First full day in Asia. Like I said on the previous post, Taipei is brutally humid. Here's a summary of my first morning, from Facebook.
Woke up at my regular 6am after dying at midnight. No jet lag.
Took a quick shower. Walked to a bakery down the street.
Took a quick shower. Walked to a bakery down the street.
Sweated 10 lbs. Bought a donut for son, melon bread for daughter, some sliced bread and a sausage sandwich for wife. Walked back to the apartment. Sweated another 10 lbs.
Had breakfast while sitting in front of the AC.
Had breakfast while sitting in front of the AC.
None of us had jet lag at all, hurrah for good scheduling. The wife and kids slept for eight hours and were ready to go after breakfast. At the Taoyuan City station there was some kind of super loud commotion going on but we wanted to get to Taipei, so we ignored it. It turned out to be a cooking competition that I'm sure my wife could've won easily, but we didn't find out until we got back home.
On the way to Taipei 101 we needed to change trains and not surprisingly we boarded the train in the wrong direction. Oops!
We finally arrived and went to the mall under Taipei 101 for some lunch. The food court is very large but has maybe 100 tables to hold 10,000 people. Most just walk around looking for a place to eat. I got some Mos Burger and the family went American with McYuck. We wandered around for half an hour looking for a place to sit I just said "forget this" and sat down on the floor between the Cartier store and a trash can. Oh the stares we got were priceless! Wife was not happy... But then, how often you get to have lunch on the floor under the 5th tallest building in the world and between $15,000 watches and a trash can? Bucket list item crossed out!
Up we go! The ride up the elevator to the 89th floor of the building takes 37 seconds. It was so quick that by the time I pulled my camera out to video it, we were there. YouTube has videos of it, so check them out. It's pretty cool.
The views from the top are amazing...
... and vertigo inducing.
On the way back to Taoyuan City, we got on the train and an old man started speaking to me in English mixed in with a little Mandarin. His wife was with with him and she just said "hellooooo", like 100 times.
First thing the man told me was that he wanted world peace. Of course I heard "whirled peas" and wondered why he would discuss his dinner plans with me, but hey you just gotta roll with it, you know? He then proceeded to tell me how he hates all forms of government, that he retired 20 years ago from Phillips Electronics and that how he wants world peace by communicating with people in the train. He told me he's tired of seeing wars over religion and over oil and money, which he dislikes, but his wife loudly declared "I Like money!" and that led to a minor lighthearted argument in Mandarin that ended in laughter among them. I joined them even though they probably said I smelled like a dead goat for all I know.
He showed me his ID and pointed at his name and had me repeat it back to him. Unfortunately I only remember his last name being Hwuang. He also told me his phone number and said I must call him so we can continue his dream of world peace.
The train arrived at our stop and he shook my hand, called me his friend and said something about The Sound of Silence and Mrs Robinson, which I know to be a reference to Simon and Garfunkel, but also made me question the sanity of the hour long talk I just had with him, because for the life of me, I can't figure out what it had to do with anything. Maybe he's just a leftover Taiwanese hippie.
Anyway, I made a friend and it made both of us happy. Maybe there is something to his dream of "world peace by communicating in a train" method.
