We opted for a half day city tour as the shops prolly won't be opened so early. We went down for our breakfast, it's pre-ordered by the way. The receptionist shows us various different sets of breakfast available and from there, they will take down our orders.
I ordered a western breakfast set:
Whereas Bern had a japanese set:
Then it was tour time! Boarded the bus, there were already passengers on the bus.. Guess we were the last ones who got picked up. So off we went to our first destination, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Park!
Chiang Kai-Shek's the late President for Taiwan (Republic Of China). The memorial park shares the same grounds with National Concert Hall and National Theatre. The main building is white, octagonal in shape with blue glazed glass tiles. The blue and white colours of the building and the red colour of the flowerbeds provide the symbolism found in Taiwan's flag. Red = sacrificing blood, Blue = the skies, White = the sun, divinely meaning liberty, equality and fraternity. Oh yah, there were people practising Taichi there as well =D
Taking pictures
Our shadows.
Us. *the sun's really shining bright*
Hitting the bell with inscriptions on it... Something about the country's stability and prosperity
After that, we're off to the National Palace Museum. It's an art gallery and museum in Taipei, containing artifacts of anccient China. They have so many things to exhibit, that they can change the exhibits every 6 months for 50 years or so. It's also ranked one of the world's top four museums, along with the Metrpolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Lourve Museum in Paris and the British Museum in London.
We're going up to the museum!
Bern with the jade lion. He's obsessed with that creature ever since he saw it in Night At The Museum and that creature was walking around stiffly. *he finds it cute*
No further pictures of the museum and the artifacts because photography is not allowed. Some dude in the past visited the museum, took pictures of a painting, made counterfeits and claimed that the painting in the museum ain't authentic/original. What an ass.
The museum houses several interesting items that are famous worlwide. Like the jade cabbage, a piece of jade that was sculpted to look like cabbage and there were tones of green for the leaves. This jade carving that looks like a slab of meat. It's damn realistic! And also this boat carving of an olive pit; it carries people in it and there are words inscribed on the boat as well. WOAH! =D Do you know you can tell your state of health from a piece of jade that you wear? You can tell the difference between rock and jade by their temperature. Jade will always be cool. :)
The guide gave an informative tour and let us off to walk around by ourselves. The museum was damn packed. People were going around looking at exhibits with audio guides in their hands.. damn cool I tell you. Next stop: Princess Mao's Aborigine Hut!
We didn't take pictures while we're inside. Basically, they were introducing us about their people, and the products that the aborigines made, like royal jelly, honey, lingzhi, and even deer's foetus. They were passing it around to take a look at the fetus. I didn't dare to touch it. eeeeks! They were saying that the aborigines' population was largely reduced as there was some natural disaster that killed alot of them. Think there's only a few hundreds of them around now, even lesser than the number of deers around.
While people are inside enjoying their tea and perhaps purchasing stuff from them as well, we went out to wait. And we happened to see the Princess, she looks... normal.
Then we're off to the National Matyr's Shrine. Okay, they brought us there to witness the guards exchanging duties.
We're there!
Me at the gate
We roamed around and saw patterns. This is the part where I wanna kick myself for not packing my Pop9 and FishEye 2 in my luggage.
Me & The Guard. Didn't dare to stand too close to him. You know, we all need our personal space. You cannot touch them, they are equivalent to national treasures. You touch them, you die.
Soldiers after exchanging duties.
the sign literally tells you that this is a place to rest. hahahaha
After that, we're off to check out this jade shop/ name-reading shop. Greeted warmly by the shop owner, he told us the way to get rich.
Rub the head of this mythical creature in clockwise direction three times... stroke the body and put your hands in your pocket! Apparently this mythical creature eats and doesn't shit. Sounds a little like me hahaha. Then this lady read my name and Bern's name. Said that I bring him luck. *MUAHAHAHAHAHA* actually I know I've been very lucky and blessed throughout my life lah. Says that Bern should go be his own boss, and the kind of people (who are born under some horoscopes, like monkey, snake, etc) he should not hire. And that I must listen to him more, but seriously I don't remember that part. hahahaha. And this is the part where the lady brings out the jade lucky charm of the mythical creature to sell to Bern. It was a jaw-dropping price of SGD 300+. *faints* we didn't get it lah.. crazy!
Then we were dropped off at this pastry shop, and we got pineapple pastry cakes! =D Then we were sent back to our hotel. Put down our buys, grabbed our cards and headed out to the mrt station. We popped by the pet shop near our hotel!
It's interesting how the motorcyclists are all gathered in front, within the boxed up area. The traffic system is really cool, you can even cross the road diagonally!
Their traffic light =D It's quite long.. unlike Singapore. And the green man, he walks and he runs!
Okay this is the petshop
We saw this doggy roaming around the shop, sniffing the floor
Her tag says "I'm Fatty Fen, cannot eat anymore". I guess she was sniffing the ground for food.. hahaha x)
Then we went into this pastry shop and bought mini cream-puffs... Yum!
*yummmy!*
Off to Pacific Sogo Departmental Store! Oh yah, there's a lady in the lift and she will welcome people into the lift and announce the level that the lift is approaching. Haha, verry interesting.
Back to Xi Men Ding we went for a while to shop... Then we saw this mural on the wall.
Looks pretty real doesn't it?
Then it was Shih Lin Night Market.
The food place. =D Where we got our XL Chicken
It was quite an experience there.. It was so damn packed! People there were still very organised. Imagine a big U-turn, and the street is in the middle of the U, people walk from right to left! And I bought tops from this lady who has racks of clothes in the middle of the road and loads of ladies were choosing. You hand her the tops you pick (she's standing on an elevated platform or stool or something), she yells to her co-workers to get the stock. Her co-workers get it, throws it across to the lady and passed it to you. Damn cool. It was a damn long street we walked.
The crowd.
We also stopped by this shop to recharge ourselves with strawberry ice! Yum!
menu of goodies on the wall.
We shopped and shopped, and then we went to buy that XL fried chicken from one of the shops. It was huge, and it was peering out of the paperbag.. They have some policy that they will not cut the chicken to small pieces, guess they want people to know that it's really huge. =D
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