Z is for Zig Zag

It seems like I should wrap up the A-Z blog challenge with some great thought but I feel like I've used up all my words in writing about Shanghai-Taipei-Hong Kong.

Well not all my words. Just all the words associated with my recent trip. I managed to stretch out two weeks of travel into a month's worth of blogging, and while I didn't post all of my 1000+ photos I did squeeze more than 250 into this challenge.

Z is for Zig Zag

'a course that proceeds by sharp turns in alternating directions'

Zig Zag Bridge, Shanghai China

Well that sounds pretty much like my blog everyday so how about a list of ten random zig zag thoughts to wrap up the A-Z?

1. I fretted a lot about the super long haul flights prior to my trip. I tried to commit them to prayer but more often than not it was fretting. We had two 15 hour flights plus two flights in country with checked luggage and pre-arranged airport pick ups. People spoke Mandarin, not English. Every single bit of this went off without a hitch. Why do I fret about stuff that may never happen?

2. The other side of the world feels like the other side of the world. There is a whole lot going on over there and we're a little bit oblivious to it from our side of the pond.

3. Travel is like opening a window just a crack. I want to push it open all the way. I want to see more.

4. The more you travel the more you realize how much of the world you will never see. There are not enough days in a year and years in a life to see all that I would love to see.

5. When it comes to traveling my hubs is a rock star.

6. I love the discipline of writing every day that the A-Z challenge presents. I might never have captured this trip with the level of detail I did had it not been for the A-Z.

7. There is something for everyone out there in the blogosphere. And I do mean everyone.

8. Writing two posts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays was a lot for me.

9. I enjoy having a theme for my A-Z posts. I'll bind these posts into their own little book and have a nice keepsake from our trip.

10. Hubs!! Where are we going next March? I'll be needing a theme for the 2013 A-Z blog challenge, ya know!

S is for 'Sun'

Time to wrap up Taipei so I can move on to the last leg of our trek across Asia-Hong Kong. Hubs had a couple hours of free time on our last day in Taipei and since it was gorgeous and sunny we hit the streets.

Literally. There was a little neighborhood market just across the highway and thru the alley opposite our hotel...mind the motorcyclists!

Told you foreign travel wasn't for the faint of heart.

As we wandered thru this market I pondered things like why we're paranoid about setting a whole chicken, frozen solid, on a plastic cutting board reserved solely for poultry, in an air conditioned house, for so much as a minute, and here they put raw fish and chicken pieces on wooden boards in the sunshiny out of doors yet don't keel over from salmonella. Run on sentence I know but it was a run on thought.

This sweet man took a liking to me and wanted us to take a picture together. I know this because a lovely Taiwanese woman who spoke English stopped by on her bicycle to interpret. For some reason he wanted me to hold random vegetables from his stall.

He also wanted hubs and I to take a picture together and a few more random vegetables were added for good measure.

Insert travel mantra here.

In case you've forgotten my travel mantra it's- 'Just go with the flow people.'

S is for Sun Yat-sen

Here we are posing together-

Technically it's me with a statue of Sun Yat-sen who is known as the founding father of the Republic of China. Also ROC's first president so he warrants a memorial in Taipei too.

Not quite as elaborate as the Chaing Kai-shek Memorial I told you about yesterday, but not too shabby either.

There's also a changing of the guard at the Sun Yat-sen memorial so hubs did get to see that.

No blinking here either.

Speaking of the Chaing Kai-shek Memorial we wandered back by since it's a do-not-miss attraction, and hubs wanted to see it too. He was working while I was playing when I visited the first time.

While we were admiring the memorial a man approached and I thought he wanted me to take a picture of him with his wife. My big fancy camera always throws people. They think I know how to take pictures. Anyway, we did the whole pantomime thing and since I had my hands full of stuff I called the hubs over to take the photo.

Can you tell its warm?

Turns out pantomime isn't 100% effective as a communication tool because the gentleman began shaking his head no no no. What he was trying to ask was if I'd get in a picture with his wife. Blue eyes make you something of a celebrity here. Perhaps I should have removed my sunglasses?

I told hubs to get in a picture with the Mister too just because.

Now for a word about face masks. They were everywhere in Taiwan, and Shanghai too. We didn't see as many in Hong Kong but in Taiwan nearly everyone wore a mask on the subways and out and about town. They're worn primarily to protect the wear-er from germs and potential pandemics and the like but their effectiveness is questionable.

These kids were awfully cute in theirs though...I love the little cheeky one in back who's waving at us.

We spent a little time wandering thru the garden before getting back on the subway. Got a hankering for some peanut soup? No worries....the vending machine's got you covered.

We passed a bride and groom on their way to have some pictures taken. Gotta love her creative footwear!

We exited the subway close to the hotel about the time school was letting out for the day. We were surrounded by school children of all ages and watched the safety patrol in action.

When the pole is vertical it's safe to cross. When she holds the pole horizontally the kids know to stop. This is a very busy street.

We meandered thru a little park where artists were hard at work. Play? Whatever...they were quite good.

There's Taipei 101 which means we're almost home.

By home you know I mean the hotel, right?

Just in time to collect our bags and head to the airport.

Hong Kong here we come!

R is for Ruler

We're still in Taipei.

Not literally, but in terms of my recap we're still there.

Who feels like this trip lasted forever?

I'm going to wrap up Taipei with tomorrow's post and move on to Hong Kong on Monday (no worries Judy!).

R is for Ruler

Not the kind that measures.

The kind that rules and then after his death ends up with a beautiful monument and memorial built in his honor.

The Chaing-Kai shek Memorial-

Hmmm...do I attempt to insert some Chinese history here?

In a nutshell (a very small nutshell)...Chaing-Kai Shek was a political and military leader and head of China's Military Academy in the mid 1920's. He was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen (first President and founding father of the Republic of China) and in the early 20's led something called the Northern Expedition to unify the country. He then became its leader (Sun Yat-sen died in 1925). Fast forward to the mid-1940's and civil war had resumed. Chiang's government was forced to retreat to Taiwan and while he declared his intention to retake Mainland China he instead ruled the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975.

History buffs please forgive.

I don't want to comment on his leadership style and definitely don't know enough to weigh in on good vs. evil here, but I do know this-his memorial is spectacular.

After Chaing-Kai Shek's death in 1975 a funeral committee was established to build a memorial. A competition was held and the winning design was created by an architect named Yang Cho-chen. Let me tell you, Yang Cho-chen had some serious talent. When you round the corner into the space it kinda takes your breath away.

The buildings on the left and right are The National Concert Hall and The National Theatre and they are stunning.

The whole memorial area reminded me somewhat of The Washington Mall in that it's a long open space with a monument at one end.

Inside that monument sits a man in a big chair.

Chaing Kai-shek.

Two guards stand frozen in place at the memorial. Frozen as in they do not blink for one solid hour. I'm not kidding-they don't blink.

At all.

For one solid hour.

I'm not sure how that's done but I have a theory.

Changing of the guard happens every hour-

Fascinating to watch up close-

Incredible precision-

and focus-

I love the way travel opens the door into another culture...the food, the language, the people, their traditions. The world is so big and the more I see the more I realize how much more I have/want/need to see.

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Q is for Shake Rattle and Roll

Q is for Quagswag

What a fun word to say.

I browsed thru a list of Q words to find one I could apply to today's post about tea. Quagswag is an obsolete word meaning to shake to and fro. What does that have to do with tea you ask?

Well, first we needed to get to the tea and that required a little thing called a cable car. Gondola. Tram. Death Trap. Take your pick. Why when I travel do I always seem to end up in one of these things?

Because I cave to peer pressure and don't want to seem like a wimp even though I am, that's why. Plus I hate to miss anything and sometimes you need to climb up high so you can look down low.

I'm not opposed to heights and I love the views from high places. I just don't care for the manner in which I have to travel in order to get there. I dislike small spaces and as I'm trekking ever higher I find myself contemplating who does the maintenance on these things? Someone does the maintenance, right? Of course someone does. They wouldn't let us ride it otherwise, right?

Anyhoo, back to Taipei and my traveling pal E. Normally I'm on these sorts of 'vehicles' with the hubs who loves looking out and down and across and pointing out all the sights along the way. He doesn't seem to notice a little thing like THE WIND that's sweeping across the valley we're traversing as we dangle by a string hundreds of feet in the air.

Well, it feels like a string.

E and I discuss going up the mountain to see the tea plantations. The alternative to the cable car would be taking a bus up a winding twirling swirling road and that appeals to me even less than the cable car because that will definitely require Dramamine. It's amazing I ever leave my front porch, isn't it.

Seeing the tea farms is something high on my list of things to do but I just wish there were some other way to get there. Apparently so did E because as we stood in line for the cable car we each, ever so carefully, let it slip that we dislike actually riding in these things.

Ruh-roh.

I need someone to keep me from sucking all the oxygen out of the car, not someone I might have to wrestle down for the last gasp of air. As I'm working all this out in my head we are alerted to the fact that a glass bottomed cable car is an option. Uh, no thanks. I'm sure had my hubs been there he would have been making the case for the glass bottomed cable car but E and I were in complete agreement on a no see-through floor.

Yes those two specks in the sky in the center of this photo are the cable cars.

A Japanese couple and their young son were in the car with us going up. The dad was videotaping the entire ride and somewhere in Japan today is a family watching that video wondering why the crazy American woman in the background cannot stop talking. Sorry! I just can't help myself. I chatter when I'm nervous.

The windows were partially lowered in the car and as we crossed the wide open canyon the wind positively whistled right on thru and the car swayed. S-way-ed!! Somebody does maintenance on these things, yes? The little boy clung to his mama. I know exactly how you feel little guy!

There was a stop about 2/3 of the way up and we decided to hop off and see Chi Nan Temple which sits tucked into the mountainside like a picture perfect postcard.

Also to savor the terra firma for a minute.

Just keepin' it real folks.

The temple and surrounding area were positively gorgeous.

So peaceful and quiet and lush.

I could finally stop talking.

Mind the steps now-

You know, foreign travel is really not for the the faint of heart.

I might be just a little bit faint of heart.

I forge ahead anyway.

Forging ahead meant getting back on that cable car and riding it the rest of the way up. We'd heard the little village called Maokong that sits atop the mountain was filled with tea houses.

I guess so...every one of those names on the signs you see as you get off the gondola are tea houses. Our guide book suggested choosing one that appealed to you so that's what we did. The young man whose family owned this particular tea house was so polite and spoke excellent English. He asked if we'd like a menu so naturally we said yes.

Alrighty.

How 'bout you suggest something instead.

He brought us tea grown by his family and prepared and served it to us tableside. Then he stood right beside us as we drank every drop. It made us chuckle.

We really did enjoy our seat high on the mountain overlooking Taipei. The tea was soothing and the air was sweet. The view wasn't bad either, definitely worth the trip up.

You miss a lot of life when you let fear rule the day.

I try to remember that when I'm facing a mountain.

In travel and in life.