Let's have another Taipei Tourist Day! (TM)

This is actually at the Confucian Temple, but doesn't he look nice?

With another day off and no plans, I decided to go back to my handy-dandy Taipei travel guide I got as gift last Christmas. I had 5 destinations planned for today - Taipei Main to get some Indian food, the Fine Arts Museum, Lin An Tai Homestead, Confucius Temple, and the Baoan Temple.

While I was eating in Taipei Main, a foreigner came up to me and asked me if the seat next to me was taken. Not at all, I replied, so he sat down and chatted for a bit. Turns out he's a French - English guy who has lived here for 20 years, married, and has a 15 year old daughter. Nice fella, I enjoyed his experienced western perspective on Taiwan. He said his family has tried to move twice - one back to London, and then again to some city in France. Both times they came back after a few months because of how pessimistic everyone was. I was just saying the same a few blogs ago, that I do feel the many in the west make out everything to be far worse than it is. Anyway, the Indian food wasn't so great, but the company was.

This is "art"

Next was the Fine Arts Museum. The Fine Arts Museum can go suck it.

I can appreciate something like Michelangelo's David. I can appreciate the Mona Lisa. I couldn't do either of those. They and the rest of the Ninja Turtles are really talented.

What I can't appreciate it is someone who folds a Costco bed spread in some strange way, plops it down in the middle of the floor with a velvet rope, and calls it art - which was one of the pieces. Other "art" includes a watch made out of cardboard wrapped in tin foil, AKA a 2nd grader's Christmas present. Or a rock with a knife stuck in it. There should be a rule that if you can create an art piece faster than you can take a dump, it is not art. I really think 95% of art critics are full of it. In fact, you can probably wrap wine critics in that number as well. The best thing to look at in that dumb place was the window overlooking a park.

I was just about finished with this exhibition of household objects arranged in stupid ways when a lady excitedly came up to me and in English said "There is an English tour group starting in about 5 minutes. We'd love to have you join it."

She seemed so excited to have a foreigner in there, I swear they could've organized the thing just for me. Thinking on my feet, I claimed in Chinese that my English was terrible, and that I am actually German. She seemed disappointed and thanked me for visiting. Mental fist bump to myself on that one.

So on the way out I saw a sign that said "Taipei Robot Pavilion" with an arrow and I knew exactly where I was going. Unfortunately the Robot Pavilion was some sort of industry event, and to get in was $1000. Definitely not worth it, but it was in a neat looking park. The park was across the street from another dealie in the guidebook, the Lin An Tai Homestead. This is the oldest something or other in Taiwan, and was actually in another part of town prior to WWII. They were so worried the allies would accidentally hit it with a bomb while aiming for a factory or something, they dismantled the entire thing, brick by brick, moved it to the other part of the city, and re-assembled it. This was unexpectedly one of the cooler places I've been to, because it's a giant maze of a Chinese house ripped out of a movie, and you can just go wherever you want in it.

Finally of note were the Confucian and Baoan Temples. They're temples, and the only reason I went is because they were on the way. Meh, all temples are the same. The Confucian one had a very friendly lady who told me about the symbolism of all the various things. She was very nice, and the temple was pretty, but I've seen about 100 other pretty temples in China and Taiwan.

Whew! Too much walking today.