Katy in Taiwan: Taipei 4-ish

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Election day! And with that I didn't have to teach my Saturday class! (although I was planning on having it subbed anyway) AnnaLisa and I headed to Taipei to go to the Temple an to the Top of Taipei 101!

The whole day was chill. We didn't leave too early, and we didn't have to leave too early! It was all kinda perfectly timed in a serendipitous way!

The best pics yet of the Taipei Temple!

It just seems kind of misplaced from this angle.

This is the performance hall at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, which we passed on our way to the metro headed for Taipei 101!

And in front of it we saw our first Christmas Tree of the season!

Me in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Christmas Tree

(The 100 at the top is to comemorate that next year is 100 years since the formation of the Republic of China)

AnnaLisa in front of the Taiwanese styled Christmas Tree!

After that brief pit-stop of it's finally Christmas season-ness we continued on to the metro (I love metros!!!)

After emerging from the metro and rounding a corner this was our view:

And then closer.

And even closer.

Still we were a block or two away!

The thing is huge!

It took me a couple hours of being bombarded with the three punctured circles to figure out that they 'say' 101 . . . yep, I'm kinda slow sometimes . . . ;)

Well we got there around 5:00pm and found our way to the ticket counter where we were told that it would be about a 90 min. wait to go to the top and that was "with out getting out of line." Well we knew that AnnaLisa might not ever get a chance to go to the top again, and I really didn't mind waiting in line so we went for it and ended up only waiting for 60 min!

Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world at 101 stories (508 meters).

The view was amazing!!!!!

A view of Taipei from the observatory of Taipei 101

about 450 meters from the ground

When we got the tix we also got a coupon for 15NT off any purchase of ice cream at the top.

(ok, that's only 50cents, but hey, you take what you can get)

And because it was actually slightly cold in Taipei that night, I also bought an Italian hot chocolate! Yummmmmmmmm! =D

This is the spoon for the ice-cream . . . I just don't get it . . . are the bumps so the ice-cream doesn't fall off? . . . or just to make it a pain to try for every last drop? . . .

Read closely:

Could you even imagine?!

Me in front of a observation window and beside more festivities!!!

(I swear I heard Silent Night sung in at least 3 different styles all in the same song!)

When I saw this I realized that all those sci-fi movies that have that room with a big sphere in the middle of it, didn't just come up with it for a great visual, there really are big spheres in the middle of a tall building! They are dampers for to make the building earthquake and typhoon safe!

As with everything in Taiwan, it's sparkly!!

(though you can't see it in these pics)

We finally figured out how to go outside and, of course, the view was spectacular (even more if you jam your head between the bars to get the full view)!

(Side note, there was a Japanese tour group there, and when they came out I could understand all their expressions of excitement: "sugoi!" "kakoi!" "maji!" etc. It was sugoi!)

Yet another 'sbarashi' view!

The view of the . . . top . . . from the top . . . ;)

AnnaLisa's "self-portrait"

My "self-portrait" . . . yah

Remember the damper? Well 101's mascots are 4 baby dampers. Great name right? ;)

(My favorite was "Smart Silver")

Me with a festive Smart Silver, the baby damper!

The ride from the top to the bottom (or vice-versa) is only 37 seconds!

Thing in the Elevator that tells you where you are in reference to the ground . . . just in case you get board during the tortuous 37 second ride . . .

See you soon Taipei 101!