Taipei

Last weekend I was lucky enough to meet up with Sandra's cousin Wei and explore Taipei. It was so hot... I didn't want to move unless I was in an AC'd van or home. But anyway I've got to say Taipei is a cool place. I was expecting something kind of like NYC but as I got more used to it I didn't feel like it was anywhere near as big, it is, however, a totally different style city.

Take the traffic, for example. It is nothing like US city traffic. Why? Scooters. They take up so much less room and provide pretty efficient transportation around cities. Virtually everyone drives a scooter so there are a lot less cars on the road.

Likewise, with significantly less cars around the roads in the more residential areas have no need to be so wide. The main roads are the same but you wouldn't believe that those sketchy alleyways you come across in US cities, are really commonplace and not sketchy at all here. Of course it feels weird, cruising up and down these allies on a scooter, but it's totally done here. Not only that, there are markets selling food and all kinds of other things all around in these allies, just imagine you're walking down set alley, wondering if you will get mugged because you're someplace you shouldn't be, and then you find yourself in a bustling market. Now you are an out of place foreigner so you should probably keep even better tabs on your wallet, although I will say this about crime in Taiwan: it's much much less common than in the US. Well I should say, muggins are less common, other crimes I hear are more common. Things like extortion from organized crime groups, but this is only what I've heard. I've read a bit about Yakuza in Japan being accepted as commonplace by residents and also more-or-less the police forces themselves. It's kind of nice that way, for a tourist of course: you are much less likely to actually be a victim of a crime.

Anyway those are the key differences, of course Taipei has different districts, like the financial district where they have their version of the White House, and the Chang Kai Shek memorial:

For those of you who are more architectually and artistically inclined then myself you would notice that there are several distinctly different influences affecting the building's design styles here. I was told that the building above is a more Japanese style, as it was built during Japan's occupation of Taiwan. I've also heard about Dutch influences and of course the Chinese influence is undeniable and the most overbearing one around.

We continued on to the Chang Kai Shek memorial:

As I said before, it was hot as hell so took most of my pictures from the car, but this memorial is outstanding! When I saw the huge area inside all I could think of was a gigantic square filled with people practicing Kung Fu in sync, it would've been perfect in this spot. I doubt that actually ever happens here, but it was a ncie thought. On one side is a theatrical area and I completely forgot what goes on at the oppositte side (out of view in this photo) but it was something that you would expect from this type of area. In the back is a statue of the man, not unlike the Lincoln memorial:

Again, I didn't want to get out of the car, but the statue is way in the back there.

Next we continued on to make our way to see Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world:

It may have been wicked hot, but it was a nice day for photos

Here you see both Wei and I just across the street from this mammoth of a skyscraper.

After visitting Taipei 101, Wei's father took us out to Keelong. A truly beautiful port north-east of Taipei. There we ate a lot of food and visitted some scenic spots. I got a couple good shots of the view of the harbour, and the military turrents/ fortifications that were set up to protect the port in times of war (they don't look anything like they would be used today, it was more of a visit to a historic park that Wei's father was well informed about after having served in the Taiwanese Navy for several years. He had worked in the area years prior.).

This reminded me of CA, US influence is pretty strong in Taiwan as well... I mean those are English characters too.

This port is really a great site to see, although I am not a photographer and cannot capture it's true beauty.

As a final stop for the day, Wei's father took us to a rather interesting Buddhist temple. It was set inside of a cave:

Here I am outside of the steps to the temple.

I'm not Buddhist, I don't know how these things are set up. But when you walk in and you see this my reaction is, "oh that's nice a little shrine, can I take a picture? Okay? Cool, lets go." My friend and tour guide Wei was kind enough to show me that there was much more to this place:

We continued behind the altar and there was a great deal more to be seen. A whole lot of artwork and a tunnel that lead deeper into the cave, in the essence of time I will refrain from posting too many pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it when I say there was a lot going on in this cave and it was pretty impressive. I guess most religions have a tendancy to be extravagant, Buddhism isn't any different.

At the end of the cave we cam across this more impressive altar.

But that wasn't all:

What's that Wei, another crevice? Are we supposed to go through there? It looks kind of tight.

Okay it's really tight but it keeps going so...

The tiny tunnel opened up and there was one more altar to be seen. It wasn't as impressive as the previous one, but it was really nice and a thick and slightly mysterious mist filled the room. It was nice and cool in the cave. I noticed some Chinese carvings on the wall:

I thought they might be important. My tour guide again corrected my ignorant assumption and informed me that they were a bunch of signitures from people that were not too fat to squeeze through the tiny corridor we just snuck through. Of course to me, who has even studied a bit of Chinese for a couple years, it looked cool, perhaps super important and mysterious. Nope, not at all, Wei then starting picking at the wall and showed me that it was soft enough to be carved into by your finger nail. Hehe, we then left and got some Chinese style ice cream outside.