We arrived at Keelung port on Saturday, March 30 ready to get going and explore a tiny bit of Taiwan, the country formerly known as Formosa, that lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Taiwan Strait.
These guys were happy to pose for a picture for me in the terminal.
Nancy was our terrific tour guide for the day. She told us that when she was younger she had to pick an English name. After thinking about it, she chose the name Nancy because Ronald Reagan was the U.S. president at the time and she thought that maybe sometime she could be a president's wife. She was a character!
Nancy liked to use visuals to help us learn. Here's the map of Taiwan she had, Taipei is up at the northeast tip of the island.
The day before in Hong Kong we had been in a mini bus that had mini seats, you could comfortably fit 1.5 people on two seats. Needless to say they weren't the most comfortable. Today we had deluxe first class seating!
The seats were up high for great viewing, there was only one wide seat per side.
Super comfy seats as you can see from Jane demonstrating how they reclined. We were all wishing we could have this bus for our upcoming nine hours of driving in Beijing.
Nancy also tried to teach us a very little Chinese so that we could make people smile when we used it. We got pretty good.
Just to give you an idea of what Taiwanese dollars look like. Exchange rate is currently about 32 Taiwan New Dollars to $1.
Our first stop was the National Palace Museum, a collection of all the good things about being Chinese, according to Nancy. It is massive and full of treasures, many of which were brought to Taiwan from mainland China to keep safe in the days when they were the same country. You can imagine how many times China (PRC) has asked for everything back. The statue on the right is Dr. Sun Yat-Sen who was instrumental in the founding of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan, but actually founded on the mainland before the communists took over).
The museum is English friendly and a place I could have spent a day or two in, and still not have seen it all. In the Orientation Gallery there was this massive touch screen showing pictures of many of the museum's treasures.
All you had to do was to touch the picture of an object and it would bring it up on a screen telling you where it was and a little about it. So high tech and fun!
Surprisingly enough this beautiful piece is made of jade. When I think of that stone I always think "green" but I've learned that's not the case. This one is actually from sometime between 3500-3000 B.C.
Jade was the most valuable stone in Chinese culture because of the life-giving virtue that it contained.
This carved tube is a bit newer, circa 2500-2200 B.C.
These are funerary pieces of jade. You can see the face where the jade pieces would have corresponded to. The jade in the mouth after death was put there to make you come back to life. The pig shaped pieces in the front would have been buried with the person in hopes that their offspring would be many.
I just thought these were beautiful.
The pieces on the left were intricately lovely, the pieces on the right would have been the signature stamps for someone wealthy.
This gorgeous jade screen is part of a much more recent tradition. I call it a courting screen. A girl would sit on one side of the screen while her mother entertained a young man who wanted to be her suitor. She could listen to the conversation and decide if he might be someone she would be interested in, or be able to say no, not my type. This screen was a gift to Chiang Kai-Shek.
This colorful piece with various stones was part of the jewels collection
I have to admit this bronze pot was a surprise. Sure, it looks like a large cooking pot, but the kicker is that it was for cooking your enemy (circa 13th to 11th century B.C.)! The decorations on the outside are designed to show how powerful you are, then inside are inscribed words about your history. Our friend Audrey said it would give the enemy something to read while they're boiling.
There were many beautiful works in bronze in the museum.
This bronze water pot would have been used for washing your hands before worshipping the gods. It's good to remember that much of this collection was only used by the emperor and his family. Here again are words relating history, that way you would see them and learn them each time you washed.
These two Chinese symbols are alike but different. The one on the left means woman, while the one on the right is mother, think someone nursing a baby.
This set of bronze bells was interesting to me.
They would get a different tone by tapping them depending on the size of the bell. Hopefully they didn't have to hold them in their hands, those things would be heavy!
Nancy said that this simple looking piece of porcelain pottery is the most priceless piece in the entire museum because of its absolute perfection, it is completely uniform with no wrinkles or blemishes of any kind. It's known as Ru ware and was created sometime in the late 11th or early 12th century.
More pieces from a similar era. I do love their simplicity and color.
These are probably more what we think of when we think porcelain from China. Those on the left are from the Ming dynasty and are a classic blue-and-white pattern. The yellow is from later on.
Again the classic blue-and-white.
These little pots would have been used for soy sauce.
These beautiful pieces are known as "doucai", which means "contending colors", where other colors were added to the classic blue patterns.
I just loved these elephant pieces.
And this peaceful and calming vase.
Here you can see pieces that have a western influence, you now see people of the porcelain, or decorations rather than just an animal or flower, even writing that may help tell a story.
Again, in the western style, from the Qing dynasty, art with writing on it to tell how you feel.
Another gallery had carved ivory pieces in it. These were incredibly intricate and beautiful.
I just liked how colorful this carved lacquer piece was.
I loved the detail on this tiny curio box.
Another type of writing box, this one is full size.
Beautiful boxes.
After leaving the museum we were on our way to an early lunch. I spotted this metro train with Hello Kitty cars on it.
Interesting to me that they had a bike lane right on the sidewalk. The blue arrow is something I added to the photo in case you can't tell.
Okay, one last bus picture after we got back on just so you can see how spacious it was.
Now a few of the delicious dishes we had at our lunch at Peng's Gourmet & Banquet, arranged by Mark's business friends here in Taiwan, who also joined us for lunch. I loved the cool salad bowl on the left, we think that was an oyster on top. A spicy shrimp dish on the right.
We also had some roast duck that came in the wrapper, and this tasty pork on the lettuce leaf. Many more dishes as well and it was all scrumptious.
These were our gracious hosts, Mark had worked with some of them for 30 years.
And a quick photo of our table as well.
We were off next to go to the top of Taipei 101. If it looks a long way up it's because it was.
Yep, we're headed up there!
A couple of the signs as we waited for Nancy to get our tickets.
This one is a comparison of the tallest buildings in the world. In 2004 it was Taipei 101. It was and continues to be a symbol of progress to Taiwan and people are still very proud of it as the 6th tallest building in the world. Currently the tallest is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai where we'll be heading to the top of in about a month.
The elevator was going to take us up 89 stories in 37 seconds. Yes, my ears popped a couple of times.
Here we all are squished into the elevator.
Views from the top were a bit hazy but you get an idea of the number of buildings
in this city of three million people.
There were multiple spots on the observation deck where you could take a photo. Many with fake flowers. There were places to eat and shop as well.
I had Jane along with me so we took photos of each other at different spots.
After seeing so many fake flowers it took a moment to realize that there gorgeous orchids were actually real.
If you know me you'll know there is going to be flower overload here because
I absolutely LOVE orchids!
They are one of my favorite flowers and there were so many glorious kinds and colors here that I was in heaven.
With a building this tall in an area prone to earthquakes and typhoons there has to be something to help keep it from toppling. You may be surprised to know that it's due to this massive sphere, or "damper" in the center of the building. I don't understand exactly how it works but its ability to sway counteracts the motion caused by quakes or wind. It proved itself again just the other day during Taiwan's 7.4 earthquake.
This little guy is the damper's mascot.
I had to go find Karl to make sure that he got to see the damper, Nancy had pointed it out to me.
And who should show up at the top of 101 but one of our favorite waiters from Serenade, Fares.
This guy manages to get off the ship and go to city highlights like no other. He loves taking photos with guests he knows to put on his Instagram page.
The only way I could get a selfie at Taipei 101 was to hold the phone below me then look down.
The had these cool mosaic glass panels on the sidewalk outside the building.
So colorful!
I still don't know how Nancy managed to get all of us AND the building in this shot.
Next stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. Nancy had hustled us here to arrive in time to see the changing of the guard.
This young man stands here for about an hour not moving at all and there is another just opposite him on the other side of the memorial.
The original site of this memorial was a military base, then the plans were for it to become a world trade center. When Chiang Kai-Shek died in 1972 it was deciedd that it should become the spot for a memorial to him as as well as.a performing arts area. The memorial is decorated in the style. an emperor would have had.
The tower you can just make out on the right behind the white entrance houses the current president's offices so when he looks out his window he is supposed to be inspired by CKS.
The guards here each day rotate from a different branch of the armed services.
They were extremely sharp in the performance of their duty.
Nancy said we could have five minutes to take photos so I beelined it for the base of the monument to take a couple of pictures. All those stairs coming down weren't bad at all,
going up was another matter, but it was worth it and I made it in exactly five minutes.
On the square to the right is a concert hall,
and to the left is a cinema.
Just a massive door and knocker.
More lovely flowers.
One final shot of the memorial before we left.
Getting back on our beloved bus.
A nice shot of a Taiwanese flag on a very loaded motorcycle.
Our final tour stop was the beautiful and fascinating Longshan Temple
This Buddhist Temple is for the community, a place for helping one another.
There were many here worshipping as they celebrated the Buddha's birthday with donations of many kinds.
A picture of us together before we started wandering and getting separated.
This lovely waterfall is just inside the entrance to the temple.
So many interesting architectural details on the building. Each one has been donated by someone as the size of the temple grew.
Sometimes the signs just make me smile.
You can get an idea of the dozens of floral arrangements that were on the site. The people just in front of the building were chanting/singing in their worship.
Here are just a few of the floral and food offerings that we saw.
There was a shop onsite where people could order an offering to place on the table to the left. The food is donated to those in need.
I zoomed in on one of the books a woman was singing/chanting from. I felt like I was intruding on their religious services so tried to be respectful. I'll admit it was somewhat awkward.
More donated details on the temple.
Here's Nancy explaining one of the ways that you get a prayer answered. You draw out one of the sticks from the container there on the right. It will have a number on it.
You then go to this chest of drawers and take a paper out of the drawer with a corresponding number. Nancy's holding one of the papers in the photo above. That paper will give you the answer to your prayer... or not, you kind of have to decide how it may apply. Interesting concept. The other option is to take two of the red wedge blocks you can see in the previous photo, roll them on the floor and depending on how they land your answer is either yes, no, or maybe. I didn't give it a try!
One more powerful dragon to guard the temple. Anything that's gold on the structure is actual gold, pretty much making this building priceless.
Saying goodby to Taipei as we headed back to port at Keelung.
Nancy dropped a several of us off a few blocks from the ship so that we could explore the Keelung Night Market and oh what fun it was, as long as you didn't mind crowds. Those that did headed back to the ship.
This one was different in that there were several places with games for kids like on the photo on the left. Lots of things to buy, like stickers,
or jewelry, but mostly lots of food.
Those of us who were adventurous tried a variety of things. Nancy said we should be safe as long as we stuck with eating things that were cooked. The sweet potato on the left was one we tried but the overall favorite may have been the fried crab meat on the right. They were delicious and only about 75 cents.
Yep, I was having a good time!
And so were Karl, Mark and Steve, all of whom would try most anything. Here they're having a go at grilled squid.
Our friends Shari & Brian bought some fried octopus balls, or Takoyaki to share. They sound scary but they were really good.
I finally decided to take a bite of the grilled squid as well. It was pretty chewy.
We all loved the dumplings as well, soooo cheap and soooo delicious, pork, beef & shrimp were our options.
We don't know exactly what these cheesy little squid things were called but we decided to try them and they were okay.
We definitely all loved the fried ice cream! You just pointed at the flavor you wanted on the yellow sign then the lady would find that shape in her freezer and cook it up for you.
Rather than a batter it was more like flattened white bread that surrounded the ice cream and gave it that crispy golden brown.
Mine was an apple/blueberry flavor and it was really good. I could have eaten another of those but it was time to go to one of the ubiquitous 7 Eleven's and spend the rest of our Taiwan dollars before heading back to the ship.
A fabulous day had been had by all and there was home, all lit up and waiting for our return.
The harbor were quite colorful. the Keelung sign at the top kept changing colors.
A final selfie of the day, Karl thought I was lost but I was just taking pictures.
Thanks to Jane for this last collage, Mark had run out in the street just as a stoplight was turning green to take this one of Karl, Jane and I at the Port of Keelung sign. Thankfully he was out of the way of the oncoming cars in time. Exhausted and exhilarated we said goodbye to Taiwan, ready get some sleep to be ready for another port on the morrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment