This last Sunday, I decided to take the MRT to Taipei main station, the biggest and busiest stations in all of Taiwan. Taipei main station is the central location to the government buildings and museums. Before I left Taipei main station, I saw a sign for the indoor shopping mall. I decided to take a peek before exiting the station. The mall had many nice shops from clothes to shoes and of course food stands. It went on for quite a ways, but I decided to turn back before going too far. Apparently, there are 4 shopping malls in Taipei main station! So crazy! I'm glad I turned back or I could be going for quite awhile.
Once you walk out of Taipei main station (in the Zhongzheng district) the first thing you see is the Shin Kong Life Tower. This is Zhongzheng's landmark skyscraper. It's the second tallest building in all of Taipei, the first one being Taipei 101. The Shin Kong Life Tower measures 245m tall. I decided to walk south in which I came to the 228 Peace Memorial Park. It was a nice park, but nothing compared to London parks! In the park was the National Taiwan Museum in which entrance was less than $1 U.S. dollar. I didn't stay because I wanted to enjoy the day outdoors. I continued walking through the park (saw many lovely pavilions) to the Office of the President. It was a beautiful red and white building with many security guards surrounding its proximity. From there I had two options to either walk straight to the botanical garden or head to Ximen, a very trendy district for young people. Even thought I heard Ximen is best at night, I decided to check it out anyways since I was curious what all the hype was about. It's definitely a fun area to walk around that has many cinemas, restaurants, shops and clubs. There were all sorts of young kids with unique fashion styles. After a bit, I decided to walk back (knowing I will return again) and head to Longshan Temple. I followed the signed to the temple, but decided to make a stop on the way. I stopped at the Heritage and Culture Education Center of Taipei. I took a quite walk through the museum. As I was walking out a man said goodbye to me in a vary clear voice. I quickly looked back as I don't hear English that often. He started asking me all sorts of questions about what I'm doing in Taiwan. After 5 minutes, he asked if I would like to have dinner with him and his family. I quickly thought about it in my head and responded yes. He was surprised and very happy.
Most people would be hesitant saying yes to a complete stranger, but I feel like I have good judgement of character and could tell he wasn't a bad guy. Him and I continued talking for 30 minutes until the end of his shift; he volunteers at the Heritage and Culture Education Center every Sunday until 4:30. The conversation was very interesting. He told me all about the history of Taiwan. He explained the influence from the UK, Denmark and Japan and in 1949 Taiwan became an independent country. He taught me why the district we were standing in was such an important area, which was significant for the business man in trading goods. He pointed out the school, hence the educational center, at one point it had 10,000 students. Back in the day, it was the largest elementary school in Taiwan. Now, it has only 800 students I believe he said.
At 4:30, we walk to the MRT station together to head to his house to meet his family and have dinner. On the way to the station, he showed me the hotel (first hotel in Taipei) and gave me a tour of the Longshan temple! I was very excited to have a personal tour guide. We entered through the dragon entrance rather than the tiger. The dragon brings good luck. The temple was very beautiful, big but not too big. He pointed out the different deities and what there significance are, which I thought was the most interesting part. There was one deity in which young girls pray to when they are trying to have a baby. Another deity was for those who wanted success in their business. We left the temple from the tiger door this time. The temple is located right on a popular square in which a big fountain surrounds the center. Every day at 5 p.m. the fountain does a 5-10 minute show. We were just in time to watch the last five minutes of it! What good timing today, meeting this fine man and seeing the fountain show.
We arrived at his home just after 6 p.m. and I meet his wife and one of his sons, he was 20 years old. His other son is 28 years old. The mom gave me apple/yogurt juice she had made, which was delicious, and we all talked for awhile. I thought we were eating dinner at their home, but they took me to a nice village in the country side that was about half hour away by car. We ate at one of the nice restaurants. We ordered the famous tofu (the area is known for their tofu), bamboo, some green vegetable (apparently it's the leaf from a potato type vegetable in Taiwan) and a squid dish with vegetables. We all shared the dishes, which is common here. Everyone has their own bowl of rice and then takes what they want from the dishes with your chop sticks. The family all made fun of me for eating with my bowl on the table. They told me it's a sign of disrespect to the cook when eating with your bowl on the table. The proper way to eat is holding your bowl in one hand. My favorite dish was definitely the tofu. Afterwards we ordered the Taiwanese style ice cream from a stand along the path. I was very surprised the Taiwanese call this ice cream. Basically think of it as a soup not solid ice cream. In the bowl was these gooey balls and then to make it cold they added shaved ice. There were different toppings you could add to these gooey balls like peanuts, beans, jello, pineapple sauce, etc. Nothing like the toppings you would find in the U.S. It was a very strange flavor, I think I will try it again to see if I like it for sure. The evening was very nice walking around the old village and enjoying some nice company. I'm happy I decided to say yes to this fine man. I made some nice Taiwanese friends and hopefully will see them again during my stay here. They invited me to the grandmother on the mother's side of the family home in the country side. Any chance I get to enjoy the country side, I will surely take!
More stories to come.
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