Location: Taipei, Taiwan

I wanted to start today off with a big item on my to do-list: the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial. On previous visits I remember this being a heavy and sobering stop but extremely worthwhile. We climbed out of the steep subway station that flanks the absolutely massive national theatre. A bright yellow roof with a green and red underside sloped down to meet sturdy red pillars. The entire building is constructed in such a way that makes you feel like you’ve been shrunk down to miniature size.

We rounded the corner of the theatre to see the ever imposing and enormous white and blue memorial that stood in the rain at the end of a long stone walkway. We walked right down the centre towards it and marvelled at the size of the thing, discussing how on earth a man like that gets a memorial like this. I cannot overstate just how huge it is. Many anti-authoritarian protests took place in this courtyard shortly after it was built in the early 80’s since it was memorializing a dictator who killed thousands of dissidents and any opposing political parties, and was responsible for the White Terror: a long period of brutal political repression of Taiwanese civilians. Inside the memorial a giant statue of Chiang-Kai Shek himself sits staring out over the square, smiling.

It’s always heavy to go to the memorial, but worthwhile to learn and understand some of the complicated political history of the country. We walked off some of the heaviness by wandering through the lush gardens nearby, deciding that dumplings would be just the ticket.

Does ANYBODY out there have an obsession with dumplings? Spoiler alert. I do.

And now Garrett does too.

This morning I asked if there was anything in particular he wanted to do today and he sort of grinned and said ‘I wouldn’t miiiind getting more Din Tai Fung… you know if you wanted to.’

HA. Twist my rubber arm.

Bellies happily full of soup dumplings, we caught the metro back to Ximen neighbourhood, dripping sweat from the general heat and humidity this time of year. In the rainy season I expected it to be chillier but noooo – all it means is it’s hot as well as wet. There’s no relief in the rain at all! We decided to catch a taping of the Barbie movie to take advantage of the AC blasting movie-theatres, which also happen to be cheap and comfy. I was not expecting a satirical existential crisis comedy but I would highly recommend it!

Chilled right down and feet refreshed we worked our way up to the north of the city to Dalongdon Baoan Temple. This one is maybe ‘medium’ sized in relation to other temples, but what makes it special is the whole interior of the first courtyard is a little garden complex. Old wooden tables sit nestled onto stone platforms suspended above water, with trees and shrubs growing all around. Statues depicting folk religious scenes dot the edges of the garden. Dragons, tigers and lions sit all around, watching over different portions of the garden.

Literally a skip and a hop across the street sat the Confucius temple, which still conducts ancient Confucian ceremonies on a regular basis. Clearly not today though as there was hardly anyone around! We were left to explore the nooks and crannies of the 400 year old complex pretty much to ourselves. The side halls explaining the tenets of Confucianism were closed by this point in the day so I did a little pamphlet reading for us out loud, which mostly focused on the architecture of the buildings themselves. It was so relaxing and quiet sitting on a bench in the courtyard that I almost forgot there was a bustling city street right on the other side of the wall!

We hopped on a train even further north to Shilin Night Market, Garrett’s first real foray into the chaos of night markets! We dipped and dodged through the thick crowd, specifically choosing long lines at food carts since that is an indicator they are yummy and safe to eat. I mean you have to wonder… if you see two carts selling the same thing and one has a long line and the other doesn’t… mayyyybe people know something that I don’t. We scarfed down some Michelin Star (yes actually!) soup, bbq lamb sticks, miniature dumplings (five servings of dumplings in two days is not too many) and pork buns. We sat on the steps of a small temple inset into the street, people watching and snacking on our food. Behind the tight line-up of food carts, little shops sell all manner of clothing, shoes, accessories and tech at very very cheap prices. Some of the shops were literally just carnival game set-ups, which would have been more enticing to play if I somehow had space in my bag for a life-sized Pikachu plushie!

We played a few rounds of crib in the hostel common room- trying to keep ourselves awake long enough that it would be acceptable to go to sleep. The combination of all the walking and the last bits of jet lag sure is hitting us hard at the end of the day!

Any bets on whether we end up eating more dumplings tomorrow??

Sav