Had an up and down day today. Literally. And figuratively.
Up at 7:30 to do photos and blogging. Breakfast downstairs then left some time after 10:00.
Breakfast bar at the Ambience Hotel
Gardens outside Taipei City Hall
Walking along Songzhi Road
Our first stop was Taipei 101. And we had an amazing day for it. The view was spec-fricking-tacular. Totally amazing.
But.
The whole rigmarole of getting up there was a pain. Buying tickets was easy enough, but they give you allocated times that you can go up. We got there at 11:30 (after stopping at Starbucks for a coffee for Stu), but our ticket was for 12:00. So we had to sit around waiting for half an hour. And the mall underneath the tower is a brandname only mall, so there's nothing for normal people like us to look at. So we just sat for half an hour. Then you go queue to get through the time check, then queue again to get the lift. I think they want to restrict the numbers of people up there, but why they don't let you just queue as you get there I don't know. It was all pretty painful, but we got up around 12:15.
Entrance to Taipei 101
Stu with the 'Lucky Red' Damper Baby
Boring shopping mall under Taipei 101
View north-west from Taipei 101
View north-west from Taipei 101
Looking north towards Songshan airport
Taipei 101
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
Taipei Arena
Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and the Taipei Dome
Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall
Taipei Dome
Songshan Airport
Taipei 101 sundial - taken on the iPhone
Looking north - taken on the iPhone
Looking north - taken on the iPhone
Taipei 101 Damper Ball
Taipei 101 Damper Ball and the 'Smart Silver' Damper Baby
Outside viewing area at Taipei 101
View west using random camera from outside
View north-west using random camera from outside
View north-west using random camera from outside
Top of the outside observation deck
Top of Taipei 101
Model of World Trade Centre and Taipei 101
Looking dowwwwwwwn
Came back down (more queuing for lifts) around 13:20.
Went to the food court for lunch but it was super crowded and we had to wait quite a while. Even at Mos Burger they gave me a flashing order thingie to wait for a single burger. Sheesh. So there goes another hour.
Then I went outside to get a photo of the building in the sun. And this is where I discovered my camera was still on night mode settings from last night. -1 exposure on all my photos up the tower. All ruined. So upsetting :(:(:(
Taipei 101 - -1 AV
Taipei 101 - normal AV
Top of Taipei 101
Taipei 101
Taipei 101
I also discovered there was a station *right there*. This wasn't on the main two maps we had been using, because the line is so new. So we could have saved ourselves a fairly long walk in the heat (both directions - because Stu wanted to sit down and have a coffee at Starbucks near the first station so he'd gone back separately).
Election rally - this one for Candidate 6
So eventually we got back to the station near our hotel, and it was like 15:30. So doing just one thing took up most of the day. And of course by this time we were running out of energy. So the thing that Stu wanted to do today (wander through the "creative park"), we didn't really have the energy for. So we were both feeling pretty bad at this point.
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Manhole cover
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
Huashan 1914 Creative Park
We got back to the hotel and chilled briefly. I toyed with the idea of going up Elephant Mountain by myself, but Stu said we'd go another night. So I did a bit of a wander through the Guanghua Electronics plaza. But it wasn't too exciting.
Footpaths are for scooter parking
Guanghua Electronics Plaza
Guanghua Electronics Plaza
Came back and Stu had put on some washing which was nice. But it took forever. And ever. And ever. We'd been planning to go to the night markets, but it just got too late. At 21:00 we gave up waiting for everything to dry and went out to get some dinner. We got beer and pizza. Because we're classy like that.
Dominos parmesan stuffed crust pizza
Dominos parmesan stuffed crust pizza
Finished watching The Matrix then went to bed completely frustrated with the day.