Walking, Walking, Walking...

Wednesday, May 30, 2007--Taipei

I felt refreshed after sleeping a total of 15 hours during the night. Therefore, I decided it was time to have a big sightseeing day. I started with a long metro ride to get me on the north side of town. The first stop was the Fine Arts Museum. I wandered the three floors seeing the various exhibits. Some where good; others weren't so nice. The best were probably the works representing new, upcoming artists in Italy. A local artist who has been influenced by Escher had some interesting paintings, but there seemed to be something lacking in quality. There was a whole floor of landscapes from the permanent collection and another whole floor of calligraphy.

I walked from the museum to a nearby Lin Antai House that used to be a family estate in the country. It was different from houses I've seen in China and elsewhere, but similar. It seemed more sleek and low-rise for one thing. Also, the rooms seemed more compact.

Both the museum and the house had great admission prices--about 90 cents U.S. for the museum and free for the house! That was nice considering how so many countries now try to gouge the tourist. The museum would have been free, too, if I had been 65 years old already.

The Big Walk began after that. I walked southward to Dihua Market, the largest and oldest market in town. There were some nice old buildings there. And the shops were interesting with their teas, medicinal herbs, dried fish, etc. Most of the shops were very clean and very organized.

From there, I passed one of the old city gates from when it was a walled city. And I came to Ximending, an area of town that is popular with young people. I went there especially to see the old Red House Theater that is a red brick structure octagonal in shape.

I had not found a place that seemed easy for me as a foreigner to eat earlier in the day, so I had eaten a granola bar I had in my bag. By now, it was 17:00, and I was starved. The guidebook recommended a nearby street for lots of small restaurants. I went there and found many. One had all the food out cafeteria-style and had a constant line of students. I joined the line. People behind the counter served the food in a cardboard container that had one big section and three small sections. They started with rice in the big section. Then I pointed to three other things to go in the small section--broccoli, rice noodles, and another type of greens. Finally, I had to choose an entre to go on top of the rice and I chose sesame pork. They closed the box, put an elastic band around it, and took my money. I then took a packet of chopsticks and sat at one of the small tables to eat. The food was good, but the rice needed a little salt added in the cooking process, I thought. The extra greens that I got were ones I have eaten before, but this time they were fishy tasting. Later I found a small anchovy in the bottom. I would have enjoyed them more without that taste. A group of male students who sat at a nearby table showed surprise that I was there. They smiled at me and nodded. I smiled and waved back. When I left, they waved goodbye to me.

By then, I was through for the day except for getting home. Zhungshan, a street from there to where I live is the main stopping street of the city, so I decided to walk it. It was a long walk past 8 metro stations that are placed about 4 blocks apart each. But it gave me a good view of the center of the city which has many big department stores and lots of other shops with all the big international retailing names. As I walked, I saw a shop that sold computer batteries and went inside. One of my camera batteries is losing its power and has to be recharged after only 2-3 days instead of the usual 2-3 weeks. I went inside and bought a new one. Either prices are much cheaper here or they have gone down greatly over the past 3 years. The last battery I bought for the camera cost me about $60, and this one was less than $15.

I spent some time in the room trying to plan where I will go when I leave Taipei to travel around the island starting this weekend. But I was really too tired to do a good job of it. I finally gave up and went to bed around 20:00.