October 18,

We awoke without any particular agenda today. So we got around, having our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurts. We were deciding that we’d go out when we were hungry for lunch… and around 1000 we felt an earthquake!! (exclaiming emoji) Wowza!!! As we were on the ninth floor, it seemed that we swayed quite a lot! I’m done and over needing to feel anymore of these! Later we saw it was recorded as 5.3.

Around 1300 we went out, walking for our lunch. We have watched some Vloggers on food places in Taipei and we knew where we wanted to go… Fuzhou Ancestral Pepper Cake. This place is an assembly line of goodness! The workers start with a small fist-size piece of dough. They pat the dough into a circular shape and proceed to load it with a mound of seasoned chunked pork then mound on a green onion mix – all the while forming the dough around this double mound of filling, making a closed sphere. Sesame seeds are pat on top of the dough sphere or cake. Then the cakes were placed vertically on the wall of a hot surfaced pit oven. The cakes cook and are pried off and served to waiting customers in a pocket paper bag. First bite… YUMM! It was mostly dough because they are so hot, you can’t take a big bite for fear of burning your mouth. But that dough is crunchy outside and moistened with the juices and flavor on the inside. Second bite you get the whole goodness of meat, green onion, and bread. Oh my!! So good and simple! It actually reminded Jeff and I of a crunchy bierock… if they would be crunchy. Anyway, we snarfed them down! You just can’t stop once you start!! The two cakes cost us 130 TWD, or $4.24. We left here, very happy.

We walked to the main station, which is an “underworld” meeting station of the Taipei Metro, the Taiwan Railway, and the Taiwan High Speed Rail. As we went down into the station, we saw a food stall, called China Pizza. They were like a roti/pancake topped with an egg mix of different things. We shared an egg one. The man put the egg on the griddle and spread it out to the size of an already made roti piece. Then topped the egg with the roti for a sandwich, and flipped it so the egg was on top. He then lathered the egg with two sauces: a sweet and a spicy one. He then folded it in half; put the creation into a paper pocket bag; and gave it to us in exchange for 55 TWD or $1.80. It was also hot and good. But not as good as our first food stop. Anyway, we left and found the ticket office, which is the main reason we were here. We got our tickets for the various trains Jeff has booked for us – and already paid for. With that agenda accomplished, we took in the interior of the train station. It was busy and very full of people sitting on the floor… something was going on. I don’t know what it was… Questions! I still have them. So many after 2.5 years!

Then went to the subway, and took it to the Taipei 101 Building. This was once the tallest building in the world from 2004 until 2010 when the Burj Khalifa was completed. We do not have the desire to go up in the tower, but we had to go admire it from below. It is a pretty green hued exterior. We took our obligatory photos, oohed and awed, and then took the subway back to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. We wanted to see what the Falun Dafa final display looked like, but when we arrived at 1501… the huge display taped on the cement was all gone!! So all that work they were doing was already taken up! Crazy!! Anyway, we went up toward the memorial itself to catch the guard changing procedure and saw a row of tents. They were selling food, drinks, and tourist-type items. We were glad the ‘tent city’ was not set up yesterday as it took away from the grandeur of the memorial. The guard changing was the same as yesterday. We left here as it was pretty hot.

We were walking back and stopped at the Bopiliao. This area is one of the best-preserved historical districts of Taipei City. Some of the architecture dates back 200 years to the Qing Dynasty. Some of the buildings have been turned into little room museums- especially for young kids to explore and learn history of mission medical centers, medicine of Chinese apothecaries, or various other subjects; or turned into art galleries; or even one turned into a movie showing. We spent some time going in and about the various rooms and buildings. It was fun, educational, and cool as most of the rooms were air-conditioned.

Now we walked to the Bangka Lungshan Temple. It is a famous Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian temple built originally in 1738. It has been rebuilt numerous times due to fires, earthquakes and most recently from American bomber destruction in WWII. The main courtyard had a big waterfall area opposite a pond area flanking the actual temple. Inside the temple was very crowded with many worshippers reciting together in unison from a booklet they all held, and tourists walking around taking pictures. It made me feel awkward- like I was interrupting a service as I was one of the tourists walking around. HUMM…the paradox.

Anyway, we left and went back to our place, via a Carrefour Grocery store. After we had cooled off Jeff went right close to a beef noodle place, Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles and got take away for 200 TWD, or $6.53. We shared a big serving of beef noodle soup with some bread and some wine. Very good day in Taipei!!