Chaing Kai Shek Memorial<\/u>
\nI woke up extremely late. 15:30. Actually Bob woke me up and we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It was actually a rather pretty day, warm, and not raining, so I was feeling kinda bad for sleeping most of it. Because their New year\u2019s festivities are going on for until the lantern or light festival two weeks later, the entire complex was full with people celebrating lights, and light exhibits. There were a lot of kids playing with a flying UFO toy with bright LEDS. They actually looked like UFOs!
\nI tried photographing them but I couldn\u2019t capture the actual thrill in seeing so many of them flying around at the same time.
\nThere was also a vendor selling them there, He had them in Blue, Green and Red.
\nI had to buy one. Of each color. Just because I couldn\u2019t decide which is better. Bob bargained with the guy, because he bought one too, so he gave us a good price. I actually cut my finger when playing with it the next day.
\nThe entire complex is very large. It\u2019s in the middle of the city, and has a huge open space there to play with those UFO lights. And practice danding. Think of Kikar Malchey Israel (Aka Kikar Rabin) and then multiply by 30. The memorial hall is it least as big as the Tel-Aviv city hall and the doors are HUGE. Just Like many Asian temples. It\u2019s a wonder how they got to open such things before the invention of the electrical motor…
\nI manage to do a lot of experimental night photography that evening. There were a lot of nice subjects like the UFO\u2019s and Pagodas, and light exhibits, and since digital photography is so great in the sense that you can experiment with it so much and just see the results instantly without it costing you money, I got a little wild with it.<\/p>\n
Chiufen<\/u>
\nPhoebe suggested the day before, that we drive to Chiufen (pronounced: Jiu f`en). I couldn\u2019t find it in my tour guide book, because I looked for it in \u201cj\u201d and not in \u201cc\u201d. But they said that it was very close to Keelung, so after a while I just tried to read about the place that comes in the book right after Keelung. Suprisingly it was Chiufen.
\nChiufen is a nice little old town, built on a hillside which overlooks the Taiwan coast. It used to be a mining town, for there was a very big gold mine nearby, when it ran out, the place became a ghost town. In the 90\u2019s a movie director made about it, and people got nostalgic, and they rebuilt the place into a very nice tourist attraction. Coffee shop, or actually Tea shop, nice expensive restaurant with a great view, and a lot, but A LOT of gift shops.
\nI, of course, was a very good costumer and bought gifts at a few of them. Very nice and cheap Chinese toys. The whole town somewhat resembles \u201cRosh-pina\u201d. Small vacation area, with narrow streets going uphill, and the other stuffs too. All that was missing from Rosh-pina were the local 60\u2019s people you find in rosh pina, and the fact that there aren\u2019t so many Chinese restaurants there.
\nWe sat down at a nice place, outside on the balcony, with a view of the entire area. It\u2019s too bad we only went there at night time, since the views are supposed to be more spectacular during daytime. Bob said we\u2019ll go there again, when Lee is here. And Nelson also said he\u2019d never been there (or so I understood) so it\u2019s a good chance for him to come next time.
\nWhile sitting on the balcony a few local fired some firecrackers which I managed to successfully photograph, and also a red hot air balloon which they traditionally fly for good luck. You\u2019ll write something on the balloon, and if flies high enough it will come true. Bob said that he used to fly those when he was a kid and they got up really high some time.
\nWe drove back to Taipei and went to eat some \u201cCongi\u201d or \u201cKonjee\u201d, not sure how to write it correctly. It\u2019s basically the same thing to Chinese as Humos is for us. It\u2019s what they eat after going out, in those places that are open 24 hours. It actually was considered breakfast once, but now you eat it at 1 am. That\u2019s when we ate it. It\u2019s basically a rice porridge, very tasteless, but you get many side dishes with a strong taste that counters that. And you eat them together and it\u2019s very nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chaing Kai Shek Memorial I woke up extremely late. 15:30. Actually Bob woke me up and we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It was actually a rather pretty day, warm, and not raining, so I was feeling kinda bad … Continue reading