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Tuesday 27 October 2015

Taiwan Trip: Taipei - On Cloud 101

Our road trip in Taiwan came to an end upon our return to Hsinchu City from Leofoo Theme Park. Our car rental service provider based in Taichung is one hour drive away from here. He agreed to pick up the car from Hsinchu. The only extra cost incurred would be his train ticket to get to our current stopover. That makes a total expenditure of 9600 yuan per car, excludes petrol. If you are travelling in a group of 4 or more, renting a car seems to be a good bargain.

Bin Chen Hotel (our accommodation in the city) is strategically located near a train station, which became our alternative to board on normal train to get to Taipei. Our initial plan was to board the fast train, HSR but the station is quite a distance and obviously the fare is more expensive. The train station was discovered by accident as we were strolling around the streets to actually look for ways to get to HSR station but we found the train fare 50% cheaper, but with additional 30 minutes travelling time.

After a decent breakfast at the hotel on the Saturday morning, we walked to the train station with our luggage (finally and literaly, backpack trip began at that point of time) and boarded 0900 hours train. There are three kinds of tickets available which differ in fare and travelling time. We opted for the cheapest fare which is around 113 yuan with 1 hour and a half travelling time (HSR fare is 295 yuan for 40 minutes). I would say this train service is similar to our KTM. (HSR is our ETS' equivalent).

Taipei
Arrived at Taipei Main Station, we switched to Metro to get to our hotel. Taipei Main Station is considered as the hub where all the trains meet here. The only quirk (which is to be fixed in 2016) is direct transport to Taoyuan International Airport as the railway is still in construction. Taipei Metro is not as complex as the one in Beijing and Seoul. There are 2 kinds of daily pass: 150 yuan which is to be used within the same day and 180 yuan which is valid for 24 hours upon purchase. We bought neither after considering our itinerary. Most of the single trip that we have cost range from 20 yuan to 35 yuan.


Exiting Ximen Station 

We booked a 2 night-stay at Backpacker Hostel which is located 10-minute walk from Ximen Station. Ximending is one of the famous shopping street in Taipei and it comes to my attention that Taiwanese seems to be fond of anime characters too as evidently displayed on the street. Back to our stay, it is 2 pairs of bunk beds with a private bathroom which costs 5000 yuan. A rather pricey stay but the hostel was relatively new and the facilities were good.

Settling our luggage at the hostel and we commenced our journey in Taipei, this time, on foot. We went to one of the beef noodle shop within the vicinity. When we reached the place, the place was already crowded which is a good sign. We ordered two bowls: spicy and non-spicy and both are equally favourable (this is our very first meal of beef noodle in this trip). Do be alarmed that it is quite pricey, around 220 yuan per bowl.

Beef Noodle Shop @ Niu Dian

Next round we proceed to the famous Ah Zong Noodle at Ximending Street. The shop only comes with counter and no chairs are provided. You will notice the crowd standing eating the cups of noodles.


 The noodle has a bit of acquired taste with the viscous gravy.

National Palace Museum
From Ximend Station, we boarded on Metro to get to Shilin. From there, you need to get on a bus (15 yuan per way) to get to the museum.

My friend posed in front of the museum

It is a modern museum which houses collectibles from ancient China civilization, unlike the one in Beijing which are displayed within the Forbidden City. The famous display will be the cabbage jadeite at level 3, where one needs to queue to actually look at it. You won't be allowed to stay long to give way to other visitors. Do take time to notice the grasshoppers on the cabbage, there are 2 of them. Nearby is the meat-shaped stone which is rather famous too. But I'm more fascinated by the origins of Chinese characters, of all the exhibitions there.

We spend around 3 hours at the 3-storey building and that was sufficient to cover the whole place. The museum is accessible with a fee of 250 yuan. Apparently there is a combo entrance fee package inclusive of the museum and Taipei 101 which can only be purchased at the tower.

Shilin Night Market
The night fell and the empty stomach yearned for food. Finally it is the night market that we have anticipated to visit throughout the trip (since it is the most famous one). It seems a relatively good plan to visit the National Palace Museum in the afternoon before concluding your evening at the market.


The night market is pretty huge and it is more than just streets of food. Apparently it is a good place to shop and the stuff are pretty cheap too, even the souvenirs. As usual, the place was crowded just like any other night markets. Surely, there are plenty of choices to pick from. Bought most of my souvenirs here. Be prepared to stay long at the market. We only left when it was almost midnight.


Oyster omelette  

Underground food market

Mengjia Longshan Temple
Had a brief breakfast nearby our hostel, we took a cab (80 yuan) to the temple. It is claimed to be one of the oldest temples in the city. The temple was swarmed with worshipers.


Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall
Using Metro to Chiang Kai Shek Station, the memorial hall is surrounded by a vast well-decorated landscape. Walking up the staircase to visit the seated belated president. The exhibition hall below portrays the life of Chiang Kai Shek and his wife, who was apparently a fine artist.



There is always pair of guard guarding the statue and there is guard changing every hour. It's free to enter the hall and a max of one hour is adequate to appreciate the place.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall
From one hall to another, this time we visited the statue of the founder of Republic of China. This place is reached via metro which stops at Sun Yat Sen Station. There were groups of students practice dancing nearby the hall. It is not so much of the hall that drives our visit here for little I know about these prominent Taiwan figures. It's the next destination which makes this drop by worthwhile. Free entrance to the place.

Nice landscape surrounding the hall, too.

Taipei 101
The climax of this trip should be none other than the building that dethrones PETRONAS Twin Tower as the tallest building in the world in the year 2004, before being taken over by Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Regardless, it remains the tallest green building.


Me with Taipei 101 and Taiwan flag in the background, which clearly marks my footprint in the heart of "Formosa"

The building is walkable from Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, where if you considered 23 minutes walkable. Upon our entrance to the mall below, it reminded me a lot of KLCC. Had a quick dinner at the food court and we headed to level 5 to buy the entrance ticket to observatory deck. You shall wait for your turn as indicated by ticket number before going up to level 89 via the fastest elevator in the world. Outdoor observatory deck at Level 91 is accessible via stairs.

Skyline of Taipei from Level 89

The famous damper that keeps the building in place in the event of adverse weather

The building at its glory at night. (Purple colour indicates it's Sunday).

Taipei 101 marks the final destination of 10-day trip in Taiwan before leaving to Malaysia on the next day. It has been pretty adventurous with the road trip, eyes-opening with the places we covered and eventful with the activities we did. Taiwan is more than just about the city where I believe ones should explore beyond its urbanisation. There are more to offer beyond the concrete jungle.

My next visit to Taiwan shall be indulging in its deep blue sea.

Saturday 17 October 2015

Taiwan Trip: Leofoo Theme Park - "Screaming" Condor

After dipping ourselves at Millennium Hot Spring for about half an hour (I believe that is my threshold for a hot spring dip, for now), feeling refreshed, it's another 1 hour drive to Hsinchu, our second last city to check in for this trip. By the time we reached the hotel, our black "rat" has accumulated mileage of at least 1170 km. It has been quite an adventure for the last 7 days and it is coming to an end (I'm talking about the driving). Well, not until our next pit stop.

Leofoo Theme Park
The major reason to check in at this part of the city is due to the theme park within its vicinity. Being a fan of theme park (especially roller coaster), I enjoy a thrilling adrenaline-rush ride. After having breakfast at our hotel (Bin Chen Hotel, 950 yuan for a double room), we arrived at our destination after 40-minute drive.

Entrance of Leofoo Theme Park

The park is accessible with a fee of 999 yuan. The park opens daily from 0900 hours until 1700 hours. We visited the theme park on a Friday in which we were expecting less crowd but as we reached, there were buses of school kids who checked in at the same time. From my past experience, I didn't usually have adequate time to cover all the rides with people swarming the place. Not this time though.

The park is divided into 4 areas: Wild West, South Pacific, Arabian Kingdom and African Safari. Some of the rides may close earlier than 1700 hours and hence it is important to plan your visit to maximise your time at the park. Upon your purchase of ticket, you shall grab a map and schedule of all rides' operating hours. Truthfully, the park is rather small and you won't be really get lost there. As you walk towards the park, you shall reach at a big roundabout with fountain in the middle and you can see the entrance of all four areas.

The first exit leads to a cowboy-ish village (Wild West). Did I tell that our intention was to try the famous ride which is known as "Screaming Condor" that is featured on Korean reality TV show, "Running Man"? However, it was closed for maintenance on that fine day. Can't help to feel disappointed since that supposed to be the highlight of the park. Should have checked with the park earlier but regardless, it didn't stop us to enjoy other rides.


Old Oil Well @ Wild Wild West

Old Oil Well keeps your brain juice flows upstream and downstream alternately in between the oscillation that doesn't go beyond 180 degree (it exceeded once during my turn and twice during others). Screaming Condor aside, this has to be one of the rides that one should try there. There is mini roller coaster and ride along man-made canal which you can have opt out if you are pressed against time. But the rides at the next area are more to my kind of, fun.

Pagoda's Revenge @ South Pacific



Being brought up to 53m high, hanging for 3 seconds before free falling. I tried this ride 3 times. If you noticed my screaming in the video, it doesn't mean I'm scared or anything but just like to scream on top of my lungs, to my heart content, while enjoying the ride.

Another ride that you simply can't miss would be Mighty Mountain Flame Adventure, where you have a ride on the canoe and going down the slide twice, whereby the second slide is much steeper and higher. (There's a water bomb that you can activate for 10 yuan when your friend's canoe are passing by to splash your friends further after the slides.) You will get wet.

Mighty Fountain Flame Adventure @ South Pacific 



View of Arabian Kingdom from Flying Carpet

After all the adventurous rides at the park, it is a good idea to mellow down on the activity at African Safari. There are some of the animals that I never saw before such as llama, meerkat and camel. There's a tour bus that goes into the cage, like a mini safari where you can see bears, tigers and lions, just right outside of the bus.

Llama

Camel, cousin of Llama?

Meerkat (when I thought it is called "possum". Too much of "Ice Age")
They look so cute while standing, and pose.

 The tiger is doing his manicure/pedicure during the bus tour.

Lion couple

Baboons, reminded me of cartoon series that I watched during my childhood, "Weasel"

The bus tour closed at 1630 hours and I don't think you would want to miss this. Once you are done with all the rides at all other three areas, I would advise to queue for the bus tour the first thing as the rest you can do at your own pace.

Despite of the mascots at their website, there was no parade held throughout the day (I was rather positive since we were there the whole day). We bade farewell to Leofoo as the clock struck 5 o'clock.

Is this theme park a must visit? I would say, "depends". We may not achieve the objective of our visit to the park but there are certain rides I never tried before. It's good enough for those who are going to theme park for the first time and it's subjective to those who have been to a few.

Taichung → Chia Yi → Kaohsiung/Kenting → Hua Lien → Jiufen/Shifen/YehliuHSINCHU → Taipei

Saturday 10 October 2015

Taiwan Trip: Jiufen & Yehliu - The Beauty of the Aged

Jiu Fen
By the time we checked in at Hui Ming Homestay (2500 yuan for a quad room), it was way past 9pm and most of the shops were already closed, except for a number of tea houses. Original intention to get to Jiu Fen in the evening is hoping to see the night view. I guess the night fell pretty too long and all the lights that we saw were only from this shop.


Can't help but to stroll along the silent street before it gets crowded with people in the morning. Oh, there are plenty of cats around. There's a cat statue nearby the police station.

 Rise and shine and it's time for morning stroll along Jiufen

Commenced our morning walk at the market having these Yu Yuan (yam balls).

The old street reminded me of Suzhou Street in Summer Palace, Beijing. Instead of surrounding the lake, the shoplots were located at the hill. It was quite an uphill walk from the place we stay. 


Saw this puppy outside of a restaurant, like a mascot or some sort  

The street is packed with shops selling food and souvenirs. The price is pretty cheap (until we shopped at Shilin Night Market, Taipei). There is even one shop selling adult toys too.

Shi Fen

20 minutes away we arrived at another old street. There are less shops here and are built along a railway which is still in operation. This street is more famous for its lanterns. We did a fair share of our wish too. Single colour lantern for 150 yuan and multi-coloured for 200 yuan. There's a shop selling postcards made up of wood here (and you can actually have them engraved or/and post them), which is quite unique I would say.


Train is coming through...

Wishing upon the sky (in which eventually will come down)

Yeh Liu Geopark
This geopark is located 1 hour away from Shifen. It's famous for its nature rock formation comes in a number of shapes in which the most iconic one is the Queen's Head.


Due to its popularity, one need to queue to take the shot with the queen. Was rather annoyed by the tourists who were behind the rock though. One thing I learned from traveling is to accept the way other tourists travel.

Other than the Queen's Head, there are few other formations which can keep you in awe. Some of the rocks can only be seen as claimed it is from the right angle. Make sure you go around to actually see them.

Did you spot the slipper/shoes? (no, not the ones my friends were wearing)

The park is accessible with a fee of 80 yuan and it closes only when the night falls (despite the website saying 5.00pm). We spend around 1 hour and a half which was suffice to cover the whole place.

 Crab dinner at Four Sisters before leaving Yeh Liu

Millinneum Hot Spring
On our way to Hsinchu, we thought of giving hot spring a try as we passed by Beitou. This was my first time dipping myself into the hot spring.


The one we visited was swarmed by lots of elderly. Started off with low temperature before getting to higher stream. 45 degree was the hottest they have there but I find myself burning in that pond in which I chose to settle down at the one with 43 degree which marks my threshold limit. One thing that I was sweaty but the water smelled funny. 40 yuan per entry, I couldn't ask for more though but a glimpse of hot spring experience.

Taichung → Chia Yi → Kaohsiung/Kenting → Hua Lien → JIUFEN/SHIFEN/YEHLIU→ Hsinchu → Taipei

Friday 9 October 2015

Taiwan Trip: East Coast - of Blue & Green

East Coast 
Given breakfast voucher by the shop, we have it packed and set off as early as 7am for our next stop which is close to 6 hours drive away. This long drive truly defines what "it is not about the destination, it is the journey" all about. We have been driving on west coast highway all the way from Taichung to Kenting, which is located at the southern tip of Taiwan. We headed back to North via east coast and I must say it have to be one of the most eyes-pleasing drives that we ever had.

 With these kinds of views most of the time when you are driving, it's hardly a sleepy ride.(Although I would have preferred to be passenger.) 

After 2 hours and a half drive, we have a stop by at Taitung for brunch. I had "rou geng noodle" and it was nice, considered we found the eatery randomly. Taitung is rather a small town and all I know Ah Mei, a famous Taiwanese singer was born here. The journey continued for another 3 hours with more green and blue on the way.

One can't help to stop and enjoy the view.

Hua Lien ( 花蓮)
Taroko National Park 
Our check in at the hostel won't be until 3pm and hence we headed to Taroko National Park upon our  arrival at Hua Lien City which is 30 minutes drive away. The park is pretty huge and if to be on foot it might take a while to cover the place. Shuttle bus is provided to get you around. We have our car to cover that. No entrance fee is charged.


Our first stop: Shakadang Trail

Basically the park is a gorge, or in another word, canyon. We were always in awe with the humoungus formation there. There are a number of spots that you can pick to visit if you don't feel like covering the whole place. Some sites may need to do some trekking. For our visit, we picked top three: Shakadang trail, Swallow Grotto and Eternal Spring Shrine. 2 hours was sufficent to cover these 3 main places.
Swallow Grotto. Hard hat is encouraged to be worn here and it is provided at the site. No rental fee.

The iconic Eternal Spring Shrine

Chishingtan 
It was around 5pm when we decided to go to the beach (all of us were hungry due to absence of lunch but we won't want to miss another beach moment). Chisingtan is 25 minutes drive from Taroko towards the direction of the city. Cloudy day it was again that day but it's my first experience to visit a pebble beach. It was not white sandy beach where you lie on and tan for yourself but can't help to hear the sound of rolling pebbles as the ocean water gets back to the sea once it hits the shore.

It gets dark after 6pm and our stomach seems to agree. We have a quick check in at Lantian Baiyun (1800 yuan for a quad room and my friend commented it is one of the best toilets he has seen) and the guy at the hostel was friendly to recommend a place for dinner. We decided to go vegetarian dinner as everything else seemed to close in that oddly hour (except for night market, of course).

Animal-free yet scrumptious dinner @ Lu She Da Di

Zi Qiang Night Market 
This market is rather small but it was quite organised compared to others that we went. The crowd was smaller but the atmosphere was still there. We get to try the barbequed maize which happens to be famous across Taiwan.


River Tracing 
Had an early start on the next day for the activity we have been anticipated before the trip begins. Lantian Baiyun reverts to us with a quotation during the hotel booking and we decided to give River Tracing a go. I googled about it and it seems to be a popular local sport. 800 yuan per person, the cost covers transportation from our hostel, safety equipment, insurance, an instructor and the best part, photos!

Early part of our hike

Putting on the wet suit felt like we are going for a dive. But with helmet and safety jacket, don't think we can even make it to go under. Our instructor made us dip into the pool of chilly water before starting our tracing 300m upstream. My favourite part would be the cliff jumping, just 5m high though, which concluded our hike.


Happy faces after completing our tracing.

Tzu Chi 
Hua Lien is the headquarter of Tzu Chi Organisation, a well-established corporation to provide relief effort. The basis of its foundation is parallel to Buddhism's teaching. They have their own hospital and university too. The workers work there are volunteers who are mostly retirees. We were shown around by a retired teacher, in which I hypothesised she was an English teacher. She has made two uncorfortable remarks during the tour but it was still an insightful visit. The place is quite huge and you can skip this place if you have limited time. No entrance fee.

Tzu Chi Headquarter at Hua Lien

Bidding farewell to Hua Lien before heading to our next destination.
I'm going to miss this view as we are leaving Hua Lien County to further north. 

It's about 3 hours and a half drive to Jiu Fen and some of the route were very hilly. Hence, I wouldn't recommend start driving late evening (which we did) as it could be very dangerous with minimum of light source. During our trip, it gets dark around 6pm in Taiwan. 

 Rejuvenating dinner at Su'ao, Yilan County before reaching Jiufen

Taichung → Chia Yi → Kaohsiung/Kenting → HUA LIEN → Jiufen/Shifen/Yehliu→ Hsinchu → Taipei