More Traveling

So on Friday, Oct. 23 we decided that there was a typhoon coming and that it was probably not a good idea to head south ( because it was sitting RIGHT between taiwan and the Philippines). So we headed NORTH ( ish) to Taipei. We visited a lot and a lot of this post will be described and narrated by photos( once again).

( just a side note, Once my computer is back ( or once I get a Sudo Server figured out, all the pictures from me and my Travel mates can be viewed at : http://pjmikolsmbp.no-ip.org/

I have set up a nice Website interface and can easily scroll through the photos and such. If i had a server set up I would probably post my blog there)... BUT as i didn't think about setting up a Cheap server in Illinois before i left ( and the fact that it would take a while to upload A LOT of pictures and movies... i'll survive))

OK So saturday morning we get on the Bus to Taipei at ~ 10 Am.. Naturally i get to bed ~3 so I am DEAD tired, But i also knew that the bus ride to taipei is ~70 minutes so I took advantage and slept. After arriving we check into the Hostel " Happy Family 2". Cheap place ~ 12 USD$... yeah.. Cheap.

Our first adventure is off to find food. We know we have to some how get under a road via subway sidewalks and get up on the other side to the food court. ( as I hadn't been to the hostel before i assumed our leader knew where he was going.. so we went down about 3 stories into a dead end parking garage... it sure is nice to be follower and be able to complain). We finally make it to a tunnel where I knew the way to the food ( Ha, of course i scope out the food) So i lead the way to food. We ate ... and it was GOOD. As the food court is a HUGE one in the train/ bus/ High Speed Rail/ Subway terminals we took the subway to our First museum of the day..

==228==

(What kind of a name is that?).. well it made sense after a while. 228 marks February 28 (OHHHHHhhhh) when there was a big Political revolt in 1947. It was interesting because Taiwan had been under control of China/ Japan until about then and everyone took a big uprising into politics to take over.

One thing that really caught me by surprise is how there were murders of people for no apparent reason. There is a memorial room where names of a bunch of people from different regions were all posted. No one knows the exact number of deaths because of the great break in communications and documentation, but an estimate of 1992 is that roughly 20,000 people were killed affecting a large portion of Taiwan ( affects go until today. There are still living survivors.)

there was a beautiful monument at the center of the park

Then we walked around to another meuseum in the same park ( comment... both were 10 NT.. which is equivialent to about 0.30$USD... so we had a cheap morning). it was the National Taiwan Museum. this museum had artifacts and maps al the way back to the 15 and 1600s when deutch cartographers where mapping the world( quite something to see how they looked.)

There were tribal artifacts and everything from the Birds , aquatic life.. and even a seasonal Darwin exhibit ( I didn't know that Darwin could be Seasonal). There were interesting aspects of how Taiwan is an island that probably broke off from the mainland China. Which means that a long time ago there was a definite split of how the ecosystems evolved. This was very interesting to see how some slight differences had survived. ( DARN MOSQUITOS HERE ARE BIG).

Pictures from Inside and out: ( found a few cool animals .. THE SQUIRRELS ARE BEASTLY HUGE HERE)

==Dan Shui==

Then We had a bright idea.. Not too much rain.. lets go to Dan Shui ( I've been here before when I came to Taiwan, but Now that i'd been there i was all for it. )

To get to Dan Shui is Really easy... take a metro to the end of the line ( OH.. BTW, Dan Shui means Clear Water ( when translated)... So you know it is a beautiful place.

The dutch guys are History majors ( It sure is nice to take History people along with you because they are REALLY excited to see historical things). .. OK the dutch guys wanted to see the dutch fort at dan Shui. Soo, we walked along the coast for a ways then cut up some back alleys into the city and found the place...

Walking a long the coast was SURE exciting. Like all places in Taiwan, each place has their own delicacy and specialty. In dan Shui.. They have Fish balls, "iron eggs", and some Fancy Ice Cream. The Fish balls I had last time I was in town so I skipped. the Ice-cream... was... Insane (Picture may fallow later, it's on my roommates camera)I ordered a Large.. I mean for USD 0.60 How big can it bet?

So our kids in us got the best us ... Big G got all anxious and used his as a "dagger".. and my was the "Saber".. fortunately I started eating mine right after we got pictures ( and some of the Taiwanese took Goofy pictures of us... yes, they love foreigners)Big G lost control and his dagger fell to the ground in Epic Fail.. because catching the ice cream in a hand is worse than letting it fall.. he was sad.

continuing down the way we found a Beautiful sunset over the ocean. One thing that really amazes me about sunsets here is that they Go SOO quick. Perhaps it is because I rarely watch sunsets in KS and IL, but even still, in CA I watched a few over the ocean during the summer and they seemed to go slow. Here it is up.. then Down about 10 minutes later.

After the sunset we wandered out way into the Dutch/Japanese/other fort. As it was now getting dark quick we got free entrance and got some quick pictures. SOO many photos looked good on our cameras but really turned out fuzzy when looked at on computers. Sadness. It sure was funny to walk through and see some Flat Panel displays in there... ( gotta pop a joke how these Definitely were authentic to the Era).

Walking back to the Metro station from the Fort we wanted dinner, so the first time someoneon complained that i wasn't looking for a spot, I took 10 more steps Turned and said THERE.. we are eating THERE. It turned out Good, we got some breaded things, Rice noodles, and other things. I think it was the first time much of the group had eaten in a shop like that because we just walked in to the back, sat down at a table, then came up front and ordered some food. It was nice to just look at the menu and eventually get down to saying 1 of everything. and 2 of that. As I now know how to speak money amounts, the "lou Ban" (shop owner)said to me "二白三十塊“ and you hand him 230 NT.. and it's all good.

after dinner we continue down our trail back to the station and see the Market on the way. I finally talked to my first Caucasian person on a random street. Obviously we all know that they arEn't locals, but it just doesn't commonly happen to talk to them. It was a nice couple from California Mid 40s who travel there every 6 months or so to teach a class in Taipei.. Nice to talk to them for a short time...

==After Dinner Sat.==

Then we made it back on the metro and my Roommate Luis had a brilliant Idea.. LETS GO TO A FARRIS WHEEL.. that takes 17 minutes to make 1 revolution.. that is based 6 Stories HIGH...

... All of us were pretty nonchalant and decided YEAH.. lets do it.

unfortunately while looking at the map we couldn't find how to get there via metro so we had to take a Taxi ( hard to Do..) We finally managed then figured out THE METRO DOES GO THERE ( even though we made a short detour to the wrong park at first. ( got some COOL pictures of a bridge and People doing night fishing out there).

So the Ferris wheel was pretty high up. I don't think the rest of the group really appreciated the engineering that goes into something like that.. it really was fantastic. as we went at night there were not to man great pictures as the cabin was always moving and such. But we got some. I would like to go during day sometime.

Back at the Hostel a few of us crashed immediately and were tired, a few of us chilled out, watch a movie with one of the residents. ( Watching movies on TV are awesome because it really gets you to look at your Chinese subtitles and see what you know.)As 4/4 people all knew english well, we all threw phrases off each other asking what certain characters were/ ment. it was nice.

after a long day.. we crashed... and slept on Mattresses that were AMAZING( OK so our school mattresses are about 1 inch of stuffing. so I make up for it with some really comfy pillows. )But having a good mattress again was fantastic. The shortest that anyone slept was 10 hours.

... as this is such a long post... I will break for Comments, Rest is below...