Taipei 101 with Pictures

Our last completely free weekend in Taipei. Next Saturday is Kindergarten Graduation and the following Saturday is Family Fun Day and the Saturday after that, we'll be back in Canada! Wow, the time sure has gone by quickly.

I decided to go down the stairs to our breakfast stand for the last time. Michael always insists on ordering a "burger" there even though he never eats more than two bites. He also always gets a chocolate milk from the 7-11 first.


Here's the fresh pork stall right beside the breakfast stand. I thought I would take a picture as it is so typical in Taiwan. This is how people buy their pork. And no, there is no ice or refridgeration at all. However, they do usually have strings attached to a slow moving fan to keep flies away.


Since it was another beautiful day, and I had never been up to the Taipei 101 observatory, and Robert had forgotten the camera when he took the boys up last time, I decided to take a look. Ever since going with Robert, Michael has been obsessed with 101, so he was very excited to be able to go again.


The bottom few floors are upscale shops, such as Dior, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Tiffany & Co., etc... Most of the jewelry shops don't even have open doors. You have to be buzzed in by an attendant.

We found our way past all the designer shops to the fifth floor where the world's fastest elevator was. We bought my ticket (Michael was free)and went straight up more than eighty floors in 37 seconds. We got out and started walking around the indoor observation area. I have never seen more white people (other than at church) all in one place in Taipei before. Yet, Michael was still a magnet for any locals that happened to be up there. I know it's a terrible picture, but I had to get at least one shot of people taking pictures of Michael. This woman had to bribe Michael with candy before she could pry him off of my leg for a picture. I'm sure her picture didn't turn out much better. Who takes pictures of people right in front of a bright window?


I took a couple of pictures of the view. This is a view of the part of Taipei that we have spent the most time in.


This is the part of Taipei where we live.


Since we were being "tourists," we went all the way and bought a postcard from the gift shop, just so that we could mail it from the "highest post office box in the world."


Then we walked up to the outdoor observatory, passing by a little piece of home on the way (the CN tower).


They had these binoculars everywhere, but I never gave Michael money for them despite his pleadings, as he wouldn't know what to do with them. The bars behind Michael are the ones that Robert referred to earlier when he said that Jeremy could fit between them.


We walked all the way around and then went to see the five minute video presentation that shows the building of Taipei 101 and a bit of the fireworks from this past New Year's celebration. I had heard that it was a great show, but that you couldn't breathe because there were so many people on every street with a view of 101. I was glad that I could just watch it on video. A much better view, and much more comfortable. Michael watched the video twice, just so that he could see the fireworks part again.

Then we went to the floor below the observatory where they have the world's largest wind damper (don't ask me what it does - I don't know). It just looks like a huge gold ball suspended on wires to me. To get there, you walk through two darkened hallways with lit floors. The first hallway had a cosmos floor with comets shooting by and galaxies swirling around. The second looked like a cloudy sky, but as you stepped on it, the clouds would part to reveal the city of Taipei below. I thought the floors were a lot more interesting than the damper...




Then Michael wanted to go up two floors to the outdoor observatory to watch the video presentation again. There were more people there this time, but Michael just ran in, plopped himself down on the front row and started jabbering away to the white man beside him. There was no room for me, so I saw a few rows behind. The man was a little surprised, but I don't think he spoke English anyways, so he just ignored Michael. Of course, all the Chinese there thought he was much more interesting than the video and watched him talking away the whole time.

We ended up staying there a lot longer than I expected. Of course, we had to have the Movenpick ice cream (you got a coupon for it with your lift ticket) as well. Very yummy. We are definitely very spoiled in Taiwan.