7/10-7/12
Kenneth and I
slipped off to Taipei for the day yesterday. We arrived in Taoyuan
after what felt like a really long day of travel. Dawen was saying
how the location of HKG, while good for landings and such (the
airport used to be in Kowloon – much more accessible for everyone
involved), makes a short hop across the pond to Taiwan into an
all-day ordeal. Plus, there was a typhoon a-brewin' yesterday.
We saw Baba's new
place in Hsinchu, which has 4 bedrooms and two stories. The place is
huge. And now, between Mama and Baba, they have three primary places
of residence – Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, and Hong Kong. The joke is Mama
has enough tea sets for all of those places, and she's always
wondering which residence she will leave tea sets. Ok, that's
probably funnier in my head.
Anyway. Kenneth and
I got into Taipei via HSR around 6pm last night, and went to the
Landis Hotel, checked in (you actually sit down at the check-in desk
to check in – I very rarely, if ever, see hotels like this – the
Landis is very hoity toity. There is a doorman who is in – I'm not
kidding – a gray top hat and tux). Barry sent me some almost-final
mixes for the EP, so I listened quickly, then ran off to dinner with
Nancy and Grace – we had shabu-shabu at this place called Green and
Safe – except Nancy and I had a really hard time finding it in the
rain from the street.
We went to this beer
place after, where everything is on tap, and the bartenders come out
from behind to counter to mingle and ask customers what they want.
Then this morning, I
got up early and went to get some egg pancake and soy milk – my
breakfast date with John Grisham. Went back to hotel – Kenneth was
still sleeping – and I had a few hours to kill before meeting up
with Dawen. So I headed to the Taipei Museum of Fine Art (Top Hat
Tuxedo guy told me that might be a good place). Found some U-Bikes on
the way, rented one, and was off!
The Museum of Fine
Art was very interesting – western style painting, but Taiwan
content – of Taiwan families, farmers, streets – it was really
cool seeing that impressionist style of painting, but have the
content matter be not European. There was also an exhibit on
environmentalism upstairs. Oh, and because it was Saturday, it was
free for students. Booyah!
Lunch with Dawen and
Chris, then a cat cafe. Now on HSR back to Kaohsiung. Which is a lot
more expensive than I remember, but I guess that makes sense.
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