After dinner at Din Tai Fung we strolled around the Xinyi area a bit before heading back to the hotel. As we headed further down Xinyi Road we came upon Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park and the imposing Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
We walked up the 89 stairs, which represents Chiang Kai-shek's age at the time of his death.
A statue of Chiang Kai-shek resides in the hall.
And from the hall you can get a nice view of Liberty Square. With the National Concert Hall on one side.
And the National Theatre on the other.
We took a quick peek in the hall, before the doors started closing at 6pm.
We then made our way back to the hotel and had a nice night of sleep.
Our train the next morning wasn't leaving until 1145, staying right across the street from Taipei Main Station had its benefits as we could go out and explore a bit more. Also, we'd be returning Sky 19 Hotel so they were kind enough to store our excess luggage.
While walking close to the 2/28 Peace Memorial Park, which I posted on earlier, we came across this tiny coffee shop.
And we got our caffeine fix for the morning.
壹咖啡
No. 76 Huaining St.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
Right around the corner from the hotel, the Missus stopped and exclaimed "oooohh, fan tuan"! Which cracked me up….you see, when Sammy would get a bit chubby, we'd call him "fan tuan", basically "glutinous rice ball".
But this place really made fan tuan. We thought it would be nice to have one on our three hour train ride. Of course there was a line.
But lines in Taiwan move fast and the two guys making fan tuan were super fast….no wasted motion here.
The version the Missus got had a soy sauce egg, crisp nicely sour pickled veggies, and crunchy egg roll wrappers, in a nice, tight toothsome rice ball.
It was quite filling. Well, I finally got a fan tuan!
Fan Tuan Ba (飯糰霸)
No. 2號 Xuchang St.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
And since I needed my pork chop fix, we got a Train Bento at the station as well!
Man was I enjoying Taiwan!
Next stop, Hualien!
Nice
love fan tuan
Awesome memorial!
It was ST!
We do too Kat!
Very grand Soo. A great place to visit.
I enjoyed my visit to the memorial; IIRC there was a ceremony during the day similar to the one at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier in Arlington, VA. At one night market, the vendor selling sausage in stick rice was very popular. The one you had looks like Taiwan’s version of onigiri!
It is pretty much a stuffed rice ball Sandy!
Glad you got a good fan tuan! I love getting the purple rice ones
We loved Taiwan Kirbie and can’t wait to return! It’s great to hear from you and hope you have a wonderful 2024!