Not nervous about sightseeing

Whew! All I have left to share is my sightseeing. Being able to fit in some wandering and gawking is always the best part of a business trip.

 

The Night Market

 



There are apparently lots of night markets around the city. This is where I expected to have my Andrew Zimmern/Anthony Bourdain moment if it was going to happen.

 

 

I was feeling a bit adventurous - when in Rome you know. However, I wasn't sure I was brave enough for the various parts. So, I figured I'd better try some less frightening offerings so I could be seen as willing to try. My Taiwanese co-worker Belle mentioned that she didn't eat those things and I held on to that passing comment like a life preserver to be thrown out and used if the pressure was put on me for pigs ears or chicken feet.

 

I did try corn on the cob roasted and seasoned with something like soy sauce and various spices I recognized but couldn't put my finger on.

 

Is the turtle pet, or potential food?

 

I also tried a lime drink. I asked why the limes had that hairy coat on them (I can't describe it better - sorry). I'm not familiar with limes coming with an outer coating like a coconut. The girls had to translate on their phones some things that they didn't know in English. She showed me her phone and the word "gelatin" was there. I was still confused. But the drink they gave me was good (like of like limeaid) and I didn't think much more of it. Until one of the ice cubes in the bottom came up my huge straw and it was CHEWY! That was really odd. Ah, the gelatin! What I thought was ice was actually cubes of gelatin at the bottom of the drink. Not bad, but I don't think I'll be asking for cubed, flavorless gelatin in the bottom of my drink any time soon.

 

We stopped in at a temple and again, after a quick translation on the phone - I learned this was a Taoist temple. There was a group of women in some kind of worship in what I would call the chapel. They were all singing as a group something of a chant. The detail work on the carvings were so lovely and intricate. They must have taken so much manpower and time to create.

 

I tried to sneak a picture of a monk. I wasn't sure if he would be offended if I took his picture or not so I took it on the sly.

 

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world when it was built in 2004. In 2010 it was bested by a building in (I think) Dubai. It has (surprise) 101 floors. There was an observation floor on floor 88 where you could look out over the city and an open air deck on 92 where you could go up and feel the fierce wind. Most days we were in Taiwan were too rainy and overcast but we found a day that was somewhat clear and I jumped at the chance to look.

Some of the pictures below are taken from the offices of our accountants on the 68th floor. Once we were up top, the clouds muddied up the pictures a bit. I think that some though are from the 88th floor.

 

The worlds fastest elevator was also in this building. We went from floor 5 to floor 88 in under 40 seconds. I only had to clear my ears from the pressure once . . . not bad. The only negative thing was that they crowded far too many people for my liking in the elevator and it was a hot muggy day so the odor in that enclosed space was less than desirable.

There was a beautiful coral exhibit on the observation level. It's amazing to me the amount of effort put into these beautiful pieces. No wonder they are so pricey.



The dragon was my favorite coral piece. Oh how I wish I was rich and could afford it.



This huge gold ball is a damper. It is up high in the building and absorbs the movement from typhoon winds and earthquakes that are so prevalent in this part of the world. It's essentially a giant, steel pendulum that swings and compensates for movement in the building.  When our tour brought us to this point, I finally understood this "damper baby" mascot I kept seeing everywhere (see my first picture in the Taipei 101 section) that prompted many exclamations of  "I don't get it".

 

 

From inside the city, I kept getting glimpses of the building and it didn't look like it was really all that huge. It wasn't until we were on our way to the airport and I could see the skyline from my window that it was really obvious how much taller this building was than the others around it.

Fun fact, the building was built to resemble bamboo.

 

Chaing Kai-shek Memorial



Via

 

Chaing Kai-shek was a Chinese political and military leader. He was part of the KMT party - the Chinese Nationalist Party - and led the suppression of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1949, he and the remainder of the KMT fled mainland China to Taiwan where he led the government for 25 years and was recognized by many nations as the legitimate leader of Mainland China during that time.

 

OK, enough of the history lesson. On Thursday afternoon, done with all our official meetings, we did a little shopping and then stopped to visit the Chaing Kia-shek memorial. I loved the architecture of the building itself and the gates around the grounds.

 

"TAKE KIND CARE OF FLOWERS AND TREES

PLEASE DO NOT TREAD ON OR PICK UP"

 

Don't you just love Chinese translations to English?

There were lovely gardens that I imagine take quite a lot of time to maintain. Everything was orderly and tidy and so well manicured. We were told that you often can see folks doing their Tai Chi exercises on the grounds in the mornings. On this day, it was rainy and overcast but I suppose weather like this is what keeps everything so green and lush.

 

I was so pleased with all the umbrellas. I loved seeing all the colors of them bobbing up and down the streets winding around each other like colorful jelly fish. Maddy would call them "bumpershoots". She learned in preschool that in London they call umbrellas bumpershoots - well, perhaps that is a bit out of date and they don't call them that any more? Anybody current on their British vocab lessons?

Anyhow, I digress. I was pleased to see all the umbrellas around. In Utah, we don't tend to walk anywhere so it seems that when we might use an umbrella on a rainy or snowy day, we tend to just make a run for it from the car to the building. In our defense, it's usually cold in times of rain so we have coats and I often use my hood rather than an umbrella . . .

At the door of all the buildings were dispensers with bags for you to put your wet umbrella in before entering. Smart! They had both small ones for the collapsible purse sized umbrellas and also tall and skinny ones for the non-collapsible umbrellas. That was fascinating to me. Some places just had the bags you could tear off and use, some had dispensers like the one pictured below. There's a demonstration here. Pretty slick I say.

 

Back to the interior of the memorial. It was a bit reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

 

 

Throughout the day there are members of the Taiwan National Guard stationed on either side of the bronze statue of Chaing Kai-shek. Every hour they have a changing of the guards. We were lucky to get there at closing and so the pomp was a bit more elaborate than at the hourly changes. I was impressed with the precision and the exactness of all their movements.

 

 

 

And thus ends the slide show of my trip to Taiwan. I would apologize for my ponderous use of pictures, but let's be honest, most people skip the words anyhow and just look at the pictures right?

 

What a wonderful business trip. I would love to take Scott to Taiwan someday for a visit. He would love the different foods and the culture. I'm so grateful that in my career I have these opportunities to travel because I probably would live my life otherwise without a trip to Asia or Amsterdam or Mexico City.

 

So I guess what all these Taiwan posts lead up to is this - next time you are presented with the opportunity to travel to Taiwan, don't be anxious and nervous, it's going to be AWESOME!