Day 15

So we spent today touring Taipei. After breakfast at Kerry's new favorite restaurant of all time (ha ha--the buffet that he hated from last night), it was time to begin. Our guide's name is Logan; he dressed in a pretty funky way. He had a multi-colored shirt and multi-colored hair to match. I immediately felt relaxed and comfortable with him. 

Logan began by taking us to two temples. First we went to the Bao'An temple, which, as Logan explained, was a Daoist temple in Taiwan. It was incredibly beautiful and colorful, and probably the most stunning temple I've ever seen. Bright, shining statues everywhere, the smell of incense, and gold, dragons, and tigers everywhere. I noted that some of the gods in the temple were women, such as one fertility goddess. You could also throw two red rocks and then ask a question to get an answer from the gods: one up and one down means "Yes," both up means "Maybe" ("or a smile from the gods," Logan said), and two down means "No." I asked if we would have a safe trip home and got a "Maybe"; Kerry asked if he would find his direction in life and got a "Yes." There was also an area where we could pull a piece of paper that would show our fortunes (or, at least, what Logan said our fortunes were....not being able to read Chinese, we had to believe him). Overall, this temple was stunning.]

I was less impressed with the Confucius Temple, primarily because it was less ornate. There was some pretty design, but the structure of this temple emphasized order, design, logic, and minimal. I suppose this is consistent with the "Six Arts of Confucius," which we learned about today: they include Archery, Charioteering, Music, and Calligraphy. After walking around the area a bit (in the rain), we saw two movie presentations: one was a cartoon in Chinese in which a bunch of kids get to meet Confucius at this temple, and another more adult one that was a documentary-style introduction to the temple. (We did see some cute turtles swimming around..) 

After the second temple visit, we went to Taipei 101, the largest building in Taipei. We went to the 89th floor and took photos...what a view! I have been here before with Richard, but Kerry has never been. I noticed that they had a lot of "decorative scenery" set up for people to set up pictures with the view. And Kerry and I did a "view pose" before we travelled upstairs to the tower. When we went to purchase the picture, I got into an interesting conversation with the women behind the counter about differences between Japan and the United States. I love getting into cultural conversations like this while travelling abroad; a lot of people want to know what the USA is like, and I learn what their country is like as well.

After Taipei 101, we had lunch at a soup dumpling place. Even though we had reservations, we still had to wait 30 minutes before getting a seat. The food was pretty good: pork and shrimp soup dumplings, red bean dumplings, spinach, and a "hot and sour" soup that we disliked. I was annoyed by the fact that, at the end of the meal, Logan told us we had to pay for it. After assuring him that this weas not the case--lunch was included in what we paid--he confirmed that we were correct with Roger. But still....I don't like being questioned like that.  

The last thing we did was go to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. By this point my left leg and knee were absolutely killing me, and I could barely walk. Still, it was a beautiful, grandiose area, with many buildings erected to the First President of Taiwan (as Logan pointed out). There were some gorgeous nature scrolls on the first floor and lots of messages about celebrating "the democracy of Taiwan." On the 4th floor, we got to see the ritual of the changing of the guard, which was an elaborate ceremony of soldiers marching in and out, and it included moments of silence in front of a huge bronze statue of Chiang Kai-Shek. We went to buy some souvenirs afterwards (including a cool Taiwan hat!), and then I was done for the day.

Back at the hotel, we rested, and then ventured into the Ximending market. It was cool--like a big night party. I bought a couple little trinkets--nothing much. And we ended up having dinner at TGIFriday's, which I haven't done in years. I had a ribeye steak and Kerry had a burger. We also both had milkshakes for dessert. A bit pricey, but it felt good to have some American food after a lot of Chinese food. We kind of needed a break from East Asia and the end of the day was a good time to have it.