TAIWAN - Day Four: So Disappoint

Okay... so maybe the translations at the Miniatures Museum were funnier to a person running on only a few hour's sleep...

Anywho, after the museum I decided it was time to go to the Lin-an Tai Homestead, which is a traditional Chinese home that you can tour.  It has a courtyard and something like 30 rooms, lots of beautiful carvings, and is the oldest home in Taipei.  I used to really be into Chinese historical fiction, so I really wanted to see it!

I took the MRT up to the Xingtian Temple station, and figured while I was there I should check out the Xingtian Temple.  As I walked toward it, once again the sidewalks were filled with old Taiwanese ladies selling things for the temple.  They bugged everyone else but not me!

Zingtian Temple was built in 1967, so it's pretty new.  It's devoted to Guan Yu, who is apparently the patron god of businessmen.  I love this picture because it totally fits Taiwan - the traditional mixed right in with the modern.

Borrowed from the interwebs.

I know it doesn't show it here, but there were a TON of people at this temple.  It was chock full of worshipers, and the incense in the air was heavy and thick.

I spent a while on these steps mapping out my way to the Lin-an Tai Homestead.  I pretty much knew where I was going...

Once again I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures inside.  (Fortunately, Google is full of the pictures taken by people who don't feel the same way!) There were so many worshipers and I didn't want to offend them.  I was one of maybe one or two white people I saw there!  I did notice that at this temple a lot of the worshipers came to socialize as well.  They would be chatting away while bobbing up and down with their burning incense.  Some had books that they were reading from aloud.

There were tables full of offerings like this.

Internet picture.

I didn't see any men dressed like those in the blue, but I saw several women.  Are they priests?

Borrowed image.

It was very interesting, but I only stayed there about 30 minutes because I wanted to get to the Lin-an Tai house and then get some lunch.  (It was already close to noon.) So, map in hand I headed north on foot.

I walked.  And walked.  And walked.  I was still in a businessy area, but I was certainly the only tourist around!  I even passed a few car dealerships, something I had yet to see on my trip. (BMWs and Mercedes, BTW.)  I knew exactly where I was, so I wasn't surprised when I came up to a big knot of freeway overpasses and exits and whatnot.  It was still a little weird, though.  It started to rain.  I was the only person walking around.

I finally made it to the park that I knew the House was in.  It was really big, so I went to the first map I could find, but it didn't have the House on it.  So I walked some more.  And more.  It started raining harder, but I would not be deterred!  I finally found a map with the House on it and put myself in the right direction.  (This was a BIG park.  It said it was an Expo Park, whatever that is.  It had lots of big exhibition buildings, but I didn't go into any of them because I was on a mission!

I walked and walked some more and the house was NOT where I thought it was.  Either I had read the park map wrong or the map was wrong.  (I blame the map, but I suspect it was me.  Let's be honest here...) And then it started pouring.  I found a little concrete shelter to huddle under.  I was damp and thirsty and running out of water and I was hungry and sad.  WHERE WAS THAT HOUSE?!

And then it sounded like a plane was going to crash nearby, but it turns out the park is in the flight path of an airport.  Huge jets would come overhead every five minutes or so.  It was kind of impressive because they were really low and loud.

The rain finally stopped and I got to the building that the park map said the House was next to.  Only it wasn't.  By this point I had been walking around for a good 45 minutes looking for this dang house.  I literally saw three people in the entire park the whole time I was there, so I couldn't just stop and try somehow to get directions.  I was tired, hungry, damp, and grumpy.  So I gave up.  Forget the house!  Who cares?!  Growl!!

Then I tried to figure my way out of the park to get to the closest MRT station.  I came across this garden that had a little overlook, so of course I took a picture.

I also saw the Grand Hotel in the distance.  Isn't it cool?  Pretty sure Lance and I will have to stay there on our next trip to Taiwan. You can tell just how humid it was after that rainstorm!

Borrowed from the interwebs.

So I started walking towards the MRT station, when I saw a sign for a different station on a different line.  If I went to that station I wouldn't have to switch trains later, so I decided to walk to that station.  And on the map it didn't look that much farther.  My hunger and grumpiness skewed my perception of reality, because it was FAR!  I probably walked a good mile and a half to get to that station!  But that was okay, because it was kind of cool walking through residential, non-touristy parts of Taipei.

This is pretty typical - most apartments have potted plants of some sort out of the windows, on balconies, and on the ground level.  It was pretty cool and made it a little less like the cement jungle that it is.  My mom would have appreciated all those plants!

A typical street in Taipei.

Well, I finally made it to the station and made it back to Taipei Main Station, where I made a quick stop at my favorite underground mall.  By this point my stomach was growling.  I was HOT and damp and I wanted nothing to do with all of the steaming hot food offered at all the places I walked by.  But then I found a little bakery.  Jackpot!  There was nothing this American wanted more than some carbs!  And some papaya milk.

Because, dudes, papaya milk is DELICIOUS.  Especially when you're starving.

I trekked back to our hotel with my loot, turned to the only movie in English on TV (Apollo 13), collapsed into bed, and dug in.

First I had this teryaki/eggplant/chicken bun thing.  It was fantastic.

Then I tried some of this "melon bun".  I think the melon was more of a descriptor of it's shape and not it's taste. It was kind of pastry-like with a sweet glaze on top.  Pretty good, but nothing spectacular.

This little bun was filled with mushrooms and pork.  Delightful.

And for dessert (as if the papaya milk weren't dessert enough) a mandarin orange and cream filled croissant thingy.  Heavenly.

At this point Lance came back to the hotel.  We had planned earlier to head out to a gondola ride up in some nearby mountains, so we got on our way.  Even though it had been stormy most of the day we didn't think about the gondolas being closed.  But they were.  I was so disappointed!  (Or, as Lance and I started saying for the rest of the day because of all the bad English translations we had seen all week but especially that morning, "So disappoint!") ((We're the worst, I know.)) We decided to wait around for a little while to see if the gondolas would start going the storm seemed to be subsiding.

I saw this big ol' statue on a hill, and was lucky enough to get a picture of it and a scooterist in his rain gear. (You can tell it rains a lot in Taiwan because 1) anything not covered in cement is pretty much covered in tropical rain forest, and 2) everyone on a scooter has some sort of heavy duty rain poncho.)

Some of the hills by the gondola ride and the Taiwan Zoo.  The Zoo?  It was super creepy - the buildings all looked abandoned and scary and rusty.  But I know they have some world-famous panda center, so it makes me wonder if what we saw was only a little part of the zoo.  Still. Creepy.

Nearby was a place that claimed to have an awesome water show.  So we waited for 20 minutes for the water show.  It was not awesome.  It was a little sad.  So disappoint.

We walked back by the gondolas - still closed.  So we eased our sorrow with some ice cream just outside of the MRT station.  I chose melon flavored and it was SOOOO good!  It was green but tasted just like cantaloupe.  So tasty.  And the machine that made it was cool, too.  The picture showed a big ice cream cone, so you can imagine our disappointment (so disappoint!) when the lady pulled out a container of ice cream.  But then she stuck that container in this little machine and out came my soft serve ice cream cone!

We rode the MRT back towards Taipei 101; this line runs mostly above ground.  It rained the entire way.  We talked about how we want to take the kids traveling when they're older.  I especially want to take them somewhere before their missions, just so they can realize that not everywhere is like the US and that's a good thing. I want to take each of them individually - a special parent/child trip. I think it would be so good for them!  I just hope we can pull it off.

So we wandered around the mall at Taipei 101, looking for a Father's Day tie for my dad.  But no luck.  The stores were ridiculously over priced or they didn't have any ties I thought he would like.  (Don't feel bad - I ended up getting him some homemade ice cream cookbooks, which I have on good authority will be put to good use!)  We did see an entire floor of the mall that seemed to be dedicated to high-end watches, which was pretty impressive.  (I just can't see myself ever spending $20,000 on a watch. I winced paying $40 for the one I have now!)

We wandered more, kind of hungry but not really.  We stopped at a little convenience store to get me some water.  (I had a headache and realized I was probably dehydrated from all of the wandering I had done earlier in the day.  I was right.)  While there I surreptitiously took some pictures of fun chip flavors.  I'm kicking myself, though, because I didn't get a picture of the best flavor: spicy crab.  Doesn't that sound... um... tasty?

Can't go wrong with a big ol' bag of Chicken Dinner chips!

Who knew Australia had their own flavor of barbecue?  (Australia is totally on my list of places to travel!)

Anyone up for some Kyushu Seaweed chips?

If Lays aren't your thing, how about some Sushi or Roast Chicken Pringles?

We wandered some more and decided to go to this famous dumpling restaurant.  It hadn't been too crowded before, but once we got there it was packed.  As in almost-an-hour- wait packed.  We were in no mood for that.  So disappoint.

So back to the Taipei 101 Food Court we went. This time we got these fancy dinners on hot iron skillets on boxes... I don't even know how to describe it.  But you can see it here.  (Sorry - I didn't think to take a picture until I was halfway done.)  There was so much food!  it had chicken and veggies and tofu and an egg and rice and all sorts of stuff.  Can you believe that's a food court meal?  There's something to be said about eating off of real plates and bowls instead of paper and Styrofoam.

Yes, that is a McDonald's cup behind my meal.  The place we went to didn't serve drinks and I really needed one! (We weren't the only ones to do this.)

After dinner Lance had some yummy ice cream, but I passed.  My stomach hurt again. (Partly because I was so full, but also I think because of the MSG.  Totally worth it.)

We got back on the MRT and saw a woman reading a Mandarin Book of Mormon on the train, which was kind of cool.  I didn't say anything to her because I didn't want to be that crazy white lady on the train who's all "Hey! You're a Mormon?!  I'm a Mormon, TOO!!!  I'LL TALK LOUDER SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME!!!"  Yeah.  Because that's how it would be.  Okay, not really. But it was still fun to see.

It was yucky weather and we hadn't really been able to do anything we wanted to do.  It was kinda like Taiwan was telling us it was time to go home. "Nothing more to see here!  Be on your way!"

So disappoint.

But not really, because despite all that, it was still awesome. I was in an amazing foreign country with my husband, away (at least temporarily!) from the all the responsibilities at home - and that's always a good thing!