Griffins in Taipei

Over the October Break, the Griffins blessed us with a visit to Taipei. We had a wonderful time with them, going everywhere! They were great tourists - even with two little kids.

Stop 1: Regent Hotel Buffet - We took the Griffins out to this awesome buffet with Haagen Daz ice cream, where we also broke the news to them that we were expecting :). Here's Maggie enjoying the really good ice cream despite her fatigue.

Stop 2: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Yes - it has regained its original name, although the Franklin Graham Festival was located at "Liberty Square," which confused many people, including me. For those who don't know, Chiang Kai Shek was the military leader in after Qing Dynasty was overthrown. He worked with Sun Yat Sen to create a new China, but ended up in a civil war with Mao. Chiang Kai Shek then led his party, the KMT (Kuomintang), to Taiwan to regroup, and ended up staying here. To some, he is respected as a great leader. To others, he was a tyrannical dictator who killed a lot of people. So basically, the last government was in agreement with the latter opinion, and decided to rename the CKS Memorial to Liberty Square. They also tried to destroy the really tall statue of CKS, but it turned out to be too big/heavy to remove, so they just fenced off the whole thing. Luckily for those who like CKS, the KMT are now back in power, and therefore, CKS is allowed to stay once again... for now. However the Chinese words, 自由廣場, or Liberty Square, still remain on the gate.

The entrance to Liberty Square/CKS Memorial

The main hall where the grandiose statue of CKS lives.

Climbing up the many steps to see CKS.

CKS - the bronzed version

Kris with the Griffin girls in front of the
life-sized inflatable mammoth - we were
too cheap to go into the exhibit (which for
some odd reason, happened to be on the floor
below where the CKS statue is) !

Stop 3: Hakka Festival - There's always something going on in Taipei, especially near my parents' place. This past weekend was the Hakka Festival (the Hakka make up about 2% of the Taiwan population - they speak a different dialect, and their name means "Guest People.")

The flags leading to the Festival.

We both got interviewed (all in Chinese) by a local radio station! According
to Kris' interview, we came because he has a lot of Hakka friends
back home in Canada - really, Kris? You mean that one friend? :)

We watched a male drumming band - they
ranged in age from from 6 to adults! I thought
this guy looked like John Ullstrom.

The band (the actual word for this eludes me right now.)

Not exactly Hakka, but interesting - ice cream in a toilet bowl.

They also put on traditional reenactments, like this of a wedding.

Emily got to paint a fan - after we elbowed out a whole bunch
of adults. We actually had to fight with these 60-year-olds so she
could have a space at this CHILDREN's booth!

Miscellaneous Stop: MRT ride

We called them the "gay couple" - holding a pink
umbrella with a little girl between them...

Stop 4: Sogo Department Store. I remember it being a lot more fascinating, but the kids seemed to think it was the best thing ever. Every hour on the hour, crowds gather to watch the "It's a Small World" performance as they spin out of their hiding places.

Stop 5: Shilin Night Market - We ate some interesting foods, played some basketball, and never actually made it into the real night market area. Oh well!

Easy babysitting.

Stop 6: Snake Alley - Let me prelude this with what happened earlier that day. We were walking on the street in the financial district and I saw a big rat running towards us. I pointed and everyone watched as the little thing ran out onto the street. Before we could say "Uh-oh," we saw the truck, heard a loud pop, and proceeded to come up with an explanation for Emily as to where the rat had gone and why there was a flattend version with only a skeleton and a tail left. She wasn't freaked out in the least, whereas the adults were at least slightly traumatized. That night, we went to Snake Alley, which is famed for its gutting of snakes and drinking of their squeezed-out blood.

I took a photo despite the "No Photo Taking" sign. Oops.
The cups you see on top of the metal cages are the things that
come out of a snake - there was a white liquid, a green liquid, and
a red liquid. Very Christmas-y. We figured out that the red was blood,
the green was bile, but never figured out where the white stuff came
from, but did learn that drinking that would make you beautiful.

Here's the video (sorry it's small):

Stop 7: Hsi Men Ting - Jenny and I went out on our own after Snake Alley, and went to the hip and happening area of Hsi Men Ting. We not only got to see the Modern Toilet restaurant (where they serve food in toilets and other related-items), but we happened upon an area, which we discovered to be probably where all the gay people hang out as we happened to be two of a handful of women amongst crowds of male couples. The best part was that we got to watch a male undewear fashion show. I'll spare you most of the photos... Then we spent the rest of the evening out watching these 6 guys doing some weird thing in the main square. There was obviously a leader, and he would send out his "guys" after certain girls. We couldn't figure out the pattern, except that each girl was by herself, and was fairly pretty. Needless to say, no one came up to pregnant li'l me. :(

Jenny ended up having one of these guys almost
in her face!

Curry in a toilet, anyone?

We had a terrific time, and got to see a lot that we normally wouldn't see. A few months later, the Griffins told us that when they asked Emily about her favourite part of that day, she said, "None, my favourite part was yesterday. [Ed. note. "yesterday" in Emily-lingo is anything in the past.] I liked it when the rat ran out on the street and the truck came and the rat became flat and then he went to heaven."