Typhoon in Taiwan

Great minds think alike. It turns out some Asian typhoon and I decided to take a trip to Taiwan on the same long weekend. I don't think they name their storms over here, so I'll call him Ni How (hello in Mandarin). I got in to Taipei on Friday around noon. After I arrived at my hostel I decided to wander around for a couple of hours. I found some good food and other things before my ol legs started to give out. When I got back to the hostel I learned that Ni How was set to arrive that evening. He makes his presence known. Heavy drops of rain and some massive wind gusts were rocking the hostel all night. Rachel and Kate were scheduled to fly in Saturday but it was looking like Ni How would be scaring them off. I was pleasantly surprised when they woke my up from my nap Saturday afternoon.

Rachel has a teacher friend living in Taichung so we took a the High Speed Rail down to the city on the western coast and eventually got to Laura's house. It was weird staying in a house after living in an apartment for so long. Ni How basically shut down the country so it was slim pickings looking for things to do. We went to an interesting club that night. There was a group of 5 Taiwanese girls that covered a bunch of western songs in a huge montage. There were choreographed dance moves with the songs, this whole fiasco lasted for over 30 minutes. It was . . . . . . . interesting. This is gonna sound really homo (no offense Dave Nunn) but the fashion down there was way better than Korea. A lot of the girls are dressed 80's style with short skirts and crazy stockings. The dudes refrain from shiny suits and ties so that was a plus too.

From what I experienced, the food was really good too. I loooooove basil and garlic and a couple of dishes I tried were slathered in just that. I had some crazy meat bun that was pretty good too. Prices weren't too bad, the expensive meals were pushing 6-8 bucks. The bun was big and probably around a dollar. I got a hat for ten, it reads "When you laugh blessings will come your way".

Monday night I rode the worlds fastest elevator to the top of the world's tallest building. Ni How really screwed up the visibility but it was still an experience. They show you the wind damper system in the middle of the building,which is fun to think about if you have traces of nerd in your blood like me. Here's a video of "Damper Baby" in action:

http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/taipei-101-mass-damper

It counters the movement of the rest of the building to reduce the sway. Pretty interesting. Also, the foundation of the building in connected to a bunch of pillars which are embedded in the bedrock far below. This means that the building will move along with an earthquake instead of being shaken around by an earthquake. Again, interesting. Dubai is working on the next "Worlds Tallest Building", if I do end up there I hope i get to see it finished.

Ni How finally took off Monday night so Tuesday before our flight we got to check out a Buddhist temple. Everything was so intricately designed, it was intense. I couldn't help but think about how non-Buddhist the whole idea of a golden clad temple is. I guess as a monk you would need to find something to do besides meditate though. Religious art is a logical time filler. My stupid camera broke but I'll be poaching Kate's pics soon.

Murray out