Taipei 101!

So today Jim and I left together at 10.30 to catch a train towards Taipei City. We went to the train station and got some breakfast and bread to go before barely making it in time for the train to depart. It took about 25 minutes to arrive in Taipei and there we took the metro. The stations here are so freaking crowded! It’s easy to loose each other. We took the metro to the square of freedom where I planned to film my kickass 3 diabolo routine. But unfortunately the combination of wind and sun made it impossible to do it there. On top of that a security guard came to us immediately to tell us it was not allowed to do diabolo there. So we went to find a different spot to do the filming for the day. Just wandering around hot Taipei center takes a lot of energy from you but eventually we found a very good spot to do it. So we started filming and I almost landed the full sequence on the 2nd attempt. Shame I had to try for another 45 minutes after. But it’s on tape now, I’m happy with how it turned out. We hung around the spot a bit more before rendezvous with the other guy’s at the train station.

I was in a very good mood after getting what I wanted and I was free to enjoy the rest of the day! So walking around the streets taking video of everything and acting like a total Japanese tourist! From the station we took the metro towards the city hall, which apparently functions as a shopping center as well. We went through the whole building passing by beautiful stores from western brands like D&G, Armani and many other designer labels. Then we went for the Taipei 101 tower. Just standing at the base of it is very impressive. So we went inside, surprisingly passed by more lovely decorated fashion label stores and eventually arrived at the entrance for going up to the observation decks. This tower has the fastest elevator in the world, 1010 meters a minute! That is almost an attraction itself! Really nice to actually feel an elevator accelerate.

When we got to the top we first enjoyed the audio tour accompanying the magnificent view over all of Taipei city. It was a slight clouded day by then and we couldn’t see more then 20 kilometers or so I estimate. But still incredible to walk around at such a hight to enjoy the view around. After that we took pictures of almost everything including a beautiful sun-behind-a-could. And we got a photo taken in front of the blue screen they had there. So they chop you digitally in front of the tower, leaning or holding onto it, you know like the usual tourist at any tower. After that we went to the outside observation deck which is at the 91st floor of the tower. You might expect to be blown away there but we were very very lucky, there was not even a slight breeze of wind so it was actually comfortable to be out there. I joked to Jim to maybe do a 3 diabolo pattern up there, so we went to ask the guard and surprisingly it was okay! Hahaha I didn’t believe what I heard but then quickly went for it! And the boy’s also wanted to do some diabolo up there, until the next guard came who didn’t quite agree with playing diabolo upon a tower, fair enough. So then we went back inside, took a last peek at the view and decided to go downstairs again. Not before we passed through many tourist shops selling all sorts of crap in my opinion. Who needs decorated coral anyway? Come on!

Once we got our way out of the tower and surrounding buildings it was already 6 pm or something and everyone was hungry. We went first back to the metro station and then to the train station to get food over there. I got a smoked chicken tomato pasta with a side soup and piece of pesto bread (what happend to the f*cking pesto!?). It was okay, but I was still hungry and thirsty so I went to get a small burger menu at Burger King. After we finished our food we got onto our train back to Yingge. A bit tired but very satisfied from a long exciting day Jim and I had nice conversations about random things like studies and what not. After arriving home we took some drinks and went to play some pool together at the house. Tomorrow training and hopefully more video shoots. Stay tuned!

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