Day 4: Da An Park 大安森林公園

This was my final day in Taipei before I move off to JiaoXi 礁溪. One place that I've read good reviews about was Da An Park. Since Park Taipei Hotel is nestled within Da An District, I thought that it would be nice if I took a walk to the park.

I started my walk at 7.30am, where most Taiwanese were up and ready for another day in the office. I was glad to be gainfully "unemployed"; walking away from the hustle and bustle of life. It took me about a 20 minutes stroll from the hotel.

Arriving at the park, I could see groups of people enjoying the tranquility of the park. A group of elderly playing the petanque; Another group of elderly singing Christian hymns;  A more youthful group of people playing frisbee. All this on a Tuesday morning.

Day 3: Ah Zong Mian Xian 阿宗麵線

The heavy meal at La Tong Tian Mala Steamboat Restaurant kept our stomachs warm in the cool 23 degrees evening. So we thronged the rows of shops that came to life when dusk arrived.

My wife and I walked past Emei Street, there were many people hanging around this shop called Ah Zong Mian Xian. Some stood to eat, while others sat along the pavement.

We did a double take as we wanted to catch a whiff of the mian xian. My mind then told me I needed to try the main xian, but my body is fully bloated.

So my wife had the honour of trying out the mian xian as she cleverly kept some stomach space for all these other nibbles.

It was sheer torture for me. I tried a little and then regretted it because it tasted all so nice. What's more, it only cost NT40!

I'm very sure that I'll leave some pockets of space when I visit Ximen Ding in the future! Lesson learnt.


Contact details:

No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
Tel: (02) 02-2388-8808, 2388-8182

Day 3: Mala Steamboat @ La Tong Tian 辣通天火鍋

Mala Steamboat - you just have to try it when you're in Ximen Ding. I'd searched on the internet and had marked out Mala restaurants that I'd wanted to visit when we got to Ximen Ding. They need to have a wide variety of meat and vegetables and also good quality ice cream. i.e. Haagen Daz. 

However, when we could not find any of the restaurants when we arrived. Famished and tired, we just wanted to feed ourselves. We turned a few more corners before reaching the fringe of Ximen Ding. There stood a Mala steamboat restaurant called 辣通天火鍋 or La Tong Tian Mala Steamboat restaurant. 

We were a little apprehensive as there was nobody in the restaurant. But then again, it meant that we had the entire restaurant to our own! The cost of NT529 (S$22).

The service is a little different here. The waiter will pass you a list where you can tick out what you would like to consume. If you're unsure of what's good, the waiter would introduce to you to some of the more popular dishes.

The one main thing that we specified was that it needs to be the "yin yang" soup with both spicy and non-spicy broth.

Contact Details: 

La Tong Tian

No. 22, Sec 2, Han Kou St., Wanhua District, Taipei

+886 2 2371 1717

https://www.facebook.com/spicysky2012

Opening hours: 11.30am to 1.30am

  

Day 3: Food & Shoping Galore @ Ximen Ding 西門町

We wanted to get to Ximen Ding as quickly as possible which meant that we took a cab instead of taking the MRT. We asked the taxi driver to drop us at Ximen MRT Station. Jac and I were a little disoriented as there were six MRT exits, and we just did not know where's the start point. Still, that was not enough to stop my wife from walking into a shop to grab a few pairs of shoes. Ximen Ding is where the young hang out, hence shops selling youth clothing and accessories dotted this shopping haven.

HISTORY

As she soaked in the shopping atmosphere of Ximen Ding, this could only mean that I'd have the opportunity to explore places of the less trodden. Diagonally across the MRT exit, there stood a rather unique brick building.

Called the Red House Building, the western-like building designed by a Japanese architect, was erected in 1908. It served as a market and was later converted to a theatre in 1945.

FOOD

Other than shopping, Ximen Ding also has a wide array of eateries - from street stalls to mala restaurants. Check out my next post about mala restaurants as there's really so much to say about these restaurants. We unleashed our stomachs and took in whatever food that stood before us. So there was this stall that sold a snack that looked like "bee chang kuey" or peanut pancake. Well, looks were deceiving and though it cost NT25, the taste was mediocre at best. 



Did I say I'd take whaever food that is available? Well, I wil take that back and say that I'll feast on MOST of their food on offer. You see, we came across this shop called Lao Tian Lu. They sell literally every part of the duck that this particular bird can offer - webbed feet, heart, tongues, etc. They also offered pig's ears and many other.

What I could not understand is the extremely brisk sales. Customers were just buying these parts and that parts that my curious mind was thinking, "Is it really that good?" I'd say visit the shop for the experience, if nothing else.

Day 3: Going Touristy - Sun Yat-Sen Memorial 國立國父紀念館

The best way to see as much on the ground as possible is to ditch normal transportation and really fully utilize our legs power. So we took a 45 minutes walk from our hotel in Da-An to Taipei 101. We were on a roll. From the tallest building in Taiwan, we strolled down a stone-paved walkway, leading us past the government house.

We turned left and continued our walk up the street. From a short distance, two things stood out. One was that the road in front of us were closed to vehicular traffic, and two, prominently there stood a building with a somewhat golden roof - Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

Just outside the memorial hall, you could see that the place was immaculately kept. The grass was nicely lawned while the flowing water fountain provided that extra bit of serenity. But it ends there. There were hordes of Asian tourists who had hasten their pace into the main hall to catch the change of guards ceremony. It was all a spectacle with very little reverence. Do stay on after the visitors had dissipated from the place to soak in the importance ascribed to this venue.

The change of guards happens on the hour and the entire ceremony takes about 30 minutes. This was a 'reliving memory' experience as I first introduced to this when I'd visited Taiwan in the 90s during my army days.

Day 3: Going Touristy - Taipei 101 台北101

Once you're in Taipei, you can be sure that the towering Taipei 101 stands as a landmark for the country. Whether you're coming along from the airport, or whether I was at MaoKong, Taipei 101 seemed to always be in the background.

From our hotel in Da'An, it took us about 30 minutes to get to this glass structure that is shaped like a bamboo shoot. The building was totally mesmerising and I think I stood there for about 20 minutes, absorbing the majesty of it.

There's an observatory deck that we thought we would skip. Aftert having a panoramic view of Taipei from the Maokong Gondola, we did not want to fork out NT450 per person for another view of the city. But I'm quite sure the 360 degree view would be nice, especially if the sky is clear.

At the Taipei 101 Mall, you have all the branded labels rolled into this place. So if you have spare cash to burn, here's the place.

Day 3: It's Chow Time!

It was a lazy Monday. There was no motivation for us to rise early since we had only returned to the hotel at about 12.30am after the lantern festival. It was only when our stomachs started to call that we decided to make our way to Taiwan's iconic building - Tapie 101. We knew there was a food court at Taipei 101 but what my wife and I had longed to dine as how the locals do.

As we walked, our eyes scanned every small lane we came across. From a distance, we saw that the sidewalks along Section 1, Da'An Road were a little bit more lively. Well, we saw this small eatery and we did our mental checks.

Small shop, tick. Only locals, tick. Signs totally in Chinese, tick. soup noodle, tick, tick, tick!

Once again, the menu proved to be too complex for my rusty knowledge of the language. That's good, because what I did was to pick out a noodle and a soup dish. So my wife had the mala lamian (NT45). It was really plain noodles with vegetable and mala sauce. Nothing to crow about when I had a chopstick full of her noodles. The mala was not even spicy. For me, I had the fishball and meatball soup. This Taiwanese eatery has an interesting way of making their fishball. Looked to me like a pointy head with meat in the centre.

Well, it was a good experience, if not for the food, then at least for the crowd.