Taiwan (23rd June 2008 to 29th June 2008)

Finally decided to write this post after procrastinating for so long...

On the 23rd June 2008, Monday morning, my family and I woke up early to catch the flight to Taoyuan Airport. The flight was quite uneventful though because of the weather. We reached there by noon, arranged transport etc and finally reached the hotel (Royal Castle Hotel in Ximending) in the evening. Leaving our bags in the hotel, we immediately headed to the MRT station and bought the EasyCard 悠游卡 to start our tour around Taipei.

First stop, Longshan temple and Taipei Hwahsi Tourist Night Market. That’s the waterfall in Longshan temple.

We had our dinner in the night market. Oh by the way, there were quite a few snake restaurants, though I don't fancy any.

The next day, we woke up early to reach Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (renamed National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall due to political reasons. Something I find "ridiculous" because the souvenirs and MRT station still retained the old name. Just as I find renaming the airport to TY airport wasting taxpayers' money for nothing because all the road signs etc had to be amended just for that reason. But then, it is not for me to comment also.). Anyway I thought there is a change of guard hourly procession in C.K.S Memorial Hall but it seems that I have been mistaken because the guard says there isn't any here and we ended up waking up early for no reason... hmm...



This is a model reference. Doc, take note...



The national museum was somewhere around the vicinity. Unfortunately, it was too crowded that day (think there was some event) and we did not visit it. (Sad, but my family would most probably be happy to be spared of the ordeal haha). Instead we headed to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越) in Zhongshan and Taipei City Mall (an underground mall) for some shopping. Bear bear from Shin Kong Mitsukoshi says hi to shoppers hee hee...



After having a fruitful shopping trip, we then headed to National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. By some miracle, we actually were in time to catch the change of guard here instead. Like what my mum commented, we chased to watch the procession since morning till now haha.



Then to the Taipei 101. Kung fu panda on display haha...



Some landscape scenes I caught from Taipei 101 building.


Taipei's cabs are all in yellow colour regardless which company they belong to. It rained though so it got a bit misty .. and I thought I might not be able to catch sight of the sunset. Thus am very grateful...



The steel pendulum suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor acts as a tuned mass damper to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. You can read up more about the construction here.

Original plan after this is to go Wu Fen Pu but decided to change plans and shop more in Xi Men Ding. Thus we ended up eating the Ah Zong Mian Xian in XMD. Hmm is just mian xian to me, but there’s a long queue .. and everybody is willing to stand and eat. Quite an interesting sight.

The next day we went to Yang Ming Shan (陽明山國家公園). Gosh the bus journey was long... And the place is so big, we ended up only going one or two stops before heading to International Hotel for hot spring...



Then we headed to Danshui to take a ferry to Fisherman’s Wharf. While in Danshui, caught sight of Dunkin’ Donuts, something my brother fab about so decided to try. Anyway the weather, like yesterday, wasn’t good… Come to think of it I might have complained that it was too hot (the type that makes you sticky and irritated), but there were few occasions where it rained too and kind of affected the photos (and the trip). So in Danshui, it actually started raining heavily that I lost hope in catching sight of sunset in Fisherman’s Wharf.



Decided to take the ferry back and while in the ferry, the sun happened to be setting down too. It was an amazing sight which I was unable to capture though. Sighz, sometimes I really feel the most beautiful sight can only be seen through your eyes. Then we shopped awhile in Danshui night market before heading to Shilin night market. Saw a stall selling worms... hmm not my cup of tea though. Oh but my dad did try the smelly tofu in XMD last night, and he did have a hard time trying to stomach it. End up putting lots of chili to mask the sauce.. As for me, I will not try it a second time. It's an acquired taste.



On the fourth day, had another long bus journey to Yehliu.

Travel Details:
Bus Journey: Taipei Bus Intercity (台北北站） to Yehliu (野柳）
Bus Trip Cost: NT102
Entrance Ticket: NT50

Lots of mushroom heads...


I cannot remember the 3 animals that I overheard the tour guide describing.. was it cow?? elephant??


Quite like the "beancurd" stones haha...


Most famous icon - The Queen (女王頭) which is said to resemble the head of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt. And my only thought is, how much has eroded since my dad last came here. Is the neck getting thinner and thinner..


Because of the sea, I ended up with a sun tan. Oh and Yehliu had a "market" outside the exit that sell a lot of interesting souvenirs. I caught sight of the dolphin necklace I lost 8 years ago and on the spur of moment, bought it. (Somehow at that point of time, I wanted to regain back the innocence I once had.. Think I watch too much Pure 19.. became too wistful to go back to that age.)

Later on, we headed to Keelung.

My friend had called it the Hollywood sign... I totally agreed with her!

From there, one could head to Jinguang shi and Jiufen which are two quite "old" towns. But I changed plan and headed back to Wu Fen Pu & Raohe Night market instead because my parents seemed worn out from the long bus journeys. Thus decided to shelve these for future. By the way, we did try the pepper bun, famous in Raohe.. but my brother and I both felt there is nothing special. One thing for sure, there was indeed a queue to purchase the buns though. After which, we headed back to XMD.

Here's the lady making the buns... and the icon of Raohe night market... and the Red Cliff (赤壁) promotion in XMD...



On the fifth day, we went for an internal tour in the Presidential building. No belongings were allowed though, which also means photography was disallowed too. Hmm I do wonder how does our Istana looks like. After that we went to the Martyr’s Shrine to catch the change of guard procession, which is supposedly more majestic that the one we caught previously. While watching, I do feel guilty that I never once caught the change of guard in SG… humans are such ironical creature. (Decided to check when it’s held. This ceremony is conducted every first Sunday of each month, at 6pm. It usually lasts about half an hour. Source: Here).



After that, we headed to Jiantan again. I had thought of trying to shop in Shilin Night market again in the day to see if the shops are open, but it started to rain. In the end, decided to head to Miramar earlier than usual because I thought it is easier to shop indoor due to the rain. Caught sight of Carrefour, which is much more pleasant to shop than those high class boutiques haha. Saw an interesting collection of book in Carrefour too.



The next day, did not plan to do anything except visit Window on China. Saw a lot of buildings. I zoomed into the presidential building to check if they updated the president to reflect the reality haha.



Through a forum, found out that there is a Toilet themed restaurant in XMD and decided to have dinner there on the last day. Had a hard time finding it though especially when it kept raining. But my family did find it funny, so guessed it was a good dinner.

Travel details:
Modern Toilet
分店 : 台北西門町店 (Xi Men Ding Branch)
電話 : 02-2311-8822
店址 : 台北市萬華區西寧南路50巷7號2樓
座位數 : 80名
營業時間 : (平日餐點僅提供至PM 9：00、假日餐點提供至PM10:00)
平常日 AM11：30 ~ PM10：00
假日　 AM11：00 ~ PM10：00
備註 : 本店因來客數過多，如需訂位請在用餐前一天來電查詢有無空位再予以提供訂位服務，謝謝！




After a fulfilling dinner, we finished our packing and booked a cab for tomorrow’s morning because there was no available shuttle to airport in the morning. Reached home the next day evening. Overall am glad that the trip had been pretty smooth. Thank you.