Taipei Trip Day 3

(Feb. 15, 2011) Today is our last day in Taiwan.  I can still remember the first time I got here.  I was too nervous while waiting for my turn in immigration at Taiwan airport.  It is my first international trip.  They may ask too many questions that I cannot answer, haha!  When it's my turn, the guy said: "Ni Hao?"  I replied: "I'm ok, thanks."  I know its not polite to answer that way as I responded in a different language.  I got scared in answering him in Mandarin as he may further ask questions in Mandarin.  Well I'm half Chinese but I can only understand very little Mandarin or Fookien.  Luckily, he didn't ask further questions.  Unlike with my friend,  they kinda converse a little.

Anyway, our first itinerary for the day is the Sun Yat Sen Garden.  There was a Lantern Festival event when we were there.  This will run for about a week until the Lantern Festival itself which I think is on the 17th of February.  There were exhibits of various lanterns made by different schools along the walkway.  There are even children having their field trip.  I guess it will be better if you go here at night to see the beauty of the lanterns when lit up.

Panoramic view of Sun Yat Sen Garden

We get the chance to see the dancing fountain.  It lasted for about 5 minutes.  Just a short performance but it was nice.  Again, maybe if this still happens at night with lights, it will be spectacular view.  Mini rabbit lanterns are also to be given away at 2pm.  At that time (around 11am), there were already long queues in that area.  We can no longer wait for it as we still have other areas to visit in our itinerary.

  

From Sun Yat Sen Garden, the Taipei 101 can already be seen.  So we took pictures with Taipei 101.  But I insist to still go to Taipei 101 even outside or nearer the area to take a picture.  So after Sun Yat Sen, we walked the streets of Taipei city  and got a nice shot of Taipei 101.

Taipei 101 shot from the streets of Taipei

Taipei City is very clean.  The pavement have designated walkway for bikes and people.  People seem disciplined and I admire the cleanliness of the surroundings and "safe" feeling while on the street.  What catches my attention was the unique pedestrian walk in the middle of the street.  Pedestrians can reach the other side of the road by crossing in the middle of the street and not the usual side street.  I wasn't able to take a picture of me crossing the street as I don't want to stop in the middle of the street and I might get caught by the police.

Intersection Road

This can be eaten without rice

Last in our itinerary is the Flora Expo.  But before going there, we stopped at Sogo Hotel as my friend is going to buy some shoes.  The boots she bought in the streets of Ximending gave up after only a few walks.  It didn't even lasted for one whole day.  She bought it for only NT$250.  Well, maybe that's what you get for a very cheap shoes.  Anyway, when some of my friends are shopping around Sogo Hotel, my other friend and I had a sumptuous lunch.  I enjoyed my lunch here as it was really hefty and inexpensive.  My lunch cost me only NT$150.  I'm surprised that I wasn't able to consume it all!

Flower gallery

We arrived at Flora Expo at around 4pm already.  We don't have plans of touring the whole Flora Expo area, we just picked up a few places to visit.  As what the name implies, there are a lot of flowers displayed and floral art works/exhibit.  Upon entering the area, there is a designated sketch and stamp area of flowers.  If you collect stamps, make sure you have a lot of spare blank sheets on hand as the venue only provides one sheet.  Also, you can use your blank sheets to sketch various images of flowers.  It was lovely.  Good thing my friend loves stamps and she brought a small notebook.  So everytime there is a stamp available in all the areas we've visited since day 1, she never fails to punch one in her notebook.

Panoramic view of flower gallery

We visited a pavillion where exhibits from different countries are displayed.  Of course we visited the Philippines' exhibit.  I thought I'll be seeing flowers there but it turned out, various tourist attractions were featured in the Philippine's booth.  It was still nice though, at least more people will get to know the wonderful places of the Philippines.

Since this is our last day, I bought some souvenirs at the Flora Expo.  I bought a cute magnet for NT$35 and a plastic folder at NT$30.  Not very cheap, but it's ok.  I also bought a Hello Kitty cellphone charm here as we will no longer visit Hello Kitty Sweets.  And I'm not sure if there is still one at the airport.

The soup is so yummy!

It was still chilly when we left Flora Expo.  We're thinking of the best restaurant to eat for dinner as this is our last night.  But we decided it to be nothing fancy.  We wanted to try out the small restaurant just outside our hotel.  Its like shabu shabu but there's no cook pot in your table, instead the mini cook pot is served individually with your food cooking on top of it.  It's pre-cooked already but it is still serve to you with cook pot.  Thus, it gets really difficult to consume it immediately as it is very hot.  But the food is very yummy.  For just NT$100, you get the bowl of soup with veggies and noodles plus free drink and rice.  You also have the option to refill your soup.  Many people go here to dine in or take out.  The varieties are just little but I guess that doesn't matter as the food really tastes good.

So that how my Taipei trip goes.  My budget for the whole trip (including visa, airfare, accommodation and pocket money) is only Php 15,000 but I go a little over it.  I think I spent around Php 17,000.  Here's the breakdown of my budget (not detailed though) per person.

Airfare - Php 3,000
Accommodation - Php 3,900
Visa - Php 2,500
Pocket money - NT$5,000 (Php 7,500)

Before I forget, we arrived early at the airport wishing we can do a little more shopping there and hoping to see that Hello Kitty Cafe.  But unfortunately, the whole duty free area of the airport is under renovation.

Here's my blog for day 1 and day 2.  I guess I will still want to go back to Taipei.  I still need to see that Hello Kitty Cafe.  And I believe there are a lot more nice places to be visited.  Besides, I really love the cold weather and winter fashion!  You can't get that in the Philippines!

Taipei Trip Day 2

(Feb. 14, 2011) My friend told me that today will be colder than yesterday.  I thought I’m still “equipped” with that since yesterday I didn’t feel so cold.  But I was wrong.  I thought my clothes are thicker today than yesterday.  But it seems that the cold winds penetrate my clothes! Brrr!

At about 10am, we’re already at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.  It was raining at that time that made the weather [again] super cold!  There are about 3 temples in CKS.  We took our pictures here and there but we couldn’t take a group shot.  At least two of us should take the pictures, one to hold the camera and another one to hold the umbrella to protect the person and the cam from getting wet.  There’s not much to do at CKS but we waited until 12 noon in time for the changing of guards. 

Panoramic view of Chiang Kai Shek Memorial

The changing of guards was amazing.  They’re perfectly synchronized.  They even have an instance where they point out their swords to their leader just to make sure that there distance to each other are all equal.  The whole activity took about 10 minutes.  It’s hard to tell whether these guards are good looking as their faces are all serious and almost covered by their helmet.  Haha!

One thing I noticed that the temple provides not only rack for umbrellas but plastics as well where you can place your umbrella and bring it inside but without getting the floor wet.  We find that useful so we can put our wet umbrella directly in our bag.

Lover's Bridge

Our next stop: Fisherman’s Wharf/Lover’s Bridge.  It was located in Danshui line and from there you either walk or ride the bus before you reach the Lover’s Bridge.  We stop by at some market place in Danshui where we get to taste another street food.  The candy covered tomato is delicious.  Crunchy in the outside, soft and juicy in the inside, haha!  I also get to taste some bread with fillings.  Yummy too!  I intend to buy a jacket as it was really cold but I end up buying only gloves.  It cost me NT$100.  That’s enough to keep me a bit warm, I guess.  My friend was also able to buy one from original price of NT$200, she was able to bargain it at NT$100. 

Arriving at Lover’s Bridge… IT WAS REALLY REALLY COLD!!  I can barely walk up the bridge!  But for picture purposes, keri lang!  The bridge is quite long so I have to endure the coldness of the weather before reaching the other end.  It was nice scenery though with the pink colored bridge.  I wonder how it would look like at night.  There are some shops and restaurants at the other end but some were close.  When we get back to the other end, we saw a couple all dressed up.  It seems like they’re going to have their pre-nuptial pictures take there.

Our next stop is the Fort Sto. Domingo.  We took a bus to get here.  I think this is also called the Red House.  As what the name implies, it is all painted in red.  It seems like this is a dorm house.  There’s not much to do here too, just picture taking.  We left the area at about 5pm already, rush hour.  We expect the buses and trains to be jam-packed with commuters.  And yes it is.  Just like in the Philippines, the buses are occupied and you wouldn’t get to sit anymore.

Our last stop, Shilin Market.  My much awaited destination.  This is shopping time!  At first we seem lost as the market we entered only has a very few stalls.   Not even clothes, just food and some games for kids.  We were not convinced that that is the Shilin Market.  So we walked across the street and there it is!  Shilin Market is like Divisoria.  So many clothes, shoes, accessories, toys and many others stuff on sale.  I saw one boots which only cost NT$180, that’s only around Php 300!  But I didn’t buy it as I think I won’t get to wear it again even if I’ll be in HK next week.  I won’t be wearing it while here in the Philippines.  So I just shop for clothes which I can get to wear in HK.  I heard the weather is also cold there at this time.  There are a lot of cheap clothes there except for souvenir shirts, I find it expensive.  The kids’ shirt already cost almost NT$200. 

10 Degrees Celsius at 11:51pm in Shilin Market

Oh by the way, we had dinner here at Shilin Market.  Unfortunately, we were not able to taste the stinky tofu.  But the food we ate was ok.  We also tried their pearl shake, yum!  We spent the rest of the night here that we almost missed the last ride going back to Xiamending.  The last train trip was at 12 midnight and we’re still in Shilin Market by 11:45pm!  We were running but glad we made it!  The recorded weather for today was 10 degrees Celsius.

Read on for my Day 3 Taipei trip :)  For details of Day 1, click here.

Taipei Trip Day 1

At about a month ago, Feb 13 in the evening, we were still wandering around Taipei 101 mall and maybe looking for something to eat.  We no longer went up to 88th or 89th floor of the building to get a spectacular view of Taipei since it was rainy at that time and the view from the top is foggy, according to the receptionist.  And so we decided to just hang around Taipei 101 and do some shopping.  Besides, it would be a waste of NT$450 if you will not get to see anything.

Yes, I was in Taiwan last month from Feb 12-16.  I celebrated Valentine's Day with my single girlfriends in Taiwan.  Its not really 5 days since the flight was evening of Feb. 12 and we are expected to arrive at Taiwan at 12am of Feb. 13.  Then our flight back was also evening of Feb. 15 and we are expected to arrive in Manila at 3am of Feb. 16.  This is my first trip for this year.  It is also my first International trip.

Upon arriving in Taipei International Airport, I can already feel that I was in another country. The weather is really cold.  Colder than what I used to when inside an air conditioned room.  I love it.  We were fetch by the van contacted by my friend.  He welcomes us as we aboard his van.  The van was high tech with GPS attached!  It was talking and informing the driver where it is headed.  Well I'm not so sure as the language is Chinese.  My friends had a little chat with the driver as they know some Chinese (both Mandarin and Fookien).  From the airport, it was about 45minutes drive to where we will be staying, King Shi Hotel at Ximending District, the fashion district of Taipei.

          

 Standard Room at King Shi Hotel

Our driver got a quite hard time in finding our hotel.  Well I wouldn't be surprised since our hotel does not look like a hotel at all.  The hotel only occupies 7th and 8th floor of the building.  The other floors are for other businesses.  We availed 2 standard rooms since we are 5.  I payed at around Php 4,000 for 3 days 3 nights stay to my friend, she did all the bookings for us.  Sorry I can't recall the exact room charge per night :)

Our itinerary for today is Maokong Gondola, Sun Yat Sen and Taipei 101.  Fist destination is the Maokong Gondola.  We need to ride the MRT from Ximen (Tucheng, Banqiao and Nangang Line or simply blue line) to Taipei Zoo (Wenhu or brown line).  We will be transferring trains from Zhongxiao Fuxing on our way to Taipei Zoo.  Their MRT is very high tech.   All are connected so you can reach your destination easily.  We opted to buy chips rather than a card pass.  It is more cheaper.  MRT rates are about NT$25 on the average but it is still dependent on your destination.  Buying chips is quite easy as there are instructions indicated.  Another thing that amazes me is how disciplined their people are.  There are designated waiting line which people strictly follows.  They waited for passengers to come out from MRT before going in. 

Travel time from Ximen to Taipei Zoo is around 30 minutes.  From the MRT, we have to walk about 300 meters to get to Maokong Gondola.  There are paw prints in the sidewalk with some Chinese characters written on it.  Walking down the streets, you can also smell that you are indeed in Taipei Zoo, if you know what I mean :)

Maokong Gondola has 4 stations: Taipei Zoo Station, Taipei Zoo South Station, Zhinan Temple Station and Maokong Station.  We skipped the first 3 stations and headed straight to Maokong Station.  It took us about 30 minutes or more. 

From the Maokong Station, there are a lot of tourist spots to be visited.  We just picked out a few.  There is also an information center where you can ask the distance from one point to another.  Bus service are also provided with a fee.  Since we're on a budget, we just walk.  But later we realized, we wished we rode the bus... we wasted some time walking :(  We were there from about 10AM to 5PM.  We ate at 2 different tea houses, visited some temples, went to the tea plantation, walk, walk and walk.  Its very tiring.  But we did enjoy our tea and street food! Yum!  Maokong area has also become real cold when it started to rain.

Of course we tasted their tea. Authentic!

This is very yummy with real fresh fruits!

Big serving of noodles from food court of Taipei 101. I ordered this via turo-turo language

Since we spent the whole day at Maokong Station, we skipped Sun Yat Sen as it closes at around 5PM.  We decided to visit it on our last day.  We went straight to Taipei 101 from our Maokong Gondola trip. We rode again MRT from Taipei Zoo (Wenhu line) to Taipei City Hall (Tucheng, Banqiao, Nangang line).

As mentioned earlier, we no longer went up to see the city skyline of Taipei as it was raining and even the receptionist informed us that there is low visibility of the city due to the fog.  Yes, it was still cold at that time.  The rain added coldness to the city.

So this is how my first day in Taipei went.  Tiring but enjoyable.  I really enjoyed the food and the weather!




Here's my post for Day 2 and Day 3.
 

My First International Trip

No, it's not in Hong Kong.  It will be in Taipei, Taiwan.  I'm pretty much excited about it despite my sister's discouraging comments on this trip; telling me that it will just be a waste of money since there's nothing to do there in Taiwan.  Whatever.  I will still pursue this trip.  Besides, this will be my first international trip!

I've done a few researches and visited various forums to get an idea on what to expect in Taiwan.  First things first, the visa.  Wow! My first international trip and my first visa! Bongga!  Secondly, yeah, there's really not much to do in Taipei and most of the famous tourist attractions are the museums, temples and shrines.  Of course there's also the famous Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.  But the pictures from my researches looked good and inviting.  What got me curious is that, as they say, Taipei is really a food trip.  I like!  I know you wouldn't believe that I like food if you see me personally, haha!  But I really enjoy trying out the food (specialty or famous food) of various places I've visited and will be visiting.  Since I'm quite Chinese, the taste of noodles and dimsum will no longer be new to me.  But I'm excited to taste a real, authentic Chinese noodles!!  I've read also other must try foods like the stinky tofu (they say it really does stink but taste really good. curiosity curiosity..), pineapple cake, mochi balls, milk tea and a lot more.  I'm really looking forward to taste these!  and lastly, Taipei is currently having their once a year event called the Flora Expo.  This event can already cover one day of our vacation.  At least we no longer need to worry much as to where to go.  I just hope I could see cherry blossoms in the event!

I'm really really excited about this trip! Aside from what I've mentioned above, I will finally experience a very cold weather!  I will get to wear my boots and a "winter fashion" outfit! Haha!  8-15 degrees Celsius... Not too close to winter but cold enough for the experience.  I'll be leaving this weekend and be back after Valentine's.  I'll be spending my Valentine's there with my single girlfriends!  

Please check my post on this trip:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3