over your treble (three) hook and get skewered.

After wondering around aimlessly for a bit we finally found our way to the food stalls which were actually underground. There was everything on a stick - from whole fried squid to various pork sausages. We found ourselves at a hibachi style grill for some seafood and vegetables and a bottle of "Taipei's finest beer".. the food was good but the beer was left um....unfinished to say it nicely.

On our way out we passed a rifle air gun stand I asked Melissa if she wanted to try her hand to which she instantly said NO. But, after showing her what to do she was hooked on shooting down the money hanging by a flimsy sheet of toilet paper. After the initial 20 corks were shot Melissa wanted more. I have seen this Melissa before in front of the Monopoly slot machine in Macau... the competitive Melissa doesn't want to lose! After buying in a few more times and numerous direct hits, I finally convinced her that the money packet was not going anywhere and then the vendor gave her a consolation gift of playing cards. I think it was really because she drew a quite a large crowd of locals over to see this blond girl wield this gun.

The morning before our flight back to Hong Kong we headed off to see some of the sites in the downtown area, and our first stop with the landmark skyscraper Taipei 101. There is a mall at the base - well I guess like most large buildings in Asia now that I think about it. The mall makes it a nightmare to find exactly where to go to catch the elevators to the observation deck. As it was still early and the mall was closed it took us a little while but we finally made it to the 5th floor elevator banks where we bought our tickets and then caught the express to the  observation deck. The elevator takes off like a rocket and before you know it your ears are popping. There was an interesting little screen showing the stats of the elevator while it was in progress but there were too many people for me to reach the camera, but I did snap a photo on the way down. 

After Taipei 101 we headed to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. We were pretty lucky because as soon as we got out of the taxi the sun came out and it warmed up! The massive complex had numerous buildings of significance importance in Taiwan. At each end of the complex are the National Theater and National Concert Hall. We made it there just in time to catch a view of the changing of the guards.

In the airport on the way out we saw these bookmarks.. I always thought Taiwanese kids were smart, guess they had a little luck too.