Taipei weekend....yeeeehaw! That means the city...people.....culture....eating out...selection when shopping...a store that sells camping and hiking gear, not just flip flops...beer in small bottles...the life those urbanites live!
Steve and Naz came to visit, so we (he) booked a hostel in the city, we ventured north to meet and hang out for the weekend. Saw some sights, shared some stories and poked around the city streets late into the evenings.
Morning view - pre mass traffic confusion - of a Taipei street.
What else would one expect to find in a well stocked music and book store....thats right, a shrine to some god that doesnt actually exist. Sort of like all gods. But this one was a prominent feature of the store...perhaps the god of consumerism?
Stree view again, XiMen station area. At night this area kicked into high gear...fun times.
Lunch at the Teppanyaki place. Turns out the owner of this place grew up very close to our village and her son is studying in Toronto. From what was a simple meal turned out to be a hefty conversation and one of those 'what are the chances' moments. We came here again on Sunday, and she gave us all a free dish of onion tofu...splendid stuff, that.
At one of the most prominent memorials in Taipie, Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial (the blue one below), there are two other significant buildings - the National Theater (above) and a art/display museum (not pictured, but similar to the National Theater). And, what else would one want to add to increase its authenticity? Thats right again...a massive blow up body. Weird. But then...we walked a little closer to the main memorial building and saw to our (my) delight.....
...a very well done International Year of Astronomy display. A movie on this big screen, myriad pictures and posters with various - up to date and high res - images of various nebulae, stars, clusters, novae. It was pretty cool to be so far away and see something that broough me right back to the hinterland of PG.
This is the memorial statue to Chiang-Kai Shek, the man who fled China with an army and started the Chinese country ot Taiwan (eventually). Memorialized, but some hate him, and some love him. So it goes.
And...all day, for four hour shifts at a time, guards watch over the statue. Always guarding the father of Taiwan. They do not move, in the frigid cold of December or the swealtering heat of July, at all. You can stare at them all you like, but the simply do not flinch. When there is a changing of the guard, it is a sight. Two leave, two new ones arrive. The whole process takes about 20 minutes as they have to walk all the way from the basement, through the memorial halls and then up a flight of stairs to the main memorial area. They are led by a superior in cadenced walk. Below is a pic of them making their way through the halls, ready to take over from the dude above.
And then there is a gift shop....not too sure what exactly this is trying to sell or represent, but it looks curious enough.
A distant view of Taipei 101. Went up it, gt some ice cream, checked out the book store and then returned to the arteries of Taiwans nightlife.
Parade, impromptu, of a gods birthday. Trucks, drums, trucks, drums, music, lanterns, firecrackers....cannons. Yes, cannons. Randomly sending out enough noise to break ones ear drums...scared the wits out of us and all the locals who must have had a better grasp of what they were celebrating.
Evening. We found, proving that there might in fact be a god, small Taiwan Beer bottles. It might not mean much to you, but to us it was ground breaking....a personal sized bottle.....unthinkable only days before!
Politics and science. Bad US beef, Taiwanese border controls...no US beef is allowed. Stores are randomly checked to make sure they are not selling US cow, in any form. And now businesses are promoting the fact that they dont sell it, to woo customers back to the dead cow industry.
Scooter parking. In Taiwan you park anywhere, and a worker like this comes by and gives you a parking stub. This you go online and pay. There are no places to put in money, get a ticket, etc. All simplified. And if you are quick you may not have to pay anything. Or if you time it right.
LongShan Temple. One of the oldest (or the oldest) temple in Taiwan and this, for that reason, gets busy at very regular intervals. Today our visit coincided with...not sure. But it was packed and the food offerings were stupendous. All these tables were set out with food for the gods to eat. In Taipei most of it gets thrown out afterwards, in small villages (where food equates to money) they eat it afterwards. Regardless, it is a whack of food, and teh capitalistic approach of the church here is to sell you the food you will offer. So, go to the temple, buy food from the temple, and give it back to the temple. Religions, man. What a business.
All the offerings and incense.
And, in case you are unsure if your god is a vegetarian or not, you leave out the appropriate spread. Above is the legit once-living offerings. Heart on the bottom right, octopus, crab, squid, lobster (apparently this god - there are many in their godly accumulation - was a big seafood addict). Below, all the same, but made out of tofu. Click the pic and chack them out. Pure art if you ask me.
...and goodbye, untill next time.
Saturday night an earthquake struck. Shook our bar for a good 10 seconds with force! Saw the news the next day and realized that it was in fact a doozie, and our old city (Hualien) got schmucked a bit with fallen facades, porches, fallen signs, upper levels collapsed... . So far I have seen some damage in my schools, but nothing significant. It was big, but not big enough, it seems. It was measured as a 6.8 by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (who do much more than report weather...) and a 6.4 by the USGS onshore, 7 offshore.
Steve and Naz came to visit, so we (he) booked a hostel in the city, we ventured north to meet and hang out for the weekend. Saw some sights, shared some stories and poked around the city streets late into the evenings.
Morning view - pre mass traffic confusion - of a Taipei street.
What else would one expect to find in a well stocked music and book store....thats right, a shrine to some god that doesnt actually exist. Sort of like all gods. But this one was a prominent feature of the store...perhaps the god of consumerism?
Stree view again, XiMen station area. At night this area kicked into high gear...fun times.
Lunch at the Teppanyaki place. Turns out the owner of this place grew up very close to our village and her son is studying in Toronto. From what was a simple meal turned out to be a hefty conversation and one of those 'what are the chances' moments. We came here again on Sunday, and she gave us all a free dish of onion tofu...splendid stuff, that.
At one of the most prominent memorials in Taipie, Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial (the blue one below), there are two other significant buildings - the National Theater (above) and a art/display museum (not pictured, but similar to the National Theater). And, what else would one want to add to increase its authenticity? Thats right again...a massive blow up body. Weird. But then...we walked a little closer to the main memorial building and saw to our (my) delight.....
...a very well done International Year of Astronomy display. A movie on this big screen, myriad pictures and posters with various - up to date and high res - images of various nebulae, stars, clusters, novae. It was pretty cool to be so far away and see something that broough me right back to the hinterland of PG.
This is the memorial statue to Chiang-Kai Shek, the man who fled China with an army and started the Chinese country ot Taiwan (eventually). Memorialized, but some hate him, and some love him. So it goes.
And...all day, for four hour shifts at a time, guards watch over the statue. Always guarding the father of Taiwan. They do not move, in the frigid cold of December or the swealtering heat of July, at all. You can stare at them all you like, but the simply do not flinch. When there is a changing of the guard, it is a sight. Two leave, two new ones arrive. The whole process takes about 20 minutes as they have to walk all the way from the basement, through the memorial halls and then up a flight of stairs to the main memorial area. They are led by a superior in cadenced walk. Below is a pic of them making their way through the halls, ready to take over from the dude above.
And then there is a gift shop....not too sure what exactly this is trying to sell or represent, but it looks curious enough.
A distant view of Taipei 101. Went up it, gt some ice cream, checked out the book store and then returned to the arteries of Taiwans nightlife.
Parade, impromptu, of a gods birthday. Trucks, drums, trucks, drums, music, lanterns, firecrackers....cannons. Yes, cannons. Randomly sending out enough noise to break ones ear drums...scared the wits out of us and all the locals who must have had a better grasp of what they were celebrating.
Evening. We found, proving that there might in fact be a god, small Taiwan Beer bottles. It might not mean much to you, but to us it was ground breaking....a personal sized bottle.....unthinkable only days before!
Politics and science. Bad US beef, Taiwanese border controls...no US beef is allowed. Stores are randomly checked to make sure they are not selling US cow, in any form. And now businesses are promoting the fact that they dont sell it, to woo customers back to the dead cow industry.
Scooter parking. In Taiwan you park anywhere, and a worker like this comes by and gives you a parking stub. This you go online and pay. There are no places to put in money, get a ticket, etc. All simplified. And if you are quick you may not have to pay anything. Or if you time it right.
Morning, while Steve and Naz still slept, I took part in my beloved ritual - coffee and banana. Below Crystal is caught poking around the alleyway beside our hostel.
LongShan Temple. One of the oldest (or the oldest) temple in Taiwan and this, for that reason, gets busy at very regular intervals. Today our visit coincided with...not sure. But it was packed and the food offerings were stupendous. All these tables were set out with food for the gods to eat. In Taipei most of it gets thrown out afterwards, in small villages (where food equates to money) they eat it afterwards. Regardless, it is a whack of food, and teh capitalistic approach of the church here is to sell you the food you will offer. So, go to the temple, buy food from the temple, and give it back to the temple. Religions, man. What a business.
All the offerings and incense.
And, in case you are unsure if your god is a vegetarian or not, you leave out the appropriate spread. Above is the legit once-living offerings. Heart on the bottom right, octopus, crab, squid, lobster (apparently this god - there are many in their godly accumulation - was a big seafood addict). Below, all the same, but made out of tofu. Click the pic and chack them out. Pure art if you ask me.
...and goodbye, untill next time.
Saturday night an earthquake struck. Shook our bar for a good 10 seconds with force! Saw the news the next day and realized that it was in fact a doozie, and our old city (Hualien) got schmucked a bit with fallen facades, porches, fallen signs, upper levels collapsed... . So far I have seen some damage in my schools, but nothing significant. It was big, but not big enough, it seems. It was measured as a 6.8 by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau (who do much more than report weather...) and a 6.4 by the USGS onshore, 7 offshore.
