After returning from Dharma Drum Mountain, I had a full day of exploring Taipei by foot. First stop was Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, soon to be renamed to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. The large square had a beautiful entry gate and two performance halls on either side. The fourth side was CKS Hall with a statue of seated Chiang, similar to the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. A wide grin on his face, he faces west towards China. In the hall was an exhibit which was a reminder of everything bad related to Chiang's tenure -- great juxtaposition!
I had lunch / dinner at a little dumpling joint where I watched the staff working at their dumpling stations, and then spent a while finding my way to the Happy Family hostel which was incorrectly placed on my Lonely Planet map. The problem with staying at cheap hostels in a huge city is that they're usually on back lanes and locals have ever heard of them, so they can be challenging to find. Happy Family had a very friendly caretaker who showed me to my very cheap single room. This place was cold in place of being damp and moldy, a situation I much preferred. I hung out talking to some travelling snowboarding Aussies who spend half the year in Japan and the other half in Australia, following the good snow. They were in Taiwan for a few days since Japanese tourist visas expire after three months. They would get new ones when they re-entered the country.I put on all my clothes and got under two coverlets, and was able to use the hostel wifi to check email. I also ran my photo ftp backup program over night, and it worked like a charm.
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