Friday 17 December 2010

101: thing to do in Taipei



After tourism overload in Egypt, I've been taking things pretty easy in Taiwan over the first week - unless you count the relentless food tourism (Zào Jūn be praised).

That's right - I might be suffering from the cold like the rest of you idiots now (especially after the unreasonable heat of the last three months ruined my durability), but at least I'm eating better food than you! And I wonder why nobody reads this. You're alright really.


But even as I tried to enjoy Taipei like a local, rather than as a ghost-faced, clown-nosed foreigner (it's cold, alright?), it didn't take long for the despicable tourist inside me to be reawakened (how did he get in there? etc.)

So yesterday, I did what no self-respecting Taiwanese local would do uncoerced, and ascended the famous international landmark Taipei 101: the world's second tallest skyscraper!!!

READER: Sorry, what was that?

Taipei 101: the world's tallest skyscraper until 2004.

READER: You know that just shrinking the font size doesn't make text any less legible, don't you? It isn't the same as whispering. If anything, it only serves to draw more attention to it.

Be quiet, you're clearly a fictional character. Nobody is reading this. I'm so alone.


Taipei 101
(臺北 101)



101 floors, 508 metres tall

It may be the subordinate skyscraper, but it's still bloody difficult to fit the whole thing into frame from across the street



Dave W at 1,285 feet (I've been higher - and warmer) on the second highest observation deck ever built (for a skyscraper), after ascending in the second fastest elevator IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

It's still the world's tallest sundial at least, Dubai can't take that away from us! They definitely will though.



Proof that we made it to the top of the lesser lookout. Level 91, anyway - here are the final ten

Do you really think my rubbish Egyptian camera's zoom function would be advanced enough to take this from ground level, when it can't even take clear night shots even after you switch the 屎蛋 to Night mode?



Super make enjoy occurrence on Level 88!



'I'll give you a wind damp-er,' quipped Dave W, unleashing a dirty protest against the ubiquitous insidiousness of the Christmas spirit, which even reaches this high in the second-rate superstructure



101 goes gay for ROC