Taipei Take Two. Big advantage to start our second day with in Taipei with local currency, metro cards and maps in our pockets. Last night, we planned out a Bonus Scavenge - one of 4 excursions outside Taipei that could be done either day in Taipei, for 300 points. When we woke up to a rainy day (with thunder and lightning), the idea of the long train ride was looking quite smart. We chose the challenge to "take the HSR to Kaohsiung then visit the Tiger and Dragon Pagoda". As Alex has already said on his facebook posting: This scavenge required a little decoding... By visiting the train station information windows, we learned the HSR is High Speed Rail, the line runs the length of the country and Kaohsiung is the southern most terminus of the line. Taipei is at the north end so we traveled the entire length of the island in 90 minutes!.
Another decode was that the railroad spells the city's name differently. Instead of Kaohsiung, we had to get comfortable that Zuoying is the same place. We bought in and bought the train tickets.
Very fast train - probably comparable to a Japanese bullet. The rain was ripping across the windows. Rolling, very green plains, planted fields, terraced land, low mountains in the distance. Cozy ride, spotless train, assigned seats, treat cart lady rolling through periodically.
The city of Kaohsiung (or Zuoying) is located near the southern tip of the elongated island of Taiwan. The Dragon and Tiger Pagoda is on stilts and juts out on Lake Lotus. We took a taxi from the train station, along the shoreline toward the pagoda. Along the 10 minute ride, we saw a few other pagodas - intensely colored and decorated structures - about 5 stories high. Think of a very classy miniature golf course on steroids. The dragon is on the left and tiger on the right -- each crouching on the ground with big mouths open. Stairs lead into the dragon's mouth, up into the pagoda towers and disgorge out of the tiger's mouth. Quite cool!
The high speed rail got us back to Taipei around 3 PM. Having accomplished only one scavenge, we had plenty of ground to cover until 9:30 PM.
Made sense search for food. We had to figure out was lu-ro-fan is and eat it. It is a Taiwanese specialty. Simply put, a bowl of white rice topped with pork sauce that's kind of like the pork sauce that accompanies szechuan green beans. Delish! (And fast!)
We walked to two Temples next to each other. At Confuscius'
Temple, we were supposed to visit and learn something. We learned that the sign outside said "Closed Mondays". At Baoan Temple, we met lovely Anne from the neighborhood, whose English was great because she lived in the US for 13 years. She helped us decipher the carving on the East Gate and she answered a bunch of scavenge questions for us.
What does it mean if you drop your chopsicks? (A: you will be treated. To your next meal).
What does 10 10 mean? (A: October 10, an independence holiday)
Do you favor continued independence for Taiwan; or should it merge with mainland China? (A: Are you kidding? Everyone on Taiwan whose capitalist heritage allowed them to flourish during the years while mainland China has been under communist rule, have grown so far apart and so different).
We visited 2 tea shops and try 3 different kinds of tea, in a crowded district with narrow streets where the sidewalks are choked with vespa-like cycles parked in rows. We wove our way past rows of small storefronts of huge varity: ancient herbal remedy vendors, dusty shops selling random machine and electronic parts, fabrics by the yard, many open-air food stalls and an incongruous DIY store (like Michael's Crafts) displaying garish polyester yarns and bright plastic beads for craft projects like making tissue box covers. We entered the first tea shop we encountered. A 20ish year old man sat behind a desk with a flat stainless steel tray in front of him, with 4 cups of tea stewing. No English for the whole transaction; just gestures. He gave us teeny size cups - like about the size but not the shape of the soy and wasabi dipping bowl at a sushi restaurant. We pointed to what we wanted to try. After our tasting, we guessed at a price, but he signalled "No payment". As we learned at the next shop, the tastings at these shops are gratis. The Five Brothers shop we visited next exports wholesale to Japan, South Korea, Canada, etc. During the tastings we asked the political question again and again
to two of the brothwrs and one daughter (Should Taiwan aim to remain independent?) And got the same answer, tempered by resignation that Taiwan is tiny and defenseless against the Peoples Republic. Experinced dramatic differences between oolong and black teas. The daughter helped us figure out how to find (which she had to research) our mandatory scavenge for dinner.
Old Wang Beef Noodle King. Great name huh? Ex already blogged it and here is what he wrote: "This place was a TOTAL hole in the wall that we would have never picked on our own. There was not a single english word on the menu (which was posted on the wall) nor anyone to help us. The 'kitchen' was essentially a pot of boiling water, a pot of broth and some really intimidating looking cow parts. To 'order' we had to tell the 'cook' what we wanted. This proved to be a challenge as the menu was entirely in chinese and posted on the wall on the opposite side of the restaurant. I resorted to picking a random inexpensive item (approx USD 3.00) by pointing to it on the menu. We grabbed some beers from the fridge and hopped for the best. We ended up with some rice noodles in a spicy brown sauce with some lightly poached greens on top. It was really tasty and I was so pleased to avoid the scary cow parts everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying. Mom complemented me on my choice and we happily chowed down." By the way, the chopsticks were clean, disposable and sealed in plastic. With about one hour left and we decided to visit Taipei 101 which, at 101 floors is the tallest building in Taipei, and take the elevator to the observatory. A little wacky because the weather was 100 percent fog and as Alex described the view - it looked like a steamy bathroom mirror. What we didn't know before going was that the elevators are the fastest in the world. And, to get to the access to the observatory you walk through a mall kind of like Time Warner Center - new, grand, European designer boutiques. We got to the top in 37 seconds. Actually the exnibit showing the building's construction was interesting. There is a big ball called a wind damper that is suspended in the core and can sway slightly. It is a golden color and is secured by enormous ropes that I could swear had a gold lame sheen about them. We took adantage of the ice cream discount coupon withe the entrance ticket stub and got some dark chocolate chocolate chip ice cream to enjoy in the line waiting for the elevator to descend. Yes, there were many other tourists who rode up the tower to look at nothing out the window. Taxi back to the hotel, arrived 15 minutes before deadline.
The group gathered and we learned that we are to meet at the gate at the airport for a 9:10 AM flight to Phnom Penh and we are staying at the Raffles Hotel. That means leaving the hotel at 6:30 AM.