pantstributor

Asia Pants – The Final Post

Hello all! This is my last post from Asia. I’ll admit, I’m ready to get back to the US. The cultural differences are starting to weigh me down a little, and deep down I’m not sure I deserve to be eating so well. On a related note, I need to not be eating so well for reasons more pertinent to my vanity. I’m talking extended waistlines. I just about managed Asia when I was twenty-two. If I try it now, I think I’ll be in muumuu territory before too long.

I shouldn’t complain, though! It’s been a wonderful trip. Jen coming over last week really helped get me closer to the end of what’s been quite a long stint on my own. We left you last week with food and cute kittens. I can’t promise more kittens unfortunately, but there will be food, and THE TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD.

When they built the 101, they initially planned for more floors; I think it was around one hundred and twenty-five. I’m not sure “Taipei 125” has as nice a ring to it. In any case, it dawned on somebody just in time that such a tall building would interfere with air traffic. They promptly altered the building plans, but did nothing to prevent the construction of one of the ugliest buildings in the Eastern Hemisphere. Thankfully, you can’t see just how awful the building looks when you’re ninety floors above ground on the viewing deck.

Not a bad view, eh? It was quite windy up there but my heart was warmed by the Taipei 101’s consideration for my safety or perhaps assumption of my complete stupidity.

No jumping. Really. We mean it.
Jen and I also took this chance to pose for the requested cheesy couple holiday photograph.

We returned to the earth’s surface to walk around the posh shopping area that surrounds the 101. Here we found a giant panda taking it easy:

A possibly perfect shirt for a certain poshdeluxe reader:
An iced tea promotion involving a dancing penguin and people on rollerskates throwing giant fake lemon slices at each other:

And whatever this is:

For our travels the next day, I decided to contrast the urban aggression and disregard for the lessons we supposedly learned from the Tower of Babel that Taipei 101 engenders with the rather more traditional town of Jiufen. Jiufen is not far from Taipei, and it’s a great destination for day trips, featuring what the Taiwanese call, literally, an “old street.”

The keys to Jiufen are food (almost everything is available in taro form, and they have giant fish ball soup), tea, and apparently, lanterns.

There is also a wonderful view.

Unfortunately, getting up to see the view left Jen in a bit of a tender state. Jen doesn’t get travel sick very often, but then again, Jen doesn’t get in a bus driven by a Taiwanese lunatic up a very bendy and narrow mountain road very often. So, no photographs of us tucking into taro here. Actually, taro isn’t the most photogenic foodstuff, so trust me, you guys will live through it. I got her back to Taipei as soon as I could, and we grabbed my favourite variety of Japanese food, namely, bowls of rice and stuff.
Jen got my usual favourite, the katsudon.

And I got a bunch of fish with plenty of wasabe.

Yes, the wasabe was hot.
Finally, it was time for Jen to go home, but we squeezed a couple more dishes in. I went for some nice basic pork and rice.

And Jen went for one of my dad’s favourites, and one of Taiwan’s specialties, beef noodle soup.

I didn’t warn her how utterly massive it would be.
And then, Jen was gone. Off home, where I am happy to say that she has arrived, a little bit worse for wear from jet lag. Next Monday, it’s my turn. I’ve had so much fun. Thanks Sarah, for letting me write on this every week. It’s been nice to write about it, especially as I’ve allowed work to produce excuses for me to let my own blog fall into disgraceful disrepair. Thanks to all you guys for reading and leaving comments! I’ll be back, but it’s never easy to leave. Just ask the guy on the left.

This is from an advertisement for a vitamin drink on the MRT. Obama drinks it, because he is a winner. Taiwan, you drive me crazy, and I will miss you.

© 2009 Poshdeluxe.