Hey everyone,
Yes, I know, I've been MIA again. I really never realized how eventful my life in Korea would be. Believe it or not some of my personal life drama has continued, but it seems to be winding down now, thankfully. I had a bit of work drama as well, but that also seems to be winding down. Anyway, back to my trip to Taiwan.
On Wednesday Greg couldn't go out with me anywhere in Taipei for work-related reasons, so I got directions to go to the National Palace Museum by myself. This museum is an art museum that houses almost 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts in its permanent collection. The history of it is pretty interesting. There is a Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing, and during the Communist takeover it was feared that the artifacts in this Beijing museum were in danger of destruction, so the artifacts were moved to Taiwan. However, of the original Palace Museum collection, it is estimated that only about a quarter of the original collection in Beijing is now in Taiwan. The pieces that were moved, though, represent some of the best pieces in the collection from Beijing.
The Taipei museum isn't huge, so apparently the artifacts are rotated every 3 months, so to see the whole collection takes about 12 years. When I went to the museum they also had a guest exhibition of religious art from Tibet. I don't have any pictures of anything because pictures inside weren't allowed.
One of the famous artifacts in the museum is something called the Jadeite Cabbage. It is a giant piece of jade that is carved to look like a piece of cabbage with 2 grasshoppers sitting on it. Continuing on the food theme there is another piece called the Meat-shaped Stone. It is a piece of jasper that has been carved to look like a piece of pork cooked in soy sauce. It's actually pretty realistic looking. Pictures of both can be found
hereThe front portion of the museum
A banner for the Tibet exhibit
This is another portion of the museum that was to the side of the main part. It is where the Tibet exhibition was
After the museum I went back to the MRT (subway) stop, and grabbed a bite to eat. I had previously eaten here, so I wanted to eat this again. It was this sort of tortilla bread thing that had egg, and some spices and leaves of some sort in it. It was delicious. It also only cost about $1.
I went back to the hostel and slept for a bit. Greg was going to come by later with a friend of his, Darren, and we were all going to go out clubbing with some other of Greg's friends. Darren had a motorbike, and I absolutely LOVE motorbikes. I love being behind someone who is driving a motorbike. Just being on it, the wind blowing through you as you speed by... it all feels amazing to me. And in Taiwan the traffic is interesting in that at the intersections they have a block of space designated at the very front for all of the motorbikes to convene when the light is red. So, when you're at a red light all the bikes get to weave forward and get into that block. Once the light turns green all the bikes speed off first, followed by the cars.
Apparently Taiwanese people love K-pop music. Well, as I am also a lover of K-pop, Greg took me to a club that played K-pop music. I was happy. The club was called Funky.
This club
From left to right: Darren (Taiwanese), Michael (German), Greg (American), Toby (Taiwanese), me
Afterwards Darren took me back to the hostel. Now, I need to mention something before I tell you how Darren helped me on the way back to the hostel.
In Taiwan there are a ridiculous amount of cockroaches. During the day you don't see them, but at night in streets and alleyways that are quiet they are out and about. I am terrified of cockroaches. Every night I'd run into one or two or more. Every. Single. Night. Anyone who reads this who knows me knows that I was in hell at night. Within 2 nights I started my habit of walking slowly at night, keeping my eye out for roaches so that I could run away. Now, the roaches were never inside (thankfully), but outside.... uuuugh.
Anyway, we crossed a wide street on the way back to the motorbikes after we left the club, and a huge cockroach was on the street. I freaked out (as I always do with those little buggers), and stopped dead in my tracks, too afraid to continue walking. Darren PICKED me up and CARRIED me across the street. Drove me to the club on a motorbike, loves K-pop, and protected me from evil roaches on the street? I was officially in love with him hahahaha
And so ended Day 3 in Taiwan.
-AALA