A ten mile walk

You know Adam's on the scene when I clock in ten miles in one day. We mostly walked around the Xinyi area of Taipei which I find pretty interesting. It's totally modern with loads of skyscrapers on one side and old school neighborhoods on the other side. I guess the newly developed area used to be farmland in the outskirts of town providing a blank slate for building a slew of large buildings.

Started with a post breakfast snack of almond croissant from Crown Bakery

View of Taipei 101 from the Sun Yat Sen Memorial

Sun Yet Sen Memorial where we also found endless dance crews of teenagers perfecting their dance moves at the memorial

After walking around the Sun Yet Sen Memorial, we sought relief from the scorching sun by heading over to the malls. First stop was the ATT Fun building. I personally like to emphasize the "FUN" in ATT Fun by throwing up both arms when saying "FUN." So far, no one else is adopting this habit. We were hungry for lunch so we stopped by the San Yuan restaurant at ATT Fun for some juicy soup dumplings [xiao long bao] and some other delicious treats.

Adam digging into the Xiao Long Bao

Spicy Xiao Long Bao on the on left and regular Xiao Long Bao on the right

We kinda like Din Tai Fung better, but it was pretty good

Steamed shrimp and meat dumplings...super yummy

Salt and Pepper Pork

Steamed chocolate dumplings for dessert

Oooey Gooey chocolate dumpling

After lunch, there was a torrential downpour with lots of loud lightening so we sough refuge from the rain in a series of department stores. Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has a complex of four buildings all connected by sky bridges which proved super helpful in the pouring rain. We wandered around various food halls, grocery stores and checked out different restaurants.

I thought this grocery aisle sign was hilarious. DIY cooking for days when you actually want to cook something versus buying a prepared meal

Everyone wants a photo with a cute mascot even if it's a stuffed mascot for lotion and sunscreen

I dragged Adam over to Eslite for a bowl of Mango Snow Ice and he agreed that it was AWESOME. YES...another convert

Spicy chicken nuggets at Taipei 101...I love how you're highly encouraged to eat while you walk with skewers. In Europe, they look at me askance when I'm eating and walking like it's highly uncivilized