Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Day 4, 5 - Taipei

say it's here where our pieces fall in place
any rain softly kisses us on the face
any wind means we're running
we can sleep and see 'em coming
where we drift and call it dreaming
Call It Dreaming - Iron & Wine

Our last days in Taiwan were spent in Taipei where it's also filled with rain and cloudy sky. For day 4, I prepared my parents telling them we'd be using the MRT to get around. It's easy enough to navigate. Well I had prepared much before this trip. First stop was breakfast. We had beef noodle soup in one of the alley near the hotel. My dad almost shut that idea down upon finding out it's beef to the annoyance of me and my mother. The shop had pork based soup too, so he had that. The noodle was so so for me. Maybe because it's breakfast, I couldn't finish my bowl. I thought I would be eating more beef noddle when I was in Taiwan, but that was the only time we did.

After breakfast we went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial House. Well since it's near Taipei Main Station and the parents didn't mind walking there, so why not. It's free to enter and there's pretty much only 1-2 people when we were there. They're locals taking a stroll or exercising in the garden which has a pond. It's not a very big place and I don't think many tourists go there. The house itself is not very big. Actually if I'm not mistaken it's a replica of a pavilion (if that's the correct word) from a hotel that Dr. Sun Yat-Sen once stayed in. You need to take off your shoes to enter the house and there's some explanation about Dr. Sun Yat-Sen in there. Since it's small, we didn't spend a long time there.

Then it's to the station to get EasyCard for the MRT and our first stop was Longshan Temple. The temple compound is quite big. There's also a lot of tourists. There's a group of Japanese students like the day before in Jiufen. They're kinda in uniform, so I wonder if they're on a field trip to Taiwan. The temple has a really nice waterfall by the entrance. We walked around a bit and said our prayer.

By this time, it was getting cloudy and perhaps already drizzling that I decided to move on. The area where the temple is located has shops and such, but we didn't explore them. Next stop was Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Sometime I disappoint myself and this was one of it. I read that from the station you can take exit 3, 5, or 6 to get to the Memorial Hall. I have googled map it out and saw that exit 5 would be more convenient. However as we exited the train, the direction that I saw straight away was for exit 3 and I just followed that. When we reached street level, I got confused and it was drizzling :( We had umbrellas, but I didn't feel like subjecting my parents to getting lost in the rain. Dad found a map and we followed that and he also asked a random stranger in Chinese for direction and we finally got to the compound. Exit 5 is really better, it's by the compound, so please people get to exit 5 when you're going here. This exit is quite near to the Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness. What a name :D

The memorial hall is flanked by 2 orange buildings, each housing a concert hall and a theatre. When we first arrived we sought refuge in the theater like many people did as well, but I don't think you can just walk in. Anyway, I didn't try to open the door. We then made our way to the Memorial Hall. Picture below is from the memorial hall overlooking the compound with the concert hall and theatre visible.

Inside the hall, there's a big statue of Chiang Kai-shek sitting down. I wonder if they made this because they're inspired by the Lincoln Memorial. In Indonesia we have statues for heroes and our founding fathers, but I have to say such big hall and such big statue do feel a bit too grand. Maybe for Taiwanese, Chiang Kai-shek is really important like Abraham Lincoln is for Americans.

Then we went to the museum which tells the story of Chiang Kai-shek. I admitted to mom that my knowledge of him and Taiwan is so little. I only had a short section about this in my history lesson back in school in Indonesia. I don't know what the stand is in Indonesia's history curriculum now, if this is still being taught, but somehow my memory of it was like telling me that he and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen were like rebels from China who decided to build their own country in Taiwan. It's a simplistic point of view and perhaps offensive for the Taiwanese and I am sorry for the lack of knowledge. One interesting thing that I learned is that Chiang Kai-shek is a Christian. His bible is one of the exhibit there. Other than that, there are the cars he used, replica of his clothes, replica of his office, and many other things.

By the way, there's a changing of the guards at the hour and somehow dad remembered that I mentioned that and he said he wanted to look. So we went up again to the hall. It was already starting when we arrived and there were a lot of tourists. I couldn't get any good picture. The interesting point is that though the changing of the guards involve many guards, there are actually only two guards standing and guarding at each side of the statue. Once these 2 guards have taken their place, there's actually a guy who's not in a guard uniform, but more like security uniform who checked the attire of the standing guards. This guy would make sure all is okay and even tugging at their uniforms to make it look okay. Fascinating.

After watching that, we went down again because we haven't explored all of the museum. I know my mom was most probably bored, but she stuck through it all. She even stuck through it when I said let's go to another level where there are other exhibitions. This exhibition is more of artworks with paintings and paper arts. This paintings exhibition may change from time to time, I'm not sure. There are some cute ones like this one below. Like the Japanese, I think Taiwanese also love cute stuff.

By the time we left, the rain was getting harder. Next was going to Maokong where there used to be a lot of tea plantations there. Now there's not as many and it's more for the tourists I think. Maokong is quite out of the way and to get there you have to take the Maokong gondola. Not many people were queuing for the gondola and I was alright with the normal cabin, but mom wanted the one with the glass bottom. You can use EasyCard to pay and both cabins cost the same. I think the glass bottom doesn't make a difference. All around you see trees and mountains and since it's raining, a lot of mist. The gondola made 2 stops before reaching the top which is Maokong station so it was quite a long ride, around 20 - 30 minutes. By the time we reached the top it was raining :( There's a cheap eatery nearby and we had lunch there.

Since it was raining it's almost silly to do the walk about, but I did and my parents tagged along although I told them maybe to just wait at the visitor center. Stupidly I also didn't really consult the map and just started walking. When we reached a section where there were rows of tea plants, I decided to just go back. Mom didn't feel that this place is amazing, but I think it's because of the rain we didn't really manage to explore what this place can offer or it is also possible it's because I took the wrong route :( Anyways, we didn't stay long here.

Last stop of the day was Taipei 101. Honestly and I think I had written about this before, going up a tall structure to see a view of the city doesn't amuse me much anymore. However since it's such a landmark, I thought this should be something to be checked off the list for the parents. I also decided that we should go to the observatory. I didn't book the tickets before going and when getting the tickets at the counter, the staff told me that visibility was rather low and waiting time was around 30 minutes. We decided to get the tickets anyway. Two things were fascinating for me about this visit. The first was the lift to get up is really fast. The observatory is on the 89th floor and the lift started at around the 4th or 5th floor if I'm not mistaken. It was so so fast. I mean it's literally like you went in, button was pushed, the ceiling of the elevator started to turned black with some starry lights and I thought that a presentation was going to happen like in the Rockefeller Center elevator, but nope because you're done. You have reached the 89th floor, time to get out. It was so so fast. Quite amazing really. As for the views, the sun has set so it's the city view at night which is nothing unique if you think about it. I couldn't get nice pictures so here's one that I have.

The other fascinating thing about this visit was that we got to see the wind damper. Apparently tall buildings have this but not many open it up for public viewing. I don't understand how the engineering works, but apparently this helps stop the building from swaying too much. After seeing this, I then understand what's with the weird mascot which looked like a weird human bee. The mascot is called damper baby and their eyes and mouth form 101. There's a short video explaining the wind damper, but I found them to be incomplete because it doesn't answer why and how this works. There's also a video showing the damper swaying. I think it was during a typhoon or something. I've been googling about this, but I still can't get a grasp of why this works. Anyways, it's fascinating, truly fascinating. It's even more interesting than the view I think.

When you exit the observatory you will need to pass through this big coral art and jewelry store. They all look expensive, but I have to say they also look so unique and beautiful. I wonder how they're made and how hard it is to make them.

After that we're basically done for the day. I took some pictures of the skyscraper from the outside before leaving and also the surrounding area with lights on the trees. With the rain, the scene looks pretty nice.

Then we made our way back to the hotel. Arriving in Taipei Main Station, I decided to get a refund on the EasyCard thinking that the next day we would take the taxi to the airport. In Taipei you can take out the balance out of your EasyCard, but unlike Hong Kong they don't take the card back, so I still have the card. Upon returning the card, I found out that it might have been better if I had gotten the 1-day Transportation Pass card which include Maokong Gondola, rather than getting the EasyCard and filling it with value. The difference wasn't a lot, but if I had made more trips then the pass would have been more worth it.

The weather in day 4 was really not on our side. Day 5 was the day when we left Taiwan and it was still cloudy. We had some time in the morning, so we just spent it visiting 228 Peace Memorial Park which is near the hotel. The park is quite big and there were some locals exercising, but overall it's pretty quiet that morning.

Then we ate at Tim Ho Wan. As we made our way back to the hotel to get our bags, I saw that some shops and a mall near the main station were not opened yet even though it's passed 10 AM. I was quite shocked. It's quite unthinkable in Singapore, even in Jakarta I think. Anyways so we got our bags and mom wanted to take the MRT to the airport *sigh* Okay. It wasn't that difficult because after days passing by Taipei Main Station, I know where it is exactly. I got the single ticket and in Taiwan they use this very cute plastic coin as the ticket. Train ride was quite fast, but then the check in counters were very long. Then security check was also long. So much queuing to the point that when mom and dad got to their gate, boarding process was about to start. I think mom and dad were annoyed that we were rushing. Mom as she always says prefers to come early to the airport and wait there. Well, I myself was getting nervous with all the queuing but hey they didn't miss their plane. All was good. As for me, I had 15 minutes more than them and I bought myself snack before getting to my gate. It was a combination of pineapple cake and chocolate brownie. It wasn't amazing. Anyways, all in all we completed the trip. I'm glad that nothing bad happened and my parents trusted me with my plan. I'm also proud that they made it back alright with all the transiting and all. They don't speak English so we the children do wonder if they'd make it. They did and it's admirable :) For pictures from all around Taipei, please go here.

:) eKa @ 10:07:00 PM •