Taipei 101

We had a few hours to kill in Taipei before we took our bus to Yilan, where we were going to have a look at the car we were interested in. We met Beth, one of Marilette's friends from back in the day when she was in Taiwan for the first time, for an early lunch. Arriving in Taipei you have to keep your head, as everything from the railway station, high speed rail and bus stations are underground. You'd probably be able to go almost anywhere in the city without going to the surface. With Taipei also known for it's rainy weather, the first thing that comes to mind is, what an awesome city it would be for vampires, lol!

We went for lunch at a little place known for it's dumplings in the SOGO department store. Unfortunately I can't remember the name but what a treat. Being as popular as they are we had to wait in line for a little while, but it was definitely worth the wait.


After lunch we headed to the Taipei 101. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The Taipei 101 was known as the worlds tallest building from 2004-2010 and as the name suggests, the building has 101 floors. Well actually 106 but 5 are underground. The Taipei 101 stands at 508m. The first building to break the half-kilometer mark in height. Now, second only to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828m. As with most tourist spots in Taiwan, you'll have to get in line because at every point you'll find at least 3 tour buses filled with people. But I have to add you'll never stand in line for very long. We bought our tickets and headed up to floors 88-91. A ticket will cost you 450NT. Once you step into the elevator that takes you to the top, it only takes you 37 seconds to reach the 89th floor. They still hold the record for the world's fastest ascending elevator at 16.83m/s (60.6 km/h).


Everyone have probably had a coke-float at some stage in their lives, but who's ever had a beer-float? As part of the ticket price we received a buy one get one free coupon for a beer-float. It's definitely not something I'll have again any time soon. We took a few pictures and headed to the outside viewing deck on the 91st floor. Outside you can see all corners of the city and listen as the wind whistles through the protective bars.

Before we headed to the bus station we wanted to make one stop at an electronics store called Nova, but even with directions given by the information desk we couldn't find it. With time running out we headed back to the bus station. But as I mentioned, if you don't keep track of things you end up blocks away from where you need to be. At one point we thought we might miss the bus but fortunately we made it back in time.

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