Still in Taipei

I ended up not going to Taroko gorge because it was raining there this week. Earthquake + Rain = mudslides? There were two more earthquakes in the past couple of days. It's like having an earthquake in California; no one stops what they are doing as long as things don't start breaking. We ended up going to the National Palace museum which has the largest collection of Chinese artwork in the world. Why not in Beijing? Because when the Nationalists escaped to Taiwan to flee from the Communist Revolution, they brought these treasures with them. China has asked for this stuff back, but Taiwan has refused, adding that all this stuff would have been destroyed during the Communists' Cultural Revolution where everything "bourgeoise" was destroyed. The Palace Museum was under renovation so the exhibits were much smaller than they would have been. We balanced the sightseeing at the musem during the day with beer and wings at Hooters Taipei. I love that place. The wings are not as good, but it's always a good time. We also visited Tamshui, a port north of Taipei, which left much to be desired. The weather was hot hot hot so we took a bus to the mountains overlooking Taipei, Yangmingshan. We hiked up the steep paths under the jungle canopy. Hot and humid.
Yesterday we headed to Wulai, a place I have already described in the photo. Last night we went to "Snake Alley"; a night market where the main attraction is a few restaurants where they kill snakes to the delight of on-lookers. The crowds were sparse last night, and they didn't kill any while I was there, but there was a video playing of the killing of a snake. There was a live cobra, hooded, being taunted by the salesman. The whole point of this is to get people to come into the restaurant and have a shot of a clear hard liquor with what I guess is the blood or bile of the cobra. They will also cook up the snake into a soup or maybe fried it up. I also saw a turtle dangling on a hook for probably a similar fate. They didn't allow photography so I didn't take any pictures. Sorry. I remember seeing this place when I was in the 4th grade. It's turned into quite the tourist show; much different from before when there were two live mongooses tearing apart a cobra.
Taipei has a nightlife that sort of kicks Manhattan in the butt. This place is packed. It really reminds me of a smaller version of Tokyo. To give you an idea of how crowded this place is: there are 23 million folks in Taiwan in an area just over the size of Maryland and Delaware combined. The population of Taiwan is larger than the state of New York and about four times the size of Maryland and Delaware combined. The statistic I read said it had about 700 folks per square kilometer. There is a word in Mandarin, re-nao, which sort of means "hot and lively". That's what this place is, very re-nao.