morning ritual

ximending smelly tofu

oluympus ad

taipei gate

okay, so i give up.

spent the past few hours roaming the streets of ximending and the area around the taipei train station looking for another internet cafe but i couldn't find any. most taiwanese probably now have internet at home, so these cafes are a kind of 20th century dinosaur. likewise, if you asked me where you could find an internet cafe in cambridge, i couldn't tell you either (do they even exist there?). it's sort of ironic though, taiwan being one of the asian leaders in technological development, that it'd be virtually impossible to locate a good place to surf the web.

that means photos will have to wait until late monday night, when i get back to boston. it's already thursday, just a few more days left. i've been keeping track of the photos i want to upload in my notebook, so it'd be a pretty quick thing to do.

i went to go see a movie today, SIN CITY, i've wanted to see it since i first heard about it, and was sad that it arrived in the theatres as soon as i left the US. even though i bought a bootleg DVD of the movie back in phnom penh (yet to watch it, don't know the quality), it's better to see a movie like this on the big screen. i thought the ticket price would be cheaper, but it was NT$190, about the same price as a matinee back at home. in mandalay, you can see SKY CAPTAIN at a movie theatre for just 200 kyat, or 400 for a good seat (that's less than 50 cents).

SIN CITY was pretty good, total fanboy gratification. can jessica alba be any hotter? she's so pretty it's hard even looking at her directly, for fear of being blinded by her radiance.

after the movie i had some smelly tofu, then got some bubble ice tea. i told the girl working there that i can't really read chinese, which usually gets me some sympathy points, but it seemed to annoy her. after laying on some charm, i still wasn't able to coax a smile out of her - some people you just can't please.

i'm not sure what i'm going to do the rest of the day. today is my free day, and i figure i could just roam around taipei some more, taking photos, but it's hot, crossing the street is dangerous, and all i want to do is to hide in my air-conditioned guesthouse watching tv... oh, i forgot, i'm not living in a guesthouse anymore.

sogo department store

shilin night market

shilin mole removal

xizhan (xindian) at night