We
woke up in our awesome hotel room, and headed down to breakfast. Which wouldn’t
be worth posting accept my hubby was thrilled that the glasses they used were
actually chemistry lab beakers. He took pics, and when he got home showed all
his science buddies who also got a good chuckle out of it.
Breakfast
is different in Taiwan, because it’s mostly savory foods not sweet. One of my
hubby’s friends explained that they believe the body is a machine, and if you
want that machine to work well in the mornings then you get it warmed up you
don’t eat cold things. Which I liked the idea of, especially when it came to
eating yummy pot stickers, and steamed boa buns for breakfast. There bread is
steamed not baked so it’s crazy soft, and yummy.
After breakfast we headed out for
the day. We walked around the area we were staying, and found an old Buddhist
temple site that the Japanese had built while they occupied Taiwan during WWII.
We also saw a beautiful theater that has been kept up that also was built
during the same time. We then met one of my hubby’s friends, and we headed to
Taipei 101. It used to be the tallest building in the world before the world
Trade Towers were built in New York. It is still one of the tallest buildings
in the world to this day, just not THE tallest. It has all this architecture
stuff about it which you can see here…We were able to go to the top to the viewing
deck, and see for miles. It was awesome to see almost every area my husband,
and lived in when he first was in Taiwan. We then went to a lower deck which had
an art exhibit of sculptures done in different colors of coral, and jade. If
you don’t mind spending a few million, or trying to get it through the mail
then these beautiful sculptures are for sale…
A quick word about tourism in
Taiwan, the Taiwanese are a modest people and also reserved. In the last three
years they have finally opened their boarders to China, which is a little
touchy for most Taiwanese to talk about. You could definitely tell the
difference between the Taiwanese, and the Chinese. Both are lovely people, but
the stereotype that Asian people love little white babies was very obvious with
the Chinese tourists. They would try and pick little buddy up, or even take him
from our arms. They would see him and exclaim loudly about how cute he was, and
try to sneak pictures with him in it. We were in line to get in the elevator
back down to the main floors, which is like waiting in line at an amusement
park with how long you have to wait, and some man with a Chinese touring group
was filming little buddy a few feet away the whole time he waited to get to the
elevator. We even checked if that was what he was really doing by trying to
hide little buddy behind us for a little, and the man stopped out side of the
line, and followed us with his camera to make sure he got little buddy on film.
Now for what purpose I have no idea, but even the Taiwanese people were
frowning at the guy, and trying to tell him to put away the camera. So yes, the
stereotypes are true, and just be a little wary when you go to foreign
countries with blue-eyed blonde babies. I was never actually worried anything
would happen; Still I kept a close eye on little buddy.
Even if you have that experience
remember that not EVERYONE is like that. We also had an fun time with a few
high school girls who were visiting the same hotel as us a few days after, and
little buddy loved all the attention. Most of the time people were polite, and
would talk to us a little about our cute boy. When they wanted pictures we didn’t
really mind. It was just the experiences we had where they had no boundaries
that REALLY bugged us.
To Continue:
Then we left Taipei 101, and walked
around Taipei to a popular beef noodle place, which was really good. I couldn’t
finish it so they put it in a plastic bag and tied it closed! Clever! We then
headed to a shaved ice place it was delicious. The shaved ice is like
snowflakes melting on your tongue. They also flavor the ice, and give you real
fruit, and sherbet. So it wasn’t overly syrupy sweet, and perfectly refreshing.
Then we went to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints temple, and
visitors center. We were able to relax, and let little buddy run around. This also was the time we found out that little buddy loved to play photographer, and for the most of the trip if we let him have the camera he was happy. Even held the camera in front of his face like he was taking pictures.
We headed back to the Hotel, and
said good bye to two wonderful people. John is the name of my hubby’s friend
who took us on our journey through the city. He also brought a friend who new
really good English so we were able to communicate really well. They were
wonderful! John kept holding the stroller when we didn’t use it for little
buddy, and answered all my questions that hopefully didn’t annoy him.
It was perfect to have a hotel so
centrally located, because then we were able to go back to it in the afternoon
to rest from the heat. Oh the heat. Here is my advice for dealing with heat.
First, we left Utah which was in the mid 60’s Fahrenheit and chilly. Arrived in
Taiwan, which was in the upper 80’s Fahrenheit plus 100% humidity. We always
carried two types of drinks with us: caffeine and an energy drink called Supow.
Plus we would get bottled water every few hours. You just have to embrace it,
or really let the water blanket of hot air embrace you. I would do my hair, and
make-up with the thought that by lunch time my hair would be a frizzled mess,
and I would have to wipe my face about a hundred times from the pool of
humidity. So just go with it. You’re on an adventure. Keep hydrated, and get as
much rest when you can in the air conditioning.
Later that night we met another
friend of my hubby’s named Mao. He was a ton of fun. He is a professional
musician who is studying music composition for his masters. He reminds me of a
lot of the theater kids in high school. He has lots of personality, honest,
kind, and fun to be around. Added bonus, he knew my hubby before I met him, so
he had some epic stories about how silly my hubby can be. They lived together
for a few months; I think it helped us bond when we could commiserate about life
living with my hubby. Mao met us at the National Concert Hall were he was going
to be doing a concert that night. Which is right next to the Chiang Kia-Shek
Memorial building. Apparently Chiang Kia-Shek helped shape important parts of
Taiwanese politics, and bring about better trade. I couldn’t really understand ‘cause
we had to race through the building reading the plaques really fast so we
wouldn’t miss the taking down of the flag, which was really cool with the
sunset going down at the same time.
Then we headed back to the hotel. It
was crazy how much we fit into each day, but I think it helped with the jet
lag.
Here are the pics:
