Danshui Markets

We were going for a train ride to explore a bit further afield. Danshui looks promising, its at the end of the line and near the river mouth.

We set out late so we arrived late also.  It was almost dusk. To our surprise there were night markets. Awesome. we started to have a wander around. Hmm icecream soft serve 6 inches high, cool. only $20 = 80c. whats over here. cool a wired stuff museum. only $60 = $2.40. lets look inside. Crikey! wierd stuff alright. A giant rabbit, things with 2 heads, a shrunken head, huge squid, funny lizards, huge crab claw, 2 tails.

  Afterwards i was feeling hungry so a squid on a stick hit the spot. then some nice night photography.

Shrunken head

Shilin Night Market

Apparently the biggest night market here. I can see why. it took us a few hours to look around. there are several streets and laneways full of people and stalls. all kinds of food on sticks, clothing and trinkets. you can fish for your own prawns and they put them on a stick live and onto the grill. just around the corner was snakes. the picture tells all, just check the detail, chopping board, live snake in cage, bottle of blood. And for those of you just dying to know, No i didn’t eat or drink the snake or its blood, thought about it though.

Confucius temple

Confucius temple Taipei is quite a relaxing place. Unlike many of the other temples you don’t have people running about madly praying waving incense sticks, so you can take your time a bit more without feeling like you are in the way.

Then along comes Cheng Cheng Fa. A nice happy little old man, i think from Japan, he is a volunteer in the temple. He is quite chatty and wanted our picture taken together. We of course obliged. Then he kept appearing and asking us questions whilst we were looking around, then more photos, more questions and all the while scribbling in his notebook. I guess he is interested in foreigners and probably not many people give him the time of day. He was quite excited to tell us he had been to Australia for 12 days 10 years ago and he has a friend there, In Brisbane or Canberra.

  

Other temple across the road

South of Main Station

We went wandering around south of main station this arvo. after sushi train for lunch that is, we were wondering why there was not so many plates of good stuff coming along then Sharon spotted the guy ahead of us, he had taken a whole stack at once and piled them up.

We found the presidents office and the 2-28 park, also the east and south city wall gates which are still standing. While we were walking about we also saw what must have been the presidents motorcade, there was several shiny black cars and police escort going to the office. We were talking to a un uniformed guy with an earpiece and he said the building was made by the Japanese.

2-28 memorial park

Presidents office

 

East gate

South gate

Technology abounds

just down the road is the technology building i was talking about the other day. tonight on the way home we had a look around and the street behind the building is amazing. it is chockers full if pc gear shops. Glenno you would be in heaven. there are sata solid state drives for sale, cases galore, notebooks, pc’s, motherboards, video cards, usb tv dongles, it goes on and on. There must be at least 50 shops all in a row plus more the laneways in between.

Earthquake 25-07-2010

We are on the 8th floor, it is morning and we are sitting on the beds. Suddenly i think i am felling strange dizzy like felling. I looked over to tell Sharon and she’s looking at me. we were both swaying side to side for about 15 seconds. Oh well, that’s what you get for going to an earthquake zone i suppose.

Taipei 101

The pictures don’t do it justice. The design of the building is in such a way that its massive all the way up, unlike Sydney and Auckland towers that are a building on a big stick.

The elevator goes at 1010 m/min, so takes about 40 seconds to get from bottom to top including accelerating and slowing down. When you look down its like you are looking out of a plane  window.

 

Note the size of the temple then look at the footprint of some of the high rise buildings.

Looking down 400m of stairwell makes you feel kind of queasy.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 24-7-2010

It was late afternoon by the time we got to the memorial hall. we had spent a few hours looking around the technology building down the road.

Memorial Hall

Biggest avocado i have ever seen / eaten.

Singapore Botanic Gardens Pictures

 

Petrified wood. Trees of stone. These are not wood. actually stone, Fossilised trees. There were many that had been cut down into stools along the evolution garden pathway.

Ginger flower.

Two insanely big snails. we have seen a few of these about.