End of Day 1.
Let's call today a day of discovery, shall we?
Originally, I started off the day by going to try & get my digital tour buddy (aka free cell phone for the duration of my visit), only to find the whole place cordoned off with a yellow ribbon that had what seemed like health warnings written on it (I now wish that I had taken a photo). Outside of the building, I saw some workers spraying water & scrubbing carpet. Why? Not exactly sure. I think that perhaps the office had been quarantined for disease, though what disease will forever be a mystery to me.
I hopped onto a train at the MRT station, travelled a whopping 1 station to Taipei Main Station & debarked to pursue another train on another line of the MRT. Two more stops, and I left the subway in search of an English bookstore called Caves Books, which Lonely Planet recommended for me to find hiking guides of Taiwan (in English). As I walked, I wandered through an underground strip mall that connected two MRT stations; I passed out front one of Taipei's hospitals, only to "almost" get run down by an ambulance that was travelling 15 km/hr & making a turn into the decorative driveway toward the front of the hospital. The driveway was so well-manicured, in fact, that I didn't think the emergency vehicle would make its way up the lane toward the main entrance--I thought that the roadway was for something like limousines & maybe for taxis... Oh well, another Taiwanese person again came to my rescue & said, "Watch out, sir!"
So, most cities that I've been through generally have pedestrian crossings at street level & then often also above street level. Taipei has the secondary crossings underground. Why? My current theory has something to do with the propensity for this region to suffer earthquakes: an underground tunnel probably withstands shaking earth better than an overhead concrete bridge--and if in the event of a structural failure, the tunnel would at least not send huge blocks of mass crashing down onto someone's poor vehicle.
I turned the corner from the hospital & saw Caves Books across the street. The light changed just in time for me to not bother with the underground passage, and I made my dainty trip to the bookstore.... Only to find its doors shut. Alas! Two destinations already visited and _both_ were closed! Undaunted by this omen, I continued my Taipei trek back toward the MRT, through a back-alley, along a parkway & up to the next station on the line. Now, off to Beitou & its Di-Re valley!
I got to Beitou & eventually oriented myself sufficiently to head in the right direction toward Di-Re / Hell Valley. Passing by the public hot-springs, which were closed at the time, I vowed to return later & see what they'd be like. So, on I go, up the side of a small mountain (for you Albertans, that "mountain" is a large hill), along alleys & up moss-covered staircases (some of which lead nowhere) until I see what's been making the air smell like the Banff Hot Springs since I got a whiff of the air when I was back on the MRT, 2 stations before arriving. Di-Re valley: a veritable geothermal experience, I was told. It was spectacular: spectacularly overrated. Talk about a letdown! _ALL_ I got to see was a big, steaming pool of water. No Taiwanese fumaroles, like what I read in my Lonely Planet. Nothing. Boo! Perhaps, however, there might have been more to see _in_ the Di-Re area, but can you guess what I found when I got there? Yep: closed. So far, Taipei was seeming like one big "we're not open" party.
I wandered up the hills, through more alleys & up random staircases--one of which led me to an abandoned complex that had been destroyed by seismic activity (I took a picture of this one!), and the leas one led me up on to a local highway. For a good few minutes, I was considering the 5-km walk from where I was to a national park, but given that it was a "mountain" highway, where the roadway was hemmed in by concrete barriers and cliff faces, I decided to take the shorter route toward what the road sign called the "Taiwan Handicraft Museum." I thought to myself, "Might as well. I mean, it's on the way back & it's a different route & it might actually be interesting."
I get there and guess what? Yep. Also closed. Renovations or something. I was now getting somewhat disheartened by the state of closure of this state--so far. I meandered down the road back to the MRT station & passed the local public hot springs. After reading the sign, it became clear to me that even after bringing all the stuff I thought I needed, I still couldn't go in: I didn't own a swimming cap. Merde. The one place that was open so far didn't admit me. *Sigh* back onto the MRT & off, now, to see the Grande Hotel.
And Grande it was! Oh-my-goodness. It is without a doubt _the_ most spectacular/impressive hotel I have ever seen. Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise seem like Barbie houses in comparison. A twenty-seven floor, red, ark-of-the-covenant-shaped, Chinese decorated monster. It's so impressive in fact, that I'm seriously contemplating staying there just to say that I have. Wow.
All the maps of Taipei that I've seen so far seem to want to make the city huger then it actually is. Even the Lonely Planet maps give you the illusion that what's there is actually much more spread out then in reality.
I took a random hiking trail off the side of an MRT stop on my way to visit the Grande Hotel, and after perusing the map placard, I surmised that if I took the short loop, I'd probably be done within an hour, which would still give me enough time (and light) to check out the monster motel. Well, I accidentally took the long loop & completed the majority of the paths in the hiking park before hitting up the Grande... And it only burnt 30 minutes. Seriously, they need to find some better way to establish scale on their maps, since even the scales proper still give the illusion of great distance.
Now, I'm again sitting in Taipei's biggest McD's, only because the other restaurants that I wanted to go to either a.) were packed with supping patrons; b.) selling food with menus--that didn't have pictures (I can't read Chinese); or c.) had tables too small to spread out big maps upon to plan my next part of the adventure.
That begins tomorrow. Cya!
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