Sunday October 8, 2000
Today's agenda was to get out of the city. But before that, mama treated us
(Baba, Russ and me) to the best dim-sum I ever had at a really nice restaurant. We
were half an hour early to the restaurant which was located inside a large departement
store. By the time the restaurant opened for business, the entrace was crowded with
people wanting to get in. Not surprisingly the restaurant was packed within minutes,
we were lucky that we got there early and got our names on the top of the waiting list.
The food was excellent, even better than the best dim-sum in Boston's Chinatown.
Hmm, just remembering it makes my mouth water.
After dim-sum we decided to take the subway to "Be-Tan", a lake and a popular
tourist place even for the Taiwanese. I vaguely remember the name of the place from
novels that I read when I was little. The weather was still hot and humid, but
slightly more tolerable than the day before. There were little food stands set up
all along the road leading up to the bridge on the lake. I always missed these food
stands in Taiwan which you'll never see anywhere in the US. Russ and I got into a
pedal boat and went around the lake for about 45 minutes while my parents walked along the
lake where hundreds of food shops were open for business.
Baba and Mama sitting across from Russ and me in the subway train
Taken at: 1:26 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
The road leading up to the bridge at Be-Tan
Taken at: 1:36 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
Me trying to figure out how to change Baba's camera to Panorama view
Taken at: 1:40 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
I don't even remember Russ taking this picture
Taken at: 1:44 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
A view of the lake and padel boats from the bridge
Taken at: 1:45 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
Taken at: 2:08 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
Russ and I in the pedal boat
Taken at: 2:17 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
A view of the bridge from the pedal boat, the bridge for automobiles is behind it
Taken at: 2:30 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
By the time we left Be-Tan it was already in the middle of the afternoon. My father
wanted to go home and take his afternoon nap, so my mother and him got off at their subway
stop while Russ and me continued on to go to the CKS Memorial square. There was a
big crafts show going on at the square. We visited all the booths and I
counterplated getting some of the very interesting stuff they're selling. Alot of
the people came from Southern Taiwan and brought crafts that reflected their local culture
and practices. There were quite a few booths operated by people from Nantou, where
the 921 earthquake had done the most damage. Nantou had been a very popular tourist
place before the earthquakes destroyed the area; the people there are still struggling to
get back to a normal pace of life.
Tool used to grind rice into powder is demonstrated at the crafts show
Taken at: 3:54 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
The booths set up for the crafts show
Taken at: 3:55 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
Maybe because of the crafts show or because it was a Sunday, the CKS Memorial square had
alot more people than the day before. We went into the CKS Memorial and had a look
around. The memorial was built in honor of Chang Kai-shek, the Republic of China
President at the time when the KMT lost the Chinese civil war to the Communists and took
everything to Taiwan. CKS was a military man and governed his people with a strong
arm. Taiwan was under martial law until 1987, by then CKS had died for many years.
Ever since martial law was lifted and Taiwan was moving quickly toward a democratic
form of government, much attention had been given to exposing what the KMT and CKS had
done to the people in the earlier years. I wonder if the CKS Memorial means much to
anyone anymore besides being a tourist attraction. It's almost ironic that the very
thing that honors CKS is only a few blocks away from the 228 Memorial garden which
commemorates an injustice carried out by CKS.
A remake of the CKS office, if you draw a line down the middle of Mr. CKS's face,
you'll see that the room is almost symmetrical
Taken at: 4:43 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
We were starting to get tired by the time we finished touring the CKS Memorial, but we
wanted to check out a night market right on the same subway line. It took us a very
long time to find the night market since there was no sign to indicated its location.
The night market is as I remembered as a child, but alot narrower and more chaos.
It wasn't enough that the place was crowded with people, scooters were constantly
trying to find their ways through the crowds. Russ almost got ran over by a scooter
whose driver was paying attention to a stand on the side. Eating in a small
restaurant in Taiwan is an experience in itself. It is common that the dishes you
order are not available and the waitress will try to suggest dishes that have very little
resemblance to the one you desire. It is also very common to be moved around between
tables more than once to make room for other people, and sometimes even share a table with
total strangers. The waitresses of the restaurant we visited were sprinting, not
walking, to get food, deliver food, get orders, move people...
On the way to the night market
Taken at: 7:05 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
By the time we left the night market and got ourselves on a subway train heading back to
the hotel, we were both extremely tired and sleepy (due to jetlag). My father had
told us that his house is only about a 10 min walk from the subway station; boy was he
wrong! It was a 25 min walk which felt more like an hour. Most of time we were
putting our lives on the line sharing the road with scooters and cars because the
pedestrain walks were blocked off completely by parked scooters. It was a miracle
that we survived the walk. We both took a shower when we got back to the hotel and
clapsed on the bed.
Our room in the Shangarila hotel, is this cool or what?
Taken at: 9:22 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
The room came with a small fridge, instant coffe and tea bags and a little
"bar" where you can get hot and cold drinking water
Taken at: 9:24 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
An exhausted Russ attempts to write his daily journal
Taken at: 9:24 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
I loved the extra-large sink
Taken at: 9:26 PM, Sunday 8 October 2000
