There was even musicians playing in the lobby of the hotel. This hotel was build in 1952 and is located just across the Keelung river from the center of the city of Taipei. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek used to be in charge of the hotel and there are pictures of her hanging on the walls.
A picture of the Grand Hotel lit up at night.
Our room in the Grand Hotel. In Taiwan the hotels all have plain white blankets but then they have beautiful silk throws that go over the bed about 3/4 of the way from the top. I like this style a lot.
A look the the Grand Hotel in the daylight.
The hotel has a huge swimming pool that is Olympic size. It was warm enough to swim in even the first week of October.
Friday night we went to the night market just outside Longshan Temple. This night market is famous for having snake handlers and selling snake soup. We tried it. It was pretty good. The broth tasted like a cross between chicken and vegetable stock. The meat was boney and a little difficult to eat but not much different from chicken.
Most of the shops in the Night Market have signs telling you [in English, too] that you are not allowed to take pictures. However, the lady at the restaurant we ate our snake soup up let up snap all the pics we wanted.
The children seemed to be more facinated than scared of the snakes, whereas, the adults attitude seemed to be one more of fear and horror. Guess I'm still a kid cause I was intrigued and not at all scared.
They even sold turtle meat in the night market. "Ray" sneakly took this picture - I wasn't able to take a picture cause they saw my camera and told me "No pictures".
Saturday we took a city bus tour of Taipei. The tour picked us up at the Grand Hotel and took us around a handful of the major sites in Taipei. We stopped at a couple of Temples. They were very beautiful.
The altar inside one of the temples.
Incense burning on the altar of a temple.
A woman burning fake paper money for her ancestors.
The tour stopped at the National Palace Museum. This houses one of the most impressive collections of Chinese Art I have ever seen. However, it was a mob scene. In fact, this was the only thing or place in Taiwan that reminded me of South Korea and that was only because it was so crowded.
Outside the National Palace Museum.
This is an exhibit inside the National Palace Museum. "Ray" took this picture on the sly. Photo taking is strictly prohibited in the Museum. This tray took 11 years to carve for the Chinese Emperor and the ivory was carved by hand. At least a couple of the craftsmen are said to have gone blind carving it. Looking at the detail I can believe it.
The Taiwanese Flag blows in the wind.
The ceiling at a temple. I loved the bright vibrant colors.
A close up look at the details of the ceiling and the paint work.
A door handle at the temple with it's dragon's head.
We went to Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall on the Taipei City Bus Tour.
A statute of Chaing Kai-Shek.
As usual with every tour I have taken in Asia it ended at a souvenir shop where hopefully we bought something so that our tour guide would get some extra [kick-back] money. I know I sound cynicial but it's the truth. When you go into these shops you are given paper tickets with a number on them [the number corresponds to the tour group] and after the tour when everyone gets back on the bus the tour guide mysteriously disappears inside the shop again for several minutes.
This picture is of Oolong tea. Taiwan is famous for it's Oolong tea which I happen to love.
I happened to check out a computer room while I was in Taiwan. They were much more difficult to find than in Korea where there is one on every corner but when we did find one it was nice and actually even had a non-smoking section in a different room which I appreciated.
I took a picture of the Yahoo homepage in Chinese.
Saturday night "Ray" and I found a cafe called Grandma Nitti's. It was fablous! It had a section of used books [in English] we could buy quite cheaply. And, the food was amazing. The menu offered a huge selection and even included comfort food like meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. Yummy!
They even had pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Being that it was Thanksgiving back home in Canada in decided to indulge in some pumpkin pie. It was good. Not as good as my mom makes but good nonetheless.
Getting a foot massage is very common in Taipei and after wandering around the night market looking for Oolong Tea and gifts for my friends and family I decided it was time to take care of my feet. The man who worked on my feet had awesome English and he was able to tell me when a certain spot was tender when in the body it corresponded to. I learned that my neck and back are especially sensitive or a least the reflexology spots that pertain to them on my feet are.
Sunday morning found us off to the Taipei 101 building. It is the tallest office building in the world. I have to admit that after the CN Tower it didn't seem that tall to me but it is a famous landmark in Taipei and not to be missed.
Looking up the side of the Taipei 101 building.
The view from the top outside deck of the Taipei 101 building. I was suprised at the visability. This day you could see far into the distance without much smog. This is certainly different that South Korea especially of late.
On the same building as Taipei 101 we found lots of shops including a real honest to goodness pharmacy. I have never seen one in Asia and certainly not in South Korea where there are small drug stores on every corner but no big ones that carry everything from drugs, to food, to magazines, to hair color, etc. This one was called Watsons and it had everything. Including travel [motion sickness pills] which we loaded up on for the plane ride back to Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea.
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