2010 Asia Trip, Taipei Day #3 Evening

Today has been a relaxing day. After updating my last post, I went back to sleep until John called and woke me up for lunch. Since he wasn't too busy today, we went and had lunch at the food court in the basement of Taipei 101. I also ended up doing laundry this morning. Since my friend does not have a dryer, I had to hang everything on a drying rack. Taiwan is much more humid than California so some of the heavier cotton stuff is still damp.


View from living room window. The apartment is on the sixth floor. Looks like another hot and humid day. I guess the rumors of multiple typhoons hitting Taiwan wasn't true.


Washer... but no dryer.


I took a taxi to Taipei 101 since the MRT doesn't have any stop nearby. The fare was NTD95. Currently there is a free shuttle that runs from the Taipei City Hall MRT stop to Taipei 101, and they're busy constructing an additional MRT line on XinYi Road.


Looking up at Taipei 101. I think I have 3 or 4 photos already from this vantage point.


There is a multi-level shopping mall attached to Taipei 101. There are some pretty expensive brand stores: Chanel, Omega, Rolex, Tiffany, etc. Downstairs from the entrance is a Roots store... yay Canada!


In the basement, there is a food court (typical of malls in Taipei). I ended up ordering a bowl of noodles from this place since this was probably my last chance to eat Taiwan beef noodle soup before I leave tomorrow.


I splurged and got the "premium" bowl for NTD188; the regular bowl was only NTD133. Sigh... I think the extra cost was for the other cow parts that I don't eat: stomach and tendon. Probably should have went with the cheaper bowl.


The food court filled up quickly. John said that the people in the office are pretty punctual about lunch. In Irvine, people take lunch at all hours; I see people in the cafeteria from 11:30am to 2:00pm. Here, people are gone at noon sharp. Also, as we were finishing our lunch, people start hovering around our table, ready to claim it when we leave. In the US, people will probably ask us if we will be done soon, and stick around or move on based on our answer. Here, people stand real close to our table but pretend to be doing something else. Just ask! I felt like asking these two girls if they wanted our table, and even to sit down first since we had two empty seats. That probably would have freaked them out though.


After lunch, we walked by a place that sold 豆花 with various toppings. I'm a purist so I got a bowl (cold) with peanuts for NT40. It was good. I remember when I was young that street vendors would carry containers on their shoulder with bamboo poles and sell 豆花 door to door at night. There was also a stinky tofu vendor that would come around as well. Yum! I don't think I can live in Taipei... I'll just be eating stuff all the time.


After lunch, I stopped by the office to check out where John was sitting. We occupy some of the 5th and 6th floor, plus the basement of this building. I brought along my badge and it opened all the access doors I tried. Since I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, we didn't go the the main entrance on the 5th floor. I didn't get a chance to see some of the inappropriately (skimpily) dressed female co-workers. I'm only dressed like a bum since everything else was washed and drying.

I walked back to Taipei 101 and caught the free shuttle back to the MRT station, and got back to the apartment at around 3:00pm. Since the laundry was still damp, I took a nap for ~3 hours and now I'm waiting to have dinner with John before heading off to Beijing tomorrow.