Wallwork Walkabout: Part 1- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Taipei 101

For Katie and Candace's first day in Taiwan, they insisted on just showering at the hotel and heading out to explore Taipei. Craig and I found this idea to be brave and noble, but not very realistic.  The jet lag after a 15 hour flight is insane!

But I should have known better. Katie is golden, and if she decreed their would be no giving in to jet lag, so it would be.

Our first stop was the Taipei temple.

After the temple we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, info here.

 It was only like 10:30ish in these photos, but it was SOOOOOOO hot! Like really, really hot. We were sweating like crazy.

Inside the hall, were a bunch of different artifacts dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek and his life. I was totally interested and was looking at every display (and enjoying the amazing AC!), but everyone else just motored through each collection. I'm the one that's been here for almost 7 months, but I'm more of a tourist than Katie or Candace were!

One of the cars in this dude's motorcade. He actually only ever rode in this car once! Must be nice to dispose of a car after one use...

Everyone needs a picture on a bridge.

 Is anyone really surprised at Katie's face in this shot? The girl is incapable of acting serious for a second.

It was fun to hang around people that know me that weren't Craig. I love him and everything, but after 7 months of daily contact it was nice to mix things up!!

Following the Memorial Hall, we caught a cab and jaunted over to Modern Toilet, which will get it's very own post after this one. My family knows that I was super excited to find this place, even before I knew I was moving to Taiwan.

 After lunch we made our way to Taipei 101, the 2nd tallest building in the world, so that Candace and Katie could check out the view from the top.

It was the perfect day for it, as the sky was crazy blue with few clouds.

They had an audio tour that described the area around the building, but all of us only managed through 3 listening stops before dropping our devices back at the front desk. Except for Katie, who seemed to be really digging it. She kept repeating the same facts she learned about a large, hilly area called Elephant Mountain.

Tapei is Taiwan's capital and the largest city in Taiwan. It's about a 2 hour train ride from Jhunan, where I live.

We got to go out on the observation deck, it was closed due to bad weather when Craig and I went last time.

Overall, it was a thrilling first day of our walkabout.