Taiwan Day #2

With all the excitement at a temporary standstill over prop 8 and Butch Jamie's DVD release, I thought I'd pick up where I left off on my trip to Taipei last month. I've only gotten through the first day, and I have four more to go! If you need to catch up, you can read Day 1 part 1 here and Day 1 part 2 here.


Whereas my first day in Taiwan I took the most photos, my second day I took the least. But I still had a very productive day.

I started the morning off at the National Palace Museum, which is on the outskirts of the city.



Below you can see some of the surrounding greenery.



We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so that's it for the museum. The inside was nice, but I'm not a huge fan of museums in general (even though I really do try to go and be cultural) so I'm not a good one to ask. But if you're looking for a museum in Taipei, this one is supposedly the best.

After that, my guide and I went for dim sum, which I was introduced to when I visited Hong Kong several years ago. I have since been only once, in Chinatown here in L.A. My guide told me that dim sum originated in Hong Kong, although it's very popular in Taiwan. The restaurant we went to is open 24 hours and is a popular place to go after clubbing. I didn't take any photos, but we ate lots of tasty little items. As you may know, the whole concept of dim sum revolves around eating several dishes of small appetizer-type items, such as a plate with three dumplings, another plate with two small seafood tarts, etc.

Like in Korea, you don't tip in Taiwan, which is a really convenient custom except of course when you want someone to go out of their way for you. When my guide asked our cab driver to make a quick stop at a convenience store on the way to our destination, he refused. He did drop us off at the store, but didn't want to wait for us while we were inside. So I guess tipping does lead to some benefits after all.

That evening, I saw two films from fellow visiting filmmakers. The festival had organized a forum for us in a couple of days to talk about the production of our projects, and beforehand we made a point to see each other's films. Also that night, we went to a filmmaker's party that the festival had organized.

So that's it for Day 2. I took a lot more photos on Day 3, so I'll be back soon with more of my adventures.