Brain Dump — Full Blog Will Come Later

I woke up really early — and finally, no more headache!
Spent the morning doing some blog work.
The Wi-Fi was blazing fast at first, but slowed down once the rest of the hotel woke up.
Finally, a continental breakfast! No eggs, sadly, but the sausages made me happy.
I did a bit more planning because I decided last minute to switch some things around.

Palace Museum

I started the day at the Palace Museum. I took a taxi because the public transit connection was… not great.
The taxi driver spoke no English, but showing him the location on my phone worked immediately.
The museum is filled with historical Chinese artifacts from the imperial collection.
These were “secured for safekeeping” by the KMT during the Chinese Civil War — so almost everything originally came from mainland China.
It was extremely busy. Huge tour groups everywhere, and surprisingly many Korean tourists.
Their most famous piece, the Jadeite Cabbage, wasn’t on display here — it’s in a different city.

There was plenty of artwork, and a lot of it was genuinely fascinating. The audio guide helped a lot.
I took the 2-hour tour but ended up staying for about 3 hours to explore more.

Once I felt I’d seen enough, I left.
I waited 30 minutes for the bus to my next stop. When it finally arrived, it turned out to be the city-run hop-on-hop-off bus — 5× the price — but I just needed to get moving. Oh well.
Had some trouble finding lunch afterward.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

This museum started off a bit rocky — some pieces were kind of “meh” — but it got interesting very quickly.
There was this cool spider-like sculpture.
And then I stumbled onto an incredible art-film installation with complex lighting effects. It was so well executed and mesmerizing that I watched the full 47 minutes.

There was cyber-sigilism art, a park installation with ambient music, a cardboard airplane — just loads of cool stuff.

I had to rush at the end because the museum was closing, but that film installation might be the best thing I’ve seen in any museum here so far.

Taipei 101

Next stop: the must-do attraction. Taipei 101 — formerly the second tallest building in the world — with the world’s fastest elevator, taking you to sweeping views of the city.

I did Tokyo Tower during the daytime, so I tried this one at night.
Bad call. I think daytime views are much better: you see more, and it’s less crowded.

My ears popped, and I felt it in my stomach. There’s a guy whose job is literally to stand there and press the elevator buttons — what a shift that must be.

I wasn’t super impressed, and I was hungry, which didn’t help.

The best part was the mass damper — the giant golden orb that stabilizes the building.

I also want to try Din Tai Fung now, because the line for it was absolutely insane — people were waiting 90 minutes just for a table.

Raohe Street Market

Yes, yes, I know — another street market. But I wanted to finally try stinky tofu.

I took a bus, but I was too focused on my crossword puzzle and didn’t notice I was going in the wrong direction. I stayed on it for 20 minutes before realizing.
I got off, saw the correct-direction bus approaching… and missed it.
Then I walked to the nearest metro station — only to discover there was a bus stop right next to it, so my walk was pointless.

I am swearing off buses in this country.

The metro, thankfully, got me there without issues.

When I arrived I was so hungry that I couldn’t handle how crowded the market was. Once I got some food in me, everything calmed down.

I eventually found a place selling stinky tofu. I bought some boba just in case I hated it — good call.

It smells extremely sour and pungent — think fermented funk, like blue cheese.
But it tastes like… nothing. Just salty, airy fried tofu.

I ate one of my three pieces, washing each bite down with boba.
I gave the server a look — she understood instantly and said it was okay.

I grabbed some pepper bread and headed home.

Another long, busy day.
The Palace Museum was fascinating, the modern art museum was fantastic, but Taipei 101 was a bit of a dud for me.

I’ve hit all the major highlights of Taipei now.
Tomorrow should be more relaxed — hopefully I can end the night a bit earlier.