Having been starved of data access for too long now 😉 I started the morning off with a walk out to a nearby ChungHwa Telecom for a prepaid SIM.  $450 NT ($15 USD) later, we were set for 7 days of unlimited data.

We decided to start the day late today, so our first stop wasn’t until noon.  We hit Taipei (Central) Railway Station first.  I, Joel, had already been in Taiwan for far too long without any 牛肉麵 Taiwanese Beef Noodle lovin’, and something had to be done about it. We ordered a bowl each and a bunch of side dishes to share. While we were there, Ashley pointed out a girl with crazy bell bottom pants; I took a photo of it.

With that out of the way, we went over to the Taipei 101.  Unwilling to pay money for a cliché chroma key photo that all high rises do, I attempted to take a picture of their preview screen — it didn’t work out too well on the iPhone.  Oh well, better/real photos were to be taken later anyway.  Ashley and I went up to the top where we looked at what view was available (through a very cloudy day).  I took her into the damper room, where a 730 ton ball acts as a counterbalance to keep the building safe during high winds and earthquakes. On a side note, we saw a crazy sign in the bathrooms — it had a little picture telling people to not go potty on the floor…. Occupy Wall Street anyone?

Our next two stops were the 國立國父紀念館 Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, and a proper walk through 國立中正紀念堂 Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.  We grabbed lots of photos here, including those of the Taipei 101, and had a laugh when my Grandma pointed out that the Sun Yat Sen building looks a lot like whiskers.

After plenty of photos at all the different places, we went back to The Dragon (Sheraton Taipei).  All of the Hsia Family and their spouses showed up to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.  In tradition, a private room was rented out with a special menu tailored for the event.  We all ate through the longest multi-course meal, EVER, until we were all stuffed beyond belief.  Ashley loved my uncle, who was a character through the whole meal.  He kept spouting random things with much gusto, and one of the highlights was when it came time for parking validation — he enthusiastically explained that “If you’d all arrived [fashionably] late like me, then you wouldn’t be worrying about validation and time”

Image Gallery.  Click on photos to view: