20150829 | Taiwan Day 8 - Small Dome, Gongguan, NBA Youth Madness, Triggerman Beat Battle Vol. 2

This was a bit of a long day - we started off having a good rice noodle breakfast nice and early and walked around the city for a while, and got to see the small dome (vs the new one that is being built).



This interesting zebra butt traffic crossing - might have to do with the Chinese translation of a crosswalk being a "zebra lane"


Some 'murica in Taipei


After stopping by home to grab stuff, we went out to Gongguan, which has a bit of college towny-ness to it because of its proximity to a university.






These amazing things :P


We stopped by Zhanlu Coffee, a very good (albeit a bit expensive) coffeeshop before we headed back for a late lunch - They have wifi and power, and a cup of coffee will let you stay for ~4.5hrs.  Buying a drink will earn you a card, and collecting five cards gives you "member" privileges, which gives you a bit of a discount, usually about NT$10-30.
On my ranking of coffeeshops, it's up there with Zumbar and Portola Coffee Lab!
Alex's Cappuccino - about the strength of a Zumbar Latte




My Latte - Good, but I like it a bit stronger




This is from lunch - I just HAD to try out the Taiwanese root beer - It was less sweet, more tangy, and had a stronger root beer flavor


Someone got over zealous...


After lunch, we headed home to regroup and prep for the night - We went out to the Guanghua area where they were hosting the Taiwan NBA Youth Madness competition, and where Tim's friend was the DJ for the evening (DJ Vicar).
Some of the spectators in the rain


  I got to have some fun with my autofocus in the next few shots!








DJ Vicar


Bradley Beal (no idea who he is) doing some sort of photoshoot - he was making an appearance at the competition.



We didn't stick around for long, as Tim wanted to see the Triggerman Beat Battle Vol. 2, hosted at the Kao!Inc. offices.  I'm not super familiar with this scene, so instead, I will talk about the venue!
Kao!Inc. is a local label that has been around since 2005, but they just opened up a coffeeshop (Beans and Beats) in the main upstairs store area, and converted the downstairs area into their office, and also a record / cd shop!  I did not get to try any of the coffee that night, but we come back tomorrow to look through their music and try some of their coffee - I will leave the review of the coffee for tomorrow!
It was there that we met Garvin, who heard us speaking English as Tim was translating for us.  We were very surprised to learn that not only is he from the San Diego, but from Mira Mesa as well.  Garvin is here in Taiwan for the rest of the year teaching English and working on a film project.  He speaks Cantonese, but is learning Mandarin by reading Chinese books and watching TV shows!
One of the competitors


A couple looks at the venue - more to come tomorrow when we return!










A view of some of the neighborhoods as we walk back to the Songshan Airport to take the subway to dinner and then home!