Day 3: Free Day

(0.5 selfie with a damper baby)

(Me at the Taipei National Museum)

(on the way back from the night market)

(Me and Erika with our new Taiwanese friends!)

On our third day of the Taiwan Dialogue, we were free to independently explore Taipei. I started the day off with a 4-mile run along Zhong Shan linear park towards the Taipei Expo Park. Most of the route was shaded, making the summer heat slightly more bearable. Along the way, I stumbled upon an outdoor food market and the Taipei Expo farmers market. Unfortunately, I wasn't carrying any cash on me, or else I would have bought some fruit for breakfast.

After making my way back to the hostel for a quick breakfast and shower, we took an Uber to the Taipei National Museum. The museum featured immersive exhibits, including high-tech holographic displays and interactive maps. It was fascinating to witness some artifacts of cultural displacement that I had read in preparation for Taiwan. We were able to see many of the Palace Museum relics from China. Interestingly, the museum also held a ton of random European artifacts. There was an entire section of Italian artifacts with no connection to Taiwan. Aside from that, some highlights include a hilarious dragon-shaped water container, many intricate jade creations, and learning about what snuff boxes were.

Next on our itinerary was Taipei 101! As soon as I stepped out of the Uber in front of Taipei 101, I was immediately struck by the size of the structure. It seemed as if the building was about to fall over! The ride up to the 98th floor of Taipei 101 was equally thrilling. The elevator moved at a staggering speed of 1010m/min, and I could feel my ears pop as if I was in a plane taking off. Apart from the breathtaking views of the city, we also learned about the significance of the "Damper Baby" mascots at the top of Taipei 101. The Wind Damper is a large ball inside of the building that serves as a giant pendulum to counteract the swaying motion caused by high winds. 

Funny enough, while at the top of Taipei 101, some Taiwanese students approached us for an interview as part of their English-speaking school project. After they finished interviewing us, we turned the tables and interviewed them instead. We learned they were high school students from Tao Yuan who found their city too boring and visited Taipei four times in the past week. We got to know about their hobbies and their shared love for K-Pop. 

At 2:30 we were starving and decided to head down to Taipei 101’s food court to grab lunch. Ordering food was previously irrationally terrifying so far due to some of my dietary restrictions. However, throughout my time in Taiwan so far, I have been slowly improving my ability to handle my dietary restrictions in a foreign language. After a brief conversation in Mandarin, I ordered a delicious meal from Pepper Lunch which arrived on a sizzling stone plate.

After briefly exploring Taipei 101’s shopping center, we walked over to the nearby Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The Memorial also contained a Museum depicting Sun Yet-sun’s life history. At this point in the day, we were pretty much exhausted and took the MRT back to our hostel to rest before our final adventure of the day: the Raohe Night Market. 

Our time spent at the Raohe Night Market was filled with suspense. We all tried our hands at winning a prize from the claw machine with little success. Many use up their last bits of spare change vying for the chance of receiving small fluffy cat sharks and goose plushes. In the end, only one person returned victorious winning a sacred inflatable frog creature. Regardless of the outcome of this tumultuous night, we all learned a valuable lesson: gambling is bad. 

I had so much fun exploring more of Taipei, and I'm starting to get used to the weather (maybe).