Friday.
Yesterday, I travelled along the North line of the MRT; today was discovering the East/West line. I decided to go see Longshan temple, because it was one of "the things" to do in Taipei, and then trace my way eastward to the city's centre, where Taipei 101 was located—I couldn't really visit this city and not go at least to the base of the world's tallest office building!
Longshan temple has a 350ish year old history, whose story begins when a person hung an amulet on a tree & it apparently glowed brightly because of the god's power in that location. Since then, they've built a temple & they've increased the godly patronage from just that first single one to now dozens of worshipped statues and several incense altars. Every time I visit a temple or religious location where people pray to, sacrifice and in other ways worship idols, my heart cries within me. I cannot wrap my mind around the notion that a rock or that a piece of wood or even that a lump of baked mud can contain any power in which to help people. Granted, I can concede that these images are not the things worshipped, but the ideas behind these images and the spiritual forces involved there could in fact be very real. The depressing part is that you can see that the worshippers of these spirits are slaves: they give up their freedom, their resources, their very lives to kneel down & pay tribute to these things in the hope that their actions might bring about a positive impact on their lives—and if they become slack in their devotion, bad things will happen.
A Rabbit Trail (or snake tail)
This reminds me somewhat of the recently installed sculpture in Bangkok's international airport: one that depicts a classic scene from the creation account in their religion—a blend between Buddhism and Hinduism. The scene shows a struggle between the serpent lord and demons against men and angels in the middle of the sea of milk. The serpent lord has himself wrapped around the mountain of the world, and the demons are tugging on his body in one direction, whereas the men and angels are pulling on the serpent's tail in the opposite direction. The resultant struggle causes turmoil in the sea of milk, which creates, somehow, the elixir of immortality. This elixir is held in the hand of Vishnu, who is dancing atop the mountain between the serpent lord & his demons, and the men & angels.
Why I 'm reminded of this is because in Thailand, they not only worship images of Buddha, but they also pay tribute to local animistic spirits, and a set of the Hindu gods—including this serpent god, the king of the naga, whose minions are used as wards or protectors of the temples & holy places. Take that as you will, after some consideration. It gives me the chills every once in a while.
Back to Taipei
Longshan was pretty interesting, albeit sad. There are some beautiful pieces of artwork created for the temple, like the intricately decorated columns which have been carved to resemble twisted vines on which birds perch. A couple golden altars of incense mark certain areas within the holy place, and in the outer courtyard, a man-made waterfall rushes down over rocks into a coy pool. Pretty nice.
As I arrived there, I was met by an older gentleman without many teeth in his mouth who had been sitting/lying underneath a pavilion to stay out of the rain. When he saw me, he ran up and shook my hand, expressing several things in Mandarin of which nothing made sense to me (surprise, surprise). Eventually, I had to tear myself away from him to get to the temple, so when I returned to the MRT station, I purposefully avoided the pavilions, just in case another incident of the same likes would happen.
Several stops down the MRT line, I jumped off to wander around the city centre. It was getting close to lunch-time (and when I saw close, I really mean 2 hours after), so I decided to take the advice of my Lonely Planet & check out Taipei 101's basement food court. Fantastic! It reminded me of North American food courts, but on a much higher scale / class. There were sushi bars, rib BBQs, subways, pizza joints, Italian cafés and a slough of indigenous eateries. Opting for something I couldn't get elsewhere, I grabbed a bowl of Shanghai beef noodle soup and supped till I was stuffed.
The Mall on the first 5 floors of Taipei 101 is nothing really like anything I've seen in North America. The only thing that comes close is Siam Paragon at the heart of Bangkok: piles of boutique shops where only the crème de la crème could ever afford to drop some cash into the offers. For those of you familiar with Paragon, 101's mall makes the Thai equivalent look like a grubby strip mall on the bad side of the tracks.
On the fifth flood of this mall is a cavernous hall that possibly could be used for expositions, but instead "housed" a few posh dessert shops and a top-tier tailor. Up the escalator from here was the entrance to the observation decks. I decided that I might as well take a peek of Taipei from 351 metres up in the air while I was here, so I dropped down 350 Taiwanese dollars ($12), jumped in the waiting line & then rocketed up 83 floors in like 20 seconds on the world's fastest elevator system (top speed is 61 km/h). The next two hours of my life were spent looking out from the tower through clouds and amidst the slight swaying of the floor, only to then proceed to walk by & see the building's 651 tonne passive sway damper and the walk through about 60 coral jewelry stores before being let down to the base of the behemoth building.
It's funny to me, knowing that the CN tower is much taller than Taipei 101, that all the signs in the observation deck proclaimed that this structure was the world's tallest—and then it struck me as even more humourous when they listed the top 10 tallest buildings in the world, and the CN Tower was conveniently ignored. Apparently, Canada's engineering marvel doesn't rise higher than the Empire State Building. Heck, the observation deck even cites the Space Needle, but it doesn't anywhere mention anything about the CN Tower. I wonder why... ; )
It continued to rain for the rest of the day, so I headed back to my hostel to get some research and planning done for tomorrow's adventure to Gold Ecological Park.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Taiwan Adventures, II
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!
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!
Taiwan Adventures, I
16/04/09
I landed in Taipei yesterday, after a day's worth of preparation and travel. The leaving part of this journey was relatively uneventful. In the morning, I did my usual 7-11 run for ramen noodles and Coke Zero, saying hi to the Sev. Girls. They made some comment about my peculiar attire in Thai, as I was decked out for travel & hiking--an atypical raiment. After munching on my morning meal in the staff room & printing off some maps along with some other documents, I grabbed my things & jumped into a taxi at 9:30, destined for the airport.
Songkran is amazing for me not because of the water fights, or the flowery shirts or the general party atmosphere that comes along with the festival. No, the best part of Songkran is the fact that there literally is an absence of vehicles on the roads! I managed to get to the airport in a little over 30 minutes. After my checking in & emigration paperwork, I had ninety minutes before my flight took off.... If it was going to take off on time.
My flight to Taipei was delayed for some unknown reason. We passengers sat in the departure gate for an extra half-hour before the announcement to board was made. However, the delay in departure really didn't effect our arrival time very much: I still landed in Taipei at about 5 pm, and I exited the plane in a groggy state of mind, inadvertently forgetting my hat at my seat. I only discovered the missing chapeau from my noggin when I went through the "fever scanner" at the Taipei airport, when they had infrared scanners checking for body temperature extremes. A sign mentioned that you should remove your hat while going through, and I noticed at that point that my hat was already removed... Alas, once on the other side of the health screen, I couldn't return to the plane.
Leaving the airport was remarkable: Taiwanese people are amongst the most helpful people I have ever met! I read the same statement in my Lonely Planet, but I didn't really think much of it until I was looking at thee airbus route map, trying to figure out which route I was supposed to take to get to the Taipei Hostel downtown. Within 40 seconds of me standing there, an elderly gentleman came up & asked me in rough English where I was going. I showed him the map & address I printed from the internet and he, after some reading, pointed to #33 and beckoned for me to follow him to the counter. After exchanging some Mandarin with the counter clerk, I was 90 Taiwanese dollars (about $3) poorer and one bus ticket richer.
After getting off of the bus downtown, I followed my map & the directions to the hostel--but not without grabbing the attention of a lady who was walking in front of me, who said, "Come, follow me: I live right close to there." (I guess a white guy with luggage and a back pack really spells 'international hostel' quite clearly. Ha!)
Taiwan has a program wherein travellers between the age of 15 & 30 are allowed to borrow a mobile phone from the government for up to 30 days--it's part of their youth travel initiative--and it just so happens that the Youth Hub, where these devices are lent out, was on the same block as the hostel: literally less than a minute's walk away. Among other close things of interest are the MRT station (apparently one of the world's best systems), about five 7-11s (just like Thailand!) and the Taiwan national headquarters for McDonald's, which also happens to have a flagship restaurant in the first two floors. Turns out that Taiwanese McDonald's is cheaper than Thailand's--perhaps the only instance of this happening. Everything else, so far, seems to be from twice up to four times as expensive as the comparable item in BKK.
Today, my plans are to go see Beitou & the national park there, which has a feature called Di-Re Valley (which translates to Hell Valley), owing to the geothermal activity in that area. There's also a mountain peak & some hot springs at the park, which is within walking distance from one of the MRT stations. Sweet.
I can see Taipei 101 by looking east down the street from the corner where McDonald's is located. It's not as impressive as I thought it would be--but perhaps when they say it's the tallest building in the world, they really mean the tallest office building. The CN tower would make 101 look like a shoebox.
Well, now it's time for me to plan the rest of my day. Peace.
I landed in Taipei yesterday, after a day's worth of preparation and travel. The leaving part of this journey was relatively uneventful. In the morning, I did my usual 7-11 run for ramen noodles and Coke Zero, saying hi to the Sev. Girls. They made some comment about my peculiar attire in Thai, as I was decked out for travel & hiking--an atypical raiment. After munching on my morning meal in the staff room & printing off some maps along with some other documents, I grabbed my things & jumped into a taxi at 9:30, destined for the airport.
Songkran is amazing for me not because of the water fights, or the flowery shirts or the general party atmosphere that comes along with the festival. No, the best part of Songkran is the fact that there literally is an absence of vehicles on the roads! I managed to get to the airport in a little over 30 minutes. After my checking in & emigration paperwork, I had ninety minutes before my flight took off.... If it was going to take off on time.
My flight to Taipei was delayed for some unknown reason. We passengers sat in the departure gate for an extra half-hour before the announcement to board was made. However, the delay in departure really didn't effect our arrival time very much: I still landed in Taipei at about 5 pm, and I exited the plane in a groggy state of mind, inadvertently forgetting my hat at my seat. I only discovered the missing chapeau from my noggin when I went through the "fever scanner" at the Taipei airport, when they had infrared scanners checking for body temperature extremes. A sign mentioned that you should remove your hat while going through, and I noticed at that point that my hat was already removed... Alas, once on the other side of the health screen, I couldn't return to the plane.
Leaving the airport was remarkable: Taiwanese people are amongst the most helpful people I have ever met! I read the same statement in my Lonely Planet, but I didn't really think much of it until I was looking at thee airbus route map, trying to figure out which route I was supposed to take to get to the Taipei Hostel downtown. Within 40 seconds of me standing there, an elderly gentleman came up & asked me in rough English where I was going. I showed him the map & address I printed from the internet and he, after some reading, pointed to #33 and beckoned for me to follow him to the counter. After exchanging some Mandarin with the counter clerk, I was 90 Taiwanese dollars (about $3) poorer and one bus ticket richer.
After getting off of the bus downtown, I followed my map & the directions to the hostel--but not without grabbing the attention of a lady who was walking in front of me, who said, "Come, follow me: I live right close to there." (I guess a white guy with luggage and a back pack really spells 'international hostel' quite clearly. Ha!)
Taiwan has a program wherein travellers between the age of 15 & 30 are allowed to borrow a mobile phone from the government for up to 30 days--it's part of their youth travel initiative--and it just so happens that the Youth Hub, where these devices are lent out, was on the same block as the hostel: literally less than a minute's walk away. Among other close things of interest are the MRT station (apparently one of the world's best systems), about five 7-11s (just like Thailand!) and the Taiwan national headquarters for McDonald's, which also happens to have a flagship restaurant in the first two floors. Turns out that Taiwanese McDonald's is cheaper than Thailand's--perhaps the only instance of this happening. Everything else, so far, seems to be from twice up to four times as expensive as the comparable item in BKK.
Today, my plans are to go see Beitou & the national park there, which has a feature called Di-Re Valley (which translates to Hell Valley), owing to the geothermal activity in that area. There's also a mountain peak & some hot springs at the park, which is within walking distance from one of the MRT stations. Sweet.
I can see Taipei 101 by looking east down the street from the corner where McDonald's is located. It's not as impressive as I thought it would be--but perhaps when they say it's the tallest building in the world, they really mean the tallest office building. The CN tower would make 101 look like a shoebox.
Well, now it's time for me to plan the rest of my day. Peace.
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