Hooray, today is Buddha’s birthday. We will celebrate it by visiting six temples. But not before Tim leaves at 5 to take some morning pictures of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
Tim is back at 8, and after breakfast and a shower, we leave for our first temple: Taipei Confucius Temple. It’s the first temple to quit using incense because of the pollution. We read on the Taiwanese news that living in Taipei is as bad for you as smoking a pack cigarettes a day, which is disturbing. But the many scooters on the street explain part of the problem.
The temple was built in 1879 and has a pool with 23 turtles. Cleo and Zeno can collect stamps in all the rooms, it keeps Cleo busy, while Zeno keeps Olga busy as he climbs on everything you’re not allowed to climb on.
Next door is the Dalongdong Baoan Temple. It has huge fake waterfalls that Cleo and Zeno adore while they climb over the railing. The guard is stopping them. We almost celebrated Buddha’s birthday in jail. It’s really busy in this temple, many offerings of the most delicious fruits. We wonder what happens to all this good food after the offering.
For the first time in Taipei, we’re lucky with the bus as it arrives when we arrive at the bus stop to bring us to the Xiahai City God Temple. When we exit the bus, we pass the Tea House Sin Hong Choon which shows how to smoke and store tea. We can also buy tea, and the tea smells great, but unfortunately there is no seller present to take our money, so we leave again.
The Xiahai City God Temple lies in the middle of a busy neighbourhood with many small shops selling herbs, dried fruits and nuts and a market with mostly dead animals. The neighbourhood is famous for its Japanese colonial buildings , which are a mix of Western and Japanese style.
The temple was built in 1856 and it ensures prosperity and peace through its blessings. Nowadays young people come to pray for a happy love life and good job. As we already are blessed with both, we thank Buddha and continue to Lungshan Temple.
In the metro station we spot an Indonesian restaurant selling many foods we love to make at home, and we’re welcomed with free icecream, so we’re easily convinced and enjoy some nasi, tempeh, tofu and sate for lunch.
The next temple of the day is Taipei’s oldest temple: Lungshan Temple. Although mainly a Buddhist temple, it’s home to many folk and Taoist gods too.
The final temple is the Bangka Qingshan Temple. Built in 1854, this temple is home to the god King Qingshan.
After this temple run, it’s time to let go of all earthly things and take off to 508 meter height in the Taipei 101 building, the highest sky scraper at its opening in 2004 (and now the 11th highest tower in the world). The worlds quickest elevators that are installed inside take us in 37 seconds and with a speed of over 60km/h to the 89th floor. There, we check out the tuned mass damper, a 730 ton steel sphere that protects the building at earthquakes and typhoons, absorbing the force of any violent swinging.
The next floor is an outside balcony, where we check out the binoculars (Cleo always want to try them) and where we are afraid that Zeno climbs over the (very high) fence.
We bought tickets for the highest floor so we move quickly up to floor 101 at 508M height via a secret door (at the souvenir shop). There is only one other family at this floor and we take our time to check out the views (although the sky is unclear today – due to the incence for Buddha’s birthday maybe), the cheesy quotes and fake flowers that decorate the floor.
When we’re back at ground level and try to find our way to the right metro while all Taiwanese seem to be around us celebrating their weekend, we decide to (for the first time during our trip) have an easy dinner at a fast food place. The children are happy with the burger as a main course and also with the dessert: a big playground in front of the restaurant.
Tim received a message from our car rental that we can already pick up our car tonight. After 25.000 steps and a 12 hour day outside in the heath, he does not feel like a bonus trip driving through the city at Saturday night. But we also have a challenge with a lost credit card at one of Korea’s toll stations, so we only have our Amex card left which is not accepted. So we are a bit nervous if we manage to rent the car at all. We prefer to find out as soon as possible, so we have some hours to fix a solution if needed.
So while the children play, Tim gathers all his energy and luck to take an Uber to the rental agency. There, they only write down his “lost” master card number in a form and don’t check anything. Moreover, the child seats are installed. That has been a while for our kids! And luckily, he does not need to use the Chinese navigation as it even has a holder for his phone. In less than an hour Tim is back with our car parked in a nearby garage. We thank Buddha for this gift on his birthday.
Tim is recharged by the success of the rental car and goes back to Taipai 101 to make some night pictures. He even dares to rent a bike to cross up and down the street to try different angles without adding too much to those 25,000 steps of today. End score: 31,115 steps. Just another day of our adventure;-)
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