Doing Touristy Stuff In Taiwan
Posted by Stephen on
June 4, 2007
After checking in to our hotels and getting our gear stowed away, it was time to explore the city. Walking out of the air conditioned confines of the hotel was like jumping from a walk in refridgerator directly into a sauna. Man is it humid over here!
YangMing Mountain Park
The first place we hit was YangMing Mountain Park which is located on a busy local peak just on the outskirts of Taipei. The drive from our hotel was just over 500 NT by taxi, or a little over $15 US. What a deal!
In order to get up to the top, you either need to hike up or you can take the bus to many of the different look out points.
After getting to the top, John passes out from exhaustion. It isn’t exactly a Grouse Grind, but it looks like Dot Com Mogul success has softened him up a little too much and all those culinary adventures have caught up to him 
The view of the garden at the top is beautiful. It totally looks like something out of a martial arts film. We were greeted by a slightly overcast sky and a soothing breeze, but it was still hot to us Canadians.
Despite the wonderful scenery, YangMing Mountain Park is also home of the worst ice cream in the world. I wanted so badly for it to just melt and fall on the ground so I could say “Oops”. The cone was stale, and whatever that was in there was certainly not ice cream. John actually bought one, took a lick and thought it was god awful, but never bothered to stop me from buying mine. Evil! The lesson today: Don’t buy ice cream in YangMing Mountain Park if you want to continue to love ice cream.
Massage Time!
After walking up a mountain, it was time to get our feet taken care of. There was no need to do a Clean Massage Test this time as we decided to go to a well known local establishment. Also, I’m sure that our male foot massagers would not have appreciated being tested in that fashion.
This would be the last time that you would see John Chow smile at a foot massage. Because we like to be competitive with eachother, I asked our massage team to dig right in and try to make us cry. And so the games began…
Every few minutes I would hear this slight sobbing and squealing from the seat beside me and some whispering and laughing from the massage guys. But to his credit, John refused to tap out. Meanwhile, my guy just dug harder into my feet trying to get me to do the same. My masseur dug in so hard, that I could feel his knuckles crack with every movement. He really wanted to hurt me. To add insult to injury, I just fell asleep in my chair. They bowed down and called me Superman
By the end, my feet felt totally refreshed, like they were reborn. John, on the other hand may never enjoy another foot massage again, at least not with me challenging him to a Iron Foot Massage Off. His feet were so bruised and his eyes were red from trying to hold back the tears. Poor guy. If he tries to tell you that it was because he missed his wife (who was in the other room), just smile and nod. If he says it was because his guy was stronger, ask him how it was possible that a guy half the size could be stronger, and why he didn’t switch with me when I offered 
That’s all from my first day. More adventures to come! 
Hey, John is drinking a Pocari Sweat! I drink that all the time in Seoul!
Yes! We are consuming the classic flavour of the Pocari Sweat to replenish the sweat that we lost.
That was pretty evil of John not to warn you!
Is John going to survive? I think maybe there are WAY too many restaurant reviews under his belt (so to speak).
If you’re looking for the best ice cream, then you’d better try Bobtail ice cream’s Signature Sunset. Eating one is a heavenly experience.
Man not telling you about the cone is very nasty and evil. LOL
Love it thought. I would have done the same. Started laughing right away too did’nt he.
Nice orange booties on the feet too.
You guys are having way too much fun!
Go Team Canada!
Yeah, he paid for that with his feet and his tears
The orange booties were actually hot towels that they used to wrap our feet in to keep them nice and pliable.
Glad to hear you’re having a good time.
On a side note, you wrote: “My masseuse dug in so hard, that I could feel his knuckles crack with every movement.”
If the person doing the massaging is male, he’s not a masseuse. He’s a masseur. It follows the same line of thought that prevents you from calling a male server in a restaurant a “waitress”
Thanks! Fixed!
But at Starbucks, isn’t everyone a Barista? An exception to the rule!
Or would the guys be Baristers?
Don’t worry, the cheap ice cream (sometimes also the expensive) is like that everywhere in Taiwan