(Feb. 14, 2011) My friend told me that today will be colder than yesterday. I thought I’m still “equipped” with that since yesterday I didn’t feel so cold. But I was wrong. I thought my clothes are thicker today than yesterday. But it seems that the cold winds penetrate my clothes! Brrr!
At about 10am, we’re already at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It was raining at that time that made the weather [again] super cold! There are about 3 temples in CKS. We took our pictures here and there but we couldn’t take a group shot. At least two of us should take the pictures, one to hold the camera and another one to hold the umbrella to protect the person and the cam from getting wet. There’s not much to do at CKS but we waited until 12 noon in time for the changing of guards.
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| Panoramic view of Chiang Kai Shek Memorial |
The changing of guards was amazing. They’re perfectly synchronized. They even have an instance where they point out their swords to their leader just to make sure that there distance to each other are all equal. The whole activity took about 10 minutes. It’s hard to tell whether these guards are good looking as their faces are all serious and almost covered by their helmet. Haha!
One thing I noticed that the temple provides not only rack for umbrellas but plastics as well where you can place your umbrella and bring it inside but without getting the floor wet. We find that useful so we can put our wet umbrella directly in our bag.
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| Lover's Bridge |
Our next stop: Fisherman’s Wharf/Lover’s Bridge. It was located in Danshui line and from there you either walk or ride the bus before you reach the Lover’s Bridge. We stop by at some market place in Danshui where we get to taste another street food. The candy covered tomato is delicious. Crunchy in the outside, soft and juicy in the inside, haha! I also get to taste some bread with fillings. Yummy too! I intend to buy a jacket as it was really cold but I end up buying only gloves. It cost me NT$100. That’s enough to keep me a bit warm, I guess. My friend was also able to buy one from original price of NT$200, she was able to bargain it at NT$100.
Arriving at Lover’s Bridge… IT WAS REALLY REALLY COLD!! I can barely walk up the bridge! But for picture purposes, keri lang! The bridge is quite long so I have to endure the coldness of the weather before reaching the other end. It was nice scenery though with the pink colored bridge. I wonder how it would look like at night. There are some shops and restaurants at the other end but some were close. When we get back to the other end, we saw a couple all dressed up. It seems like they’re going to have their pre-nuptial pictures take there.
Our next stop is the Fort Sto. Domingo. We took a bus to get here. I think this is also called the Red House. As what the name implies, it is all painted in red. It seems like this is a dorm house. There’s not much to do here too, just picture taking. We left the area at about 5pm already, rush hour. We expect the buses and trains to be jam-packed with commuters. And yes it is. Just like in the Philippines, the buses are occupied and you wouldn’t get to sit anymore.
Our last stop, Shilin Market. My much awaited destination. This is shopping time! At first we seem lost as the market we entered only has a very few stalls. Not even clothes, just food and some games for kids. We were not convinced that that is the Shilin Market. So we walked across the street and there it is! Shilin Market is like Divisoria. So many clothes, shoes, accessories, toys and many others stuff on sale. I saw one boots which only cost NT$180, that’s only around Php 300! But I didn’t buy it as I think I won’t get to wear it again even if I’ll be in HK next week. I won’t be wearing it while here in the Philippines. So I just shop for clothes which I can get to wear in HK. I heard the weather is also cold there at this time. There are a lot of cheap clothes there except for souvenir shirts, I find it expensive. The kids’ shirt already cost almost NT$200.
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| 10 Degrees Celsius at 11:51pm in Shilin Market |
Oh by the way, we had dinner here at Shilin Market. Unfortunately, we were not able to taste the stinky tofu. But the food we ate was ok. We also tried their pearl shake, yum! We spent the rest of the night here that we almost missed the last ride going back to Xiamending. The last train trip was at 12 midnight and we’re still in Shilin Market by 11:45pm! We were running but glad we made it! The recorded weather for today was 10 degrees Celsius.
I would like to see the guards when they shift into another batch. It would have been very interesting :)
ReplyDeletei have a video of it. maybe i'll try to upload it soon :)
ReplyDelete