Taipei Day 4 - 16 March 2010 (Part 2)

After spending half a day at the Museum, we moved on to the next destination - Danshui.

Danshui is a small city, to the north of Taipei which can be accessed via MRT.

Upon exiting the MRT station, we headed towards the old streets where most of the shops and street foods were located. The first stall we stopped by was a grilled sausage stall which had a figurine of a pig.

The many shops, where we bought some souvenirs for our friends, mostly food.


There are also many game stalls for the kids.

Grilled sotong

The Danshui Waterfront is behind the row of shops. It was interesting to see many people fishing too!

We took the ferry to the Fisherman's Whaft. It was a rather cold and bumpy ride.

The famous " Lovers' Bridge"

Across the Lovers' Bridge, there was an exhibition building which had a restaurant and some small shops. However, we were rather tired and did not explore further

We took the bus ride back to the MRT station instead of taking the ferry. Since we still have some time before dinner, we decided to go to Chiang Khai Shek memorial (to be continued...)

Taipei Day 4 - 16 March 2010 (Part 1)

On the 4th day, we made a trip to the National Palace Museum, which has one of the world's best collection of Chinese historical artifacts and antiquities.

We took the MRT to Shilin station and from there Bus NO 30 which stops right at the Ground Floor of the Museum. We did not even have to walk up the long stairs in front of the Museum.

As we were not allowed to take pictures inside the Museum, there are only shots of the external buildings.

The entrance fee is NTD160 (adult) and NTD80 (child).

We spent about 3-4 hours looking at all the exhibits. The most famous pieces were the Jade Cabbage and Pork Belly Jade which we had to queue about 10 minutes.

The Museum was packed with tourists from all over the world. Some of the guided tours provide very interesting commentaries on the exhibits.

The weather during our 4th day in Taipei fell to about 14 degrees Celcius. Luckily we brought along our sweaters and scarves.



Our next planned destination was Danshui. (to be continued....)

Taipei Day 3 - 15 March 2010

We started Day 3 by venturing out of Taipei to Window On China Theme Park located at Taoyuan Country. Based on instructions from a realiable map, we took the MRT to Jingan Station. Upon exiting the station, turn right and the E-Go bus-stop is a few metres away.

Taiwanese people are most well-manerred as they queue up for most things. On the escalators, they automatically will stand to the right as not to block people moving up the left fast lane.

The bus ticket and entrance ticket to Window on China Theme Park is at NTD 220 (Return). The journey from Jingan MRT station to Window on China is about 1 hour.

Window on China has miniature buildings of Taiwan, China, Europe and USA. Some of the interesting ones were the mini Chiang Kai Shek Memorial (Taipei)

Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square (China)



Longmen caves in Loyang

India's Taj Mahal

St Basils Cathedral in Moscow

Statue of Liberty, USA

Windows on China Theme Park also has a Doraemon amusement and water park. Lots of Doraemon figures around the park to take photos.

We ended the day with a short trip to Pacific Sogo located at Zhongxiao East Road. Lots of interesting items but prices are almost similar to KL after converting RM11=NTD10.

Taipei Day 2 - 14 March 2010

After a simple breakfast provided by the hotel, we set off for our 1st destination in Taipei - The Taipei Zoo located at Muzha.

Travelling in Taipei is really easy especially via their MRT. We bought an Easy Card MRT ticket at NTD500 (Adult) NTD300 (Child) (which can be topped up when the value runs low)

This made our travelling the next few days so much hassle-free (except for the one time where we had to top up at a 7-11 in Danshui)

The Taipei Zoo is located at Muzha (the last station on the brown line ). On the MRT, we encountered a friendly young lady who asked Weng what animal would he like to see at the zoo. We were often mistaken for Singaporeans and when we replied that we were Malaysians, Taiwanese seemed surprised that we could converse in Mandarin.

The Taipei Zoo has one of the cheapest entrance fee at NTD60 (Adult) and NTD30 (Child).

The zoo has an aviary, an insectarium, amphibian and reptile house, penguin habitat, koala habitat (which was closed for renovations at our time of visit), nocturnal animals display, and a panda exhibition.

Most of the exhibition areas were not packed except for the panda exhibition. We were given a special ticket to visit the panda house (ie we could only visit it once). After waiting in line for almost half an hour, we thought we could see the pandas but all we saw was their sleeping backs. What a disappointment!!

A tip which we obtained from other bloggers was to take the zoo bus up the hill and start from there. We could use the EasyCard to pay for the bus fare, which was really convenient.

The amphibian and reptile house was right at the top of the hill. Lots of interesting animals, especially tortoises.

Next up was the Penguin house.



After the penguins, we walked all the way down passing by the African animals and Rainforest Area. (which was quite similar to the ones we have at Zoo Negara)

Another interesting place was the insect house which has a big area for butterflies as well.

In many parts of the zoo, there are interesting pictures of "oink-oink" like the ones below:

After spending about half a day at the zoo, we proceeded to our next destination - Taipei 101.(located at Xinyi district) We took the MRT to Taipei City Hall. Instead of waiting for the free shuttle bus, we decided to walk towards the 101 building. Which was great cos on the way, we saw lots of flowers in full bloom. Also, there was a big Eslite bookstore (one of the largest bookstore chain in Taiwan) which was very impressive. There are some interesting figurines in front of Eslite worth taking some pictures.

When we reached Taipei 101, we went to the 5th floor to purchase the entrance tickets,NTD400 (adult) and NTD 370 (Child). As we were not allowed to carry any bags/knapsacks, we stored them at the lockers provided FOC. However, the queue to go up the escalators were super-long as we waited almost 45 minutes.

Taipei 101 has 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. It features an Indoor Observatory (89th floor) and Outdoor Observatory (91st floor). The super-fast escalators to reach 89th floor travel at a speed of 16.83m/s. It takes about 30 seconds to go from bottom to up.

When it was time to leave, we had to queue again (almost half an hour) to get down. On the way back to the MRT station at Taipei City Hall, we saw the trees lighted up (just like Xmas). After a long day, we had a simple dinner at the food court at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and went back to the hotel.

Taipei Day 1 - 13 March 2010

13 March 2010 - 3 .15 pm departure KLIA

7.45 pm arrival Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei

We managed to book cheaper tickets to Taipei way back in Nov 09 at RM2676 for our family of 3 during one of MAS's promotions. Hotel bookings were made via internet at Say Love (Slove) Hotel at NTD7960 for 4 nites. The impressive part was the hotel actually called me to check if I had placed a booking on the day the booking was made. So efficient!!

We took the Kuo Kuang Bus from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei Main Station for NT125 (Adult) NT65 (Child). Journey took about 1 hour. Fortunately Slove hotel is situated opposite Taipei Main Station, where the bus stopped. However, it was raining when we arrived and we were a bit disorientated trying to figure out which way the hotel was. Fortunately the bus driver pointed us in the right direction and we managed to walk to the hotel in about 10 minutes, with 2 luggages and umbrella.

Upon checking in, we were informed that we have to pay NTD300 pernite for an extra bed for Weng. Fortunately, the room was big enough to accomodate an extra folding bed. The bathroom was clean and bigger than we expected.

Slove hotel was chosen for its great location, at Chung Hsaio West Road, within walking distance to the MRT (nearest exit Zb from the Underground Mall)

As it was almost 9 pm when we finished checking in, we were hungry and set-off to look for food.

A few doors away, we saw the familiar yellow "M" logo (yes..) Macdonalds (which was a 24 hour outlet) next to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. It was packed and took us a while to look for a seating place. The menu was quite similar to KL's (even the Happy Meal toys were the same for that period).

After a late dinner, we went back to the hotel to call in a nite as we started our journey from home at 10 am plus.