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After rushing home earlier than I wanted from the Taipei Zoo, I went on my scheduled Taipei Night Tour. I was the only tourist, so I had the driver and his regular car instead of a van. First we went to a Mongolian barbecue. Here, there was a big food and salad bar with lots of stuff that I don't remember, but which was good. The barbecue part is where you go to a different food bar, which has a bunch of thinly sliced raw meats, vegetables, and sauces. You take a bowl, put a bunch of stuff in it that seems like it would taste good together, and give it to one of the cooks. Then he barbecues it for you, like so, and you eat it with relish (the feeling, not the sauce).
A giant group of Koreans came to the restaurant, as they tend to do, and it was kind of like being at home again for a little while.
I think our first stop was a famous night market, but it was pretty small; seemed to just be one long block on one street:
The guide couldn't park right there, so he told me (after a few tries) to just go through, not taking too long, and meet him at the other side. On the way through, I saw what he had specifically told me about, which was a displaymonstration of a giant python, and some other big snakes, which was at a restaurant where you can eat them. No pictures were allowed. Having owned a snake previously, I think I might feel bad about eating one. I'm sure it was also very expensive.
I bought one souvenir, a wall scroll of a tiger, to add to my collection of wall scrolls across Asia.
Next was the major stop to the Taipei 101. It was extra to go up to the observation tower, and I was on a time budget because of the parking time limit. Normally for tours they let you stay as long as you want, but normally tours are quite a bit bigger than one person, so there would be no leniency for me. BOOOOO-urns.
This is the line I had to wait in for like 15-20 minutes.
On the way, they took your picture and you could take your ticket to get it superimposed onto a Taipei 101 background, either at night or in the day. They showed a bunch of examples on screens, but I don't think you could ever see yourself or anyone currently in line up there. Would that be unethical, or at least rude, in case someone wasn't down with it?
The DLI63 building in Seoul took about 30 seconds to get to the top, but in the Taipei 101, the elevator ride was longer. You actually only got to go up to the 89th floor, which disappointed me greatly.
Here are some views from the 89th floor:
I don't remember what the hell this is doing there.
On the 88th floor, you can see the tuned mass damper, which helps keep the building from becoming damaged from strong winds. It's suspended from a high floor, and is a huge pendulum that sways in reaction to the movement of the building. This one is the biggest damper sphere in the world, according to Wikipedia.
Finally, we saw the Lungshan Temple, which was very beautiful, but as always, temples are not my cup of tea. I have nothing further to say about this place, so here are some pictures:
