Day 2: Understanding Taiwan Culture

Day 2: 26th Dec 2006

We woke up quite early on the second day, and our first place visited was The Confucius Temple and Bao-An Temple located in Talung Street and Hami Street respectively. And they were within walking distance from Yuanshan Main station.

Jun and I getting ready in our room.

Eating the yummlicious cup noodles (35NT).

Just anywhere, anytime, one can always have a pic.

The lazy and soothing morning sun.

A rather exotic banner besides our hostel.
下面给你吃 - I let u eat my lower part.

The temples were some impressive architects to visit when you are at taipei. The Taipei Confucius Temple was especially significant; a magnificent temple built in 1879 in the honor of Confucius and other Confucian sages is of southern Chinese motif.

@ The Taipei Confucius Temple

Inside The Taipei Confucius Temple

Outside BaoAn Temple

An impressive building.

Thereafter, we went to Guoguang Bus Terminal located at Taipei Main Station to purchase the tickets to Chia Yi for our main climax of the trip: Alishan (阿里山). (Tickets: ~ 400NT per person) The tickets weren't bought easily though. Haha, we went through one big round before knowing where to purchase them. Luckily, there was some 热情 Taiwanese around and we managed to drop by a famous restuarant for lunch near K mall. Her 店长 was super-duper friendly, and helped us with lots of information on Alishan.

Jun's Duck Rice. (8.5/10)

HongKiat's Beef Noodle (8/10)

Mine - 八宝饭 (7.5/10) Each plate ~ 120 - 160NT.

The super duper nice soya bean milk.

We went to the National Musuem after we purchased the tickets. Taiwan Musuem was just a 5 min walk from NTU Hospital Station, though we walked from the Taipei Main Station instead.

Welcome to Taiwan Musuem.

The stone outside the musuem with super chim chinese characters.

A self pic. =)

National Musuem was formely known as Taiwan Provincial Museum. It is Taiwan's first museum specifically focusing on local culture and history. The baroque building, designated as a Class 3 historical site, is worth a visit in its own right. The tickets cost about $1.50 each, and there is a discount price for students. Student card is damn useful for many activities in Taipei, and I didn't bring mine! Haha. The 228 Memorial Peace Park besides is worth a visit as well.

The 228 Memorial Park

The park was commissioned in an effort to remember history and heal old wounds and was formerly known as 新公园. As heard from a show, 孽子, the park used to be a hangout place for the gays in the sixties. Besides the last factor, if you are a history lover, the musuem and its complementary park is must visit place if you are in Taipei. If not, you can probably shop at K mall or 新光三月 at Taipei Main station.

Also, we visited the famous 龙山寺, LongShanSi located at LongShan Station. This temple is for the worship of the Goddess of Mercy, while the rear hall is dedicated to Mazu, Goddess of the Sea. Often crowded with throngs of worshipers, the temple is a must-see for tourists. And seriously, I gave the most strict prayer at the temple as my result will be out the next day. I sincerely wish that it will not affect my trip at all.

The famous 龙山寺

We visited the Huaxi Night market besides it， and have a rather non impressive dinner. I guessed those who are not budget tight would have gone for the snake delicacies and other seafood delights found at the market. Seriously I think that Huaxi Street is just a Taipei version of Chinatown, except that it sells porn DVDs and other dunno-legal-or-not CDs at dirt cheap price. Jun was not very comfortable with the district, while I think that perhaps one wanted to experience some "real local culture" or have some real good seafood, Huaixi Street Market can be a miss.

Walking thru Huaxi Street Night Market.

Impressed by ourselves too, we walked our way to XiMengDing thereafter. And XiMengDing was a damn cool place to visit. A bonus was that there was lots and lots of 台北美眉 to see. High boots, jackets, superstar looked alike hairstyles, oh man, I think I can be a horny bastard at times too. Haha. There was this eye catchy high school girl working at their catcher machine shop. And she was like damn cute. Being a corwardice, I didn't walked over to at least take a pic. Boooo.

XiMengDing.

主提餐厅

I shall kiss the poster, since I can't kiss the girl. Haha.
Just for laugh.

When the night falls, I was getting rather paranoid with the release of the exam results. Haha. Serves me right for not working hard last semester. We went back home from XiMengDing at around 1am. As usual, we got ourselves some drinks at Hi-Life before ending the night. And back in hostel, there were three hot babes from Hongkong that just came to stay too. I choose to have an early rest that night, while HongKiat went chit chatting away with some other tourists from Korea, Hongkong and Australia. I don’t think I managed to sleep at all though. On the contrary, Jun below me was snoring happily away. Tomorrow, I will know the truth. =)