That sounds about right. It’s basically the most expensive building in the most expensive part of Taiwan.

Do visit Wanhua District if you have the chance. It’s the ugliest part of the city that hardly gets tourists (outside of Ximending) that the younger generation wants to pretend doesn’t exist.

Taiwan grew fast in the 50’s-80’s so everything built was utilitarian. The KMT always considered Taiwan to be a temporary home so the island was treated like it was a lifeboat. That mentality didn’t change until the early 2000’s.

Also the older Taiwanese simply didn’t believe in interior design.

I forget the name of this building but I recall it was completed in 2023. It’s one of the most expensive if not the most expensive real estate in all of Taiwan on a per ping basis.

Taiwan as a whole has arguably the ugliest buildings of all supposed first world countries, unless you’re a fan of bathroom tile exteriors. It’s actually improved a lot compared to 15 years ago.

This is often mentioned on the Taiwan subreddit. Interiors of people’s homes aren’t much better either.

Technically Costco delivers, at least here they do if you order enough of them for an office party.

You can still get an entire pizza for $9.95 at Costco. Give them $10 then tell them to keep the change.

United’s pre Polaris BusinessFirst cabins on their 767-400ER’s were in a 2-1-2 configuration.

The service on that particular flight felt weaker than usual for SQ but still good nonetheless.

Welcome to Singapore. I’ve been here for 2 days. It’s cloudy to a little rainy but it hasn’t been terribly warm, about 30°C by the afternoon.

Back when I was a Hilton Honors Gold status holder I was at an Embassy Suites where I waited 25+mins for the elevator which caused me to miss the breakfast. Complained to front desk, they didn’t care. Did a chargeback on the credit card. Never ended up having to pay the $260 or so for the room.

Honestly the whole idea of keeping and constantly displaying a bodily relic of a person considered a candidate for sainthood is just creepy.

The admission fee was something I noticed 2 months ago because I recall in the mid 2010’s it was free to enter. Then in October as I was passing by I wanted to drop in for a look but tickets were required, which I didn’t recall was a thing until now.

Currently in Singapore…

It’s a sign you’ve arrived when you almost get turned into street pizza because you didn’t bother looking right instead of left.

At 10:40pm…

First time back since 2023…

If there’s one light culture shock between Singapore and Taipei it’s how lots of stores in Singapore close by 10pm. In Taipei I can count on everything being open until near midnight.

Part of me really wanted to buy something there just to say I’ve eaten there in 2025…