Taipei, Taiwan continued
Our first stop was some daoist temple. This was the second or third Daoist temple I had seen on my trip so far. They are really cool. The temples are so colorful, the incense that burn throughout from the buddas smell really good and it’s a really interesting experience to watch the people, how they pray, and just the overall experience of one. Mrs. Chiang explained to me how they pray with the incense and a little bit about the religion. She said that it was some what of a folklore religion, with no real book or practice. From what I got from what she was saying the religion basically has customs and traditions.
I took a few pictures, and then we moved to our second stop; Chiang Kai Shek memorial. This was not your garden variety memorial. It was huge, it had a huge square with various buildings on each side, that culminated with a huge memorial of Chiang Kai Shek himself. I took a few photos, Mrs. Chiang explained to me who CSK was and he is rather controversial, and just some of the politics that go on between Taiwan and China. For instance there are no direct flights from Taiwan to China, even though the countries are pretty close, so Mrs. Chiang has to fly to Hong Kong from Taipei then to Shanghai, which is the back-asswards way of doing it. But she said that is politics and it is ongoing between the two “independant (depending on who you ask) nations of Taiwan and China. The memorial hall was really cool, and inside the memorial we went to some art gallery which was featuring a chinese caligraphy exhibit of this dude’s caligraphy collection that he did all the way up till he was 97 (passed away at 100). We even got to sign our name on the really cool, scroll sign book. They told me to sign my english name, which was funny, and Mrs. Chiang got a nice action photo of me doing it.
That took to us to about 4PM where we were both wiped out from walking around since 1030am. I usually put in a solid 8-10 hours of walking per day, but it’s tough to go straight. We picked up a cab home and took a rest for a few hours. As soon as I got home I threw my bag down and fell flat on to the bed. Now for people who know me, I never take naps, I mean extremely rarely am I able to fall asleep during the day, but for some reason, warm apartment, coupled with tired feet and sore back, i passed out. I slept for about an hour and a half till Mrs. Chiang woke me up because it was time to go her friend’s, sister’s mother’s house for a nice dinner. The cab ride was rather long, about 20 minutes, away from where we were. When we arrived the mother was waiting outside for us, just like grandpa bob used to do. I bet she was waiting outside for us for like 20 minutes easily. She greeted us with open arms, big smiles, and asked Mrs. Chiang if I spoke chinese, to which she responded no, which was fine, she just giggled and we went upstairs to the apartment. Her apartment was amazing, white marble floors, nice wood trim, a great wood dining room table, and it was pretty lavish for an apartment in Taipei.
We sat down, had some tea and Mrs. Chiang spoke to her friend’s sister and mother in Chinese for a while. I occassionally was asked a question in english or was on cue to say “Shea Shea (thank you),” when I was given tea or something snack. Mrs. Chiang loved when I said “shea, shea,” it was the polite thing to do, and she said that it would get me far in Taipei. We sat and waited for about 30 minutes for the last guest to arrive who arrived late and was extremely apologetic for being late. We finally sat down and was served a feast. Unfortunately several of the dishes contained pork or shrimp. The mother was extremely upset, and made such a sad face when Mrs. Chiang told her in chinese that I could not eat pork or shelfish, and told her that she should have let her know so she could have prepared beef or chicken only dishes. Nonetheless there was plenty for me to eat, and it was damn good. The woman at the table talked for most of the night in Chinese, and again I occassionally got asked a question in english or was on cue for “shea, shea.” We took a few photos of all of us, the food, and it was a really awesome dinner. That is two traditional dinners in two weeks, with locals from the countries, excellent, I can’t ask for more than that!
The mother (who was 80) was so cool. She had her digital camera out taking pictures, had her cell phone, had her computer on with skype ready in case someone called, she was so cute and awesome. I promised her I would email her the photos of the night when I got a chance. Looks like it will have to wait till I get to Tokyo due to the fact that I do not have free wireless, and I think my next hostel will have free wireless, so I can use my reader and upload the photos to email.
After dinner the sister’s friend and mother showed us out and waited with us till the bus came. This time we were headed to the touristy and famous Shilin night market. Taipei is known for these night markets. They have hundreds of vendors selling food, clothing, and little chatchkas which I’m a real sucker for. I bought a few things, we played some of the carnivalesque games, yes Mrs. Chiang did also, she is an awesome lady, and so much fun! After walking through the market, playing the games, etc., we hopped on the subway to a station where we were close enough to take a cab. We were beat, it was a real long day, but so eventful with food, sights and local culture, which you cannot beat.
I have been really fortunate to have had friends in several places I have visited and will be visiting. Seoul and Taipei would have been nothing if it wasn’t for Julia, Plum and Mrs. Chiang showing me around, and introducing me to their local culture and way of life! Thanks to you girls and Mrs. Chiang once again.
Well once I got home, I was beat, but was really annoyed that I couldn’t get the mp4 player to play videos. I had the converter program all set up, and movies to convert. I tried several things, but nothing worked and at 1am decided to call it quits and head to sleep. Mrs. Chiang was off tomorrow to go to Shanghai, China to visit family, so I was on my own, and it was time to get my head in the game.
Day 15 – I awoke to Mrs. Chiang’s exclamation of “Josh, I need the key!” I shot up out of bed like a cannon. I immediately started scurrying around, looking for the key, but couldn’t find it. Oh, no, she had been quite adament about this key to the apartment, and I was about to panic when I checked in the bathroom and realized that I had put it on the shelf in the bathroom after getting back last night from 7/11 and trying to write these blog entries. All was good, Mrs. Chiang was off to get another set of keys, so she could leave me a set for today, so I could use the apartment. We set off together, Mrs. Chiang got in her taxi limo (benzito) and I was off to find food and explore Taipei City on my own!
My first stop was to find some quality local breakfast and the train station. I accomplished both things getting a similar egg, tuna, lettuce and ketchup sandwich on bread for 20 bucks (about 70 cents). I then had to get a drink, but since I really was not confident in ordering a drink from a vendor with all the menus being in chinese, I copped out and went to 7/11 and picked up some apple juice type drink.
My first stop was going to be the Longshao Temple. I figured I would hit up the temple first before I went to the national palace museum, it was just easier and more practical after looking at the subway map and figuring out the best route. This was another Daoist temple and bigger than the previous ones I had visited. There were many more people praying, more budda shrines and it was so colorful. I took several pictures, asked locals to take mine, and spent some time just walking around, lighting incense and bought a handmade bracelet with symbols of buddhism from a monk sitting outside the gates of the Temple (I’m a sucker for those things, what do you want?)
After the Longshao temple, I walked around a little bit and found my way back to the subway station where I had to take the blue line to the red line and head up to Shilin station. From Shilin I took a local bus to the National Palace museum and saved a few bucks with the extremely cheap local transportation, as opposed to a taxi service. I lucked out that the museum had it’s own stop, so that made it easy for me not too get lost. It was a huge palace museum. Big columns, nice garden and was really cool. I spent about 2.5 hours walking through all three floors. The palace museum had chinese artifacts dating all the way back to 4500 BCE. Some of the artifacts were incredible. I even took several photos on two different floors, even after I was told not too by two different people walking around. I just said “sorry in english,” and kept going. It’s fine to use the “I’m American and speak no chinese,” angle once and awhile. I had no problem with it and got really cool photos.
After the museum I hopped back on the bus, and headed back to Shilin station. I decided to head to Taipei Main station mainly because I was somewhat familiar with the area and knew that there were a ton of great places to eat, and was hoping that I could find an internet cafe. I feel bad when I don’t have time to write entries and update the blog. I know people read them.
This takes everyone up to the present moment of me sitting at the internet cafe writing these blogs. These entries took me an hour and forty minutes to write them all, so I hope you all enjoy them. Luckily internet was 90 cents an hour, and I still have enough money for food and tonight. I am not taking out anymore money, so the 500 TWD I have has to last me. Should be enough. I have 1000 (about 30 bucks) stashed away for the limo back to the airport. Liz’s mom said this was the easiest way to do it and since I didn’t pay for 3 nights accomodation and was treated to a lot of food, drink and culture, I could splurge for the mercedes taxi back to the airport.
Tonight I think I am headed to Snake Alley and the markets near Longshao temple. Grossman, through Liz last night mentioned that this Snake Alley is pretty wild, that there are vendors with live snakes that they like do crazy things with and even offer you fresh snake blood shots etc…So I think I will head there, it is easy to get to on the subway and then will just relax the rest of the night, probably fiddle with the mp4 player. Oh I eventually got the player to work. I looked at the directions they gave me in Chinese and followed the pictures, entered in the same functions and selection screens and it worked. The movies look pretty good, and shrink down pretty well. If I play it right and fiddle around well enough I should be able to get about 6-8 movies at a time on the player which is plenty. The salesman claimed that you can get about 12 hours of dvd movie and 27 hours of total video. We’ll see. If I wanted to music and only movies I could go longer, but I am not going to do that.
Ok well I am off for now. Tomorrow I leave for Tokyo, Japan, hopefully meeting up with Johnnie Boy, my second semester freshman year roommate for several of the days. I have really been looking forward to Tokyo and Japan, I hope it doesn’t disappoint!
Thanks,
Josh
Tags: Travel
Josh
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