Got a good nights sleep, just woke up briefly at 5am and went right back to sleep until 7:30am. Went again for some Taiwanese breakfast (and remembered to take a picture before eating), this time with my parents. Afterwards, headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for another day of meetings. I took a couple of pictures of the view out my hotel room:
At lunchtime, we went to look at a space that is available for purchase near our office. I took some pictures of the space and the view out the windows.
We finished our meetings a little late and went for dinner at 101. It was late enough that we didn’t have to wait very long for a table at Ju Ru. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to drop off our bags before going out for a little shopping (sans my dad, he hates shopping, so he asked me to go and keep my mom company). Here’s a shot of my hotel room:
It had been sprinkling on and off all day, and when we went out again, it was raining pretty consistently. We decided not to go to the night market and went instead to the shopping district on Chung Xiao Dong Lu Section 4. We checked out the East Metro Underground mall, but most shops were already closing. I then took my mom to a fashion mall which has mostly local brands, but I guess it was too fashionable for her. Turns out she was really looking for some clothes for my youngest brother. So I took her to a shop around the corner that had brand name rejects and she got a bunch of stuff there.
Alex suggested that I create a Google map of the places I know in Taipei, so here it is:




Yeah, Rebecca’s always telling me to try the hotsprings, but I’m not that big a fan of “cooking myself”, hehe. Actually, I wish I had the time to relax, but as usual, this trip is short and crammed full of meetings so I can get back ASAP to the family
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Hmm, that’s not a bad idea about an Asian phone with roaming AND data. I’ll have to look into that. I’ll check with my cousins, since some of them travel pretty regularly. In the meantime, pre-paid SIMs work, except for the lack of data, but then again, most of the time, I am in one of our local offices in meetings anyways.
Lucky duck that you’re in taiwan! (I suppose ducks in tw aren’t very lucky since they often get eaten pretty quickly, but, I digress….).
It’s awesome that you did that map. I’ve already saved it for future reference. hehe… Perhaps with the huge google map thing I’ve been working on, I’ll be able to amend stuff like that on mine as well. Too bad I don’t read Chinese!
RE: phone, I feel so much freer now that I don’t have carry a big brick with me along with another clunky brick. I’m almost considering getting a contracted cellphone in Asia that has good roaming rates throughout Asia. Between my dad and I, we go back enough to make good use of it now. If you hear of any business phone plans that roam well between TW, HK, and CN, lemme know.
Have fun in TW! Go enjoy some nice hotsprings in Beitou or Yanming san in the drizzly weather! It’s the best feeling!
It’s working great. I’m able to use local pre-paid SIMs, unfortunately, can’t use data without subscription, but at least I have wifi. I also got twitter to work as an sms gateway so that I can text message people with non-GSM US phones.
Yum! Taiwanese breakfast! How’s your new phone working out there in Taiwan?