Taiwan Travels 2011: Museums

This morning we got up early, packed for our weekend trip to Kenting (at the far southern tip of the island - very beautiful tourist spot/beaches), ate breakfast at the hotel buffet, and are now waiting for the call from Paul and Alana that they have gotten on the bus outside their apartment. The timing is such that we can leave our hotel when they call and walk to the bus stop a block away, and we can hop on the same bus that has traveled the 16-20 blocks from their apartment. (This same bus passes by their school, about 1/2 way in between our locations. Very convenient!!) It's also so nice that they gave us Alana's phone for the 2 weeks we are here, so we are always able to communicate easily.

Breakfast this morning --- new items again --- I tried another cabbage/veggie salad and some fried noodles that are very popular here. Good stuff, and of course eaten with chopsticks!! :-)

Now for the recap of yesterday (Friday here). We had P/A's bicycles here at the hotel, so we rode around for our first errands in the morning. (Alana's bike seat seems to hold moisture after a rain, and then when I sit on it, I get wet shorts. Not fun. So this time I was prepared, and tied a Hy-Vee bag over the seat to keep me dry!! LOL!!) First we stopped by the Century 21 realtor shop where they were so nice last week, and the guy had driven us to the bank. Paul told us that gifts of oranges are considered to be very gracious, so we brought the staff a bag of oranges. They were all really happy to see us again, and we thanked them for being so kind and helpful when we needed assistance. They wanted to take our picture with them, and we also took some photos together - in front of the Century 21 sign in the office. They were very appreciative and continued to welcome us to Taiwan!! The guy walked us out to our bikes, and was impressed that we were pedaling around, but he was puzzled by the Hy-Vee bag on the seat. I did get the message across, even with his limited English. HAHA!!

Next stop was the Carrefour store (like Hy-Vee), where we purchased picnic lunch items. A small baguette, some Camenbert cheese, and some apples. We already had our water bottles from the hotel, so we were all set. We also got one Taiwanese sweet roll type thing that we ate at the bus stop a little later. Very delicious mango/cream cheese filling. Then we rode to Uncle Sam American School where we locked up the bikes. We had decided they would be safer there over the weekend while we are gone, since that is a normal location for bikes, and there are never any others in front of our hotel. Then we got on the bus by the school and headed into Taipei.

We went to the bank again, where they are familiar with travelers' checques, and this time when we got our number, a guy came right up and asked us if we needed to cash checques again. He said he had seen us there the day before about 1:00, so he would help us at his window this time. It wasn't even the same cashier, so Tim couldn't figure out how he recognized us. (Very funny, as we are almost always the ONLY non-Asians anywhere!! We must have really stuck out yesterday, so he immediately remembered us!!) He had lived in the States while his parents were in grad school at Purdue, and then he also went to college in California, so his English was the best of anyone we've met here.

Then we headed on to the Palace Museum, which was the presidential palace at one time, and now houses many historical treasures. The grounds and buildings were all very regal, built up into the hills, with the palace at the top of many white marble stairs. When we got off the subway and were checking out signs for the buses, we actually helped out a couple of other tourists!! They were Americans of Chinese descent on their first trip to Taiwan. One brother is teaching English in Singapore, so they were traveling together, but didn't know much about getting around in Taiwan. We had a nice chat waiting for the bus and riding to the palace. After we arrived, the two of us had a lovely picnic lunch as we watched storm clouds rolling in across the mountains. We finished before the rain started, so yet again, didn't get wet!!

Inside the museum, we saw items from throughout Chinese/Taiwanese history, such as pottery and ceramics, bronze works, calligraphy and painting, furniture, jade carvings, jewelry, and some really cool curio boxes that were kind of like puzzle boxes with little compartments that opened up to display miniature collections and treasures. Really sweet!! There were brigades of young girls around (employees/volunteers???) wearing red vests and holding little signs that looked like the fans they hand out at the Iowa State Fair - wooden sticks with cardboard circles. The signs said "keep voices quiet" in about 3 languages, and a universal symbol with "shh" - finger held to lips. They'd walk up to anyone talking loudly!! So funny.

Tim doing a Gene Kelly imitation --- singing in the rain --- after dinner in Taipei at Mr. Onion

This is for Lute ---- sorry to say that there are no frisbees allowed at the Palace Museum. This is the only sign like this we saw, however!!

With our friendly Century 21 guy who gave us a ride to the bank our first day!

This was right by the bus stop near Uncle Sam's - pretty park area on the boulevard, and the paintings on the metal boxes were typical - they were always decorated to make something ugly into something pretty!