Wednesday, May 29, 2019
We were so excited to spend a day in Taipei, Taiwan. It was one of the reasons why we chose this cruise. We began our morning early, leaving the ship around 8:45 a.m and taking a taxi to the National Palace Museum.
Our driver was Mr. Wu. He and Alice spoke Chinese like two old friends who hadn't seen each other in decades. Before long, it was clear Mr. Wu would be our driver for the rest of the day (for a reasonable fee). He was great!
It took about an hour or so to arrive at the museum.
I figured we had maybe an hour or 90 minutes at most to explore the vast collection before the hard floor would do in Alice's hips and back. So we picked up a couple of audio guides and went through the galleries of the second floor at a quick clip, passing by tour groups to sneak a peak at all the great Chinese treasures.
This jadeite cabbage piece is the most famous artifact in the collection. Dozens of people surrounded this small, beautiful piece of sculpture.
We saw this pork belly piece when it toured San Francisco last year at the Asian Art Museum. It may be the second most popular piece in the museum.
After an hour, we took a break at the museum cafe, ordering lattes and a Monte Cristo sandwich, which was pretty good. We walked through another series of galleries for 20 minutes or so, then hit the gift shop. Alice bought a wonderful souvenir of four small plastic replicas of the cabbage, pork belly, pottery vase, and iron chair, while I bought some wonderful cloth bookmarks.
We turned in our audio guides and met Mr. Wu outside and the museum parking lot. Our next stop was Taipei 101 for lunch.
This building is absolutely enormous. It looks like take out cartons stacked together. It's about 100 stories tall and very modern looking up close. We had lunch inside at one of the lower levels in a restaurant that served suckling pork and duck. It was so good! We also had green vegetable, but the rice cooker was broken so no rice for Alice Wu.
We had a latte at Starbuck's Reserve...
...then went to the Sun Kei Shek Memorial and took some photographs.
From there, we took a short road trip to Shifen and the lanterns.
The deal behind this place is you write some wish or message on a paper lantern, then send it into the air via a hot air gizmo that's ignited. This lantern Alice is standing next to says, "We wish ourselves much wealth and fortune!"
We walked up and down the tiny village town, drinking a mango bubble drink as we crossed a fun little rope bridge. We bought cute little lantern souvenirs before heading back to Mr. Wu's taxi. It was almost 4 p.m., so time to head back to the ship.
Ah, back aboard the Diamond Princess just in time for dinner. Alice and I ordered wine. Such a nice meal after a wonderful day in Taipei. We hope to be back again soon!
Afterward, we drove to Shrling for the eternal lanterns that are hoisted to the sky. We had a mango drink and bought a lantern souvenir. We took many pictures. Tawain is a lush country with thick jungle forest. The building are stained tile from all the rain. It’s hilly, even mountainous. Our driver Mr Wu was pleasant and dependable. We arrived back at our ship at 4.
We were so excited to spend a day in Taipei, Taiwan. It was one of the reasons why we chose this cruise. We began our morning early, leaving the ship around 8:45 a.m and taking a taxi to the National Palace Museum.
Our driver was Mr. Wu. He and Alice spoke Chinese like two old friends who hadn't seen each other in decades. Before long, it was clear Mr. Wu would be our driver for the rest of the day (for a reasonable fee). He was great!
It took about an hour or so to arrive at the museum.
I figured we had maybe an hour or 90 minutes at most to explore the vast collection before the hard floor would do in Alice's hips and back. So we picked up a couple of audio guides and went through the galleries of the second floor at a quick clip, passing by tour groups to sneak a peak at all the great Chinese treasures.
This jadeite cabbage piece is the most famous artifact in the collection. Dozens of people surrounded this small, beautiful piece of sculpture.
We saw this pork belly piece when it toured San Francisco last year at the Asian Art Museum. It may be the second most popular piece in the museum.
After an hour, we took a break at the museum cafe, ordering lattes and a Monte Cristo sandwich, which was pretty good. We walked through another series of galleries for 20 minutes or so, then hit the gift shop. Alice bought a wonderful souvenir of four small plastic replicas of the cabbage, pork belly, pottery vase, and iron chair, while I bought some wonderful cloth bookmarks.
We turned in our audio guides and met Mr. Wu outside and the museum parking lot. Our next stop was Taipei 101 for lunch.
This building is absolutely enormous. It looks like take out cartons stacked together. It's about 100 stories tall and very modern looking up close. We had lunch inside at one of the lower levels in a restaurant that served suckling pork and duck. It was so good! We also had green vegetable, but the rice cooker was broken so no rice for Alice Wu.
We had a latte at Starbuck's Reserve...
...then went to the Sun Kei Shek Memorial and took some photographs.
From there, we took a short road trip to Shifen and the lanterns.
The deal behind this place is you write some wish or message on a paper lantern, then send it into the air via a hot air gizmo that's ignited. This lantern Alice is standing next to says, "We wish ourselves much wealth and fortune!"
We walked up and down the tiny village town, drinking a mango bubble drink as we crossed a fun little rope bridge. We bought cute little lantern souvenirs before heading back to Mr. Wu's taxi. It was almost 4 p.m., so time to head back to the ship.
Ah, back aboard the Diamond Princess just in time for dinner. Alice and I ordered wine. Such a nice meal after a wonderful day in Taipei. We hope to be back again soon!
Afterward, we drove to Shrling for the eternal lanterns that are hoisted to the sky. We had a mango drink and bought a lantern souvenir. We took many pictures. Tawain is a lush country with thick jungle forest. The building are stained tile from all the rain. It’s hilly, even mountainous. Our driver Mr Wu was pleasant and dependable. We arrived back at our ship at 4.
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