Taipei: Day One

We spent the first day in Taipei visiting obvious attractions. Our first stop was the Guandu Temple, which was on the outskirts of the city. We took the MRT train to the Guandu stop. Once we got there we really had no idea which way to go since the signs were not very good, so we just started following the mass of locals that were heading in one direction. We went through some windy narrow roads with run down buildings. There were festive decorations all around for Chinese New Year and some little street vendors trying to sell stuff to the people walking by. One lady sold some ice tea to Chase. She spoke almost perfect English which seemed out of place. We eventually made it to the temple which was tucked away among all of the other buildings. The Guandu Temple was quite large. It wasn't scaled up, it just sprawled. There were all kinds of little buildings, shines, and hallways that seemed thrown together. It was very ornately decorated and was very complex. There was a path through the temple that you are suppose to take but we kept getting lost so we gave up doing it the proper way. There were also too many people there for us to really see where we were suppose to go. It was still the Chinese New Year so there were a lot of praying and offerings. The temple itself was actually on the side of a mountain. On top was a garden area and underneath were caves that lead to more shrines. After a while it got overwhelming and we decided to go some where else. We wondered to the nearby market but didn't see anything of interested so we walked along a river which we thought would led us back to the MRT station. It took us a while but with the help of a couple of police officers directing traffic we got back to where we wanted to be. The next stop was the Taipei Confucius Temple, which is modeled after the temple in Confucius' home town. There was significantly less activity at this temple. It was more spread out with lots of little gardens segregated by walls and gateways. It was very peaceful and enjoyable. We went across the street to get lunch at a bakery. The food was very good. I had a large round piece of bread with slices of meat on it and glazed. It was sort of like a cold glazed pizza. I also had a piece of what could best be described as chocolate cake, which was also very good. We looked at another temple next door but it was not that unique and very busy with Chinese New Year activities. We then headed back to the MRT to go visit Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world (the Burj Dubai will beat it soon). It is suppose to represent a giant bamboo sticking out of the city. The eight section are for good luck (8 is a lucky number). There was nothing of real significances near Taipei 101. Like the rest of the city, everything is spread out and there is no center of anything. Just outside the door was a market, but I am assuming it was just for New Years. Inside was a huge upscale mall. It took us a while going up and down many escalators to find where you buy a ticket to go to the observation deck. We had to wait in line and go through light security to get into the elevator. This elevator is the fastest in the world. We went up 84 stories in 32 seconds. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we couldn't see much, but you could definitely tell you were very high up. With no other skyscrapers near by, it was hard to imagine you were still in a building. The observation level was two floors. The outside walls were all windows but everything else was jewelry for sale. After a while it got dark so we decided to go back down. We went to go have dinner at a restaurant known for its soup dumplings (it is dumplings with soup in them), but it was closed so we wondered around for a small local place. We found one where the workers didn't know any English, but the menu had pictures and enough English words to understand what animal the meat was coming from. It was very good. We then started heading back to our hostel. On the way we pasted the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. It was really awesome at night. The grounds were spread out and surrounded by a wall. The monument in the center was a giant white building that was light up. Visually it was very beautiful.
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