Day 3

Day 3

Today, we are going to..actually, I have no idea what we’re going to do. My short term memory is shot to hell. I think we’re going shopping.

Anyhoo. I’m still a little jet-lagged--I woke up at 5:30am today. Bleh. Good news- I think I’m getting used to the heat. I’m not covered in sweat yet. Yeah..either I’m getting used to the heat or I’m just dehydrated.

So today, with hot weather and ominous skies, my cousin and I went to Dongqu, one of the mid to upper-range shopping places in Taipei. The stores were all rather interesting; alot of them sold trendy clothing and shoes, and the prices were all unexpectedly American. They also had stores that catered to surfers and amateur photographers; apparently a thing called “lomography” is really popular in Taiwan right now. It’s consists mostly of these special 35mm film cameras that print with special effects (fishbowl effects, multiple frames, etc.). They also had really cute toy stores.

It was around this time that all hell poured loose and we got soaked by rain. (Background info: I left the umbrellas at my aunt’s place and realized this as soon as we got outside. Being the smart college kids we are, we thought that if we could stay ahead of the dark clouds in the sky, we’d be safe.) But yeah, we ran through torrents of rain and bought umbrellas before heading on the metro to the Taipei 101 area.

It was here that we started visiting the department stores. Apparently there’s a whole group of buildings all owned by the same corporation, and they’re all connected by walkways. And they’re all full of high-end department stores. And a reaaaaally big bookstore that sold everything. EVERYTHING. Toys, souvenirs, books, furniture, clothes, you name it, they had it.

After window-shopping the crap out of ourselves and running into a BMW expo (amaaaaaaazing), we were finally picked up by my aunt. Apparently my aunt’s friend and her daughter were visiting the area too so we all headed together to Maoakong to ride the cable cars up the mountain.

Because of the storms, the cable cars had been closed for a bit, but within thirty minutes of us getting to the station, they were back up and running. Now, because it was nighttime and visibility was pretty much shit, the ride up the mountain wasn’t scary at all. I’m sure daytime would have been a totally different story.

But yeah, we all got up there, found a restaurant, and had a delicious dinner.

And now I’m home. And tired.

Pics from yesterday and today will be up on FB.