[Travel] Part 2 of 8, Taiwan

With an early conclusion of the first night in Taipei, on the second day we went to 3 major tourist attractions consisting :

Waking up

Since it’s slightly past May where the Spring almost end, morning in Taipei can be like the weather we have back in Malaysia or Singapore. I thought I would be experiencing some cold breeze though.

House’s number plates

The healthy breakfast

It looks like this neighborhood shop has quite some amount of patron having breakfast here daily.

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Various selection of from their menus.

I had no idea what this is supposedly named in English, but it consists of some chicken floss and teriyaki sauce, a very yummy dish indeed! Tastes like Po-piah.

Spaghetti in the morning.

Looks like some homemade soybean drink.

Moving out

The first destination of the day would be the National Place Museum. There are various way you can reach the intended destination, either by bus or train.

One definitive rule of thumb that you can remember is to always prepare small change for buses like this. Appraently for each trip, approximately around 20NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) is more than enough.

Press the bell when you want to alight the bus.

While you board the bus from the front usually, there are some bus in Taiwan that lets you board the bus from the exit (middle of the bus), depending on the scenario (peak hours).

We had to change bus at some point in our journey. I had no idea what the above meant.

And so then, we had arrived at the National Palace Museum. Pictures taken here are limited to the exterior of the building as photography is prohibited inside the exhibition center.

Floor plan of the entire building. It’s a really big big building that houses all those precious artifacts during the Chinese emperor dynasties.

Throughout the entire year you will come across various exhibitions are being held here. Some even said that despite the huge space in the palace, it is still not enough to show all of the artifacts at once where they can only place a limited amount of exhibits before changing it to another set which can take approximately more than 20 years to see all of them. That is if you go to the exhibition every single year.

Though things are limited outside the palace, but it seems there are things that can get the locals occupied.

The tourists photography session.

Lunch time!

While we had spent about 2 hours plus inside the palace by strolling through the exhibits quickly, you can literally spend the whole day inside and it is still not enough to digest all of the information in the same day. And so we decided to move ahead towards the next destination, Taipei 101 tower. But before doing so, we had quite an exquisite lunch at a restaurant in known as Tang Dynasty (literally translated from the Chinese name of the shop) in one of the Sogo deparmental store in Taipei. If my memory serves me well, it should be the TianMu 天母 District branch of Sogo (Look at this location map).

I can’t help to be amazed of the different type of structures in the city.

Some locals at nursery.

This is how the usual bus stand looks like, providing a hefty description on each route for a bus. What pains me is that there isn’t any word that I can recognize.

Sounds like a familiar brand.

With a familiar drive-thru.

The lifts are pretty interesting with a set of empty levels,

And so we are here.

The main course.

The desserts.

And more desserts.

And tea. In general, the foods served are almost top notch. Which this doesn’t surprise me as it is known to attract a lot of customers or even artists to come and dine in here.

Some other shop nearby.

Taipei 101

With our hungers satisfied, we proceeded towards the next destination.

Which you can reach by train or bus.

And if you decide to go by the train, you have to do a bit of walking to reach the destination, though there are shuttle bus to bring you to Taipei from the station. It is just too much of a hassle during rush hours.

A huge departmental store near the Taipei 101.

This is located right almost opposite of Taipei 101. I had forgotten the name of this store.

Though the city itself has developed so much that it surprised me to find public bicycle are ready for rental.

Most of it are really new and well taken care of, so if you are looking to stroll around the city center, near Taipei 101, you can try to take on these bikes.

And after pretty much a bit of walking. And so you are here.

The Taipei 101. Apparently it has almost 101 storeys high.

And oh, there is hand sanitizer all around the building. Apparently due to H1N1 is still on rampant.

You need to purchase a ticket to get to the top.

With such a height, apparently, it took less than a minute to reach the top. Magnificent.

On the observation deck.

I had no idea what this is for.

Seems like this is the official mascot for the tower.

A reactive installation that spans across at least 5 meters long.

And so we had a chance to view the entire Taipei from all directions.

But too bad the weather and visibility was extremely bad.

Had a cup of coffee afterward.

Xi-Men-Ding!

We headed towards the final destination of the day.

Tickets can be purchased from these machines.

If you are not sure how much you need to pay for a trip. It is displayed on top of the machine that depicts it in number such as 35 NTD or 40 NTD.

And this is how it looks like. The ticket.

Above is how it looks like showing where you are taking the train from. For this one, it says we are in the Shi-lin station.

And of course it is pretty near to the night market.

Right below the station exit.

This is what I found to be really amusing.

And this waiting line. Why you ask me? Because it seems like almost everyone in this country knows what and how to queue. Don’t believe me?

There you go.

Inside the train. Looks awfully familiar.

The screen is displaying the destination. Worry not as there is an English version for that as well.

Almost everyone stood on the right-side of the escalator. This is different from Singapore which to give way, you stand on the left-side of the escalator.

After much travelling inside the train, here is the famous teen and tourist hangout. Xi-Men-Ding (pronounced like See-Mern-Ding).

Here you would definitely see a lot of younger crowds hanging out.

And though there are a lot of interesting shop name, be aware that the saloon above meant “Recklessly cutting your hair”, and they really mean it.

Another saloon.

Behind some alley.

This looks like some illegally parked vehicle.

When a smaller fortune-cat is not enough, the get a huge inflated one.

And so you may ask what do people do here except shopping? Eat. But what?

This. Smelly bean curd.

Try not to be fooled by the picture above. It is really f***ing smelly even meters away. For the adventurous type, I suggest you to try it though. You will be amazed that how much the locals like these snack…even the young pretty ones.

And when one time is not enough, we had it again.

At a different shop with some soup.

At the night goes by, most of the shop close before midnight and cleaning like above is done. That is all for the second day. 3 destination.

The entire travel-log to Taiwan consists of travel to :

  • Taipei City
  • Shilin Night Market
  • Xinbeitou Hot springs
  • Wulai, Taipei
  • Hualien County, Taiwan
  • XiMenDing
  • Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
  • DanShui old street
  • Danshui Fisherman’s wharf

The links: