Days 5 & 6 - Return to Taipei

Our stay in Tainan passed all too quickly, and it was soon time for us to head back to Taipei. We opted to take a cab, rather than the slow train, to the HSR station, figuring that would be more efficient and easier than lugging bags through the train station. We enjoyed another quiet and comfortable ride back to Taipei, and we took a cab back to a different hotel in Taipei, as this time around we were staying at the W Hotel. We had stayed in the older part of town earlier in the week at the Sheraton, but the W is on the east side, in the newer part of town, only a couple of blocks blocks north Taipei 101. We got to the hotel around 1:30 or so, and we had forgotten to call ahead to request an early check in. Unfortunately, our room was not quite ready, and so we left our bags and walked to the mall next door and found a Thai restaurant where we managed to kill an hour or so. After lunch, we headed back to our hotel to finally check in to our room, which Gavin had managed to upgrade to an amazing, swanky, ginormous suite on the 14th floor, using his hard-earned Starwood hotel points. The three of us spent a good ten minutes running around the suite checking it out, opening drawers and cabinets, and snapping photos of the bedroom... the living room... the bathroom... as well as the view. No view of 101 from our room--we faced west, but it was still an awesome urban, cityscape view of the surrounding tall gleaming buildings, and the hotel’s sparkling, mosaic infinity pool below.

Pool view from our hotel room.

It was late in the afternoon, past the normal nap time for Ewan, and so when we finally had housekeeping bring us linens to make up his bed on the sofa, we had sort of missed the window, so to speak. Ewan was restless due to the excitement, and though he eventually dozed off, some noisy passing sirens woke him up soon after, and he didn’t sleep well or long. We figured that this day may be a bit of a write off in terms of sight seeing, given travel days tend to eat up a big portion of the day. We decided to take a break and enjoy the lovely hotel and its amenities, so Gavin took Ewan to the pool while I went to--you guessed it--the gym. We did manage to set out later that evening for a underwhelming bite to eat at a food court in the nearby mall (that phrase, incidentally is redundant, as malls are pretty much nearby everywhere here). We enjoyed some nice night views of 101 before turning in for the evening.

Night view of Taipei 101.

The next morning we planned to do more activities geared toward Ewan, and set out for The Children’s Museum of Transport, which looked like the perfect place to take him. We went down to the concierge to have her write the address down to give to the taxi driver. The look of confusion on her face should have been a warning, but we didn’t know any better. We rode in the taxi for 10 minutes or so, until the driver dropped us off in front of a complex that had absolutely no indication of it being a transportation museum, pointing and waving us off, saying “over there!” We found ourselves in a large complex of buildings and lovely grounds called the “Hakka Cultural Museum.” We wandered around, looking at the directory sign, and inquiring in the building, where museum volunteers helped us determine that we were indeed at the correct address. A quick Google search on Gavin’s phone revealed that unfortunately, the Children’s Museum of Transport had met its demise a couple of years ago. I flipped to the copyright page of our guidebook, which listed a copyright date of 2008. Oops. Note to self: ALWAYS call or look up if the place is still in business. Things change quickly here in Asia. Lesson learned. Disappointed, we figured since we were there, we may as well explore the grounds, which were nice, but not terribly exciting, and the weather wasn’t ideal for photos. We moved on, deciding to head to Da’an Park, which looked to be a few blocks away.  It turned out to be a few LONG blocks away.

Stopping for a break at a little city block playground.

The air was extremely warm and muggy, and so when we saw a tiny playground across the street from a street-corner 7-Eleven, we stopped so Ewan could intermingle with local kiddos on the slide, and I could attempt to decipher the differences between the abundant selection of iced tea and other cold beverages in the convenient store's refrigerated case. After we refreshed ourselves, we pressed onwards and eventually reached Da’an Park, only to realize that the playground was at the exact opposite corner from where we entered this extensive green space. Oh well. We continued along the paths that meandered past banyan trees and green open spaces, and we watched squirrels scurry along, past groups of elderly people practicing tai chi, until we finally reached the Mother of All Playgrounds.

Excitedly heading toward the Mother of All Playgrounds in Da'an Park.

We gave Ewan some time to explore the huge play structure, and I pushed him on the swings for a while, but it was really too hot to be there in the sun. We were all tired and sweaty from our long walk, lunchtime and nap time were rapidly approaching, and Ewan really wanted to go back to 101 so we could go up to the top in the daytime. We caught a cab and headed back to 101, where we had a quick bite and attempted to buy tickets to go back up to the observatory, but the place was absolutely MOBBED with people. Massive tour groups thronged the area, and we learned that it was over an hour wait to go up. Once again, we had to give Ewan the regrettable news that we weren’t going to be able to do what we had planned/wanted, and he didn’t take it real well. Luckily, a trip to Cold Stone helped ease the sting of disappointment. More quality parenting, but hey, rules sometimes have to be relaxed when traveling! This indulgence bought us just the slightest amount of patience and cooperativeness, which Gavin and I took advantage of by snapping some great shots from the base of the building. The sun had actually revealed itself from the morning’s overcast shroud, and the light conditions were just perfect to capture some really lovely architectural images of the tower, soaring upwards into perfect blue skies, with our wide angle lenses.

For our final evening, Gavin had once again contacted Cathy and arranged to meet her, as well as a few other colleagues, for dinner. We agreed to meet at Din Tai Fung at the base of Taipei 101. Din Tai Fung is pretty much a Taiwanese institution, famous for steamed dumplings. The kitchen is the focal point of the restaurant, elevated in the center of the huge room, enclosed behind glass walls where a dozen or so men stood clad in white smocks, hats, aprons, and masks. Their heads were bent down, shoulders hunched, intent on the task of rolling out perfect floury discs of dough, then spooning the stuffing into the center of the wrapping and expertly pinching the little purses closed, before placing them in round bamboo trays to be steamed.

Dumpling makers, hard at work.

Our happy family, tummies full of dumplings!

Group photo with Jay, Cathy, Poweii and Scofield.

There were seven of us, including Cathy, Scofield, Powei, and Jay, and between us, I’m sure we put away at least a dozen trays of those delicious dumplings, along with fried rice, noodles and other vegetables. Unfortunately we couldn’t linger, however, as we had to get back to the hotel and pack our bags for our EARLY flight the next morning. It was the perfect ending to our week in Taiwan!