Arrived on the night of the 30th December to Taipei, Finding myself alone at the hotel, and my friends at a locale far far away. I took off to explore XiMenDing alone until all the shops started to close..
On my first day, my friends decided to sleep in to prepare for the late night on NYE. So I woke up bright and early again,
Took a tour of the Presidential Palace .. (The building was very well designed by the former Japanese government. From the windows, to the smoking rooms to the courtyard and the double layer of corridors. Well designed items be it buildings or equipment just makes my heart sing. Japan is next on the traveling list !)
228 Peace Park which was just across the street to commemorate those killed in the 228 Incident of 28 February 1947. There was a small temple and people practicing tai-chi there. Just a tiny slice of life..
Abit of breakfast and alot of walking later, we ended up at ..
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂). Right smack in the middle of courtyard, were some tents and this huge inflated Gulliver. I have no idea what the event was all about, but it was just plain weird.
On my walk to the Taipei 101 building, I had my virgin betel nut experience. I placed it in my mouth, I bit on it once, I spat it out immediately. It felt like raw tobacco and menthol and other nasty stuff combined into one tiny gumball size fruit. Eeeeee, I was still spitting out the taste from my mouth 3 streets down.
After much walking, we arrived at the NYE Concert outside Cityhall.
Our initial plans were to actually camp out at the Memorial Hall just across the street from the venue to view the fireworks from a distance. Somehow, the spirit of the moment caught up with us, and we decided to go for the concert. So 2 hours of pure walking across 7 train stations, 6 hours of standing later in my high heel shoes...
There was a ton of Taiwanese stars that I recognize like Mayday, SHE, Wang Lee Hom, and many more that I didn't whom performed for the concert. But the experience was fantastic !
Even Ma Ying Jiu was there for the countdown ...
I felt a bit conned by the short 3 minute fireworks display of the Taipei 101. Hey, even in Singapore, ours was 8 minutes !!
It took us a good hour to just leave the concert venue, checked out some stalls selling streetside food. By then, I was famished after all the walking, and skipping dinner. Then again, walking across 7 train stations, 2 hours later, we arrived at our hotel at 4am.
On my second day, we headed off to
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館), which was a lovely park with musical fountains, children playing in the gardens, people flying kites. I would consider it a good use of public space.
Headed down to Cityhall again for more food and a browse through their malls. Then to Longshan Temple for its night market.
Maybe because it is the first day of the year, but there were a ton of people crowding at the temple for prayers.
Food street along the Longshan night market. We were here for a reason. The reason was to ... drink snake blood !
There was a guy who taught us how to do it. The snake blood had been sweetened with honey, so we had to start off drinking half of that. Add in glass of venom. Drink half. Add in glass of snake bile. Drink half. Add in glass of snake sperm. (yes yes yes i know) Drink half. Add in glass of sea horse essence with alcohol. Drink half. Add in glass of ginseng extract with alcohol. Drink half. Swallow 2 pills supposedly to protect the throat afterwards. Bottoms up ! Then drink up the soup.
I felt really really warm after the full course, but it felt more due to the alcohol then anything else. Anyway, the set did not do anything for me, but it kept the other two guys with me up the whole night watching tv.
Went up to Maokong (貓空) for tea with friends at night. Gorgeous view up in the mountains, you can really see that Taipei is shaped like a basin, surrounded by mountains from there.
On my third day, I woke up early again...
Red Theater (紅樓劇場)just next to the Ximen station. They have locally made handicrafts on sale there every weekend.
On our way to National Palace Museum (故宮博物院), we spotted the Taipei Grand Hotel..
The sole destination that I truly wanted to go for my trip, the National Palace Museum. The art was amazing, after visiting the Forbidden city 2-3 times now, I see the pieces merging together into one big Chinese cultural heritage that was managed to be saved and preserved.
Headed to Shilin Market for food, it was one big flea market. Like the Bangkok weekend market, but people speaking Mandarin instead.
Completed the night with drinks with my friend at Red Theater.
On my last day in Taipei, we just visited theme restaurants.
Yes, this sort of theme.
And this sort of theme ...
Modern Toilet. ..
Of bathtubs and urinals ..
Before whisking off to the airport. I arrived in Taipei with 4kg, and I left with 11kg. I shopped till all the Taiwan Dollars I had were gone. Right down to the last 100 where I just bought snacks at the airport. Haha..
It was a good trip, the type of fun that I needed. Good Fun, Good Year.
