Before I begin my report. I like to thank Calicocat, Ping-13, Mariatan, Taiwan DIY and Nuttyazn. With out your invaluable tips, the trip wouldn%26#39;t be half as fun.Accomodations: ONE STAR HOTEL CHONGQUING ( now called See-you Hotel). Perfect ! Very clean and the location is unbeatable with regards to getting around Taipei and Yonder. Located on South Chongquing Road. After being let off the Kuokuang #61 Bus from Taoyuan Airport just go inside the TAIPEI MAIN STATION and head for Exit 10. From this exit, you do not even need to cross any street to get to your hotel, once you get out to Exit 10 just turn right, the hotel is just about 10 doors away. Fast walker arnd 10 minute walk, but you won%26#39;t mind the time because inside the TAipei Main Station , is an underground mall, which offers a lot of eye candy and at reasonable price, even cheaper than at the night markets.DAY 1. After arriving at Taipei Main Station, Got a NT $ 500 Easycard, to be use for travelling all over the city except to Yeliou and Jioufen. At the end of my trip, I even got a 165 dollar refund for the unused portion plus card deposit. Visited National Palace Museum fron 1-6pm after taking lunch at Taipei Main Station 2nd floor Breeze Foodcourt,many excellent choices available. After NPM , I feel very proud to be a Chinese because of our rich heritage. Amazing to see so many finely crafted pieces at a time when working tools are still very primitive. After filling our loftier senses with art and culture. Went over to experience the night market at SHILIN to fill our stomachs. heh, heh, heh. The fried cuttlefish soup was great but dissappointed with the Hao Ta Chicken Fillet.DAY 2 Visited the The Tittot Glass Museum. It was a delight. Just get off MRT Guandu Station and walk for 7 minutes, just follow the narrow path on left side of MRT exit, no need to ride any bus at all. If you are getting off at Guandu stop not from the direction of Taipei Main Station, ask the people at the MRT booth. Very friendly, they will direct you to it. After Tittot Glass Museum, we proceeded to Danshui for lunch. Tasted the Ah Gei, it is good especially for Tofu lovers like me. And their Fishball soup is the best I have tasted ever, the fishball had meat filling inside and the fishball itself is springy to the bite. Ah, yum yum yum ! Walk around Danshui Old Street. Had Oysters and Seaweed Soup and stir fried squid. After lunch explored the Danshui Old Street and around 1:30pm head back to Taipei Main Station to check out the Lin Liu Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum. Suppose to take a bus when you get out of Shuanglian MRT stop to get to the. But the bus never arrived after 30 minutes wait, decided to walk to the museum but boy it turn out be be a long long long walk. And upon arriving there, we were not able to catch the 3pm matinee show and the puppet display is dissappointing, everything show in its website is what you get. The highlights in the website is what there is to see, nothing more. Being so tired out from all that waiting and walking, had dinner at the excellent foodcourt at Shinkong Mitsukoshi.
DAY 3
Woke up early and proceeded to the Taipei intercity bus terminal to catch a bus to Yeliou. The bus station is located around a block from the Main building of the Taipei Main Station, bit it is also facing the Civic Boulevard. it is on the same side of the TMS bldg, just before the flyover bridge. There is a Big Signage declaring it to be the Intercity Bus Station .
Yeliou is wonderful , just had a hard time of taking a solo picture of the famous ';Queen%26#39;s Head';, because it is crowded with lots of tourists. Very interesting to see how wind and water has shaped the intriguing rock formations.
Had a late lunch at Taipei Main Station and proceeded to the Taipei Miniature Museum.Bus stop in front of Shinkong Mitsukosh along Civic Blvd Bus #307. It was worth the admission price of $180. The miniatures are so beautifully crafted and you can take pictures of them. The small chandaliers are working so as the small TV inside the '; A gentleman%26#39;s room ';.
Nanjing East Met Station is closed. Sort of in a dilemna how to get back to Taipei Main Station. Lucky thing, a good samaritan pointed us to be place where there is free bus shuttle to the Zhongxiao Fuxing Green Sogo. Which is exeactly where we wanted to be, the 1 hour wait for a table to the DIN TAI FUNG ( Basement 2 of Green Sogo ) was worth every minute, the dumplings are scrumptious !
DAY 4
Head out early to the Taipei Main Station to catch a train to Rueifang Train station, to get to Jioufen. Once you get off bus station you can catch a Keelung Bus across the st. Jioufen is really nice with a very interesting Old Street and wonderful stuffs to eat, I loved the grilled mushrooms and its bah wan soup, the marshmallow like snack with sweet fillings and delicious dried black peanuts.
The light rain is the damper on the Jioufen trip, it%26#39;s just a lot of fog fog all around so wasn%26#39;t able to take good pictures at the viewing deck where supposedly you can see the Pavific Ocean and the Yin Yang Sea.
Decided to skip he Rueifang Old Street also because of the trip because its hard to explore loaded with lots of snack items from Jioufen in one arm, with the other one holding an umbrella.
Caught the 1:22pm train back to Taipei. Unload all our shopping stuff at the hotel and around 4pm headed to Taipei City Hall MRT STOP to get to Taipei 101. Good news, the free shuttle to Taipei 101 is back , I forgot if the shuttle is waiting at exit 1 or 2 but you can ask the friendly MRT personnel at the station!
Because of the rains again did not proceed to the observation deck anymore. Explore the Taipei 101 mall and had dinner at its foodcourt. Most hong sao niu rou mien are delicious in Taipei so you can not go wrong whatever food stall you ordered.
After dinner , we proceeded to the Eslite bookstore. It is really big and the books available are boggling and very extensive but the catch is 95% of its books are in Chinese text, and for a non chinese text reader like me, I wished I had studied better when I was still in middle school because I was enrolled in a Chinese school then. Sigh ..... regrets.
DAY 5
Rains greeted our morning again. So We cancelled our CKS Memorial Hall trip since the weather is so unfriendly for picture taking. We opted to spend our remaining morning in the nearby as in '; walking distance nearby '; Taiwan Storyland. Boy, was it a very nostalgic trip. Because we get to be reminded of the old textbooks we used back then which are sourced from Taiwan, and lots of old stuff which we can%26#39;t find in Manila Chinatown anymore, like the rose water used by my dad after his shaving. Got him one in fact for kicks.
Alas, it was time to go. Taiwan is fun to explore. Might go back again. Excellent transportation system, reasonably priced delicious food and very warm people. Thank you to Tripadvisor and all its very helpful forumers. Happy New Year !
5 day trip to Taipei Dec. 26-30, 2008
Welcome back to the forums, dancingfeetManila.
Glad to hear how well yr Taipei tour went! Yes, Taiwan%26#39;s fun to explore!
When we were in Taipei/ Taiwan on 2 trips, we saw the growing number of Filipinos enjoying themselves there.
Thks for sharing.
TA :-)
TaipeiDreams.com
5 day trip to Taipei Dec. 26-30, 2008
Hi,
Happy new Year to you too.
Glad you had an enjoyable trip. It is nice you went to the Tittot Museum.I really love their stuff. My son liked it too and bought necklaces and stuff for gifts from there.
For those who can%26#39;t make it to Guangdu, they have a showroom with a few of their stuff at 101 bldg on the 5th floor next to the ticketing booth. There are about 5 shops showing and selling BEAUTIFUL Taiwanese craft stuff-Just Amazing and NOT cheap.
Re Refund on the Easy Pass:That is why I ask people not to get that One day pass as I do not think one can spend that amount. This is because of that auto discount of 20% on the MRT and another 50% discount if you get on a bus within an hour or vice versa.
Happy New Year to you, too. Thanks for your trip report. The Keelung-Rueifang-Northeast Coast area is one of the rainiest spots on the island, so the rain and fog were sort of part of the scenery. ;-)
Hi I just came back from Taipei yesterday. I agree with danncingfeetManila: I find that the Hao Ta Chicken Fillet is quite disappointing (I bought it from Shilin night market). I think it is definitely overated. I like the fried oyster in Shilin, though.
I%26#39;d like to share my 5-day itinirery, highlighting some of the updates and points to note-hope it would help those who are planning for their Taipei trip.
We stayed in Royal Castle (Cheng Du) Hotel and I%26#39;d say for the price (less than NT2000 per night for a double room), it is a very good place. The room is clean,with a water cooler in it.The breakfast is good, even though it is quite basic. Staffs are friendly too.
Day 1:
-Xi Men Ding (*阿宗麵線 is a MUST-TRY! I wend back for the 2nd time cos I like it so much!)
-228 Peace Park
-Taiwan presidential office building
-Gongguan shopping (nice clothes at reasonble price)
-Shida night market (Guting MRT station)(* the Xu Ji 生煎包 and 燈籠滷味 can be easily identified by the amazing queue in from of the stalls, and I do see why ppl are willing to queue up for them! They are simply fantastic! And the prices are cheap too! The 2 of us shared one plate 滷味 of which cost only abt SGD7.)
Day 2:
-CKS memorial hall
(*Note that there is no change of guards at CKS mem hall. I was told that it may resume in 2 months time)
-Taipei 101購物中心 (Taipei City Hall station)- *We went up the tower in the morning and were disappointed cos it was quite foggy and we can’t really see far. Furthermore, the audio guide is rather useless as it was too fast for us to identify the buildings mentioned-unless u play it again and again, which we don’t have the patience! My suggestions: go in the evening. At least u’ll get to see the night view- which I believe will definitely be nicer!
-NYNY (can walk from Taipei 101 via the ‘sky bridge’)
-五分埔 (Houshan Pi station)
-饒河街夜市 (*From 五分埔, walk towards Shong Shan TRAIN-NOT MRT station. Then, follow the signage, or the crowd, and u’ll see a big temple, cross the road and u’ll reach the night market. Do note that the bridge from 五分埔 to 饒河 is closed. Don’t bother to look for it.)
Day 3:
-陽明山
-新北投 (*Sweet Me 水美溫泉會館 is highly recommended. It is a very elegant place, with affordable price! We got a private room with 2 pools-one hot, one cold for NT1050. It was a great experience and I’d definitely wanna go back again!)
-淡水老街
-Fisherman’s wharf (*From 淡水, take a 12-minute ferry to Fisherman’s wharf, it cost NT50 per trip. To go back to 淡水MRT station, u can take bus from Fisherman’s wharf, just cross the bridge and the bus stop is just steps away. The bus will stop at the bus interchange, which is just behind the MRT station.)
-士林夜市 (劍潭 station)
Day 4:
-龍山寺
-Taipei Main station (Underground Shopping)
-Chungsiao Fuhsing (Sogo, Wei Feng guang chang)
-Ding Tai Fung (* We queued for around 30 min, the food taste as nice as that in Singapore)
Day 5:
-九份 (*From Zhongxiao Fuxing Exit 1, take 基隆 bus that is bound for 金瓜石-there is no bus number. You just have to check the direction at the bus stop. The trip takes around 1 hr and it cost NT87.)
-野柳 (* There is no direct transportation from 九份 to 野柳. From 九份, u need to take a 基隆 bus which goes to 基隆 bus terminal (NT50). From there, take a 45-minute 國光 bus (again, no bus number) that is bound for 金山 to go to 野柳 (NT45). Get the driver’s help to alight at the right place, cos that stop could be easily missed.)
野柳 is a nice place and I think it’s definitely worth going, despite the long journey)
-Keelung Miaokou food street
Day 6
-Return to Singapore
Welcome home, n back to the forums, Merlion42.
Glad to hear how U too, enjoyed yr 5-days tour of Taipei. :-)
We too saw the snaking queue at Hao Da Chicken cutlet, Shilin night market. My nephews were keen to try the cutlet but I told them the Hao Da%26#39;s version is overrated..
Anyway, they already had enjoyed quite a few (better) versions of deep-fried chicken cutlets from the various night markets in Taipei!
Thks for sharing!
TA :-)
TaipeiDreams.com
No comments:
Post a Comment