Location: Taipei, Taiwan

We woke up to the super pleasant surprise that breakfast had been upgraded since the last time I was here! A big breakfast spread is amazing when compared to just plain old hostel toast. God damn hostel toast. *shakes fist*

It was raining outside pretty hard so we started the day with a game of crib, before deciding we could handle a bit of water on the way to our first stop: the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial. We stepped out of the subway station and directly in front of us was the massive national theatre. A sloped yellow roof with a green and blue underbelly was held up by thick red pillars. I kept a close eye on Max for this visit because I remembered the sobering feeling I had myself when rounding the corner of the theatre to see the courtyard of the memorial.

Imposing as ever the giant white and blue building stood in the rain, flanked by the neoclassical concert hall and theatre. We stood dead centre in the courtyard as I read aloud a small leaflet explaining the political and historical significance of the memorial. Many anti-authoritarian protests around the 80’s took place in the square since it was memorializing a dictator who killed thousands of dissidents.

Some tourists were smiling and posing in front of it making a peace sign.

We watched the changing of the guard, a ten minute long gun-swinging, heel-clicking, saluting performance done by the Air Force- which led to a lengthy discussion about honour and happiness.

Suffice to say it was a heavy morning!

We shook off some of the heaviness and the rain by popping out our umbrellas and strolling through Da’an Forest Park. We stopped into Din Tai Fung (the mother of all dumpling restaurants) beforehand to grab a number for the two hour (!) lineup. An hours walk all the way across the park, with a stop under a stone pavilion for a couple more rounds of crib was the perfect way to spend the time. Very few people milled about as the rain poured down, and Max even almost had an extremely fat squirrel eating out of his hand.

Finally finally we got into Din Tai Fung where we promptly ordered a whole table of food. Amid the sesame peanut noodles, spicy shrimp wontons, and red bean xiaolongbao (steamed buns) was the pièce de résistance: pork and shrimp soup dumplings. Drool. We stuffed ourselves completely to the brim, deciding that this would be our main meal of the day. Boy did we ever need to walk that meal off.

We started off in no particular direction, and ended up in an old converted parking garage that now housed a jade market. Rows upon rows of tables covered with all manner of jade stood before us. Old Taiwanese men with magnifying glasses examined small bits of jade and bartered for them. Vendors beckoned you in with the promise of how beautiful their jewelry would look on you. Max was of course completely taken with a jade chess set, and some jade dice. I can’t imagine having enough disposable income to ever own a jade chess set!

We meandered home, stopping for a few photos, some umbrella straitening sessions and two cups of Tiger Sugar Milk Tea (of course). We played a couple games of darts downstairs before the exhaustion hit us and we decided to settle in to watch some of ‘The Expanse’ (our current TV obsession).

Our legs are tired but happy.

Sav