Taipei Trip - Day 3

28 April 2008

[Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall --> Taipei Central Shopping District --> Taipei 101 --> Shida Lu Night Market]

We started this trip with only half a tank of energy. By the time it came to day 3, we decided to surrender and sleep in instead. Finally figured that we need all the energy if we want to enjoy every bit of this trip.

We left the hotel at 11.30am and headed straight to CKS Memorial Hall, thinking of getting our breakfast on our way to the memorial hall. Big mistake!

When we arrived at CKS MH station, it was very clear that Taiwanese have a lot of respect for this man. Even the wall of the train station was specially decorated!

Before we entered the compound, we took pictures of the ‘自由广场’ plaque that had replaced the previous ‘大中至正’. This took place last year on 8 Dec 2007.





It was drizzling on our way to the main hall...



Right inside the memorial hall, the statue of CKS sits right on top with these three prominent words ‘伦理’, ‘民主’, ‘科学’at his back.



We visited the exhibition hall at the basement and saw many photos of CKS and read stories of his life since young. Took these 2 interesting photos of his cars. They look great, are’t they?

By the time we left the memorial hall, it was already 2pm and we still have not had our breakfast! Didn’t my friend already warn me before the trip that Taipei is a city where you can hardly find a place for breakfast in the morning??? Feeling very hungry by then, we took the train to Taipei Central Shopping District – Xinyi District.

After we had our lunch at the basement of Eslite bookshop, we briefly comb through the shopping mall and came to the conclusion that things in that area are too expensive (or similar in price as compared to Singapore). Therefore, it is not worth spending too much time there. With that, we walked towards the tallest building in the world – Taipei 101.

Inside Taipei 101, there is this open space where it is very ideal for tai tai to have their afternoon tea...



Bought the expensive ticket (NTD400) to find out what is there in the observatory of the tallest building. Wow! The elevator that brought us up to the observatory was very amazing. The screen will display the position of the lift within the building as it moved its way up; while the ceiling has the starry starry night effect with shooting star flying pass. It also holds the title of the world’s fastest elevator at the speed of 16.83m/s. Before we knew it (~20 seconds), we were already up on the 89th floor of the building!





On the 88th floor, we were able to see the world’s largest and heaviest damper weighing 660 metric tons. This damper will help Taipei 101 withstand the typhoon winds and earthquate tremors.





We were allowed to go up to the 92th floor (Outdoor Observatory) even though the weather was not very clear that day.

After the visit to Taipei 101, it was time for dinner. We have heard that Shida Lu Night Market had a lot of interesting food and have planned to check it out. True enough, the best food that we have eaten during our trip were those found in the Shida Lu NM.

These BBQ pork chop is super duper delicious! A must try for those going to this NM next time! 5 star rating!



The ice-cream sold here is made by the husband of the stall owner... Yummy! Super smooth!



Don't bother trying this steak... it looks good but if you see the way they wash the hot plate... you will think twice about eating there!



This stall sells very interesting crepes. Eh... these were not what we have ordered... We forgot to take a picture of what we had, so had to take a picture of what others have ordered... Anyway, theirs looked more interesting too!



On our way back to our hotel, we passed by this confectionery that sells deserts that look like beer...



By then, we were so full that we did not have space for any of these! What we badly needed was Zzzzz...