Taipei 101

Monica and I went to Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world until Dubai decided to use their credit (now the credit liability of the United Arab Emirates) and build something slightly more ostentatious.  

Now I know what your thinking, “Rosie, what about your vertigo?”  Even though I just met Monica, I told her about the vertigo, I also sheepishly admitted to my fear of sharks.  But, since I was overly exposed to my fear of flying just eight hours prior, I figured the worst things that could happen entailed either stroking out or going into an epileptic fit--both of which are better than a plane landing in an ocean full of sharks.

Luckily none of that happened:

• I made it up the world's second fastest elevator (89 Floors in 30 seconds)
• I was able to look outside of the windows without passing out
• And, I was able to walk up two more stories to the outside observation deck and look outside of the observation deck.  However, Monica held my hand up and down the two flights of stairs because it was one of those fire escape, revolving stair cases where you can see down into the stairwell and those give me vertigo.  Now here is the disclaimer: I know I said high open spaces give me vertigo, which wouldn't include enclosed stairwells, so let's just say that by the end of this trip, pretty much any walking, hiking or movement will give me vertigo--this reference is really for Lindsay Dunbar who likes to fact check my posts.

The coolest thing about Taipei 101 is the engineering marvel that is the tuned mass damper as shown above (behind both me and the anime version of the damper).  They basically have this 660 ton steel pendulum suspended between the 88th and the 92nd floor so that it can absorb the building's movements--i.e. earthquakes and typhoons--which in my opinion "one-ups" the building in Dubai.