Tantalizing Taipei!

Taiwan is not someplace that was on my list of places to go - in fact, I hadn't even considered it! - but it fit the bill for an awesome girls' weekend away.  Only an hour and a half plane ride away, Taipei is clean, very affordable, and not overpopulated at only 2.3 million people! 


The buildings were so spread out compared to Hong Kong - I almost couldn't believe it!  People were polite, formed lines for the subway, I felt very safe, and many spoke English and there were signs posted in Taiwanese, Chinese, and English.  How awesome is that?!? 

Everyone here rides these scooters.  It is hilarious!  I love them because it means there is virtually no traffic; even at rush hour the traffic was still moving.  Everywhere there are rows and rows of these scooters...it is crazy! 

I was traveling with my friends Laura and Allison.  Alli's husband drove us to the airport on Friday morning while Jeff & Tommy took the boys to preschool.  Their first day of preschool I might add - pictures to follow on another post!  The flight to Taipei was quick & easy and after checking into our hotel our first stop was STARBUCKS!  You all know I am a Starbucks junkie so I was pretty happy about this but we also needed to sit down and plan out our day.

 We decided to go to Taipei 101 first, which is the tallest building in Taipei, the 2nd tallest in the world at 101 floors (thus the name) and an architectural wonder.  It is pretty amazing.  It also has the fastest elevator - it took us only 40 seconds to get to the top!!  It is mostly a financial hub but also has many floors of top-of-the-line shopping like Louie Vuitton and Prada and other names I do not recognize because I'm not really into that.  But trust me when I say it is amazing!

We didn't want to pay $10 for the tourist trap picture of us so we took a picture of the picture on the monitor :)  Frugal, no? :)

I love this view of Taipei.  There are lots of mountains here and it really is beautiful.  A combination of green mountains, skyscrapers, and friendly people.

This whole parking lot is just full of scooters.  We assume it is for people who work/visit the Taipei 101 Center...it is pretty much amazing.  Scooters, scooters, everywhere!!

After Taipei 101 we took the subway to a night market.  There were tons of food vendors, some carnival-type games, but only a few shops.

Allison and I tried these yummy and beautiful potato chips on a stick.  I felt like I was at the Iowa State Fair, what with it being on a stick and all!  Loved it!  We were disappointed with the shopping but apparently we didn't come late enough for when all the remaining shops open.  Still, we were exhausted and wanted to head back to the hotel for a full body massage!

Now this massage will go down in infamy as one of the most embarrasing and hilarious moments of my life.  I cannot list details here but lets just say Taiwan gives new meaning to the term "full body massage." The three of us girls (one of whom is pregnant and the other of whom is lactating) all had the same experience and it was both embarrassing and downright hilarious at the same time.  A true bonding experience for us if there ever was one!!!

Let's move on to Saturday :)  So Saturday dawns and we grab a delicious breakfast before heading out for our 1/2 day sightseeing tour.  The tour was fabulous.  We were on a bus with about 10 others and while I normally hate this type of thing, this was definitely the way to do it to see a ton of stuff in very little time.

First stop was one of the oldest buddhist temples in Taiwan.  I just love the architecture here!  It is amazing. I am intrigued by the buddhist principles after having visited the Big Buddha and monestary in Hong Kong and now Taipei.  They are such a calm and peaceful people.

The garden was beautiful - it was right smack dab in the middle of the city, which was sort of odd, but once inside it was calm and serene.  There was a monk outside watering the flowers, doing yard work.  This is a picture of the 3 statues of Gods that they worship.

A shot of the inside of the temple.  The intricate design is amazing.  Everything is simple somehow but everything contains meaning from its color or shape to texture.  You can make out the monks inside chanting and praying. We could hear them chanting as the tour guide told us about the temple.

 Next up was the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial.  Our tour guide told us that he came to Taiwan from China after having lost a war and was renowned throughout Taiwan for bringing democracy to the land.  He ruled until his death in 1975 and then his son took over for another 20 years until his death in 1995. 


I say "ruled" because even though he was supposedly bringing a democratic and free society to Taiwan, anyone who disagreed with his leadership style or the government immediately "disappeared!"  How ironic, I thought...but then they built a memorial to him and that confuses me even more!


Regardless, it is beautiful and the architecture is particularly stunning here, with views of many of the government buildings.

These two guys in the navy blue uniform stand there to "guard" the memorial and the statue of Chiang Kai-Shek.  They can't move and everyone stands there and takes pictures of them.  They have to be a certain height and weight to do the job.

Our third stop was the Handicraft Center, where they prepared Chinese Tea for us and then we were able to shop for a few minutes.  I purchased two Chinese puppets for the kids - one was a Chinese dragon with a porcelain face for your hand and then flowing fabric that fits over your elbow, and the other was a sorceress for Olivia.  The kids love them and they remind me of the marionettes we used to get when my parents went to Mexico.


This is the entrance to the Martyr's Shrine and honestly, I do not remember much about this place except that it is a shrine affiliated with the Taiwan military.  Oops, my bad.  I was getting hot and tired by this point!!

We were able to see the "changing of the guard" ceremony for the two military men who were guarding the entrance...again with the not being able to move and people taking pictures of them thing.  The four military branches take turns guarding it and rotating through, I believe this was the Taiwan Navy?.  These are the guys coming in to relieve the guys standing post.  They did the drill where they handle their weapons and it was pretty impressive. I filmed most of it but managed to get this picture in between.

This is the actual shrine behind us. You can go in and look around there.  Everything is very intricate and detailed.  These super nice mom/daughter duo from the Phillipines took many pictures of the three of us with our cameras!


Our last stop was the Taiwan National Museum, and the big attraction there was this cabbage made out of Jade.  Yes you read that correctly!  Taiwan is known for its Jade jewelry and carvings and apparently this cabbage is a BIG DEAL.  A guy from China on our tour told us people come in droves just to see this cabbage made out of Jade that dates back many centuries.  It is very intricate and nice but personally I do not share the fascination!! :)  The above photo of us is the only picture we were allowed to take at the museum.  We also got to see artwork, pottery, and ivory carvings. The ivory was my favorite!

Whew!  I'm tired just typing all of this and it was only 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.  I will save the second half of our trip for another post, but let me just say that I was SO IMPRESSED with Taipei and so glad I had the opportunity to go! A girls' weekend with great friends is just what I needed before Tommy ships out of here!