Writes of Passage

Shuanglian 双连 of the red line (Tamsui 淡水 – Xiangshan 象山), the station wall has pretty neat timeline, from 1860 to 1995, Taipei.

No. 172, Section 2, Chongqing N Rd,
Datong District,
Taipei City, Taiwan 103
重庆北路二段172号 886-2-2553-3919 website

Someone mentioned this hotel and after a quick search, Agoda showed up and I booked through it. Breakfast is included (so so; good coffee tho). Good service, room and bathroom are fine.

We arrived at the hotel at 12:30pm, a female staff said the room wasn’t ready.

The good: a little old world feel, high ceiling, good water pressure. Front desk staff are helpful and always ready to help. And, the hotel records the phone message the old fashion way: typed up on a piece of paper.

The bad: I thought I booked for two beds (traveling with my dad) but Room 309 has one bed. If I wanted two separate beds, us$25 per day would be added, the same female staff informed me.

The sound proof is pretty good – never heard a human noise but the water running is loud, and runs all the time. I complained to the front desk. The smiling young man said, he will ask his manager and switch it for me. Never happened.

The housekeeping is sloppy. Their shampoo as well as conditioner and lotion are in bottle that are small and hard to squeeze. Coming back to the hotel the second day, this is what I found in the bathroom. The lone bottle lotion, used.

The round faucet is difficult to manager. I’ve to make sure my palms are dry. A little moist will not be able to turn the nobs.

The hotel is near (east of) Tamsui River 淡水河, Dacaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭), the Dadaocheng Park 大稻埕公園, Cisheng Gong/Chi Shing Temple 慈聖宮, the Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市 and the home coming worshipers on Sunday night.

Dad loves to get passports. Any passport. Be it the HK, or Taiwan or whatever. He’s a Taiwan passport which is still valid for another two years that was issued in San Francisco. Once we got to Taipei, at the Household Registration Office 户政事務所, he asked if he could get a passport that’s issued in Taipei – just bit more precious, dad thinks. The girl was very helpful and off we went, to the Bureau of Consular Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs 外交部领事事务局.

The application made easy by scanning your ID card.

As dad wished, yes he could get his Taipei issued passport on Monday before 1pm. However, their requirement for photos is stringent than what dad had brought with his (he’s prepared): two identical recent pictures without showing tooth. The good news is, as the staff pointed out, there is photo service on the ground floor.

We went down and waited. Two seconds later, dad said, “no, I won’t have this kind of photo for my passport.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. It’s late afternoon, Friday. We were leaving next Monday.
“I want a professional photography.”
“I don’t think we’ve enough time.” Giving we traveled this far, to fulfill his wish, he won’t settle for a photo booth picture.
“Dad, who’s on earth will see your picture other than the immigration officer?”
But he won’t listen, insisted to go to a photo studio. He mentioned that his appearance had set him back but won’t elaborate on a particular incident.
Off we went, to shop for a tie …

We did return on Monday after the tree burial. The hall was packed. I didn’t want to miss the flight, so we left. The flight to Shanghai, ended up, being canceled.

Or 地政事務所 in Taipei. We needed to get the death certificate for my grandma’s tree burial. It’s efficient. The roaming staff really helps a lot.

One thing I find different: banks in Taiwan as well as in China all have chairs. Does it mean the public has longer waiting time? DMVs in New York have chairs because government services always have longer than 10 minutes of wait. I don’t recall banks have chairs by the counters. There’s a station with hot water for tea.

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There’s a medical office on site too. Over all, good and fast service. The young lady was patient and very accommodating. Yes, my dad did ask about how to get me a Taiwan passport.

Getting off at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), this ad caught my eyes. Wiki states that this 上海商业储蓄银行 was founded by Chen Guangfu 陳光甫, better known as K. P. Chen in 1915, in Shanghai. Google 民国上海实业银行, nothing turns up tho.  I may have the name wrong.

600 meters away from hotel in Taipei is the food market, bordering Datong District Penglai Primary School 臺北市大同區蓬萊國民小學. I’m so so on the food but love the fruits tho.

This Amor sculpture is conceived 1998, executed 2006, displaying at the DC‘s National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.

2014.08.19; DC

Here are few of his Love:

2010: Love from New York .. 535 Madison Ave

9/22/2010: this Love is at Taipei 101

They are from the same artist, Robert Indiana who loves a good Love. New York Love and Taipei Love, hopefully I’ll find more love somewhere.

New York: 535 Madison Ave @ Park Avenue in middle town Manhattan

2010: Love from New York .. 535 Madison Ave

Taipei 101 (台北101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District.

9/22/2010: this Love is at Taipei 101

.. found on the web

found this on the web too

Dingtaifeng, the land of xiaolongbao 小龙饱 (small steamed juicy buns, or dumplings). it’s far more famous and delicious than Nan Xiang. DTF’s buns are smaller and lots more expensive, and I haven’t seen a single one being broken. Yes, sometimes the buns get broken at NX. I only visited this one in Taipei at Tienmu SOGO Department Store. Both times, we had to wait: one was 30 and second time was 45 minutes. However their operation was very smooth and attentive. Watching the employees, it happened to be all men making the buns; reportedly they need to fold exactly same number of pleats for each buns, makes me wonder: really no machine could duplicate that task?
 

• 2016.03.06, Taipei 101
• 2014.06.02, Beijing
• 2011.08.11, Hong Kong 尖沙咀

It drawing power is just unbelievable. No matter what time of the day you go, you have to queue up. 3pm in the afternoon? Wait. At 11am on the mid autumn festival 中秋节 (9/22) DTF was a solid 30 minutes wait while the adjacent hall with various eateries was empty.

DTF gets a one star from Michelin. Wrestling a star out of Michelin is difficult and this is only some dumplings. Well, I want to go there again, again and again might say something. Well, what do I know about the Frenchies.

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