Taipei, Taiwan Trip Day 8

Last day touring on my own! Duane said he didn't care anything about going to the top of the Taipei 101, so I decided I'd better do it now or never!

But right on the way there was the San Yat-sen  memorial.  It's another huge building with a statue of the "Father of the Republic".  

I lucked out and walked right in on the "changing of the guard"...this time with a few more guards and a good bit more solemn marching and swinging of rifles.

The towering Taipei 101 building in the distance is my destination...a walk thru the beautiful grounds of the memorial building.

I ran into a sweet young couple taking turns with each other taking photos with their young son, so of course, I had to offer my services.  It took me a bit to get them to understand because they either didn't speak English or couldn't understand my accent!  So, I took a couple of photos with their camera and the husband offered to take my photo with my camera....and as I walked a few steps away to "pose" for him, his wife shuffled the son towards me to be in the photo!  He was a sweetie and came to me without the slightest hesitation!  They had him do something with his hand - like a particular wave with three fingers held up...the husband took this shot, then hurried over next to me to be in a photo his wife took with their camera....years from now they'll probably look at that photo and say "yeah, that was the weird American we saw on the square....". 

Cool cow near the Taipei 101....no reason for including it except I thought it was cool!

This is a sleepy city....nothing gets rolling until 11am or 12noon.  I got to the 101 at about 10:45am.....didn't read the guidebook!  So, I had a little time to kill.  The first 3 or 4 floors of the building are taken up with a mall - crazy, fancy mall that is just huge and terribly expensive, all NY and Paris brand name stores, all glitzy....but in the basement is an actual grocery store....so I wandered around in it.  Following are a couple of "fishy" photos from the snack aisle.  These bags are all dried fish of various kinds.  Right next to the potato chips.  Hmm, hmm, good!

And this caught my eye - I had to buy one just to say I did!  It's a can of soda - but the "can" is clear plastic like a water bottle.  Weird!  But it did feel kinda nice in your hand!  The flavor was weird but pleasant.

Enough wandering to kill time, it was 11am and the elevator to the top of the building was open...It cost $15US to go to the top - quite the tourist trap, but hey, I'm a tourist!!  They took this ridiculous photo of each group as they went thru the line....and encouraged you to buy the print at the top.  Well, as I was standing in line, they displayed the photos on the screen, so I just snapped this photo for myself.  Guess that was not entirely nice....but it seemed like a good idea at the time!  They did, of course, get 15 bucks from me for an elevator ride....sucker born every minute, PT says!

The view from the top was pretty cool - 509 meters - or  1,669.9 ft.  The second tallest building in the world (Dubai now has the tallest building).

Not that much different than we see out of our airplane, but I really got a vertigo feeling when looking down that I don't get at all in the airplane.

Looking down at the memorial building I had just toured.

Another cool item is this mass-damper.  It's a huge ball sways to offset movements in the building caused by wind gusts. 

Outside looking up....the top is hidden in this view.

So, dear readers, for the first time this trip I became well and truly lost.  The map I'm using is not great - it only has the major roads on it.  There are dozens of roads and lanes between each of these major roads.  On the way back to board the subway, I must have taken a wrong turn.  I walked and walked, maybe 20 minutes...I think at 90 degrees to where I thought I was heading.  I asked a nice lady who spoke good English and she had me walk "8 lights that way".....I did this, probably a mile or so, and seeing no signs for the subway, I asked a guard at a parking lot guard shack.  He told me to walk back the way I had come!  Now, it's lunch time and it's about 90 degrees and 110% humidity. 

I caved in and did the only thing a sane person would do....I flagged a taxi.   And about $2US later, I was at the subway station I had been searching for all along!

That was enough for the day!  Duane and I had a very nice meal - one of the appetizers was something I've never had before - escargot!  Duane did not eat them, if you're wondering, although I suspect you knew he wouldn't!  They were actually quite good!  All for today!