24 March 2014
Dog clothes
So I walked into the first part of the city. That didnt take long, you walk half the journey in a 3 mile long mall under the metro so avoiding all the traffic lights.
In there are restaurants, blind massage ladies, manga and anime shops, school kids sitting on the ground playing card games, more of them dancing about in front of big mirrors, and of course people getting their dogs groomed in one of hundreds of salons.
I chose dinner badly, as you will see, mainly cause of availability of seating, but even then there were other options.
Not to worry, this left room for snacks from Family Mart that consisted of almonds with dried chilli and szechuan peppercorns. Upon later removing my contact lenses I regretted this.
I then thought I would walk towards Taipei 101, its quite a way and I didnt make it, too many diversions and distractions along the way.
Theres too much to see and not enough time left, might have to extend my holiday.
In the underground mall, there is an actual shrine to hello kitty, for all the retail opportunities the brand brings.
My rather uninspiring dinner. Its chicken, and either octopus or squid or probably cuttlefish, with a heap of onion, and an egg thats stuck to the metal grill thing its served on, which makes eating with chopsticks fun.
This is a newly opened area in Central Taipei that was just in the Wall Street Journal this week. Its a heap of restored warehouses for activities people pretend to enjoy.
Theres a French film festival, hot yoga, lots of art studios selling screen printed crap, restaurants selling qinoa and picking fresh herbs out of a plant pot, little bars that specialize in craft beer with Taiwanese people sitting there drinking bubble tea.
Thats not to say it isnt a nice area! Its unique in Taipei thats for sure, and located on land that must be worth many millions.
Next up is the huge computer market area. The actual market building is in the next photo, its all indoors and massive.
I will probably come back for a better look if I get time. Not sure why. People in Taiwan still have brand loyalty to specific motherboard and RAM companies.
The rest of the world has an ipad.
This is looking towards Taipei 101 along one of the wider main roads, under the metro which is raised in this section.
On one corner I spotted a SOGO department store, 15 floors, with a big glass atrium on the top floor, I thought this might make for a good photo....
Half way up the SOGO, and look closely, this isnt for childrens clothing and accessories, its for poodles and assorted other small dogs.
Eventually I made it to the top floor, only to find they have completely blocked their glass atrium which would have an awesome view with an enormous plastic Japanese garden.
Bizzarre! Theres three levels of restaurants looking out into this area, and instead of a view of the city and mountains, they get to see a plastic re creation of a tea house.