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.

Day 2: To HsinChu

HSINCHU/ HIGH SPEED RAIL

To save us some time, we took a cab ride from MaoKong MRT station to Taipei High Speed Rail station. Taking the high speed rail ranked high on my to-do-list. This worked for me as I needed to get to Hsinchu in a hurry. Why? Because today's the last day of the Taiwan Lantern Festival and HsinChu city is about 85 km away. That would have taken me more than an hour to get there. It would be even more challenging when the Lantern Festival moves to Nantou, about a 213km away.

But with the high speed rail, we would arrived at the city using only half the time. Even from end-to-end - Taipei to ZuoYing, with a distance of 355km, it would take the train just 96 minutes to get to the end point. Come to think of it, I was literally flying!

We bought the tickets direct from the station as my wife and I could not predict what time we would get to the station (If you book early online, you can get up to 35% off). I paid NT580 for a return ticket.

LANTERNS

When we arrived, we were treated to a wide display of lights and colours. In truth, not many people would have visited HsinChu if not for this national-level lantern festival. I took the opportunity to look up on how the land where the lantern festival was held was previously used, thanks to Google Map. It was just vegetation. Largely, nearly all High Speed Rail stations are sited quite a distance from the various cities, san Taipei.

There were so many lanterns that we truly got lost within them. Lanterns included those from the local culture such as the indigenious and other dialect groups, cartoon characters, and many other giant lanterns. What intrigued me were the religious lanterns, both Buddhism annd Christian that were on display. I was pleased that religious freedom was on show.

FOOD

The Taiwan Lantern Festival brought together food from all over Taiwan.  We really fed ourselves crazy! Meatball and bee hoon and the super large cuttlefish for NT100 each. We then had a go at the Chou TouFu for a second day running. We also tried a skewered meat - I took the lamb meat and thid smell was definitely not to die for. To wash all our food down and at the same time, to keep our bodies warm, we purchased ourselves a cup of piping hot ginger tea.

CLOSING CEREMONY/ TAIPEI

We stayed till the end of of the closing ceremony. The weather had turned much colder and the wind brought us much chill. Still, we persisted as the fireworks lighted up the sky and it was for the very first time that two sets of fireworks were on display at two corners of the grounds. The music was enchanting and the call of "Taiwan Formosa, the heart of Asia" still rings loudly in my head. Taiwan's Vice President Wu Den-Yih was there to observe the hand over of responsbilities of the 2014 festival to the mayor of Nantou.

We took the last train back to Taipei. I'd thought it might be more appropriate if they had extended the timing instead of making 11:30pm the last train. On the journey back, I found a flip-down hook that allowed me to hang my pullover. I did not know that there is such a thing as a coat hanger within the train. I know, I know, I'm such a country pumpkin right? :P

Arriving in Taipei at about 12 midnight, we took a taxi back to the hotel. Something to note, there's an extra surcharge of NT20 if it's past midnight.

Day 2: Being MaoKong-ed Part 4

As the sun started to set in earnest, my wife and I made a quick stop at the local tea leaves shop called Maokong Teahouse. They do have a teahouse and have set aside a little corner to sell their own brand of tea and tea cups.

Other than the regular oo-long, jasmine and tiekuanyin teas, I had to try out their very own maokong tea. I believe that the maokong tea is being produced in a small quantity and thus, overseas sales are very limited.

All that we have purchased so far are perishables. In order to keep a part of Taiwan as a momento, I saw these lovely tea cups. I was intrigued by its colour and the label tells me that its covered in the 50s design. I so had to buy it. Anyway for keepsake, I was willing to part with my NT400.

By now, it was starting to get dark. It was the weekend, so we had expected a queue and all in, we waited for about 45 minutes. It was drizzling a little and I was praying for the rain to be kept at bay. One point to note: Always bring along a small umbrella as the eather can get quite erratic. Thank God that the drizzled stopped after about 10 minutes.

One other thing we had to note was that the Maokong Station is not opened on a Monday. There are buses up to Maokong though I think it will not offer you that lovely panoramic view. 

Day 2: Being MaoKong-ed Part 3

Walking along, we then came to the second tea house called Ah Mei Si DaChaShi. One thing that I thought will be tough for a number of foreigners is that the teahouses in MaoKong bear no English signs. Even the menu is in Chinese. 

The teahouse is perched precariously (I'm very sure the building is on solid ground) at the edge of the mountain and it truly gives diners such a wonderful view. In clearer weather, you can even see Taipei 101.

Looking at the menu, we scratched our heads in trying to figure out what to order. In truth, we barely understood what is listed in the menu as its written in traditional chinese. So when all else fails, go for the set menu. They can give us anything but what I was eyeing at was the pot of hot soup that every table seemed to have.

We were served with a plate of tea leaves fried rice. Never had I had tea leaves in my fried rice. Next came the carrots, vegetables and mushrooms, followed by my CHICKEN AND MUSHROOM SOUP HOT POT. Mmmmmmm. Some cold vegetable dish and prawns completed the set meal.

After all that feasting, what better way than to end it with a hot cup of chinese tea.

Day 2: Being MaoKong-ed Part 2

When we arrived at MaoKong, my wife and I were like deers in the spotlight. We stood there not knowing where we should head towards. It was a Y shaped road that pointed us to three different directions. So which should we take. The "Follow the crowd" mentality rear its head once again.

We turned left and moved with the crowd along Zhongnan Road. Soon, we had little food stalls on our left and a food centre of sorts on our right. As its still the early parts of our MaoKong's exploration, we continued our walk. We passed by some tombstones on the hill before arriving at this very beautiful and picturistic tea house and its small tea plantation.

I'd thought the pink flowers were cherry blossoms. In reality, they were flowers from the apricot trees, displaying red, pink and white flowers. Still has lovely.

The very first tea house that we arrived at was called HongMuShi. We did not stop to have tea at this teahouse but the lady owner was quite an interesting character. She called out from the 2nd level to get customers to patronise her teahouse.

On the right was a shop that sells tea. We walked on. After two more bends on the road, we came across on the left a cafe that serves coffee and tea from a modified van. The dispensing area does not look too cool, but the view of the mountains was to die for.

Day 2: Being Maokong-ed Part 1

Today, it was clear blue skies. Today, I'm off to the mountains. I'm getting more localised now. Why? I don't really need to tread cautiously to see if we have boarded the train. We are one-day old Taiwanese MRT traveller by now.

On the right of the picture, I can see Park Taipei Hotel peeking out from the rest of the other buildings. So cheeky! The train took us southwards towards Taipei Zoo.

Once you pass the turnstiles of the MRT station, take the escalator down and look for signs that lead you towards the Maokong Gondola. Then turn left make your way to the station. It was a pretty long walk and the sun was out, making it a rather warm day. You'd need to pass by MacDonalds and other buildings seemingly related to the Taipei Zoo.

Well, buying the tickets is the easy part. you'd just need to give the counter person NT100 (This is totally worth the money) and she'll pass you two tickets for a return trip. There're two stations that you can alight at - the Taipei Zoo station and the Zhinan Temple station. I skipped both these stations as I'd really wanted to see only Maokong.

As it was a weekend, it was a moderately long wait of 30 minutes. I'm quite sure that if we'd visited on a weekday, it would have been less crowded. We had other plans for the other days. Also the Gondolas are closed on Mondays. You can still make it up via their bus services, but I really wanted to try the gondola. So Maokong on a weekend it was.

The 25 minutes ride up in the gondola gave our legs some respite after the moderately long wait at the gondola station. The scenes that you get on a clear day are just gorgeous. Other than a chatty set of grandparents and their grandchildren, the ride up was a thrill. You'll get to see the landscape of Taipei, tea plantations, temples being built at the edge of cliffs, and Taipei 101 in the distant.

Day 1: Continued Feasting!

So did I say that we were not feeding ourselves well at RaoHe night market? Enroute to the MRT station, we chanced u[pon this stall that was selling mushroom meat ball soup. If it's food, with a large crowd, and since we came across it, we were game to try it. For NT40, we were given two humongous meat ball. Gorgeous! Once again, anything soupy on a cool evening would just make ones stomach happy!

Reaching the MRT station, we spotted Wellcome, a 24-hour supermarket. For the fear of starvation, we went in to buy fruits for digestion and cup noodles just in case Taiwan runs out of food.

Buying this cup noodles brings me back to the 90s once again. There was a time where I was in Taiwan for my military training and the weather was cold. I remember buying such a cup noodle, hid below a staircase, and had a feast, because the noodles came with a sachet of beef packed in it. Instant noodles with real beef! Oh my goodness!!! I know, people are telling me that it's preserved food. But do you know what it meant to me when you're in a foreign country, cold weather, officers who were always on our backs. Ok, I've digressed.

Day 1: Rao He Night Market

After walking in rounds and even asking a local where the night market was (His reply was that it was a few MRTs away!!!), Jac and I managed to arrive at the gate of the night market. Though the gate is straight and narrow, there were many people squeezing through it. The food gods were drawing people to them.

We caught our very first whiff of Chou toufu or Fermented bean curd, and the smell was strong enough to lead us to the stall. I'd my very first chow toufu when I visited Taiwan in 1994 and then in 2008 when I was in China. Here was the oportunity for me to have a go at this "smell toufu". 

It looked like it was the crowd's favourite. We were squeezed with others at the same table and in a very while, four pieces of "chou toufu" were served to us. NT40. Haw haw, Day 1 in Taiwan and we were going to stink up our mouths. As the saying goes, "do what the locals do". So the first piece went into my mouth. AWESOME!!!! The smell was horrendous, but the warmth that emitted from the "chou toufu" just gave my stomach that oomph!

Roaming the streets, we picked up the Taiwan sausages (taiwan xiang chang) , and small dumplings (Shui jiao) both for NT35 each.

One of the most patronised stalls along the night market was the pork ribs soup dish (pai gu). A red banner stretched across the stall - Jin Lin Shan Xiong Di they called themselves. I counted, there were really three brothers and they definitely looked related. They had their wives there as well. Gets too long and complicated if we include the wives and children in the stall's name, I guess.

Their speciality also include goats meat and braised pork on rice (lu rou fan). We tried only the pork ribs soup with rice and the hot soup brought out the perspiration in me, even in that cool 22 degree climate. NT70 was worth it! Tender meat and can you see that whole entire tub of chilli they left for me? Yum yum!

Day 1: Wu Fen Pu Clothes Warehouse Market

My ultimate destination was the Raohe night Market and boy did I have a hard time looking for the place simply because I was not able to buy the mini SIM card for my iPhone 4. What I did was to download some maps into my phone so that I can view it offline. Failed.

The first part was easy. Getting to Houshanpi MRT station. After that, I'd need to walk towards the WuFenPu clothes wholesale market, then walk along Zhongshan road, pass the train station before getting to Raohe Street.

We arrived at the Wu Fen Pu clothes wholesale market. Not too crowded on a Saturday night. Still Jac and I were still feeling the effects of our early morning flight. Row after row of shops displayed their wares and you can take hours to look through what they have to offer. We were just game for food and a good night's rest. 

Day 1: Xin Beitou

TRANSPORT

Arriving at Beitou MRT station, we had to cross over to the next platform to take another train to Xin Beitou. What's unique about this ride is that the trains from this route are all so colourful. The ride was slow (Maybe its a new track) but it's a short ride and we arrived at Xin Beitou in no time. People visit this place for the hot springs and also, for mountain trekking.

We reached Xin Beitou at about 8am. No one told me that there was literally nothing to do in Taiwan at such an ungodly hour. No shops were opened, not even the private hot springs.

FOOD

We walked along a number of streets before we finally found a Taiwan eatery in a building along Zhong He Street. I'm quite sure my wife and I were among the first few customers as the shop owners were barely ready. Decked with yellow paper listing dishes that they have to offer, most of which costs NT$30 (Less than S$2).

After a tiring red-eye flight, all my wife and I wanted was warm food. So we ordered a bowl of mian xian, and porridge. The mianxian tasted much better than the porridge. As my wife is not a very big eater, I polished off the porridge before devouring part of her mainxian. :)

HOT SPRINGS

Once our stomachs have been warmed, off we went in search of the hot springs. Since it was our first day, we wanted to try the hot springs in private. At 8.30am, we got none as most of the establishments were not opened. The hotels do have private hotsprings, but we were asked to pay more than NT1400 for 4 hours of soak and relaxation. Not worth it, we felt. So we gave that up as we were staying at Jiaoxi later in our trip and we'll get our soak-in when we get there. So we took the time to explore the place.

PLACES OF INTEREST

The entire stretch of Zhongshan Road runs parallel with Beitou Park. There, you can soak in the serene environment - elderly people exercising, toddlers dipping their fingers in the water. There's even a public hot spring if you'll like to take a dip.

Located within the park is also the Public Library. Uniquely designed, this structure brings out the best in ecological building design. Largely made out of wood, it really blends into the environment.

Artists were doing their weekend painting. When you have all these - water, exercise, park, painting all rolled into one, you know that you'll get an entirely lovely experience.

Just nearby is the Beitou Hot Spring Museum. A building that was built in 1913, it was used as the public bathhouse and was considered the largest bathhouse in East Asia.. Did not step into the mesuem as they opened at 9am and I was there at...well yes, too early.

Overall, it was a good stroll.

Day 1: Taking the MRT

Taking the metro can literally transport you to a number of important places of interest such as Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola, various night markets, Tamshui, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial and many more. Fares are totally affordable with a single journey ticket going for as low as NT$20 (S$0.80).

The machine will then dispense a coin for your journey. It's a good idea to purchase their Easycard or even a full-day pass. However, I did not do that as I'll usually take the MRT to the location. Then after all the walking, shopping and sight-seeing, I'll hail a taxi as the legs will be more than willing to give way by then.