ponder

Sunday, July 27, 2008

~ 10:25 AM ~

(This is the 100th post I have! I know its really little, seeing how many years I've been here, but a milestone nonetheless.)
Everyone will look grumpy when they wake up early everyday to go sightseeing.

Just kidding! Its a morning pose syndrome. Our serious looks were there to complement with the place we're going next - Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall国父纪念馆. The memorial hall displays relics of Dr. Sun's life and lead in the revolution (quoted from Wikipedia). More importantly, I wanted to see the change parade which happens every exact hour (11am,12am,1pm etc.)

(Fast forward the MRT journey)

We approached the bulding with excitement and respect.

Statues in his image, just beside the hall.

What brightens my day most, was that my primary wish came true! We arrived exactly at 12pm (okay, not so early after all.), and hurried to the main hall. There they were, the tall guards changing post. Very solemn, and very professional. Although they march differently from us, I can see the sheer difficulty in what they're doing.

Facing each other, they did some salutes up and down.

Then there's the very interesting variant of the Roman Salute.

Hand-Leg coordination must be good to perform such marching.

The guard that just got changed in marches towards the post where he stands motionless for the rest of the 1 hour.

Those that changed out marches away. We salute these professionals!

After the parade, I finally had the chance to take a photo of the large Dr. Sun's statue.

And the large painting of the founding fathers of ROC.

Other than the reflection from the glass that comes between us and the painting. I'd say our photos are good memories of our visit.

Taking the train, we moved to 忠孝复兴, where SOGO malls and underground streets gathered. In SOGO, the girls toured the first few floors, while the two of us went to the multimedia section up at the top floors. Going through the DVDs they have, I noticed that they have only 2 kinds of age 'rating' - Either everyone can watch it, or those above 18 can. Sadly, media products cannot be brought to Singapore, so we could only window-shop. Titles like ROME Season 2 were out with Chinese subtitles there! Where is it, Singapore? Why have you big DVD-selling franchises not buy in these titles?

While indulging in all the dreams of 'what if I could buy them back", we got called back by the girls. It was our turn to enter the little cake and tea house on the second floor, which required queuing for seats.

A very elegant corner, this place is.

Look at the beautiful looking food they have. It really makes you feel blessed and refreshed. We were now ready for the next part of our journey!
Since we were going to Taichung the next day, we decided to visit the peak of Taipei first. Which mountain you say? No! Not mountain. The tallest building in Taipei, and the world - The Taipei 101! We took MRT back to the Taipei City Hall station, where 101 resides near to many other tall malls (like my favourite 诚品) and the City Hall itself.

I tried several attempts at capturing the entirety of the structure.

But my friend did it best!

The ticket to the near-top of this titan cost NT$370, which is about S$16.80. We were agreeable to the price, and took our very first ride at the fast lift. We reached the 89F, where the indoor Observatory is. The very polite (as usual) female guides passed us the audio guide, where we could listen to recordings at different parts of the observatory. I also took some photos of the scenery I could see from here.

This is the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall!

We also took quite a few photos of the interior and the outdoor observatory on 91F:
One of the 5 mascots of 101. Look at 2 eyes and the round mouth and you'll understand why.

The 'fence' of the outdoor observatory, if you can call it that. Prison-like? Perhaps.

The stairs down. Inference Qn: What does the numbers and their faces have in common?

We also descended to 88F, where the guides said was just open to visitors. Both 88 and 89F housed a huge sphere structure, said to be the counterbalance of this building against strong winds and earthquakes. The mascots were modelled after this big ball.

the small sphere at the side...

the big sphere at the back...

Lets run, my round headed friend, before...

... you get punched by the Big Green Giant (BGG)

We took the 37-second elevator down again, feeling that discomfort in the ear, only felt in planes or mountains. Next stop: 诚品 (Eslite).

What is so special about 诚品 is that it originally started out as book stores, but expanded later into retail malls. Who would know that book stores had so much potential in them?

I didn't get any books there, but I did buy some souvenirs, like a jigsaw puzzle based on Raphael's The School of Athens. The jigsaw corner there sold all kinds of jigsaw puzzles, many I have not seen in Singapore. All the more I should buy them back when I have the chance.

After the splurge on jigsaws, we went to the famed Mr. Baoz, which was near Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, at the 华视 TV station. The long walk there was tiring, but it was worth it. They have all kinds of cute buns there, of all flavours. I got myself a 扣肉 bun. It different from the Singapore ones. Their designs are better, and the fillings are more healthy and tasty. These are what I call designer baos.

However, our dinner was too early, and we rushed (TAXI) back to the hostel, put down our numerous purchases, and explored the maze of Ximending 西门町 for food. We found the legendary 阿宗面线:

As you can see, lots of people just stand and eat the delicious concoction. The rich taste may not favour the weak-tongued, but I do love it!

For desserts, we got ourselves some Taiwanese Ice Kachang. No red beans in it, of course, but they do have soft peanuts and corn PLUS the famous 三圆 - yam balls, sweet potato balls and little glutinous rice balls. One big bowl for just NT$80 (less than S$4)!
(We also got the famed 芒果冰 but i forgot to take the pic.)

After dessert we walked around a bit more. Street performers were many, and each attracted their own following.

An amazing thing to see at night.

My friends wanted to go Cashbox (Their local KBox but much larger in scale) for Karaoke, but I decided to stay in the hostel. It absolutely does abhor me to go Karaoke. Besides, I have to get the computers in the hostel in order to communicate. Here ends my adventure outdoors on 060708.