CH205: Taipei Adventures Final

Apparently, I didn't realize that I had the CH### wrong in previous links. Haha, blame it on having to type the entries at work!

CH204: Taipei Adventures 3
CH203: Taipei Adventures 2
CH202: Taipei Adventures 1
CH201: Taipei Prologue

So, we're now at the last leg of the Taipei trip (finally!). So for my mom's last day, I had planned for us to go up the Maokong Mountain and get to experience the cable car ride up. It was unfortunately a weekend and CNY, so there were a lot of people already queuing to go up when we arrived. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as the queue we had to endure for Taipei 101. There are two options you can choose, one is to ride on the "Crystal" cable car which simply meant riding on one that has a clear bottom, and the other which is just your regular old cable car.

After the visit up, we didn't linger as much and just walked around a bit. My mom was pretty tired still from previous days itinerary so we just went easy. We didn't stay long and decided to head back after seeing one temple.

We went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial after our trip and walked a bit before finally succumbing to just getting a cab to the Fine Arts Museum which was apparently closed. Thankfully, they had colorful lanterns in the museum park which would have been amazing I think had we seen the lanterns lit up.

For dinner, I brought my mom to Ximending again as she hasnt seen it really at night. I chose for us to ate at Modern Toilet. The food was just 'k'. Nothing overly delicious and mostly bland. My mom's flight was 1am Feb 2 so I brought her to the airport soon after we finished dinner a bit of shopping at Eslite.

The next day, I woke up around 11 and just had time to go to Chiate to get Ange's favor (pineapple cakes). Hahaha. I took a cab going there as I was pressed for time and didn't want to get lost or waste time finding it. As soon as I got them, I headed back to my hotel and off to the airport.

Taipei was an amazing trip! I think this would be the first trip where it was just my mom and myself. Hopefully, she's game for Bangkok when I go on the first of May. Otherwise, ill just shop myself out or just laze by the hotel's pool haha.

long queues again despite coming in early!

CH204: Taiwan Adventures 3

Following the series: CH201: Taipei Prologue, CH202: Taipei Adventures 1 and CH203: Taipei Adventures 2, my mom and I found ourselves on our last arranged tour - the city tour.

The itinerary of the tour was as follows: a temple in the city, CKS Memorial, Martyr's Shrine + Changing of the guards and the National Palace Museum. After those tour, we had the afternoon to ourselves where I planned for us to visit The Confucius Temple, which was apparently beside another temple that was super crowded! So much so, that I had to look down most of the time we were inside because of all the incense wafting in the air and from those being carried by the people who were there to actually pay respect (not like us tourists lol). After a visit to those temples, my mom and I made our way to Taipei 101 to hopefully see the sunset and the view of Taipei in the day and subsequently at night. Unfortunately, it was super crowded there as well and I ended up queuing for 40-45 minutes to get tickets, 40-50 minutes to get on the elevator up and consequently 30-35 minutes lining up to get down! Crazy!!!

Anyway, I've said too much and extended this entry already with so much pictures! So, let the pictures do the talking this time.

More pictures!

CH203: Taipei Adventures 2

CH201: Taipei Prologue
CH202: Taipei Adventures 1

On my third day, we were picked up by our tour guide exactly on time. I had arranged for two tours. In the morning, we were supposed to go up to Keelung City and Harbor (North of Taiwan) and do a temple tour and a visit to a Yehliu GeoPark.

The tour group was bigger this time. We had to ride in a bus as opposed to a van the day before. There were 8 of us in the tour. 1 family of 3, a group of 3 Filipinas and us. The weather was again perfect for a tour. Clear skies, ample sun and a cool weather overall!

Our first stop was the buddhist temple overlooking the Keelung Harbor

There was of course Buddha

It wasn't very crowded when we went. This is the 30th of January and it was a holiday I think in Taiwan for the start of CNY. The lack of people was probably due to us getting there early.

The big Goddess (or maybe it's buddha I can't tell and forgot to ask) is also a place where you can go up for a view of the harbor from a higher perspective.

This shot was taken from inside the Goddess statue from the previous picture. My mom opted out to go up with me. There wasn't really much to see aside from different views one can get from small circular windows on the Goddess.

We were told that by ringing the bell, you can have your wish and prayers granted. It takes a bit of pulling forward and backward to get the momentum to make the bell gong.

I was surprised that I didn't even realize I might see the huge rubber duck touring the world. I remember reading the news that it burst on its tour in Taiwan but didn't think I'd see it when I was arranging the tour. Nevertheless, we only drove by the harbor and didn't really get off to walk around and have our picture taken.

Driving by the coast side to the next destination which is the Yehliu Geopark.

More pictures!

CH202: Taipei Adventures 1

Following the previous entry, CH201: Taipei Prologue, I woke up very early my second day to fetch my mom from the airport. To get to and fro the airport, the only means of transportation available is by public bus which cost 125 NTD one way from the Taipei Main Bus Station (via Guo Kang Bus). It takes about 40 mins to 1 hour to get to the airport and it was relatively quiet on the roads. Despite not having a train to connect the airport to the main city of Taipei, I have to commend Taiwan though because they had an impressive expressway network - most of which were elevated like the Skyway!

In Summary, for Day 2 and Night 2 of my trip (Day 1 and Night 1 for mom), we did the following:
1. Airport Pickup
2. Stroll and lunch at Ximending area
3. Tour to Wulai to see the Wulai waterfalls and see a show by Taiwan's aborigine youth
4. Go to Taipei 101 Mall to buy my mom's birthday gift c/o dad at Tiffany's
5. Go to Shilin Night Market

How to subway generally looks in the morning - not as much people yet

Still very quiet. As you can see, the signs are primarily in Mandarin so it can be quite daunting and confusing

Taipei Main Station - almost reminds me of New York's Grand Central Station ... ALMOST but not really :)

Mom was able to get out early. It took me 30 minutes waiting for my baggage to come out!

At the start of Ximending

Lunch at a place that had sushi and other Japanese delights served on a moving toy train around the restaurant

And then we were picked up by a small van for the tour. The tour group consisted of 7 tourists including us.

More pictures!

CH201: Taipei Prologue

I've been considering whether I should christen Taipei for myself as the Manhattan of South East Asia, but I haven't been back to Hong Kong recently to say for sure. And Tokyo isn't really part of South East Asia, so I don't think it counts (It's not like I've been to Tokyo yet haha!).

There are a lot of parallels between Taipei and Manhattan. They're both green cities. Manhattan, of course, has Central Park. Taipei on the other hand has a lot of lustrous parks, roads lined with trees and it's almost like Davao seemingly surrounded by 2 mountains (ref: http://wikitravel.org/en/Taipei). They're both modern cities with an extensive railway system - although Manhattan has a more comprehensive one. They both felt organic and both seemed to have followed a clear blueprint of urban planning.

I went to Taipei over the Chinese New Year (January 28 - February 2 2014). It was, I believe, almost at the end of their winter. I thought that the clothes I packed and the thin cardigan I bought from Uniqlo paired with a scarf would suffice as evening wear. Unfortunately, I was wrong, and I found myself having to go for 3 layers of clothing and ending up buying another jumper (in the British context of the word).

The trip was planned as I posted before, as a last minute change in itinerary because of the turmoil that was happening in Bangkok. I wouldn't have been able to book or plan for anything with news of grenade explosions, protest rallies, gun shots and other sort of violence happening. Of course, it was also supposed to be a celebration of my mom's 60th birthday, so I had to make sure to whatever extent I can make possible that it was smooth and memorable.

Anyway, I'll be posting more about the trip and the itinerary we had planned and share more pictures in succeeding posts. I took over 670+ photos (of myself, mom, sights and food) on my IPhone so there's a lot to sort through. For now, let me share some.

The video above I shot during the arrival in Taipei. I know that supposedly all electronic devices should be turned off, but I just couldn't resist not taking a video with the background music you'll hear playing.



Some pictures:

CH200: Renewed - Taipei!

So, finally, the Taipei trip is beginning to take shape! I've booked our hotel and tours during the length of the stay all in one day (yesterday, Tuesday, Jan 21) - the day when my credit card cycle was reset. A lot of stress leading up to that day considering the expenses leftover from the previous cycle (which should be settled soon!!!). So far, I have below itinerary drafted out.

Jan-28
430pm: Arrive
Take Bus to city and train to hotel
Explore Area (Ximending)

Jan-29
10am: Arrival
Lunch
1pm -6pm: Wulai Aboriginal Village Tour (1500 NTD/pax)
7pm: Shilin Night Market"

Jan-30
8am-12nn: Northern Coast Tour (Keeling City, Keelung Harbour, Buddha Statue, Yeliu Park, Queen's Head)
Lunch
1pm-6pm: Tour (Chiufen Village, Chinkuashih Village,Pitou Cape, Nanya Rock Formations, Bay of Two Colors)
7pm: Long Shan Temple
8pm: Hwahsi Night Market

Jan-31
8am-12nn: Tour (Presidential Building, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Martyr's Shrine, Traditional Taiwanese Temple, National Palace Museum, Handicraft Center)
1pm-3pm: Confucius Temple, Xingtian Temple
4pm: Taipei 101 Mall
5pm: Go up Taipei 101
6pm: Dinner Taipei101 Mall Shopping
8pm: Ximending Shopping

Feb-01
9am: Maokong Gondola Ride and Maokong  (Zhinan Temple) Mountain walk
12nn: Lunch at one of Maokong Mountain Tea House
2pm: Sun Yat Sen Memorial
3pm: Fine Arts Museum
5pm: More shopping at Ximending(in case Ma didn’t get enough)
7pm: Dinner in Ximending Area
9pm: Pack and head to airport for Mama's flight

Feb-02
1am: Mama's flight
Clubbing till late
Checkout before leaving hotel?
11am: Museum of Contemporary Arts
1pm: National Taiwan Museum
230pm:  Pack and Prepare to leave for airport
3pm: Airport
535pm: Flight
1030pm: Singapore

The hotel I booked is quite okay looking based on the pictures. It looks hip. We're staying in the Ximending area so we're close to some shopping areas and food places. I guess, I had it as a priority to stay in the area after reading that the hip bars are also around there. I have time on the 28th and Feb 2 by myself and I'm not going to spend that stuck in a room watching cable! ;)

Now, as the 28th of January approaches, I'm getting more and more excited! I just hope that during the tour and going around that it won't be super crowded. I also hope that there won't be any traffic jams during our tour that could jeopardize the timing. I opted to go for the tours so my mom doesn't have to go around walking too much or commuting. This vacation after all was organize as her 60th birthday celebration! Although, so far, the only contributors I have from the family is my dad who committed to shell out 500 usd to pay for a bracelet/watch/jewelry as a gift to my mom (awwww....).

Now, time to start organizing the finances! I want to be able to shop for some things when I do get there and not just have to carry my mom's spoils for her. The night markets in Taipei are something I also look forward to experiencing. Forget the diet (again!), time to binge on street food and maybe try a shot of snake blood.

Anyone been to Taipei who can suggest places to visit based on the itinerary? I've researched through several sources like tripadvisor, wikia, and other apps geared for travelling (Triposo, etc) and that's the best I can come up with suited for a gen-y and senior citizen haha.