第十一日

Woah, Susi, you seem like you're slacking in your resolution to explore Taiwan to the fullest! Getting up late, going to Taipei 101, spending vast quantities of time in the hotel? Lazy!
Yeah, I KNOW, so today I got up early again and took to the streets in a direction I had never gone. What did I find? A little templenext to some Port-a-Potties (this is where you wash your hands. hygiene!) both of which found their home in a park full of old people and curious hybrids of exercise equiptment and elementary school playgrounds. Rather than be a creeper and take pictures of the old people, here's one such contraption.Also: a night market during the day in the same park - a little depressing!

I got some brekkies at a fruit market that had everyone's favorite part of the grocery store's produce section (THE MISTERS OBVIOUSLY) on at full blast constantly! Win over the 6-year-old, win over the 19-year-old.Ignore the thalido-hand for a minute and marvel at the size of these watermelons! If you are in to that sort of thing (which I'm not, unfortunately), Taiwan is the realm of the watermelon gods. W-Ms and tiny forks were dessert for at least 6 meals. Pukesville for me, but everyone else seemed pretty pleased!

There's about to be a picture drought in this post because what we did after my morning exploring we went to the President's Residence, where no photography is allowed. What was allowed, though, were guns: the first I've seen in Taiwan. Not guns for visitors, but for the guards. Huge ones. Pretty intimidating.
The PR was pretty cool, though, although I would have liked to have seen the actual President's office. No could do, though, Ma was in and signing things. We couldn't even get our guide to tell us in what part of the building the office was so we could sneak in, Spy-Kids style. Oh, well.

Remember the beginning of this post where I was doing my best not to be lazy. Weell. A good chunk of my afternoon was spent in the Land of Nod, our trip to the Museum of Formosan Aborigines having been cancelled. Embarassing, but sometimes I just don't have it in me.
I did manage to drag myself out of the depths of my subconscious to go out that night and have the best time ever, so all was not lost!
Here's some pictures.