Taiwan Trip Day 4 Maokong gondola. Homebound

Hello readers! This shall be our last day at Taiwan, in fact i think the next time when we visit Taiwan again, i think i should research and plan an itinerary on places to visit as we did not visit much places.

Before that we try to visit some other night market, we went to the huaxi street, but the temple was not open and there is nothing much at night so don't bother going there.

We took the train and alight at the station named, Maokong which is located on the brown line of their mrt station.

When you exit from the station, there is some walking distance, and you will see the zoo which is located around the same area as well.

They have the vending machine where you can buy your own tickets instead of buying at the counter.

In order to sit the cable car, you will need a ticket, after you have purchase, you can queue up to wait at the platform.

They will check with you whether you prefer the crystal cabin or the normal one, the price is the same, but everyone in front of us was choosing the crystal cabin, later i get to know the crystal cabin refer to the flooring being transparent compared to the normal flooring for the normal cabin.

We arrived at Maokong station after taking the cable car.

They was popular for their tea leaves, so we bought some before heading back.

 As this was our last night, we went back to the hotel early to start packing all our stuffs first before heading back to the nearby area like ximending to have our last shop before we was going back tomorrow!

Bought some of the laneige products from their departmental store!

 Hahahaa, this was our loots for 5D4N! We went to check out the various public transport we could take to get to Taoyuan airport. Jeremy's friend told him that we could take a high speed rail to Taoyuan before taking the bus that will bring us to the airport.

The cost will be definitely cheaper than taking a cab.

 So we went to check out the tickets at taipei main station and we purchase the business class tickets since it cost only like $15 per pax! Hahaha

So on the last day, after checking out from the hotel, we walked to the taipei main station to take the high speed rail. It was also our first time taking and i thought it was very spacious and clean too!

There were even chocolate muffins served to us

From Taipei main station, it was only a stop to Taoyuan, so after we reach Taoyuan station, look out for the green color buses parking outside and it would cost NT30 per pax and the driver will help you with your luggage too.

Overall, the cost is cheaper than taking a cab, but i do suggest to consider taking this route when you are coming and probably a cab when you are heading back, since you luggage should be more heavier than when you first arrived. Haha

I do enjoy visiting Taiwan and i will be back again next time to explore other parts of Taiwan.

Till then!

Taiwan Trip Day 3 Jiufen old street, Shifen waterfall, Shifen Old Street, Taipei. Ximending

Hello readers, for day 3, we decided to visit Jiufen, so we went to bought the ticket, to get to Jiufen, there are several option, you could choose to take a cab, taking the bus or taking their train. 

When i mention train, it's not the metro station but rather you have to buy your ticket as the train come at a specific timing. Starting, we was not sure how to buy the tickets, so we went to the counter where there was a queue for people to purchase their tickets, but when we checked with the information counter staff, they told us we could go the vending machine to purchase the tickets.

The train was due to depart at morning 11.30am, it was about an hour trip and i was so sleepy especially when it was drizzling when we finally reached Ruifang station.

Since it started raining, we decided to take a cab from the station to Jiufen.

We boarded this cab and the uncle was introducing to us the package, there were two different type, the two different package include the different tourist destinations he can bring us.

For package A, it includes to Jiufen old street, Shifen waterfall, Shifen old street and to Yeliu before sending us back to Taipei.

For package B, it includes everything like package  A excluding Yeliu.

In the end, we choose the package B, it cost about 2300 NT dollar which is about S$100, which i think it was worth the value because we could shop whatever we want at Jiufen without going through the hassle of taking the train back to Taipei after that. 

If you guys are interested to engage him, this is the namecard that he give to me the other time. Pardon the blur quality!

The uncle is quite friendly, so what we do after we confirmed the package was to pay him NT$1000 first, the remaining balance will be paid upon us returning back to Taipei, our hotel.

With the cab, it was easier to get around and we only give him a call once we are done at each stop. We had about 2hour to shop at Jiufen and he reminded us to had our lunch first at Jiufen as there are no food stalls available at shifen waterfall and shifen street.

Didn't take any photos in jiufen as i was busy looking at all the stuffs and was having a quick lunch before we meet up with the driver to bring us to shifen waterfall!

It was a short distance to walk to the main entrance of the shifen waterfall.

We paid for the entrance ticket, actually i find there is nothing much to do so unless you have lots of time, this tourist spot is not exactly interesting to explore. We left this place shortly to Shifen old street! The street is famous for releasing the sky lanterns!

By then, it was around 4-5pm, so we could already see some sky lanterns in the sky, it took about 5-10mins via car to reach the shifen old street from the shifen waterfall.

The place was crowded as everyone was busy buying their own lanterns to write on it their best wishes. Basically, you get one of this sky lanterns from any of the shop, i don't think it's necessary to compare the prices because their price should be all the same. The pricing depend on the number of color you would like to take. We took all the colors available and it cost only about S$10.

We started writing and after we was done, there will be a guy to help you to take photo while standing on the railway tracks. The railway track is still in operation so you would hear people screaming to make way for the trains that is coming over.

After that, we was tired and get the uncle send us back to our hotel to put our stuffs before heading to Ximending. We took the metro and it will be the blue line, to alight at ximen station. Which is just one stop away from Taipei main station.

It was very happening when we was leaving the station, immediately there will be huge billboard everywhere on the tall building, there are street performers on the street too. I was hungry and we started looking for this particular stall that Jeremy was trying to find because he came before Taiwan and wanted to eat the  鲁肉饭!

Eventually, we managed to find this stall! I took this photo so that we can remember the stall signboard next time, because Jeremy couldn't recall the signboard name so we spend quite sometime trying to find.

Must order dish will be their 鲁肉饭, we ordered the oyster, meatball soup and vegetables too!

 The meal was so satisfying, we went to stroll around in ximending, before heading for dessert!

Shall end this post for now. 

Till then! 

Taiwan Trip Day 2 Tamshui Pier. Hello Kitty Cafe. Shilin Night Market

Hello readers! Day 2 in Taiwan and we went to Hello Kitty Cafe for our lunch! 

Address for Hello Kitty Cafe : 

No 90, section 1 Daan Road , Daan District, Taipei

Nearest metro station : Zhongxiao fuxing station (忠孝复兴)

I would suggest to call first and make a reservation first because we didn't and it was crowded when we reached the cafe and the waiting time was 1 hour as all the seats was fully occupied.

 They sell beautiful cakes too!

 There is a min spending of S$12.50, so we each ordered a set lunch meal. While waiting, i went around to take more photos. Haha

Before we left, we went to buy a Hello Kitty cake,

I went to check out their bathroom too, and it was equally cute with all the Hello Kitty design and there was even a sofa seat! 

After our lunch, we went to take the metro station and alight at the last station, Tamshui, we took the red line.

When you exit from the station, there is a tourist centre whereby they provide brochures for their tourist attractions and guide to getting there. We took a bus, bus no.26 and we only alight at the last stop.  This is the Tamshui pier!

 There will be many tourists taking turn to take photo on this bridge. They call this the lover bridge.

Another good location for dating! Haha, we was strolling around and enjoying the sea breeze.

We was lucky enough to catch the sunset with everyone at Tamshui too!

 After the sunset, we decided to check out another night market for our dinner!

 After the sunset, we decided to check out another night market for our dinner! The nearest mrt station to reach Shilin night market was Jiantan station. So do alight at the correct station as this station will provide you direction to shilin night market. A 5-10min walk from the station which is very convenient! 

If you do walk to this entrance with the signage, there is a basement and all the foods are sold mostly at the basement with level 1 selling mainly all the tourist items.

We ordered this chicken cutlet, this is good!

 The cheese mashed potato that is pretty sinful. 

For me, i prefer the Raohe night market than shilin as i find the market has become too touristy.

Shall end this post for now.

Till then!