Taipei Day One

12:59am, 住都大飯店
Wah, what a long day today! Morning call was at 6am, with breakfast at 6:45am and off we went towards Taipei at 7:30am. CLM's wake up times and nap times were once again severely interrupted throughout the day. As soon as he'd fall asleep, we'd have to wake him up to get off the bus. Poor little guy.

Visiting Taipei for the second time as well, I also found the city to be a little different from the last time I was here. Prices have definitely inflated just like Taichung but I'm glad we're going to spend a little bit more time here to see more of the city.

Big scale model of 忠正紀念堂

The detail! So reminds me of work, LOL~

Our first stop this morning was 忠正紀念堂, a very very big museum commemorating the first president of Taiwan. It was raining when we got there so it was definitely chilly. After walking from the bus through the courtyard into the museum, I saw that they had a Teresa Tang exhibit on. So random, lol. I wasn't too interested in the history lesson, especially from the big headed, country loving tour guide of ours so I wandered off by myself.

More interested in 鄧麗君 than 蔣介石, I wandered off and saw these cuties on display

After the museum, we were sent to a ghetto pearl factory where some guy tried to educate us with a really outdated slideshow and his really dated humour. Before arriving at the factory, we were "educated" by the stupid tour guide to at least appear enthusiastic and he gave his reverse psychology sales pitch which kinda pissed me off. The sales ladies all tried to get me to buy some pearl powder to give to CLM and I really wanted to tell them to buzz off. For once, CLM's fussing was actually well received as it was an excuse for us to leave the factory and wait on the bus!

Lunch was next on the itinerary and although it wasn't anything to write home about, the place was actually clean. One of the waitresses saw that I had a stroller and offered me the staff elevator. So nice of her! While on this trip, I try to avoid drinking too much liquids as washrooms aren't exactly the cleanest and most are squat toilets. 

Next stop was 忠烈祠 at 2 pm, where we saw a bunch of soldiers exchange shifts. Sadly, it's like they were putting on a show with so many tourists snapping pictures and taking videos. That was a quick stop so we were back on the bus within half hour. Then we went to 故宮博物院 to see the cabbage and pork chop (lol) again, where CLM started a meltdown because we woke him up from his nap. Every corner I turned, there was someone with a "shh" sign either giving me dirty looks or actually coming up to me to ask me to shut him up. So I had to leave the group, leave the exhibits, find the nursing station and calmed the fat-lan-jaa-ing CLM. Because I had left without the stroller, the next half hour was brutal as I sweated through the really busy museum to find my group again, the entire time making sure CLM kept quiet. Of course he wasn't really interested in my holding him and had to wriggle around to see everything and everyone around him. I wanted to see the cabbage again and I knew the group would eventually get there so I found the exhibit and waited around for them to show up. I was so glad to see mom and plopped CLM back into the stroller. 

Since it was Sunday, the museum was packed with locals as well as what seemed like 40 tour groups. I didn't get a chance to see anything else and we had to leave.  Sigh.

All smiles, after a complete meltdown. Thank goodness for nursing rooms!

In the last week or so, CLM learned to 放電 so everywhere we went, he attracted many females, young and old!

古宮 was followed by a stop to a famous pineapple cake bakery where we spent almost $100CAD on souvenirs. Six boxes of twelve...freaking expensive bite sized cakes!

By far Mom's favourite highlight of Taiwan: FRUITS!

Once again, no junk food for me! :( What's the purpose of this trip again??

Yet another 夜市 awaits us to visit and this one's changed too! 士林夜市 is no longer in a covered outdoor space but moved into a 新街市 type building. The food level is now underground with booths selling souvenirs and carnival type games on the ground level. We bought some fresh fruit and I got a bbt and a not so great 雪花冰. This 夜市 wasn't too busy when we went but I still didn't eat anything because we were told dinner was next and we were having AYCE hot pot. Sigh, me and junk food don't match this time around. Stupid thing was, hot pot was limited to an hour only and between trying to eat and keeping CLM from fussing, I didn't get to eat much. 

Hot pot! Even though it is nothing compared to HK, I actually liked the variety

The couple at the table next to us felt sorry for CLM (probably wanted to shut him up, lol) and offered him an entire bag of rice crackers! We wanted to only take one packet but they insisted on giving us the whole bag. Wah, such nice people, them Taiwanese.

During the entire hour long bus ride to our hotel, the tour guide just would not stop talking, or rather bragging, about his life story. The entire time CLM was fidgeting and I really wanted to sock em. Both, lol.

Okay, time to hit the sack and I'm just gonna forget about the 3, yes 3, cups of 燒仙草 that the narcissistic tour guide gave us.

Gotta recharge my minuscule EQ and hopefully won't blow up at CLM tomorrow, on his first birthday! Omg! (2:02am)

More BBT, I can get used to this!