The Longest Vacation Ever! Part 12 - "that guy's tree"
Since I'm having technical issues and can't do the work that I was planning, I'll finish this post.
Day 12 - That guy's tree and other stuff
Based on cute advertisements, we wanted to get Yuli noodles. Apparently, it's a specialty of a neighboring around to our hotel. So basically we had to figure out something to do between the time we wanted to check out and lunch time. But first, here's the cute advertisement.
There was a whole series of these that tell the history of these noodles or something like that. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/cuzlELntOBgfmWnN2)
Here is a shot of the spa/hot spring area of our hotel. I wanted to take a photo earlier, but it'd be creepy if people were in the picture, right? (https://photos.app.goo.gl/8hzHD6iQkW5TQ2jx2)
Anyway, back to our "filling time" dilemma. So one of the "optional" activities that Angie had was to visit the "Takeshi Kaneshiro Tree". Taskeshi Kaneshiro is apparently a famous half Taiwanese, half Japanese actor. The only thing I know him from was Red Cliff, which I did like him in. So I thought for some reason, he planted a famous tree or something? Nope, it's apparently a tree that he sat under during a Eva Airline commercial, which somehow became a big tourist attraction. This article is proof since I can understand if one thinks I'm crazy. Anyway, since we had nothing better to do, we decided to check out "that guy's tree" even though it was raining (kind of hard). Based on timestamps, it was about an hour between the spa picture and a tree picture, so we accomplished our goal of wasting time in the area!
Anyway, the tree is nice, I guess. The area is nice and scenic too. But it's kind of funny how that tree is super famous. I was joking around with Angie about how other trees are like "hi, we're equally pretty". So we arrived at the tree, which was in a somewhat empty area (farmland/empty fields with small roads). Going there, we were often like "is it that tree?". But luckily, there was a bench, a fake pot of tea, and guard rails around the tree (the bench and tea pot are in the commercial). So we took some photos but didn't take too much time since there was a line of people behind us! (They were mostly women so maybe they were actual hardcore fans and not just there for the comedy of it).
"That guy's tree"; supposedly it's too famous for it's own good because they need to bring in a tree doctor due to it's popularity. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/bfD3IpTfDKG51xyG3)
We both took turns sitting on the bench and posing with the teapot. Angie's mom is lurking in the background. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/YYrg5e22pj8KWb913)
Another funny thing was that neither Angie's mom or I saw the commercial until well after this point in the trip. We both decided that we needed to see why the tree was so famous. It's okay, but fairly comedic how it's such a tourist spot. Again, there were other people to see the tree in the rain and a line formed behind us!
Anyway, afterwards we went to Yuli for it's famous noodles. We found a hole-in-the-wall type place that had good reviews. There were two different types of Yuli noodles, one with soup, one without. So Angie and her mom shared the noodle soup while I had the non-soup version. I thought my version was actually pretty good and was worth trying.
This restaurant had the same posters as the hotel. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/JAHXoAcCbvxu08JE2)
Two types of Yuli noodles and some appetizers. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/MtVcKrCN3NlVlzxh1)
Then it was the drive up to Taipei. There were a couple of random things during the drive. The first was the Tropic of Cancer marker, which due to the rain and unimpressiveness, we just took a photo while driving.
Just a white marker... (https://photos.app.goo.gl/2OOeVX69jBU57X2E3)
We also stopped at this "skywalk", which advertised walking over a cliff that had a glass bottom. It basically turned out to be an old hanger with some food and a walk around a cliff. There was one section that had a glass floor, but you really couldn't see through it too well. It was quite unimpressive, but whatever.
That bunker/tunnel is for random commerce and you walk around the cliff for the "skywalk". (https://photos.app.goo.gl/fJucRcyLyYZa8YbQ2)
At least it's well maintained with rails and steps. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/2X97EBgQQYR9kV432)
A view (https://photos.app.goo.gl/pBbxJJ8h1AvD886w2)
In the elements, taking a picture (https://photos.app.goo.gl/3SUIFApVgnEodHY32)
So after this stop, we were going back to Taipei. But first, Angie's mom heard that a city on the way was famous for their scallion pancakes. So we decided to stop there and find these pancakes. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard by the time we got there. And open air markets are how things are in Taiwan. But walking in the rain isn't terrible, although we were just wandering around aimlessly, which is less good. So we got soaked. But on the way back to the car, we saw a vendor right by the parking lot. It was actually a stand that was outside of another unrelated restaurant. So we got their pancakes.
A stand which had a line and sells one thing only, that means it has to be good, right? (https://photos.app.goo.gl/deBA9ZTLK6wccOaW2)
The fancy pancake; it was quite good, so much that we got mroe for the road. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fdf7J5ct8NSvq1Mi1)
We then went back to the car, where I actually changed my clothes in the parking garage since it was soaked. It's good that I'm a dude so I could go down to my underwear in public =P
Anyway, we headed back to Taipei and had some confusion with their roads. Basically we were pretty close to the actual hotel, but the roads are a ton of lanes and you can only turn from certain ones, which we were never in. It was very confusing, but in retrospect, I think you just have to know what you're doing, which we didn't. But we did eventually get to the hotel and checked in. The room was nice and larger than our previous rooms in Taipei, which was nice since we were staying there for a while. After getting settled, we decided to get some food from 711, which is omni-present in Taiwan (there were possibly two on our street).
The room (https://photos.app.goo.gl/4PCzID5smV3xGHzA3)
The other side of the room (https://photos.app.goo.gl/zV17pMQbd1AJiEg16)
They had a little pond outside, which was nice for the middle of the city. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/pNQduZz9YyKfqwH32)
The food from 711 which was two things of ramen, various beer flavors (grape and honey), a digestive drink/yogurt, two tea eggs, and a chocolate dessert. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/IG79Bc8r4wvjbJFx2)
Day 12 - That guy's tree and other stuff
Based on cute advertisements, we wanted to get Yuli noodles. Apparently, it's a specialty of a neighboring around to our hotel. So basically we had to figure out something to do between the time we wanted to check out and lunch time. But first, here's the cute advertisement.
There was a whole series of these that tell the history of these noodles or something like that. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/cuzlELntOBgfmWnN2)
Here is a shot of the spa/hot spring area of our hotel. I wanted to take a photo earlier, but it'd be creepy if people were in the picture, right? (https://photos.app.goo.gl/8hzHD6iQkW5TQ2jx2)
Anyway, back to our "filling time" dilemma. So one of the "optional" activities that Angie had was to visit the "Takeshi Kaneshiro Tree". Taskeshi Kaneshiro is apparently a famous half Taiwanese, half Japanese actor. The only thing I know him from was Red Cliff, which I did like him in. So I thought for some reason, he planted a famous tree or something? Nope, it's apparently a tree that he sat under during a Eva Airline commercial, which somehow became a big tourist attraction. This article is proof since I can understand if one thinks I'm crazy. Anyway, since we had nothing better to do, we decided to check out "that guy's tree" even though it was raining (kind of hard). Based on timestamps, it was about an hour between the spa picture and a tree picture, so we accomplished our goal of wasting time in the area!
Anyway, the tree is nice, I guess. The area is nice and scenic too. But it's kind of funny how that tree is super famous. I was joking around with Angie about how other trees are like "hi, we're equally pretty". So we arrived at the tree, which was in a somewhat empty area (farmland/empty fields with small roads). Going there, we were often like "is it that tree?". But luckily, there was a bench, a fake pot of tea, and guard rails around the tree (the bench and tea pot are in the commercial). So we took some photos but didn't take too much time since there was a line of people behind us! (They were mostly women so maybe they were actual hardcore fans and not just there for the comedy of it).
"That guy's tree"; supposedly it's too famous for it's own good because they need to bring in a tree doctor due to it's popularity. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/bfD3IpTfDKG51xyG3)
We both took turns sitting on the bench and posing with the teapot. Angie's mom is lurking in the background. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/YYrg5e22pj8KWb913)
Another funny thing was that neither Angie's mom or I saw the commercial until well after this point in the trip. We both decided that we needed to see why the tree was so famous. It's okay, but fairly comedic how it's such a tourist spot. Again, there were other people to see the tree in the rain and a line formed behind us!
Anyway, afterwards we went to Yuli for it's famous noodles. We found a hole-in-the-wall type place that had good reviews. There were two different types of Yuli noodles, one with soup, one without. So Angie and her mom shared the noodle soup while I had the non-soup version. I thought my version was actually pretty good and was worth trying.
This restaurant had the same posters as the hotel. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/JAHXoAcCbvxu08JE2)
Two types of Yuli noodles and some appetizers. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/MtVcKrCN3NlVlzxh1)
Then it was the drive up to Taipei. There were a couple of random things during the drive. The first was the Tropic of Cancer marker, which due to the rain and unimpressiveness, we just took a photo while driving.
Just a white marker... (https://photos.app.goo.gl/2OOeVX69jBU57X2E3)
We also stopped at this "skywalk", which advertised walking over a cliff that had a glass bottom. It basically turned out to be an old hanger with some food and a walk around a cliff. There was one section that had a glass floor, but you really couldn't see through it too well. It was quite unimpressive, but whatever.
That bunker/tunnel is for random commerce and you walk around the cliff for the "skywalk". (https://photos.app.goo.gl/fJucRcyLyYZa8YbQ2)
At least it's well maintained with rails and steps. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/2X97EBgQQYR9kV432)
A view (https://photos.app.goo.gl/pBbxJJ8h1AvD886w2)
In the elements, taking a picture (https://photos.app.goo.gl/3SUIFApVgnEodHY32)
So after this stop, we were going back to Taipei. But first, Angie's mom heard that a city on the way was famous for their scallion pancakes. So we decided to stop there and find these pancakes. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard by the time we got there. And open air markets are how things are in Taiwan. But walking in the rain isn't terrible, although we were just wandering around aimlessly, which is less good. So we got soaked. But on the way back to the car, we saw a vendor right by the parking lot. It was actually a stand that was outside of another unrelated restaurant. So we got their pancakes.
A stand which had a line and sells one thing only, that means it has to be good, right? (https://photos.app.goo.gl/deBA9ZTLK6wccOaW2)
The fancy pancake; it was quite good, so much that we got mroe for the road. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fdf7J5ct8NSvq1Mi1)
We then went back to the car, where I actually changed my clothes in the parking garage since it was soaked. It's good that I'm a dude so I could go down to my underwear in public =P
Anyway, we headed back to Taipei and had some confusion with their roads. Basically we were pretty close to the actual hotel, but the roads are a ton of lanes and you can only turn from certain ones, which we were never in. It was very confusing, but in retrospect, I think you just have to know what you're doing, which we didn't. But we did eventually get to the hotel and checked in. The room was nice and larger than our previous rooms in Taipei, which was nice since we were staying there for a while. After getting settled, we decided to get some food from 711, which is omni-present in Taiwan (there were possibly two on our street).
The room (https://photos.app.goo.gl/4PCzID5smV3xGHzA3)
The other side of the room (https://photos.app.goo.gl/zV17pMQbd1AJiEg16)
They had a little pond outside, which was nice for the middle of the city. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/pNQduZz9YyKfqwH32)
The food from 711 which was two things of ramen, various beer flavors (grape and honey), a digestive drink/yogurt, two tea eggs, and a chocolate dessert. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/IG79Bc8r4wvjbJFx2)