The flight happened during a historic window of opportunity... between January 29 and February 20, China and Taiwan agreed to "direct" flights, as opposed to having to land and change planes in some third destination. Even so, there's a requirement of flying through Hong Kong airspace, so that's what the in-flight trip display shows. Technically, Macau is exempt from the requirement, but I guess the pilot wasn't taking any chances.

One of the first places we went to was Guang-Hua market. Imagine a combination between flea-market, carnival, and trade show all packed up into one confined space, with vendors packed full of almost every imaginable electronic doo-dad -- and the corridors packed full of people (not just geeks, I might add! ;) -- and you begin to get a flavor of the place. If you know what you want, and are willing to negotiate, you can get yourself a lot of cool stuff for unbeatable prices!

Okay, haggling down some fellow for some electronics goodies builds up an appetite. So after dropping the loot in the room, it's time to head across town to the ShiLin night market. A similar sort of atmosphere, but for food instead. Imagine a two story parking structure, with the lower level filled with semi-permanent booths selling all manner of dishes from calamari soup to oyster omlettes to steamed dumplings to beef-bone soup to shaved ice.

The ShiLin market, oddly enough, isn't found at the ShiLin stop of the MRT. You'll need to get off the one before (to the south) of it: Jiantan station. The southern-most extent of the market is just across the street. Anyway, it's time to go home, with both belly and wallet full.

Somewhat sleepy in comparison to the frenetic night-time tempo, this outdoor part of the ShiLin market is just sort of waking up. Folks are just out for their last-minute shopping and soon they'll be home around the dinner table with family. Right now, it's the staples that are for sale.

While out and about, I saw this family making what seemed to be a cross between a tortilla shell and a crepe. The steel bowl contains a thick, elastic, gooey batter. The man takes a handful of it, and with a flick plops the rubbery mass onto the hot-plate, letting it rebound back into his hand... and leaving a milky residue on the griddle. He repeats this action on the other two hot surfaces, and in the meantime, the first one has cooked enough to be pulled off and stacked. At the time, I had no idea what these were for, (later I would find out) but it was so interesting to watch, I couldn't help but stare (and take a picture or two ;)

Okay, here's what I mean when I say that Taipei is a remarkably friendly place. It seems that Taipei goes out of its way to accomodate the English-speaker. It may not seem so by looking at this sign...

Probably the most common form of transportation is the scooter. They are literally everywhere; often entire blocks are devoted to parking these things. With all of the many different makes and models sporting essentially the same cowling and trim, but with a variety of gleaming colors, they often looked like some supersized display of irridescent, chitinous beetle exoskeletons pinned onto an oversize exhibit....

The threat of rain on the shore never really materialized, but it did take the sun out of the sky, even back inland in the heart of the city....

Later that evening, I met up with a friend who decided to show me around. Rumor had it that there would be a water show in front of the Longshan Temple, shown here with many Buddhist faithful making the trip out on the first night of the new year.

The night market isn't confined to just that one street, though. Needless to say, everyone is willing to get into the act, and many adjacent streets are likewise bustling and choked with visitors, both local and foreign.

Beyond the gates, the faithful wait in line to pass beneath the lantern and the rooster (this being the first night of the year of the rooster) and insence wafted from the numerous offerings being left within the inner temple. It was a sort of organized mayhem within.

We then decided to visit the Chiang Kai Shek memorial plaza, a huge public square to honor the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT) who took the existing Chinese government to Taiwan during the comunist Chinese revolution in 1949; the Taiwanese see him as a cross between George Washington and Lincoln, both a founder and liberator, although the history of Taiwanese government during his presidency is also laced with authoritarian repression. More is found in this excellent Wikipedia.org article of President Chiang Kai-Shek.

To the north of the large plaza is the Opera House, itself a very ornate structure.

Modern Temple is right. From this angle, the structure has sort of a Buck-Rogers look to it. As with almost all Asian architecture, there's an abundance of symbolism present. The sculpture between the two stairs is remniscent of the same sort of detail in the Forbidden City, the Imperial Path, whereas the three terraces represent the "three people" -- or more properly, the quotation, "Of the people, By the people, For the people," a phrase borrowed from American democracy by the late President.

I had some time before I would meet up with my friend again, so I took a short walk to Da'an (Great Peace) Forest Park,one of the largest parks in the city, and a favorite of the locals. Here, one family kicks a soccer ball and tosses a frisbee on the grass. In the distance is The Taipei 101, now the tallest building in the world, a distinction previously held by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The first stop on my friend's tour was her alma mater, the Taiwan National University. Here's a clever little oddity tucked away in one corner of the campus: what appears to be a Greek temple and Egyptian obelisk, situated in jungle-like surroundings. Despite the somewhat contradictory juxtaposition, it's actually a rather peaceful and introspective place.

One of the exhibit halls had a flower-arrangement exhibit, and here is a profusion of stargazer lillies...

Since the Official Residence just happened to be a short walk from the Shilin station, it made plenty of sense to stop for lunch (where else? ;) at the Shilin market. Yup... good stuff.

It was rainy when we got off the train at Ruifang station, but that didn't seem to discourage the celebrations, which went on unabated. We hired a taxi to take us up the narrow, winding roads to Jiufen