Uh...

Totally not done with this... I will finish tonight... I hope.

Taiwan, Day 16: Swimming, Swimming, Food, Movie!

Taiwan, Day 15: Far Eastern Plaza Hotel

Taiwan, Day 14: Dim Sum, KTV, Danshui & Old Street Night Market

Taiwan, Day 13: Nothing Really Happened

Not much happened on this day. I was feeling sick and laid in bed till lunch. My nose and throat were pretty sore. So while Tammy was up and making zongzi with her grandmother, I slumbered. I woke up for lunch (which was good) and then I went back to bed till 4:00PM. At 4:00, Daphne and June took Tammy and me to a big, gigantic shopping district. This wasn't a mall. It was like this huge night market type place but all they had were clothes and accessories. Not my favorite place to be, but I sucked it up (literally, I was taking big breathes through my nose).

After what seemed like an eternity of walking around there, we went and ate at this place that Daphne had been to a couple of times. I think there are pictures down there... but maybe not. It was ok, not the best meal of the trip, but definitely not the worst. After we left there we headed to what seemed to be an American-themed bar. However, the guy taking my order did not understand Captain & Coke... so yeah.

A picture of the drinks from the bar. The white foamy one in the middle is mine... I wanted a Pina Colada! The brown one next to it is my Cap'n & Coke, the small ones are shots of Patron, the red one on the right is Tammy's (it was some kind of lychee liqueur), and the one on the far left was Daphne's (also a lychee drink).

Daphne raved about these fries and I was all excited about them because I love bar food. I looked at the menu and the bar food sounded great too! Lo and behold though, the fries were great, but they were covered with Easy Cheese...

This place had Wyoming and Kentucky license plates on the back of their menus... how can you have those and *not* have Tennessee? Tammy, looking good despite having those ugly contacts in.

Tammy and Grandma making zongzi.

Close up of the zongzi. Sticky rice filled with pork, salted egg yolk, mushrooms, etc and wrapped in bamboo leaves? Not sure on the leaf type.

Lunch: beef /w carrots and onions, bean sprouts, bamboo, and some leafy green vegetable.

June. What a copycat.

Taiwan, Day 12: Taipei Botannical Gardens, Dinner, & Movie

Today we lounged around in the morning and I believe that we had either stuff we had bought previously or bread-based food that Tammy's grandmother got before we got up. The bread that is made here is pretty good. There are little bakeries everywhere and they can generically be classified as salty or sweet. I think my favorite is an almond croissant that is delectable.

We ate lunch at home and then headed out to see the Botannical Gardens. We didn't really know what to do today, so I just picked someplace close and we went. Our only limitation was that we had to be back for dinner by 6:00PM. I honestly didn't think it was going to take as long as it did... we got back at 5:45PM.

We took the MRT to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial exit and started walking. On the way, we saw the Postal Museum (which we didn't go into... who wants to read about Postal history?) and the National History Museum. At this point we were hot and sweaty, so we stopped in the History Museum just for the A/C. The highlight of the museum for me was the water color paintings. There were some pretty awesome ones.

After we left the museum, we headed to the Gardens and then home. Dinner was good; family style with lots of dishes. After dinner, Tammy's aunt offered to take us to Warner Village so we could see a movie. We went, were amazed by the amount of Green Lantern stuff, walked around, saw Priest (which was pretty awful), and took a taxi home.

This is Warner Village at night. This cineplex has 18 screens that span two seperate buildings. Attached to it are a shopping center and a food court. I swear... Taiwan *loves* it's shopping. There are so many malls... and they're all nice!! There are food courts everywhere!! I digress. Surrounding this behemoth is another shopping complex that is probably the biggest mall I've ever seen. It encompasses eight separate buildings.

Apparently Taipei 101 is lit up at night with each day of the week corresponding to a different color.

The escalator up to the movie theater.

Tammy's grandmother's living room. This is taken from the front door. You can see the lit up bedroom in the back. That was our room...

Vegetable dumplings.

The whole spread from dinner. My two favorites were the one on the far right and the one in the back.

Minced meatball soup.

... the lit up room in the back. That's me!

One of my two favorite dishes from dinner. The egg is covering an assortment of pork, tofu, vegetables, and cellophane noodles.

Cabbage, peanuts, and vinegar. Pretty good.

This was a new dish that Tammy's aunt had not tried. She didn't really like it, but I thought it was great. Very spicy.

The ladies, looking food.

Mohr dumplings!!

The trip back from the Botanical Gardens. How can this face go from this...

... to this? It's like it's made of clay.

The Amazonian lilies with the National History Museum in the background.

Indigenous plantlife to Taiwan. Exciting isn't it?

Getting creative on the MRT.

Our A/C stop a.k.a. National History Museum.

Shot of the lily pads from the Museum window (2F)

The Qizhang MRT stop. I became very familiar with this place. Hell, every time we went we got 8NT$.

This is just an amazing drink.

Me. Exploring the Botanical Gardens.