Markets and malls

We split up in the morning, with Roni and the boys going off to a Pixar exhibition and also to Da’an park, Taipei’s giant park in the middle of the city which includes a major play area. It was the first place in Taipei we took J when we first got him, and it was equally a hit this time. The three boys all came back hot and dripping and having had a fabulous time running around. The slides were the favorite. The Pixar presentation was a little over their heads except for some movies that J really liked.

Mom and I hit the weekend market again, to make sure we’d at least touched every tourist souvenir available to us. I don’t wear much jewelry so we mainly admired in the jade market section, but we did manage to get a few trinkets and we each got another water color picture at the craft market. I keep fingering the clay teapots in their amazingly carved configurations, but what am I going to do with such a tiny teapot? My display shelves at home are already dangerously overloaded, and the mugs I drink tea from are bigger than the teapots. I also love the laughing pigs, and it may be that we’ll have yet another of those at home, but I can tell myself it is for the boys when they’re older, not for me. :-)

We all met back at the hotel for nap time, and then we were going to be off to the zoo. Grandma, who has been dubious about it (just because last time we took her to the Taipei Zoo, the trip lasted ten hours – but I maintain that the part where we took the gondola to tea town and walked in the wrong direction for what seemed like hours doesn’t count) but we promised, promised, promised we’d only be there a couple hours so she agreed to come. However, the boys’ naps really stretched out – they ran a LOT at the park – and then we’re still working out the logistics of all those little shoes and strollers and snacks and assorted paraphernalia. So we didn’t get to the lobby until 3:30 and the zoo closes at 5:00.

Instead, the receptionist called her friend with young children to see what she’d recommend for a Sunday afternoon (they are so nice to us here!) and then sent us off to the Living World Mall. This place has to be seen to be believed. It is an eleven story building, or collection of buildings, with a giant round multi-story ball dropped into the middle of it. There are escalators going every which way, but they never go to all the floors – you can ride up or down for two or three levels, but then you have to go search for another way to get to the floor you really wanted. The same with the elevators. Our original goal was the a BossBaby (BabyBoss?) that makes up the seventh floor, but the elevators we found didn’t stop on the seventh floor. It was a bit like a Vegas casino – designed so you don’t know if it is day or night or where the exits are. Each floor had a theme – lifestyle or Cinderella Avenue (women’s clothing) or furniture. There was a stage on a bottom level, that we watched from a railing four stories higher, where Asian flamenco and belly dancers performed.

The food hall on the 3rd basement level, not to be confused with the food court on the 1st basement level (no idea what the difference was, but the names were different though the hall looked like a court to me) was amazing. Never before have I been able to order pasta in pesto sauce with steamed clams in a food court/hall. For $4.00! And Roni’s meal came on a metal tray with the soup pan perched on a flaming sterno can to keep it warm. All eaten with plastic spoons from the same plastic trays that you’d find in any mall in the world, with a Subway in the background (to Mom’s joy) but with a lot more taste and options than you’d ever find in a U.S. suburban food court.

Another aspect that you’d never find in the lawsuit happy U.S. was on the fifth floor, where we spent most of our time (BossBaby turned out to be a much more elaborate and expensive childrens’ activity area than we needed for a short time – somewhere to spend an entire day). The fifth floor of this mall was Kid’s World. There was an arcade with enough lights and noise to make you ADD if you weren’t already, but there were also a lot of those little coin operated rides for toddlers that was perfect for our two. They rode little trains and planes and automobiles and had wonderful time. But the best part, that you’d never have in the U.S., were these giant animals scattered all around the various stores. Putting in a few coins starts them up and then little kids drive them slowly around the mall. They walk/roll anywhere the kids steer – in stores, down the passageways, through crowds of children. When the time is up, the kids just hop off and walk off to the next amusement (or, if you’re us, put in more coins because it was so fun). They don’t go fast at all, but J did almost barrel over a couple of strollers and a clothing rack, and when I looked down below, there were all sorts of exposed gears and chains that were American lawsuits just waiting to happen. We miss a lot of fun by thinking everything has to be beyond safe.





We also went down and outside where there were other kid entertainments. I took turns with each boy in a little boat that you paddled with hand cranks, and then J rode a motorcycle in shaky circles on a tiny track.

All in all, I recommend the Living World Mall for small children to wile away an evening. And the adults can always look at the teapots and weird architecture and flamenco dancers.

We also discovered that D, who we’ve been thinking of as a sweet, mellow type, is really a secret maniac. By the end of the evening he was leaping and running and cackling with fiendish laughter. He also has the grip of a gorilla, and he’d latch on to a nearby arm and squeeze as hard as he could, complete with grunts of exertion and a determined-and-crazed face until we’d yelp and pry him off. Then he’d laugh hysterically and go pounding off to find a new target. I pushed him around on a little blue wheeled thing for a very long time (he would only steer when he was going backwards despite the urgings of a lot of Taiwanese little old ladies) and when I finally took him off to move on, his angry bellow could be heard throughout the mall. We didn’t even know he had a bellow! Dr. Placid and Mr. Hyde I’m calling him now.