Taiwan Part 2

OK, so full day 3/last day in Taiwan we decided to get lunch at Din Tai Fung.  I thought it was the same as the dumpling place that Long took us in Dallas, but I guess not.  There were SO MANY DUMPLINGS!  It was AMAZING.  The best ones are the ones with soup in them - xiaolongbao.  

The army of people making the dumplings.

Such precision, such grace!

The fruits of their labor.  So you put vinegar, sauce, and sticks of ginger on your spoon, then you make a hole in the dumpling to let some of the broth out and you eat it like that.  The greens you see in the back are water spinach, which were also really good.

We just kinda had a bunch of different stuff.  The chopsticks with the dishes are for serving.  We had 2 different kinds of duplings, potstickers, the water spinach, a pork dish, and fried rice.  All this was served with hot tea or water, or both.  It was our one 'fancy' meal in Taiwan and it was SOOO GOOOD!

ME with the mascot.

T with the mascot.

Then we went to the National Chiang Kai-sheck Memorial Hall.  It was a subway stop that we figured would be fun.  It was amazing.  Here's the archway that looks at the memorial hall.  

The hall itself.  There was a HUGE plaza leading up to it, but I like this view with the park in front.  It was so pretty!

Me and the hall.  Inside, we found out that it was build with marble shipped in from Vermont and it was modeled after the Lincoln Memorial in DC.

With Asian influences, of course.

The memorial itself.  He has a pretty happy look on his face.

The roof - because I'm amazed at the details they put in these things.

The changing of the guard.

It was pretty cool to watch.

Either the concert hall or the art gallery.  There were... I want to say 88 steps up to the memorial because Chiang Kai-sheck was 88 when he died.

Inside, there was some kind of sealife art exhibit.

I loved it.

SHARK!!!

And for some reason, Garfield was there.

One of Chiang Kai-sheck's official vehicles.  We ran into a volunteer in the museum who said that he doesn't see many Westerners (specifically Americans) at the memorial hall, which surprised him because there are plenty of American influences, and Chiang Kai-sheck had met with quite a few American presidents.

Another vehicle.  So from what T was able to learn with her Chinese, Chiang Kai-sheck is partly responsible for not only kicking out the Japanese from Taiwan, but also kicking out China and the communists.  So because of him, Taiwan is its own country instead of being colonized by one or both of the superpowers around it.  So quite similar history to Korea really.

The park on the way back to the subway stop.  It was SO HOT and HUMID!  Any shade was welcomed, and T and I were pretty sure we were getting burned.

The squirrel statue cracked me up - pests in the US, vital parts of the ecosystem in Taiwan.

So peaceful.

Taiwan is also responsible for creating bubble tea.  So on our way to the National Palace Museum, T and I stopped for some bubble tea.  They make the tea, then put shrink wrap on top of it, you poke the straw thru the shrink wrap.  I decided the shrink wrap was for 1) anti-spilling and 2) anti-bug purposes.  The 'bubbles' are some kind of gelatinous substance.... I didn't really care for it, but now I can say that I tried it.

The entrance - Taiwan loves their huge arches.

Pretty kitty.  LOL.

Me - again, hot, humid, and one of the reasons that my hair is now SHORT!

Looking from the palace across the plaza.

So inside the palace museum (which was hard to get a good pic of) were all kinds of things from China.  Apparently when Chiang Kai-sheck left China before Communism took over, he took a lot of things that he figured the communists would destroy.  This museum had a lot of those things.

So pretty - I like the shiney things.

Buddahs all over.

This is a single piece of jade that was carved to look like a piece of cabbage with a grasshopper crawling on it.  The detail is exquisite and the craftsmanship is amazing - the imperfections of the jade were worked into the piece.

And this is the meat stone.  It's literally a stone that looks like a piece of pork.  Makes me hungry to look at ;)

More pretties.

A jade screen.

Me outside the palace.  The sun was going down, so it was getting cooler.

We took a different path back to the buses - T on the path less traveled.

Our last food in Taiwan.  It was at a small place near the subway stop.   Beef soup - I finally figured out how to eat noodles with chopsticks.  ;)  It was good, not awesome, but good.

Then we went to Taipei 101 - the 2nd tallest building in the world (after the huge one in Dubai).  We didn't care enough to pay to go upstairs, but we did take some fun pix.

Big building.

Small model of big building.

Interesting building near Taipei 101.

Then it was back to hostel, sleep, and get up the next day to get on the plane to go to Japan.  Look at how beautiful this place is.  I might really move there next for teaching, it was so pretty.

The random GOT Johnnie Walker White Walker full-sized ad made me laugh.  I also figured some of my friends who like both GOT and Johnnie Walker would appreciate this.  

 It was a pretty airport.  So we got on ze plane, flew over ze ocean, and got to Japan.  And it was all the usual - get the new money.

 The Yen.

 Get some food - this was at the airport.  Rice with pork and spicy green beans and tea.  It was good, and yes, it was a bit spicy.  I devoured it.

 Then we found our hostel after figuring out how to use the trains.  We stayed in Kyoto (which I never did learn how to say properly, according to T).  Then for dinner we had sushi!  This is one of those conveyor-belt places.  You can either order from the screen, or you can grab the sushi as it goes by.  We mostly ordered from the screen.

 SO GOOD!  When you're done, you put the plate in a little slot and that's how they calculate your bill.

 After a certain # of deposits into the slot, a little game pops up and you can win something.  We won a little pin, which promptly went on my little bag and still hasn't come off.

We decided to have cheesecake and applemango for dessert.  The cheesecake was good, the applemango didn't really taste like apple or mango.  

So that was our last day in Taiwan and then our day of traveling between countries.  Between all the waiting for customs, public trans, etc, it was a long day.  Our 2nd hostel wasn't anything really spectacular.  The guy who ran it was nice, we were in a standard dorm on the bottom bunks, which didn't have the clearance to sit up in.  The good news is that I waited until the last day to hit my head on the upper bunk.  I think I only lost my little washcloth at this one, which is ok cuz it was rough as heck.  The public trans was pretty easy to figure out - we bought daily bus passes.  You got on, and when you got off you got the pass stamped.  For the rest of the day, you showed your stamp to the driver and all was good.  

So next week (or earlier cuz I'm feeling much better this week and a lot more productive) I'll give you more Japan.