It's our last gala day today, so we are maximizing our day. After our visit to NTHU, we still have a lot of energy plus we haven't met Shawn yet, so today's blog is about our going around Taipei City and meeting Shawn. If you're curious, click the per day and look at our gala days in Taiwan: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 Morning. Now, here's Day 3 afternoon.....ENJOY!
we don't have double-decker buses in Manila, so it's good to try and see how fun it is to go around the City looking from the second deck from this hop-on-hop-off =) we also had a souvenir of this bus, we got a mini-version, and Dennis showed the choices of souvenirs
Some information for the Taipei double-decker bus tour; We booked it via Klook. There are 2 lines, Blue lines for the North such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Palace Museum, and Jian Tan; Red lines for travel west such as Taipei City Hall, Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall, and the largest park in Taipei, Da'an Park. It's a Hop-off at any stop for sightseeing and Hop-on when the next bus arrives. You are provided with a headset that offers an introduction to Taipei (in English). Our first hop-off, Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall, is free admission here.
our first hop-off is to meet Shawn and to see the popular attraction here in Chiang Kai-shek, the changing of the guard ceremony (I think I was able to watch the changing of guards also in Rizal monuments in Luneta Park in one of our Syanang Syalen trip)
here's what I got from Wikipedia, CKS Memorial Hall is a national monument erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of Taiwan. This square had become Taipei's site for mass gatherings and tourist attractions.
Finally, meeting Shawn, Shawn was a visitor in Water Science sometime in 2012 (?) and whenever IRRI people visit Taiwan, he is part of the "what/who/where to visit in Taipei" ;) because even if he doesn't know you since you are from IRRI, he is very happy to meet you, he's even sending pasalubong for the Water Science group, so, imagine the happiness of visiting him, and meeting him in person in Taipei =) #nakakahappy indeed. Thank you for taking the time to meet us, Shawn.
last gala spot, a visit to Taipei 101; according to Taiwan Tourism Bureau, it is the largest engineering project ever in the history of the Taiwan construction business, and there's us with our "monay" faces, the largest also =P
We visited the Taipei 101 observatory, and we bought via Klook a priority pass, we were VIPs escorted by the guards as we took our elevator ride (just us) because apparently, the commoners will just wait for the elevator ride. As VIPs we have access to 88th floor for the multimedia corridor, 89th floor for the indoor observatory, and the 91st floor for the outdoor observatory. Oh well, I'm traveling with the madams, so the benefits!
that's me, a bit dizzy, not from the heights I'm looking at, but the payment to be made after this trip =P
the damper babies, they are the cartoon representation of the Damper of Taipei 101 designed by the Sanrio Company, Damper babies come in black, red, yellow, silver, and green each with their own personality, and the faces subtly spell out 101 with the vertical lines for eyes in a circular mouth
And since we are at it, let me share what I learned from this trip, Taipei 101 was erected in 2004 at 1,667 feet, designed by C.Y. Lee who wanted a tower that was distinctive, he envisioned a pagoda, vertically elongated and clad with green glass. The skyscraper was divided into 8 segments (a lucky number for the Chinese) with giant gold coins adorning the four sides at the base, and dragons and clouds decorating the building's corners. And Taipei is prone to storms and seismic activity, so it needed all the luck it could get. Because of that, Taipei 101 employs a tuned mass damper for both the flexibility to roll with the earth (seismic activity) but not to flexible when faces with strong winds (storms).
A tuned mass damper (TMD) is essentially a counterweight against wind and it can take various forms. In Taipei 101, the TMD is a gigantic pendulum, usually, it is hidden behind closed doors on locked floors but with Taipei 101 the enormous damper is the star attraction of the building. And there we are, in front of it.
photo with the TMD, and a photo at the multimedia corridor
We don't have good photos of the outdoor observatory but we enjoyed every parts and portion of Taipei 101 since we spent a considerable amount =P
Thank you Taiwan for a wonderful trip, thank Dennis and Shawn for meeting us there. Thank you to the madams, it was a good trip and thank you we pushed through with it even if others backed out. Onto our next travel? Where to? When?
Thanks to Wikipedia, Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 99% Invisible for the additional information of the places we visited.
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