Breakfast buffet number three.
Headed out for our first day in Taipei.
Riding the Taipei MRT.
Headed towards the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Me at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Bob at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Changing of the guard at the hall. The whole song and dance took ten minutes and included gun twirling.
Inside the hall.
Some banners displayed at the hall. Me pretending I can read them.
Chiang Kai-Shek's bulletproof car.
My feet need a rest.
These doors were adorned with bubbly gold studs.
Main gate at the complex.
Looking for impatient seeds to pop.
Discreet picture taking in the Taipei wedding dress district.
Wedding dresses! Every girls' dream and every boy's... dream as well.
On a footbridge back in the park area inside the memorial complex.
Bridge hat.
Stopping for lunch.
I order a buttery corn soup with noodles. They actually dropped a pat of butter into it!
Bob's fried meat combo.
Back to the hotel. Someone needs a nap.
Back out for the evening, riding the MRT.
Look, locals! Wow!
This bridge ended up being too far to go see. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen a giant fisherman's wart.
Wandering doggy.
Wooden toys at a night market in the Danshui area.
Danshui night market.
More vending machine soft toys. Fake bread and buns as toys are popular here.
Creepy eyes.
Dumplings.
Eating dumplings.
Stuff store.
Fancy doorway. We aren't sure what's behind it.
Street food box.
Bubble tea time.
Authentic TenRen's tea!
Man fishing at water's edge.
The first and only food safety related posting I see at a vendor's stall. I'm not sure why they even bothered to put it up. Maybe it was a bad sign.
Big tall ice cream.
Undie pants, anyone?
Orange juice stand.
Sock stand. A buck a pair.
Egg cakes.
Egg cakes. I don't actually remember eating these, but apparently we did.
We head over to the famous Shilin night market, which turns out to be mostly food. There is a giant lineup for this vendor. They had a very efficient system of taking and preparing orders.
They are selling a crispy deep fried shell filled with sweet stuff (eg. red bean), smashed into bits and then wrapped in a crepe.
Me snacking on crepe. It is quite good.
Fried goodies.
Man making us an omlette.
Omlette making.
A literal translation?
Omlette eating.
Green onions wrapped in pork.
It was good, but a bit too onion-y.
Stylin' shades.
Bob and his giant five dollar steak, served on a bed of grease-soaked pasta.
Dessert bun, filled with taro ice cream. Very tasty.
More bubble tea. It's like water here - at least for us.
Ear wax candling. Such an odd sight.
I wonder if this warning was posted after an unfortunate incident.
Day two in Taipei. We wander the underground mall near our hotel. More soft things in vending machine.
Find Chinese Waldo.
Maybe?
Before heading to Taiwan, I read that the Maokong Gondola, which gives you a scenic view over city, was closed indefinitely, due to technical problems. However, upon arrival in Taipei, we find all sorts of banners and souvenirs proudly promoting the gondola. Surely it must have been re-opened! Nope. We venture all the way out to the Taipei Zoo and are disappointed.
Gondola piers at the bottom of the hill.
You're not fooling me creep! I've seen what you do in Kaohsiung!
A busy street view from Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station.
Pastry chefs at a department store.
These flower shaped donuts are popular here. They are often depicted as being worn by a cartoon lion as its mane. In animated versions, the lion would remove it and munch on it happily.
We head for the landmark Taipei 101 tower. An expensive mall fills the base floors.
I try to get this Damper Baby to hold my bag.
In a gift store at the top of the tower.
On the observation deck. It was very windy, as observation decks tend to be.
In some sort of flying-through-the-sky display.
730 ton tuned mass damper at the top of Taipei 101.
Barbapapas! The song was suck in our heads for the rest of my time in Taiwan.
Bright lights in Taipei.
It looks like a Christmas tree.
Taipei 101 in the distance.
Taiwanese hot dog stand.
The bun is made of rice!
More dumplings
More piles of soft toys.
Gelato.
A whole truck of watermelons, unguarded!
Making our way back to the hotel to get our bags.
Heading back to Kaohsiung on the 300 km/h High Speed Rail train. Bye bye Taipei!
