Day 5 -- Taipei 101, Markets, Park, Some Culture

It's very late, so this will be an abbreviated post to be updated in the morning (it's now morning so it's all updated...). We finally got up to Taipei 101!  It was clear when we left the hotel, but by the time we took the MRT, bought tickets, waited in line, and got to the top, the clouds had started to roll in. It was still the best viewing day we've had, but it was marginal.  We enjoyed the view, and got that checked off our list.

We couldn't see the horizon, but we had a great view of the Taipei area.

Taipei 101 is built of sections with slight angles outward, so you can look almost straight down (if you want to).  Ryan and Jonathan are smiling here, but the views straight down were discombobulating to them.

Lots of Taiwanese self-promotion at Taipei 101.  It was the world's tallest building for a time, has the fastest elevator, and according to more than one sign, is mankind's "greatest engineering achievement."

Here is Taipei 101 from near our hotel -- it's striking to see a 1,600 foot tower when the surrounding buildings are only 100 feet tall.  

After Taipei 101, we took the MRT back to the Da'an district and went to the Jianguo Holiday Flower and Jade Market. This market put every other temporary market I've ever visited to shame.  It is huge!  One of the striking features is its location. The photo below shows the underside of an elevated expressway -- which has been repurposed to house the market for probably 2 miles.  It's amazing. Some of the market appears to have been permanently transformed, but it is clear to see that other portions are parking garages or even traffic lanes during the week.

Note the canvas walls -- these came in handy a bit later on.

 The market is divided into sections.  These are the entrances.  Each section is huge by itself.

 Jade and stone dealers as far as the eye can see.

While mom toured the markets, dad and the kids went to Da'an Forest Park where the boys made friends with two brothers from Oklahoma whose family has lived in Taipei for five years.  Jonathan and the younger boy Seth were two peas in a pod -- instantly competing to see who could sound more like Gollum from the Hobbit.  The older boy Kendrick is homeschooled, but Seth attends public schools -- he's fluent in Mandarin at this point, and served as an impromptu interpreter/guide for Jonathan and Ryan.

Shelley joined us for a spell and we chatted with Jennifer, the boys' mom about living in Taiwan, the pressure on kids to perform academically, the kindness of the people, the political issues of the day, and raising two boys.

We then returned to the markets to follow-up on some things Shelley had seen.  From a shopping perspective, this was a flop.  The kids were fried and significant whining ensued. From a weather perspective, returning to the markets was a great idea, because the skies opened up and we witnessed a classic tropical cloudburst:

 Not that it slowed down these bicyclists one bit -- talk about multi-tasking!

The cloudburst ran its course after 20-30 minutes, so we dodged puddles back to our hotel, took a short rest, changed into slightly better clothes (jeans and collared shirts), and headed off to a shabu-shabu dinner (cook it yourself at the table, kind of like fondue but cooking in broth instead of oil) and then to the "Taiwan Eye" for an evening performance consisting of two shows: traditional puppetry and traditional drama with dancing and acrobatics. Great performers, even better translations!

Here's the shabu-shabu dinner.  The boys are starting to get adventurous -- we cooked chicken, beef strips, cabbage, tofu, corn-on-the-cob, taro, squash, krab (with a "k"), dumpings, noodles.  Confusing, but good.

We got to the theater just in time for the puppet show to begin:

The puppetry was impressive -- even the boys were enthralled during the "playing with a ball" scene when the little boy puppet was made to toss the ball back and forth between his hands, juggle the ball with his feet like a soccer ball, and then toss it into the air and catch it.

We got to take a picture with the cast during intermission.  We almost taught them to do a shaka, but left it with the standard Asian peace sign from guy on the right.

One of the downsides of being on the far side of the world is that due to time zone differences, sporting events take place in the middle of the night, so I'll just say one "Go Sounders!" before I go to bed.

Late Update:  Sounders won 4-1 while we slept.  All is well with the world.  

Late, Late Update:  Shelley reported her first "Malia Pick-up Day Logistics Angst" dream last night. In the dream, we walked in, they turned over Malia, turned around and walked out.  No pictures, no food, no clothes, no foster family, no info.  Even in her dream, she knew we could deal with it ("as long as Malia is with us, everything else doesn't matter..."), so her reaction was half-nightmare, have bemused.