Chinatown

Last weekend was my first couple of free days to do some sightseeing.  My apartment is within walking distance to lots of shopping, restaurants, touristy stuff (reverse bungee jump, riverboat tours), and busy neighborhoods.  So last Saturday I wondered through Chinatown, which is to the southwest of where I'm staying.
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Traffic doesn't seem to be an issue.  It's very expensive to have a car here (I'll post something about that later), so most people take public transit.

More pictures after the jump.



I think this was on an episode of Amazing Race.  I liked how there's security cameras directly above the sign.

I could have gone in here, but I had to take my shoes off.  If I had my backpack with me, I would have, but I wasn't leaving my shoes outside.

The next batch of pictures are at the Buddha Tooth Temple (http://goo.gl/maps/sDjqg).  You can go in and walk around, but the religious 'events' are going on the whole time.  Would seem strange to have tourists walk through a church service.  I took a video of the chanting that I'll add to the bottom of this post.

Smokey from all the incense.

It's Ghost Month right now.  The Buddhists leave out food offerings for the dead.  There's supposed to be a specific Ghost Day as well, but I'm not sure what day that is.

Some public fitness equipment.

Ummmm.... why not start at XS and bump that down to an XXXXL... not that anyone around here needs it.

I think this was a Korean BBQ place where you cook your own food.  Not all signs are in English, which is why I sometimes end up at Subway to eat.  As much as I want to try all the local food, it's a bit difficult to know what you're getting.

A store with all Tintin.  It was not cheap.  I should have taken a picture of the street this store was on.  The sidewalks were really wide, so there could be a shop on the sidewalk, a different shop on the main floor of the building and then more shops on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  I saw one place with a sign that said "Real iPhones".  mmm hmmm.

  

Update: swapped the video for this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xncmRTuLL9w