We Like Taipei

Breakfast at our hotel in Taipei was delicious! It was amazing, incredible, and we already can't wait for breakfast tomorrow morning. 

We were the first ones in the restaurant this morning, and we stayed for a good hour. Tim and I enjoyed a few (small-ish) cups of coffee (finally, coffee...ahhh!) and we all enjoyed the best orange juice we'd ever tasted. There was quite a spread at the breakfast buffet, including noodles and dumplings and steamed buns and vegetables and fruit. Mmmm. We loved it.

He's ready to dig in!

I mean, how delightful! When you're finished with your meal, you turn over this little sign to let the servers know.

Following breakfast, we ventured outside. It was a short walk to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, a national monument and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China (ROC, also known as Taiwan).

A brief bio on Chiang Kai-shek: He was a Chinese military commander, revolutionary, and statesman who led ROC/Taiwan from 1928 until his death in 1975. His government was based in mainland China until it was defeated in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War by Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party. Upon defeat, Chiang fled with others from his Nationalist government to Taiwan, which had been turned over to the Nationalists after the defeat of Japan in 1945. Beginning in 1949, and backed by American aid, Chiang launched Taiwan on the path of economic modernization. 

Chiang's government continued to be recognized by many countries as the legitimate government of China, and Taiwan controlled China's seat in the U.N. until Chiang's death. 

The Memorial Hall was large and beautiful. Inside, there's a permanent exhibit called "Wave of Awakening." This exhibit highlights the fight for democracy and human rights in Taiwan from the Japanese colonial period on. Pretty amazing -- and heartbreaking -- stuff. 

Also inside the Memorial Hall is a cafe called Xing Fu Tang. Did we wait in line and buy this popular bubble tea chain's signature brown sugar boba milk? Yes, yes, we did. Does it live up to its hype? ONE MILLION PERCENT. Would I like another brown sugar boba while here? Yes, yes, I would.

This boba is so good!

Delicious!

And we played Xing Fu Tang's fortune teller game while waiting for our drinks. These are the fortunes we received.

At the CKS Memorial Hall, writing thoughts on freedom on post-it notes to add to the wall.

Looking out from the CKS Memorial Hall. Those two buildings with the orange roofs are the National Theatre and National Concert Hall.

I always love a selfie with this kid.

Walking past singers.

In front of the National Concert Hall.

In front of the National Theatre.

After leaving the CKS Memorial Hall, we jumped in a taxi and made our way over to Taipei 101, a 101-story skyscraper. It was the world's tallest building for about five years, before the Burj Khalifa took that title. It's still the tallest building in Taiwan; it's the 11th tallest in the world. This building is huge. You literally have to tilt your head all the way back to take it in.

It was a back-bender to get this photo.

We opted to grab lunch before heading inside Taipei 101. There was a mall across the street, and we popped in there to see what we could find. We kept seeing these restaurants advertised on signs outside the mall; it took us a beat to realize the restaurants were inside and up a handful of floors. Once we figured that out, we were in business. 

We ate dim sun for lunch at Dim Dim Sun. When you poke these piggies' nostrils with your chopstick, custard oozes out. Definitely fun and definitely delicious.

Stomachs full (again), we left the mall, crossed the street, and went inside Taipei 101. This building is utterly massive; you feel it as soon as you walk in. 

We took the elevator to the 5th floor and bought our tickets to the Observatory. Moments later, we were on a high-speed elevator all the way up to the 89th floor. There, we walked the entire floor, taking in the view, and kind of freaking out about how high up we were. (Okay, that was just me freaking out.)

This photo does not do the view justice. 

Did you happen to catch Alex Honnold climbing Taipei 101 on Netflix back in January? I couldn't watch his entire climb because it just made me queasy. I felt even queasier walking around the 89th floor and thinking about Alex's climb...like, how did that dude scale this thing?!? My palms feel sweaty now, writing this, as I'm thinking about him climbing that enormous tower. 

While up there on the 89th floor, we got to see the building's Tuned Mass Damper, an enormous pendulum that helps keep the building from swaying. While many skyscrapers house mass dampers, Taipei 101 is the only skyscraper in the world where the public can see one. It was pretty darn cool.

The Tuned Mass Damper! 660 metric tons of steel. The damper can reduce swaying in Taipei 101's tower by 40% (!).

We spent some time walking around the mall and food court on the lower levels of Taipei 101 and then took the Taipei Metro back to our hotel for a short break. Clearly it wasn't short enough, because Taylor managed to fall asleep in bed...and she was not happy when we woke her to head to the night market.

But head to the night market we did (taking the metro again!) -- and it was a scene. We visited the Raohe Night Market (thank you for the recommendation, Stephanie!), which was packed. The first food stall to greet you is the famous Fuzhou Black Pepper Buns and they did not disappoint. It's a surgical process to get those pepper buns...the line moves very quickly, you pay for however many pepper buns you want, and then you're handed the buns. They keep everyone moving. From there, we walked down the night market in one direction, all with the flow of people traffic. From a ways away, you can smell the stinky tofu. It smelled awful, really bad. Tim still wants to try some and I wish him good luck.

The entrance to the Raohe Night Market.

The line for pepper buns!

Behold, the famous pepper bun.

When the kids had had enough (and were ready for those hard mattresses again), we cut through some food stalls, joined the people traffic going the other direction, and walked toward the metro. We made a quick stop to visit the Songshan Ciyou Temple, devoted to Matsu, goddess of the sea. It was gorgeous inside! And full of people worshipping, too. 

I think we were dazed on the metro ride to our hotel. We all just needed to go to bed. Hard mattress? No problem. 

We love Taiwan already! 

(Also, things are SO orderly here. Case in point: People organize themselves to take escalators. There's no pushing to get on...people form lines to take their turn on the escalator one-by-one. It's just so respectful!)

AND you're given plenty of time to cross streets. Like this small crosswalk -- can you see the countdown timer? We still have 74 seconds to cross. That said, it does take you basically 15 minutes to cross a couple of streets. ;)