Well, Saturday marked my last full day to enjoy Taiwan, as my flight was scheduled to depart at noon on Sunday, thus shooting Sunday. Course, when I woke up I was still 2 hours away by train from Taipei, so I needed to move my ass to get back to Taipei in time to do anything.
All things considered, I think I did pretty good to have made it back to Taipei by noon. I mean, this is me we are talking about. Along the way I did have one of those moments where I realized that I've been in Korea for tooooooooooo long. While waiting in the train station in Hualien, I watched 3 young women walk by. Judging by their very expensive looking attire and high heels and general style of dress, I guessed they were Korean. And I was 10000000000000% right. Normally I wouldn't have even noticed them (well, alright I probably would have...I am male), but when everybody else (locals and tourists alike) are wearing flip-flops, jeans, shorts, t-shirts, etc, then dressing like you are stepping off of Rodeo drive or something makes you look just a little out of place. Ohhhh Koreans, your massive vanity never fails to amuse me. "But Eric", you say, "All Asians look alike. How can you tell the difference?" Well, for one that idea is incredibly stupid. If you actually care to look closely enough, you would see that there is a great deal of appearance difference in regards to skin tone, facial structure and what have you. And that's just the Koreans. 'Bout the only statement dumber than that was when a Korean told me (I'm hoping they weren't serious) that white people all look alike. Right. Cuz the different hair colors, eye colors, skin tones, body shapes, heights, and facial structures don't do a thing.
Right, back on track. Once I was back in Taipei and checked back into the same hostel as before, I headed off to see the former world's tallest building, Taipei 101. The subway was a breeze to navigate (as I mentioned before), so in no time I was heading towards the world's second largest phallus. And man, after seeing it up close, I've been convinced that the belief that "Asians aren't working with much down there" isn't always true. This thing was big. Above average? Man, this thing was soooooo much bigger than that. Hell, I had to take a photo from a few blocks away just to get the whole tower in the shot.
The area around the tower was quite nice and very well planned out, like most of Taipei. Wide sidewalks, roads with streetside parking built in. Plenty of crosswalks and everything else. Plus, no delivery scooters flying up the sidewalk and almost hitting you. (Are you listening Korea?...cuz you should be)
Once inside Taipei 101 and its mall, I headed right for the food court. Surrounded by every manner of restaurant imaginable, I headed for....Subway. Laugh if you must, but I haven't had Subway in 2 years, so it classifies as a "strange, weird, foreign food" just as much as anything else there. Plus there really isn't anything that I can think of that can match a sub for sheer simplicity and deliciousness. Just bread, veggies, meat, and serve. No grilling, no cumbersome side dishes that take up the whole table, no work involved in getting to the tasty. Just open mouth and insert sandwich. That's what she said. Tehehehe.
After lunch I decided to head up to the observatory station as it seemed like the tourist thing to do. And judging by the lines of people waiting for it, I was right. I waited in line for about 5 minutes before realizing that this was my last day in Taipei and I had another million things to do, most outside, that I would rather do than look out over the city from a high tower. A shame, but through the magic of Google Images and "Copy Image", I can now pretend like I took some really awesome shots of Taipei. Enjoy.
How, you might ask, did I manage to take a picture from outside Taipei 101 whilst inside Taipei 101? Science. Exactly.
While I was leaving the Taipei 101 area, I saw what was certainly the highlight of my day. I saw a "Robot in Disguise". If you don't know what that is, then I highly recommend you leave this blog immediately. I most certainly do not want this blog to be sullied with heathens such as yourselves.....well, I'm feeling generous so I'll allow you to stay. This time. Just don't do it again. The "Robot in Disguise" is a Transformer, in this case an Autobot. Yes, like the ones in that Michael Bay movie (sigh). Frankly, I much prefer the animated movie from the 80's. Awesomely bad hair metal ballads from the animated movie go!!!!!!
Referenced "The Touch" from Transformers the Movie in a blog post? Awesome. Looks like I can check off #1 from my bucket list. Now onto "See the world", "Find love" and all those lesser ones. Cool.
Here's the pics of the actual truck.
The question you must be asking yourself is why, of all the awesome cars in the world, would a Transformer choose a Mitsubishi Fuso delivery truck? I'm guessing all the other cool cars were taken. Man, I would hate to see the poor bastard Transformer that gets stuck having to be a 1993 Mercury Sable wagon/hatchback.
Next up on my Taipei tour was the CKS Shilin Residence Park, formerly the home estate and surrounding gardens of Taiwan's military dictator Chaing Kai-Shek. At first I was shocked that the military dictator of an entire country would live in such a small residence, but then I remembered that he probably had 15 or so similar residences, so no need to break the bank with each one. Not too much else to say about the park. I wandered around for a while, enjoying the different styles of gardens, then headed up a ton of steps to a place that was built to improve the "feng shui" of the park (I shit you not, there was a sign declaring just that), relaxed by myself there for some time (lots of stairs usually scare away the big crowds), then headed on to my next location. Ohhhh, and there was a lady walking a pig. Weird. Anyways, here are the pics.
Next up was Longshan Temple. Now, I would have loved to go to several temples, but I was short on time, so I chose the one that was very, very close to my hostel. It just so happened to be one of the most famous ones in town. Now, I'm not really sure what religion these temples are (I know, I know, really pathetic of me), but that certainly didn't stop me from enjoying them. So I wandered around, tried not to sully the sanctity and holiness of the place, and left. I also picked up some various charms for simple little gifts for folks back home. However, not knowing a lick of Mandarin, that left me in a tough spot, as I had no idea what they were charms for. I ended up just picking the ones I thought were the coolest. So if it turns out you get a "Fertility" charm or a "Lose those pesky extra pounds" charm or a "cure for erectile dysfunction" charm, its not my fault.
My last destination was Da'an Park, centrally located and thus billed as "Taipei's Central Park". Clearly, it was really up to Central Park's level, but it was a nice park nonetheless. While wandering through the park, I stopped to watch multiple pick up basketball games between the locals. And from what I saw, you can add Taiwan to the list of countries that I can take in basketball. Also on the list are Korea and Japan. The Philippines....they can play. I got nothing on them.
Then for dinner, I managed to find a place that played classic rock and featured an interesting take on The Last Supper painting. Here they had replaced everyone's faces and instead inserted the heads of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Gregg Allman, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, etc. I'm pretty sure that counts as blasphemy, but I won't tell anybody.
And so ends my trip to Taiwan. Sunday was just getting up and getting on the plane, which I did with no drama, so no stories there. All in all a great trip. Too bad it was only 5 days. Now I leave you with a taste of Taiwan, but perhaps you'll want the whole thing? Hmmmm. Without further ado, I present: WANG STEAK. Delicious.
Photos: see the Taiwan albums on facebook (3 and 4)
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