Why it takes 8 hours to drink coffee
It doesn't. It shouldn't. But it did, yesterday.
Because Joe, my second cousin once removed (or something), did not just want to drink coffee. He wanted to drink it at the very best coffee shop in Taipei. This shop is not actually in Taipei, though, it's on top of a mountain that stands north of the city and takes nearly an hour to drive to. It's near YangMingShan National Park (well, its on Yang Ming Shan), which is covered in thick jungle and scattered with the odd waterfall. The coffeeshop is actually just next to a small waterfall, and is less a store than perhaps a small huddle of tiny one-room houses. And the bathroom is perched on a cliff over the waterfall, with a long glass wall and roof, so that the effect is like using the toilet outside (in the jungle).
So it took 2 hours to travel to the coffeeshop and back. And probably, yes, we sat talking and drinking coffee (which was generously refilled by very sweet waitresses), and eating tiny sandwiches and assorted cookies for at least five hours. But on the way home, we stopped on the edge of a cliff, next to Taiwan's National Culture University, and joined a throng of young people with the city at their feet. It was beautiful, lit in reds and yellows, and from the side of the mountain the sky was large and bats swung over the trees.
The weekend overall was quite remarkable, as Saturday I took a long trek around the city to various shopping malls looking for a guidebook to replace the Lonely Planet I carelessly misplaced (sorry mama). I did not, however, purchase the Lonely Planet at Page One, because it was oustandingly expensive. On the way to the 101 building, where the bookstore is, I took a minute in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, which is a public park, to catch some drumming. It also happens to be a popular place to practice all kinds of sports, the strangest of which was a group of middle school girls dancing slowly and in perfect coordination to the Pussycat Dolls (Dontcha). I also enjoyed the best bao-zi in Shi-Da night market, waiting in line for 20 minutes for my bag of dumplings (about 80 US cents for 5). And trundled around Tai Da (National Taiwan University), which has a lovely, large campus with a duck pond. I thought that three hours of class a day would leave me with an uncomfortable amount of free time, but I'm managing to fill it with days like these.
Because Joe, my second cousin once removed (or something), did not just want to drink coffee. He wanted to drink it at the very best coffee shop in Taipei. This shop is not actually in Taipei, though, it's on top of a mountain that stands north of the city and takes nearly an hour to drive to. It's near YangMingShan National Park (well, its on Yang Ming Shan), which is covered in thick jungle and scattered with the odd waterfall. The coffeeshop is actually just next to a small waterfall, and is less a store than perhaps a small huddle of tiny one-room houses. And the bathroom is perched on a cliff over the waterfall, with a long glass wall and roof, so that the effect is like using the toilet outside (in the jungle).
So it took 2 hours to travel to the coffeeshop and back. And probably, yes, we sat talking and drinking coffee (which was generously refilled by very sweet waitresses), and eating tiny sandwiches and assorted cookies for at least five hours. But on the way home, we stopped on the edge of a cliff, next to Taiwan's National Culture University, and joined a throng of young people with the city at their feet. It was beautiful, lit in reds and yellows, and from the side of the mountain the sky was large and bats swung over the trees.
The weekend overall was quite remarkable, as Saturday I took a long trek around the city to various shopping malls looking for a guidebook to replace the Lonely Planet I carelessly misplaced (sorry mama). I did not, however, purchase the Lonely Planet at Page One, because it was oustandingly expensive. On the way to the 101 building, where the bookstore is, I took a minute in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, which is a public park, to catch some drumming. It also happens to be a popular place to practice all kinds of sports, the strangest of which was a group of middle school girls dancing slowly and in perfect coordination to the Pussycat Dolls (Dontcha). I also enjoyed the best bao-zi in Shi-Da night market, waiting in line for 20 minutes for my bag of dumplings (about 80 US cents for 5). And trundled around Tai Da (National Taiwan University), which has a lovely, large campus with a duck pond. I thought that three hours of class a day would leave me with an uncomfortable amount of free time, but I'm managing to fill it with days like these.
posted by Jaime at
9:38 PM
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