6th DAY: VISIT TO PAPER AND MINIATURES MUSEUMS

Early in the morning I went to get some Starbucks coffee - it doesn't open until 7:30 in the  morning though which is rather inconvenient simce I am usually up by 4:00 AM. After I returned to my hotel room I read for a while. Then joined Maya and Steve for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The Nikko does indeed have fhe  best breakfast buffets.

After breakfat we went, with Andrew joining us, to the Miniatures museum. But on the way we stopped at the Suho Paper Museum which is also a workshop where a person or group can learn how to make paper. Below is a shot of the workshop itself.

For sale the paper museum didn't have the varieties of large sheets of paper that one would see in Japan or China, but rather only small pieces bound in small books. The museum is not a large-production factory. By the way we didn't visit the museum part of the place because Andrew discouraged me, he said it wasn't worthwhile paying the fee to see it. I took his word.

The museum shop, it was all one big room actually, had small hand-made books for sale.we purchased several with several Chinese zodiac signs to correspond to one's birth year. Andrew decided to stamp several pages of his book, apparently that's what Taiwanese people do.

From the paper museum we walked to the Miniatures museum. Now this was something really wothwhile to see. The museum contained a very large number of miniature houses. How many? I didn't count but there were at least 50. They range in size from a 1:12 replica of Buckinghsm Palace to very small reproductions of houses or rooms. Since saying that the palace is a 1:12 size is probably  meaningless to you, as it was ro ke, unless you are a whiz with numbers and scales, saying that the building measured about 6' X 3' X 2' may give you a better idea.

The most interesting naturally were the smallest reproductions that had miniature paintings on the walls smaller than one inch. The houses were made by craftsman from all over the world- the United States, Canada, etc. One can easily spend one to two hours seeing all these marvels. Highly recommended to visit if you happen to visit Taiwan.

Here is a bedroom that was probably about 15" wide, but carefully done to the smallest detail.

And a section of another room, with small paintings on the wall

One of the tiny displays had a train that was running on a small track. The train cars may have been  aeound quarter inch long and an eigth of an inch wide. 

From this museum we took a taxi ride to the famous Taipei 101 building, the second tallest bulding in Asia, and the fifth largest in the world. Although at one point, at the turn of the century right after it was built it was the tallest in the world. We didn't go up to the observation tower because it was raining and cloudy, we didn't think it would be worthwhile to shell out $15-$20 per person to see a cloudy city. We get the same view when we are flying over cloudy skies.

Any good photos in this blog are ones that Maya took, the blurry, out of focus are mine even though zi think they are more artistic.

And here is a faint view of the same building from my room, it's a very cloudy day.

We had lunch in one of the many  extremely crowded restaurants. Also, since it was Saturday families were all out in force. That was the only place where I saw a few round-eyed westerners. Otherwise it was difficult to spot a non-Asian person throoughout any of the places we visited. Because of the crowd we had to wait to be seated for about an hour. Somehow we decided to go to a coffee shop that had the most delicious pastries.

Maya of course liked the rabbit in front of the coffee house

This was the small piece of cake I had, chocolate with raspberry. Delicious. Also a great appetizer before lunch.

Maya and Steve waiting for lunch at the restaurant. They are such good friends.

 By the way, the food was also quite good.

After lunch we went to a bookstore in a building within a short walking distance from Taipe 101 building. On the way we saw city hall

Which is a rather non-descript building. Could it be a prison?

The bookstore is one that occupies a whole floor of a seven-story building, from the same Eslite chain I visited a couple of days ago. I picked up three more books there, of course. We spend 2-3 hours in the bookstore, we did mostly because our dinner reservations were for eight or eight-thirty.

The restaurant is a Korean one, The Maple Tree House, that is owned by a Californian of Korean descent. I've had Korean food before, a couple of times but one I remember was a dinner in Shanghai a few years ago. It wasn't as good as this one which was, incidentally, the best meal we have had here in Taiwan.

Dinner was heavy in meats although we had a large variety of side dishes.

We were joined by a couple of Steve's friends, Cassiopeia and Y. Here is Steve, Andrew and Budi, who is Indonesian.

Cassiopeia is a young girl originally from Detroit but who has spent most of her working life outside the US; in Italy, Peru and now Taiwan. I believe she was the person who hired Steve when he came to Taiwan.

Here is the owner of the rstaurant, he gave us great service

And some of the food we had

Fresh garlic, eaten with a small piece of meat wrapped in a mint leaf (some type of mint leaf that was about two inches wide-  was one of the foods that was really delicious.

Looks like I am praying, likely for more wine

The owner helping fix the food

And another dish. He actually brought five or six varieties of beef and pork for us to eat.

He was cutting the meat with scissors that I am going to look for.

After dinner we took a taxi back to the hotel.