Making Up for Jetlag

After thinking we had adjusted so easily to the upside down Taipei time zone, we found ourselves Sunday afternoon exhausted.  We decided to come back to our hotel room at around 2:30 pm for a one or two hour nap.  So imagine my surprise when I rolled over, looked at the clock and saw it was 6:30 pm.  Mirabelle was still sound asleep, and I didn't blame her.  After a half-hearted discussion to get motivated, we decided to call it a night.  Not surprisingly, we were all up for the day the next morning at 2 am -- not good, considering nothing in Taipei really opens until 9 at the earliest. 

The hot plate and pot that our friends Allan and Susan lent us came in handy as we proceeded to heat up Mirabelle some Elmo soup at 3 am.  Yes, apparently we had now officially broken every 'sleeping' rule there was: Mirabelle now was waking up in the middle of the night to snuggle with us in bed, watch television, and now, eat entire meals.  Why do I have the sinking feeling that the post-vacation weeks may be a harder adjustment for us all than the vacation itself?

Feeling like we had missed a whole day, we decided to make up for it the following day.  So we packed it in -- a walk through the city stopping for breakfast of egg sandwiches and hot soymilk at Yungho Soybean Milk & Porridge King (so good, we went for seconds), then the Taipei Zoo (liveliest monkeys I've ever seen), followed by the Breeze Center (high-end shopping and a coffee break) where we met Allan and Susan who took us to see their apartment and watch a short animated Chinese film The Three Monks, and happily completed with a fantastic dim sum dinner at Din Tai Fung.

The food in Taipei is wonderful.  We've mostly had dim sum, which happens to be my favorite type of Chinese food.  Of course, you can get dim sum in the U.S., but it's just not as good.  One thing that is noticeably different are the dumplings -- they are not thick and doughy, but smooth and light.  At Din Tai Fung, where we ate last night, you can observe them making their own dumpling dough (see the photo).  The results melt in your mouth.