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: 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: 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 0: Off To Taiwan

My wife and I have been pining for this trip for awhile now. This was one trip that we told ourselves stoically that our children will be kept in Singapore. Even one month before the trip, we were still asking ourselves, "Should we bring the kids?" Alas, we felt that after 10 years of minding the kids, we should do this trip for us.

We had two guiding principles:- One, this should be a totally free and easy trip, not one that we should get our knickers all knotted up. Basically, to take it easy. Let time control us, and not us control time.

Two, this would be a foodie trip. No holds barred. And what better way to start the feasting with a bowl of piping hot mee rebus, kaya toast and kopi see.

This would be our final local meal for the next 7 days.