Taiwan, Day 5: Downtown Taipei

At this point, I'm still waking up at 4AM due to jetlag and small naps that I take in the middle of the afternoon. I think Tammy and I just rolled around in bed or rather I rolled around in bed and was obnoxiously bothersome. In other words, I refused to let her just sleep while I laid there and did nothing. At around 6:30 - 7:00, we officially woke up and Tammy's grandmother had made eggs and put out bread, egg pudding, and guava. I'm not a big fan of guava, but I ate an egg sandwich.

We were going to be eating lunch with Tammy's aunt because she took the day off and wanted to take us into Taipei. This was to begin at 11:00AM, so until then we watched TV, read, or played on the computer. When Tammy's aunt came down we jumped into a taxi (a frightening experience because the rule of the road is that anyone behind you *must* yield to you... meaning no one looks in their mirrors, ever) and went downtown. We walked to Din Tai Fung where we had lunch. It was located inside a shopping center which was absolutely gorgeous. We walked around for a bit after that, had some iced "dessert", and headed home.

For dinner that night, Tammy's grandmother made beef noodle soup which is a staple to Taiwan and mainland China. Her's had both chunks of beef and noodles.

Taiwan is *almost* as hyped up about Green Lantern as I am. I saw this before Tammy did and I am pretty sure I dropped a load in my pants. It was GIGANTIC. The coolest thing about it was that it showed some of the supporting GLs and I could name most of them.

It was so big we couldn't get it all in one shot from the angle we had.

Handmade steamed pork soup dumplings made to order. See that one the guy on the right is stuffing? Yeah I ate *that* one.

Hello Kitty is very popular in southeast Asia. There was a whole bakery dedicated to her...

Xiaolongbao (literal translation: Small Basket Bun)

Shu Mai

Entrance to Din Tai Fung... obviously

Thousand Layer Cake at Din Tai Fung. Not very sweet, but good.

Forget jerky made in the U.S. This jerky was outstanding. It was preserved with honey and man you could taste the grill in it. So good.

... and another whole restuarant dedicated to her. I kid you not these were two different locations.

I just took this picture because the store was called Roots and the pictures on the wall were of white people... haha. I mean there has only been *ONE* black person that I've seen the whole trip.

Din Tai Fung's little dumpling headed mascot.

Tammy says that this is just called bing (which means ice in Mandarin), but I don't believe her. Ice, sugar water, red bean, mung bean, tapioca, and soggy peanuts. Peanuts are not meant to be soggy, I'm sorry Taiwan. I told June this and she promptly put some more peanuts in my bowl.

This is not the best shot, but it is a shot from the ice stall where we were eating. Notice the vertical residences.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. I can't read anything here. Neither can Tammy.

This was our taxi driver on the way back. Nice guy with *TONS* of good luck.

We stopped and got something to drink during our walk around Taipei. You just *know* when it has a smiley face on it that it's going to be good... and it was pretty damn good.