Thursday, December 28, 2006

Taipei 101: The Tallest Building in The World

When I was in Taipei a couple of weeks back, I went to visit the tallest building in the world... the Taipei 101 (named that because it is 101 storeys tall).

I must say that at first glance, I didn't think the building was particularly beautiful... and nowhere near as beautiful as our Petronas Twin Towers. Yet, just like the "Smelly Tofu", the tower must've been an acquired taste.

After looking at it long enough for many days, I began to take a liking to the building and it's rather odd (or unique) design. So I made my way to the 4th floor of the building where they had an elevator that took us all the way to the top (or near the top).

And as usual, Taiwan never fails to surprise me.

Selling me my ticket to the top floor was this nice Taiwanese lady standing behind a counter.
With a cute furry halo above her head. Now I boarded the elevator prepared for a long and smelly ride since a chubby lady in front of me farted just seconds after the elevator doors closed.

But to my surprise, we reached the top before the lady's "scent of love" reached by nose.

And all that was possible... because we were in the World's Fastest Elevator.


A little screen in the lift showed us everything from the speed we were moving and the time it was taking us to reach the top. At the top of the building was a very wide space... with a breath-taking view.
This is the view from the tallest building in the world (look hard enough and you might see Penang in the distance).
Funny thing about having the tallest building in the world is... you can only have it for a few years... sooner or later someone else is going to have something bigger, longer and better... (sort of like having the longest penis in the world).
Now, right in the middle of the observation desk was a big steel ball supported by hydraulics weighing 660 metric tons.

This giant testicle is apparently used to stabilize the building from strong winds.

When the wind blows the building to one direction, the ball is designed to move in the opposite direction to counter the force of the wind hence keeping the building pretty much stable (perhaps some of you engineers out there could elaborate a bit more on this).

Anyway, after checking out the view and the ball, I climbed some stairs to get to the highest spot that a tourist could get to on the building.

The area was "open-aired" but with grills so high that even giraffes couldn't jump off the building if they wanted to.

So there was nothing much to do there... but take a picture.

At the very top... my father who was with me mentioned
"Son... you know I always have this theory.. that if you piss down from the top of the Empire State Building in New York during winter, I bet your piss will turn to ice by the time it hits the ground".

If you're going to test that theory... please don't tell anyone that you got the idea from this blog.


29 comments:

Kiss my ass said...

errrrr... 1st ??? hoooooooo!!!!1111111 ????

am i suppose to like... celebrate?

Kiss my ass said...

good that you came back from taiwan already. Being in a telco line.. EVERYTHING is down.

I dont think i will be going to places of that sort.. i will most probably die in mandarin.

electronicfly said...

no 2!!!!!
wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...i stalk boss's blog oso cannot get no1 again..*sad* ahahahah!


hmmm, about the piss theory, i think it will happen lo. hopefully the straem of frozen pee won't hit someone and skewer them like a...a....a person who got skewered with frozen pee.


=P

electronicfly said...

oh and i forgot..the lady who farted farted a loud or silent fart? everyone knows it's the "silent killers" that stink. The loud ones are usually all bark no bite.


*lol-ing to myself. sien la stuck at home for so long*

Kiss my ass said...

e-fei... i didnt mean to take your place... next time i wait for you.

Boss Stewie said...

shireen: hahaha u also competing for 1st place ar... it's not that hard to get mah... since the internet's been down these couple of days.. the visits are much less

e-fei: hahah yes it was a loud fart... unfortunately... wet fart is the smelliest no?

Anonymous said...

eh boss!
lucky u came back from taiwan before the earthquake!!
then then then u can be safe safe safe hahaha :)
see, we DO care haha!
i wonder how the tallest building in taiwan suffered after the shocks, was it in the same area?

aL said...

fuyohhh...the buildings damn crowded like siao o_O'

Anonymous said...

I see where we get hailstorms...

Boss Stewie said...

andrew: i think the tallest building will be ok... they have earthquakes very often in taiwan

al: yah.. land is scarce in taipei!

lance: lol! not from me!

Anonymous said...

taipei looked so well developed.

Anonymous said...

boss, u nvr failed to amuse me. I LOLed so loud my boss thought i m so happy working here. btw, how is boss lepton doing? miss him

Anonymous said...

boss! try pee pee and c!
then share with us here can? =P
btw the building..really weird lo

Unknown said...

eh no chicks in this post ar? exam stress la.... need some chix to regulate level of stress. curse you boss!!! *On chicks strike*

Unknown said...

the 'testicle' is like a counterweight. its somehow linked 'freely' to the main building structure through some big ass dampers. so when high velocity wind blows, the building will sway with the wind, but since the 'testicle' is linked freely, the inertia of the testicle will refrain it from moving too much from its place until the pneumatic dampers create a tension that will pull the building back to the original place. and this would mean that the testicle would roughly be around half the mass of the entire building.

Unknown said...

if u noticed, the building's main design is like a bamboo, seen clearly from the elevator pic. with those sections connected in that way, the building can have a higher 'sway threshold' as well.

sarah y said...

Do post up pics of your little pee pee experiment kay.
Both the frozen and shrunken sticks.
=P

Anonymous said...

eh can spit ar from that height? hahaha

Kiss my ass said...

wahahahah no i am not competing... i just happen to drop by and .. oh 1!!!! so... my as well then... i will soon have to trade numbers with you and "REQUIRE" you to beep me once a post is up. hahahaha.. kidding..

earl-ku: by the time it reached ground level, your spit might kill someone.

Boss Stewie said...

hongkiat: yes.. almost as developed as penang.. :P

invisible: really? u LOLed? which part of the post was funny?

william: but if the testicle is attached to the building.. how can it be ... 'freely linked'?

belle: hah! yes yes.. if i do that, i'll probably be sharing the pics with u from prison... is that ok with u?

sarah: 'frozen and shrunken sticks' lol!

earl: of cos cann.... but with such a small drop.. the person on top might just think it's air-con water

shireen: lol... if i do that.. william, maniacz, tasha and the other people always competing to be first may not be happy bout it :P

Unknown said...

"freely linked" meaning linked using pneumatics, something like shock absorber on cars.

yes shireen, I wouldnt be happy about it :( grrrrr!!! confusius said: one should not be selfish and hog no.1 place

Gwendolynne said...

I can't piss that way without getting it all over myself *CRY*

Anonymous said...

weeee sure sure! ill go visit u everyday! i very good to boss ger

Boss Stewie said...

william: like shock absorber... hmm i get a shady idea of what u mean... but pls do elaborate

gwen: LOL gwen!! hahahaha

belle: then all my male inmates will be jealous that i have a female friend visiting me all the time

Unknown said...

taking a car for example, when going around a bend, the body roll sideways. this is allowed to happen coz of the chassis and the suspension holding the main weight. but as long the threshold is not exceeded, the body roll will be counter reacted with the suspensions to pull it back into place. not a very exact example, but its the closest i can think of.

Boss Stewie said...

hmm ok william

it's good enough an elaboration
thanks

Kiss my ass said...

fuh.... damn... confucious...

but.. u guys had no balls (or breast for all that matter) to ask for stewie's number.... :X

and stewie, maybe thats what you have been doing.. explains why i never get 1st in the 1st place..........

it was the taiwan quake that got me 1!!!!!!! no no .. no champagne...

Unknown said...

welcome boss, and shireen, some of us *cough myself included cough* has boss' number fyi :P

stresssss.... exammmmmm

Kiss my ass said...

SEE SEE... thats why you guys have 1!!!!!! always 1!!!!!!! arghhh....

yea yea.. dont rub it in... show off.. nye nye nye ... ppfftttttt*