Day 18: to Taipei

Got out of bed about 10 from coughing and sneezing and needing to pee. I had slept about 12 hrs, which was nice, but felt probably about the same as the morning before – achy, fevery, and maybe a bit more congested. I don’t really remember coughing much in the middle of the night, so that’s good. I uploaded some photos, forced down one of the cakes from Kaohsiung (like pound cake w/ paste in the center) and a mochi (green bean) to take some drugs, drank some water and airborne. We packed a little. Amanda went and got our breakfast, and I ate the luo2 bo1 gao1 but didn’t have the appetite for the sandwich. Looked good – Amanda said it was like a French toast sandwich (looked like a club sandwich w/ French toast for bread and diff innards than a club). Watched some of xmen 2 on tv. Then about 11:30 we headed out.

Very hot out compared to our super air conditioned room, but it actually felt better to be in the sun a bit. Though, then I got sweaty and that was more unpleasant. I bought train tix to Taipei (455NT each). side note b/c I think I forgot to include before: Kaohsiung to Jhiben was like 300NT and Jhiben to Hualien like 400 – but these are estimates based on fuzzy memory… I could be like 50-100NT plus/minus. During the ticket buying, Amanda went down the street to get some bubble tea. I taught her the Chinese words, but it was going to be interesting to see whether they still sounded right by the time she arrived at the bubble tea store. I ate my sandwich while waiting, sitting, trying to be less sweaty. She got back about 12 mins before our train, in a sweat. It was apparently more difficult to get to the street we had bought bubble tea from before b/c it didn’t cross the main street where the station was – so she ended up having to go up the street our hotel was (basically going around). It was kind of a far walk, but the lady at the store was really nice and helped her w/ the pronunciation. Amanda also was happy that she’d been able to communicate “less tapiocas” to the lady through gestures. We got to our train w/ plenty of time, and it was a nice train (taroko limited express, which only would stop a few times before Taipei).

We were in the first car, seats 14 and 15, which as it turned out were not next to each other (it’s like evens one side odds other). I tried to sit in 13, but a girl came over and claimed it and displaced me w/o asking if I wanted to switch w/ her. So I went to my ocean-side window seat next to this old man who offered to switch w/ Amanda if she wanted. I figured maybe I’d give her a break from my sicky germs but felt a little bad for the man next to me. I read a little. Watched the beautiful ocean and mtns go by – saw some big green mountains that dropped off into the ocean, plus the big island off the coast. We went through a lot of tunnels through the mountains, too. I read some, listened to some brandi carlile, drifted off to sleep while staring out into the sea…

We got to Taipei main station about 2:35pm, and I was still sleepy. It was thunderstorming out. After trying to wait it out for a few mins decided to go for it. Dashed out to catch a cab, and pretty much got soaked putting stuff in the trunk. I didn’t mind it though – felt like the rain was going to cool things off a bit. The cabbie told me to close the trunk softer next time. He was a little crabby but maybe warmed up to us a little. It was a pretty short cab ride to the First Hotel on Nanjing Dong Lu, but I was glad to be in a taxi and not walking from a subway station. Got in and tried to communicate that someone had booked our room for us, but they couldn’t find my name or her name (Helen tsai – aunt sandy’s friend scott’s wife) anywhere. We tried calling her, but no answer. They gave us a room for the price she’d negotiated anyway. And as I was sorting through that stuff, Jason and Rella showed up, so it was perfect. When we got upstairs, Helen soon called on the hotel phone to let me know that she’d actually booked it through a travel agency, and that she had them call the front desk to figure everything out. So all was good and I didn’t need to try and call her back again to tell her what had happened.

We relaxed for a bit, I read some and fell asleep. For maybe about an hour. Then the sandos called and were famished, so we met them downstairs around 5:30 to head to Din Tai Fung. I forgot my camera, dammit! But it was ok, I took a few shots of them making dumplings w/ my iphone, and those guys got some pics and vids. The process here is very hurried. I felt like I was moving in slow motion compared to everyone. You get a number and an order slip. You fill out the quantities of whatever you want (it’s in Chinese, but they have a numbering system as well as English names and pictures posted on the outside window. It’s a really narrow small first floor area that is mainly kitchen, but they have 4 floors of seating above. The hostesses and waitresses/waiters talked really fast. Ok, so after you fill out your order, you give it to the hostesses so they can start getting your order ready even before you sit. The numbers moved along pretty quickly (one hostess announces numbers but there’s also 2 number displays out front where everyone is waiting). Then you pick up the carbon copy of the order form when they call your number and tell you which floor to go to. We were seated on 3. They had hot tea waiting for us, and made our place settings as we sat down. There was a little basket w/ a brown cloth cover for our bags. And things came out pretty fast. We got cucumbers, za jiang mian, 2 orders of xiao long bao, veggie dumplings, shrimp and egg fried rice. And we ended up adding an order of xiao long bao. Mm. I actually like having a sliver or two of ginger here in my vinegar/soy mix w/ some chilis – I think it accentuates the natural flavors of the soup dumplings. Normally I can’t eat ginger at all b/c it’s too strong. Super delicious, and our total was like 1200NT.

Had to head back to the hotel for a bathroom break and to get my camera that I forgot but wanted to have for our trip to Shi Lin Ye Shi.

It was packed there. And huge. I’d forgotten how big it is. Right next to the good old Jian Tan station. Driving by the Grand Hotel, I had memories of playing Killers in the lobby w/ a bunch of kids at loveboat. We walked around window shopping. I might have to get a couple shirts later, but didn’t feel like buying anything today. Jason got some shoes. It didn’t seem like any of the stores allowed bargaining, which kinda sucked. I didn’t try at any of the mini shops that set up in the walkways, but maybe it would work at those.