Thursday, July 24, 2008
~ 8:10 PM ~
Perhaps I have grown weak. Perhaps all of us have. The mattress was thin and the cold air distant. I feel asleep late last night. In the time when I was awake, I heard us flipping around bed. Our first night in this distant lands...
(Fastforwarding to first destination)
(We took MRT!捷运)
Our first visit was to the memorial hall as famous as its name is controversial - 中正纪念堂 or 台湾民主纪念馆.
Here are us, in the park beside the main structure.
Then there's the memorial hall itself!
If you don't know the identity of the statue(and this is where I say, sad fellow countrymen.), he is Chiang Kai-Shek蒋介石. He was also known as 蒋中正, which seems terribly familiar eh?
After visiting the interior of the memorial hall itself, I visited the gift shop. There lies many of the finest handiworks and souvenirs. I bought myself a T-shirt and playing cards with photos of Taiwanese landmarks on them. Yet all these could not compare to the culture this memorial hall disseminates.
When we were finally done with our sightseeing here, it was time for lunch. And what would be more appropriate to be our first lunch in Taiwan than the original Din Tai Fung! On our way there, we saw this:
No, it doesn't sell plain water. It does, however, make good drinks, among which are pearl milk tea and juices. Refreshed by the otherworldly wonders, we continued the journey to the 'pinnacle of restaurant franchise'.
The actual restaurant is not so big in area, as it is in singapore. However, what makes it identifiable would be the crowd it gathers. When we saw the 60+ tourists blocking our way, we knew that we had arrived. The waitresses were gracefully dealing with the customers, but still saw our arrival. One of them passed us the menu, where we pre-ordered what we wanted. The waiting time was 45minutes, thats what she told us in the sweet voice and honest smile. We remorsed with our empty stomachs, but agreed to it anyway. What could we do in the meantime? Luckily, just beside it was a bookstore金石堂. We toured the store, and got some interesting stationery, including a Red Cliff photo-book. Soon, the 45minutes were up, and we walked to the restaurant next door. The waitress led us in, up the narrow stairs, to our table. Our XiaoLongBao came in a while, and the rest, as people say, were delicious:
After lunch, we embarked on the long walking journey to find a certain lost memory of Caryn, who had lived in the region in her childhood. Although we found nothing in the end, we saw some interesting places:
ok...not so interesting for me...
We returned to Ximending at 5pm, where we lived, for dinner. The location? A restaurant from my Taipei Guidebook - Tamago Ya (蛋蛋屋)! Its a cute little restaurant specialising in 蛋包饭. It was quite ok, but not the perfection I was looking for. Perhaps I ask for too much?
I can't remember much, but I assume we went to look around in the Ximending region. Bought and tasted the best cup noodles I have ever eaten! Oh I love this place!
Labels: taiwan
