So, today I didnt climb any big mountain, just a hill.
Tomorrow will probably be a different story.
As a result there are not that many photos today, none the less I walked from 8AM until after 2PM stopping only for lunch.
Hopefully some strength will return to my legs for tomorrow!
In culinary news, I have discovered that I really like barley milk tea, whatever that is, and the red fleshed dragonfruit with the black bits, which you seemingly cant get in Australia.
I also discovered that old people that hang out on the nice hill like their music really loud, and they each have their own designated areas where their gang congregates, and that there may even be warring factions of old folks.
I saw a bunch of old men giving each other the evil eye across a disused badmington court. It was covered in leaves and overgrown weeds.
All the other courts, and there must have been 20, had nice nets, people playing, or people sitting on the court preparing food.
So I have come to the conclusion that this unused court is the DMZ between north and south senior Taiwanese citizens who come to the hill park each day to hang out and listen to music.
Those are the mountains I was up yesterday, I think only the one on the right. So lots more to go.
Heres that hotel again, behind which I aroused the suspicion of security yesterday.
This is the view from the old persons hill top retreat. If you enlarge and look at the hills in the background, about 3/4 of the way along you can see very big buildings on the top of the ridge.
I am intriuged by this.
After coming down from the hill, I came upon this place by accident, right at the changing of the guard.
If you look past the goose stepping guys with pretty yet fake guns, you can see tough guys in black suits.
Presumably these are the Taiwanese secret service, and they look like they mean business.
Some of them are carrying black padded bags, which I presume hold machine guns.
The whole procedure took about 20 minutes. Once 2 new guys were stood to attention on the wooden boxes, someone came along and rearranged them whilst they stood as statues.
Adjusting their gun, pants, belt, helmet, stance etc.
After another hours walk past a navy base in the middle of town that had a small duck pond, I arrived here, and realised I had been there before on my last trip.
No ferris wheel ride today though.
The basement had 20 good places to eat. I choose a simple soup. The beef was good, or whatever meat it was, but the noodles were too thin and too chewy.
I also ordered some different style dumplings, which came about 10 minutes after I had finished my soup.
And now it occurs me I have not even been into whats referred to as the city yet, so thats probably where I will walk to tonight.
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.