Taipei Day 2

A view of Danshui River from my room the next morning.

Breakfast included. Started my day with western munch.

Mom and grandaunt.

Hello, from me!! :D

We had a one day tour with Polo Travel but realized it was too boring and we left the tour after lunch. So we actually missed the hotspring bath at Beitou and sight seeing at Jiufen.

The first destination they brought us to was the National Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, also known as Liverty Square. Taiwan's highest movie award ceremony, the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards is held annually in the Memorial Hall Auditorium.

 

Oopz! Eyes shut. >.<

Thank God for a sunny weather that day! Temperature varied between 16-22 degree celcius when I was there. The temperature fluctuation when strong wind raged was pretty tolerable but was surprised to see the Taiwanese dressed up in thick winter clothings and boots like it was really cold.

Stage for some grand concerts I think.

The building where grand functions are held.

The garden.

Whee!! I LOVE TAIPEI!!

Martyrs’ Shrine. A magnificent Chinese architecture with the look of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Beijing's Forbidden City. It has a well maintained environment and a quiet and solemn atmosphere. 

With grandma.

Of course, we won’t miss the famous honor guard changing ceremony that takes place every hour!

The crowd watching the ceremony was massive, I chose to sit and not watch.

Then we were brought to this shop where the Taiwanese aborigines sells their local products like lingzhi and royal jelly. They are believed to have come from the Malay archipelago where most of them can speak Malay like we Malaysians.

The National Palace Museum is an art gallery and museum built around a permanent collection centered on Chinese artifacts.

We were given a headphone each so that the tour guide could speak to us through his mic to avoid noise disturbance cuz the museum is really crowded. Among the five notable items he showed was the Jadeite Cabbage, Meat-shaped Stone, QingMing Scroll, Carved Olive-stone Boat and One Hundred Horses. Photography is strictly prohibited there.

We were given an additional half an hour to appreciate other artifacts but it was rather a bore to me, I left earlier to see no evil!! XD

I'm not quite a person who appreciates history, how sad.

The Fengshui Master was explaining about how people get luck after touching this dragon with a lion's body made out of jade. Pet its head for 3 rounds and not more, then rub its body as many times as possible and finally grasp the luck and keep it in your pockets. 5 minutes into the shop, I went out. -_- Not to my interest since I'm not superstitious about things like that.

Buffet BBQ lunch with steamboat. This is the worst meal you can ever imagine included in our tour. We left thereafter to Jiantan and Shihlin on our own. Mom wanted to buy some baking supplies and I found this shop online which is located somewhere near Shihlin. To our surprise, we found out later that the owner of this bakery supply is my mom's favorite author for a recipe book. It was like meeting a superstar! Alright, at least someone famous. >.<

Had our dinner at Shihlin Night Market and strolled around that area before we went back to the hotel. Stinky toufu I had no guts to try cuz I think it's much more pungent than the one I took in Connaught. Was loitering in Ximending for my own pleasure at night, you know what that was. :D