The inside of the trains were almost completely different from ours. They have less than half the number of seats, presumably to allow more people to enter by having greating space for standing. Also about every 2 seats in each carriage are priority seats for pregnant women, old people and the disabled. The seats are in twos and perpendicular to each other, which was great for the 4 of us to occupy and converse!
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a majestic marble monument surrounded by gardens and ponds, the Memorial contains a statue of late President Chiang Kai-shek. However it was under renovation when we got there which was a pity. We didn't get to see the rather famous change-of-guard ceremony - not that we looked out for it either! I only realised it upon re-reading more information! We were pretty overwhelmed by the vastness of the place and another building which was bustling with activity.
If I'm not wrong this is the National Concert Hall (it may be the Theatre but I can't remember!). There were more than 40 teenagers, whom I suspect are students having some orientation activities, sitting in a huge circle, introducing themselves and playing games. It's really cool how they have a nice place to carry out activites outside of school. There were also 2 teens breakdancing, as well as a group of ladies in their mid-forties learning some sort of fan dance. We enjoyed the view of the gardens from the building and ate the sushi that we bought at the MRT station.
We went back to the MRT station to find directions to our next tourist attraction - the National Museum of History. The station had many paintings on display and also this thing which I found rather interesting. Notes with all kinds of time durations, time signatures and clefs were all cramped together in one line, making it look kind of like the track of a railroad. It did seem like what would probably be inside a frustrated music composer's brain!
On our way to the National Museum of History, we got rather distracted by the many number of shops around. First, we entered a shop selling sports shoes. It offered the best prices that we came across. We were hesitant about buying, despite having spotted the shoes that we wanted. We decided to shop around and see the prices that other shops were offering, but they were never as good as this one, and we didn't have time to go back, so there's a bit of regret!
We also came across a book store, where they gave us discounts on the stuff we bought. I was quite surprised that the Esquire that had Edison on the cover costs NT 220 and was already stated (on the cover) that it was going for NT 180 (SGD 9). The shopkeeper actually gave a further discount! It's rather unlike Singapore where the magazines are sold at a fixed price.
We just couldn't get enough of books and we came across this other shop that was well furnished and stocked with lots of magazines and comics. Sad to say I wasn't a bit fan of comic books so I wasn't very impressed but upon exploring further, the basement actually had some rather unique stuff. This little notebook caught my eye and I found it meaningful and special. I got another one, which had 原 on the cover.
"There's an old Zen saying: Only an empty bowl can be filled.
It means that the moment you think you have nothing left is the moment when growth and progress become inevitable."
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