Advertisement
DSC02941
Shilin street market Taiwan, country number nine for this trip. Just a short 4 night/3 day stay over (with the same to follow in Singapore ) on our way home.
First impact was the weather. After the more temperate climes of Japan and South Korea we are back in high 90s with high humidity too, so a bit draining.
First impressions are always interesting. Taiwan initially comes over as 'rougher' than Japan or SK, and the people certainly lack the Japanese formality. Not sure we've seen anyone in a suit yet. Paul's view was that they - both women and men - didn't have the 'neat'/pristine/sharp facial features as Japanese or Koreans, but at least a lot more English is spoken.
Travel was during the day and we arrived late afternoon so stayed local that evening. There are a number of night markets in Taipei, the most visited - Shilin - being right on our doorstep. Part street-food market, large part 'tat central' and a significant part fairground stalls mostly involving bursting balloons with darts or bebe guns.
Every part of a chicken seemed to be on sale. One stall claimed to be selling 'chicken butts'! Along with lots of
DSC02971
National Palace Museum shellfish, and variations on baked or fried goods. Paul had a black pepper bun, a hollow bun, about the size of a tennis ball, filled with a peppered pork mix, baked by sticking them to the inside of a 'tandoori style' oven. He declared it to have similarities to a cornish pasty.
Tuesday we went to the National Palace Museum, supposedly one of the world's Top 5. The NPM was originally part of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Established there in October 1925 shortly after the expulsion of the last Chinese emperor, the inventory was predominately the belongings and treasures from previous emperors stretching back for hundreds of years.
In 1931 General Chiang Kai-shek's government ordered the evacuation of the collection to five sites around China to prevent them falling into Japanese hands. Later, as civil war racked China, nearly 100,000 items - the most precious in the collection, were boxed and shipped to Taiwan, where some are on display. They pass objects through the display cases on a 3 month rotate but that's a 12 year cycle!
Items that go back to the formation of Chinese civilisation are on display - from neolithic axes onwards. Exquisite
DSC02942
Inscribed bowl, 4000 years old pieces dated back to 1500BCE . Items in the collection, like bronze vessels from that time along with carved objects, often having dateable inscriptions inscribed onto them.
We spent all day in the museum, 9ish to 5ish. Such treasures. The Chinese must be so envious. There were very few of us westerners in the museum, but hordes of Chinese. Western tourist comment alert! They were, on the whole, very pushy and rude, lack any concept of personal space, are obsessed with photographing everything without taking any time to read about or appreciate the object in front of them. We saw several who seemed to be just walking in front of each display case, barging other visitors out of the way, with video on. Such a shame.
We couldn't possibly list the highlights but a few photos show the breadth. The astonishing thing was how many of the centuries old objects looked like they had been made yesterday.
Wednesday was a day to get out of town, a guided trip as that was easiest for the one day. We were up and awake for around 7.30, and were just sat on the bed eating breakfast and chatting with
DSC02944
Jade carved into a cabbage Simon on messenger when the room and bed began to shake gently from side to side. We looked at each other and realised that it was an earthquake. It just lasted aboutique 50 seconds. We checked the web immediately and yes, it was confirmed.
When we checked details out later it was a magnitude 5.1, about 135km SE of here, out to sea.
The tour group was small, just us, 2 Japanese and 2 Mexican medics. We couldn't help thinking that one of those reminded us of Dale Winton (RIP), but much less orange and only marginally less stiff in the face - even allowing for Dale's current condition.
We visited old gold / copper mine workings at Jingnashi. Gold was discovered in 1895, copper later, but mining stopped in 1987 after the factory buildings were badly storm damaged. The local river still stains the rocks with deposits and a local waterfall, newly established when some tunneling broke, is called the Golden Falls. The river feeds its colour into the sea, where the two tone colouring leads to the name Yin-Yang sea.
After a temple stop it was on to Jiufen, known as Taiwan's Santorini. Yes
DSC02946
Rock carved as a piece of pork it does hug a steep hillside, and yes it does overlook the sea and a port, but it's nowhere as pretty as Santorini, Greece. What it is famed for, though, is the basis of the setting for the Japanese animated film Spirited Away. The main tourist thoroughfare was a mix of tat, with some real gems of shops and many specialist food shops too. We had drinks and 'sweets' at the tea shop most famed from the film.
Then on to Shifen Old Street in Pungxi. This is renowned for the releasing of sky lanterns to make wishes by. We were shown how by a 5th generation sky lantern maker and then built, ie glued together using sticky rice glue, and released our own lantern. Great fun.
Today, Thursday, Pip finished reading her 17th book of the trip. The Xmas Kindle had been a great boon on this trip.
A day around the city today. Firstly to the Taipei 101 Observatory. Taipei 101 was the world's highest building in 2004, though it is now only number 10. The observatory is on the 88th floor with an outside deck a couple of floors higher. A fascinating part is
that their mass damper - which all tall buildings have to help counteract against wind etc - is on open display. At 660 tonnes it is the world's largest and the only one on open display. The lift is bloody quick too. All the way up in under 40 seconds.
After the top we were soon back up to the 35th floor, this time to a 'secret' Starbucks. On the 35th floor they have a Starbucks, for the building's workers, and you can get to it if you know how. You have to phone up to make a reservation at least the day before. You are given an allocated time slot, and at that time collected from the lobby, your booking reference number checked and then led up to the Starbucks. You have to be dressed appropriately - no shorts or 'slippers', we think they mean flip-flops - there is a minimum spend (effectively 1 drink and a pastry, cake or sandwich ), and a maximum stay of 90 minutes.
And people go through all this because ..... it is the highest Starbucks (above a ground level) on the world.
[Incidentally we researched 'highest altitude Starbucks' too.
The top google result says Breckenridge, USA at 9600 feet, but that story dates from 2003. We Googled Starbucks, Cusco, Peru, and they are there, and Cusco is at 11152 feet. There isn't one in Lhasa, Tibet, not yet at least!]
Then on to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, a bit like an Oriental Lincoln Memorial. They have an hourly guard changing ceremony which was a great watch. The 2 guards on duty are as stiff as waxworks. Incredible really, they could have 2nd jobs as 'statues' in tourist streets any day. Then the replacements enter and their routine, initially, would make Buckingham Palace guards look sloppy. Then in the middle 5 minutes it becomes all so Monty Pythonish with gun twirling, and move routines. When the guards are finally in place two of the Memorial attendants fuss over them ensuring everything, their trousers, the gun, helmet etc are 'just so'.
Final move on to some of the old city and a temple, with a tea /coffee stop where Pip was astounded to be served with Tregothnan tea which is grown just a few miles away from home, over the border in Cornwall.
Singapore tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.451s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1091s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb