Taiwan Day 3

Afternoon hike on elephant mountain. Supposedly a mild hike of about 30 minutes but the internet fails to mention it is straight upwards! A good work out. This morning parents legs were tired and kids claim no soreness. So I guess 5 and 8 are when the kids surpass the physical fitness of the parents. I do feel that I need to exercise more. 

Might've mentioned before - coffee shops everywhere in Taipei. I guess young people like coffee/lattes and American breakfasts. At the bottom of elephant mountain a latte of high quality. Also served "Kyoto style" coffee soft serve. Very popular.

Afterwards Sichuan dinner at Flower Restaurant, another super high quality and not very expensive meal. Some dishes different - actually wasn't as spicy as Sichuan restaurants in San Fernando Valley - a good thing. Incredible juicy beef rib dish along with some type of julienned bean curd. No boiled fish, but did have boiled pork and beef. Mapu tofu was different - can't exactly explain how...

Random observations:

Metro has big glass partitions between platforms and trains. Why I have never seen this before? Brilliant idea. Should be in every metro - no accidents or suicides.

Bathrooms generally well maintained and clean. A lot of people notice this about Asian countries. Nearly all public bathrooms have some type of attendant permanently cleaning up. What a great idea! One thing to point out, however - these clean bathrooms occur in incredibly busy areas and are vital for sanitation purposes. I want someone to do a toilet to population ratio - because I would guess there are far fewer toilets per person in Asia than in the West.

Appliances all seem to be Japanese and instructions written in Japanese. I find this odd. More high tech in a lot of ways, but not always in a sensible way. Automatic electronic locks on doors don't make a ton of sense to me. They seem prone to breakdown or lose electricity at an inopportune time and compound a problem. Same with temperature dials for the shower, etc. You can set them to the exact degree and control electronically like a thermostat. I've personally never had a problem with a simple shower dial. Don't see what problem this solves - and never mind if you can't read Japanese and can barely figure out how to set the temp. Also, it didn't stop the shower from going cold midway through. Taiwan has lots of little remnants of being occupied by Japan if you have the ability to notice them (unrelated to the appliances) but just about zero evidence the Dutch ever colonized this place. Although I learned Taiwan was not really an important Dutch outpost, only a stopping point to Indonesia.

Although lush and green everywhere...you can forgot you're on an island when in Taipei...unlike Hawaii.