2018-11-09
Slow start again into the day after that massive tea haul yesterday.
Luckily Kuan-You was also a little bit late due to excessive karaoke, so I could take my time. Went to get some chopsticks, but couldn’t find the Sogo market so finally went to that first record store I visited when arriving here again.
You know it’s some sort of eagles behaviour when shopping records – get an overview slowly and then get down and do cherry picking.
The store is nice, although I only bought two records, but one seems to be a super nice and rare taiwanese disco record from 1980. The owner is also mad about audiophile stuff, he was glad to show me his modified Sony turntable with two arms, for stereo and mono playback.
Tried to take a taxi for getting back – actually that’s not that convenient, as the drivers expect you to show the destination in mandarin. Anyway it was cheap, but took a long time. Taking the MRT (local subway) is the best to choice.
Met Kuan-You at the Hostel, went for a proper breakfast and had the first 100 year old egg in my life. Actually this is quite tasty!
Afterwards some fizzy rain started and we drove to the 101 Taipei tower, once the largest building in the world. Learned that there is a big 660 tonne ball at the top for helping with it’s inertia against wind forces.
But we couldn’t really go up there, way to expensive. Also learned that taiwanese department stores are nothing compared to japanese ones (even Mizukashi ones). Only Hermes and Luis Vitton, no interesting kitchenware.
Then we changed from motorbike as a transportation tool to car. Really amazing how they solve the parking problem here. It’s some sort of automated elevator for storing cars in height, not width. Really clever!
Drove with the car to the nearest onsen at Yangmingshan, what a ride. Beside fizzy rain there was a thick fog coming up. Quite frightening, even as a passive rider.
Took quite a long time as this was out in the nowhere and we had to go slowly. Finally reached the public onsen, had some nice dinner and went bathing. Public onsen halfway outside, really nice – gender separated so you had to go naked, quite traditional.
Hung out there for about 1.5 hours. At the entry there was some karaoke going on, already felt at the beginning that Kuan-You was getting nervous about it. So he had to sing a final song before leaving of…
Had a beer at some small village while going down before being get brought back to the hostel.
Relaxing day!
While havin a last beer at the 7-11, I met a group of young (26 year old) guys and had some nice talk about politics, got a lot of taiwanese insights.
Although with the west coast being not that great (from looking at the nature) and with it having the more boring part at the end – I realized what great holiday this has been. It’s true, Taiwan is a lot a about the people here…
Actually I think now Taiwan ranks in the two first places for having a cycling trip (from my experience)!
One comment