Thursday, January 9, 2014

Day 3 - Taipei101, Maokong, Shilin

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !!


Ah, when I got back from the hotel, I got this super cute surprise from the Hotel !! :)
Thank you Happiness Hotel !
We woke up a little bit late because last night we stay up til morning, celebrating new year.

Today’s schedule is to visit Taipei 101 Observatory Deck since we can’t visit it yesterday.

Taipei101, gorgeous isn't it?

To get here : 

MRT Taipei101

We are so lucky because the queue is only about 40 minutes (not so long compare to yesterday) and it’s not that crowded :) 
At the queue, there will be a photographer who takes your photo and directly upload it. 
You can buy the pictures later on the 89 floor.
Our picture is on TV ! 
What attracts me the most is the lift to go upstairs. 
It only needs 40 seconds to get to the 89 floor !!
No wonder it can get a Guinness World Book of Record for the fastest lift ever !

It's super duper FAST !
Additional information for you, the height of Taipei101 is 500 meter high, and from what I’ve heard, it is the highest Observation Tower in the world, even The Bund at Shanghai - which is also beautiful as Taipei101, believe me - is lower than Taipei101

On the 89 floor,  you can look how gorgeous Taipei is through the window. 
When I look through the window for the first time, I felt a little bit dizzy because it is so incredibly high ! 

The view that you'll get if you look through the window at 89 Floor

If you feel that the view is not clear and high enough, you can go upstairs to the open deck, where you can look Taipei City directly with your bare eyes. 

You can see this with your bare eyes! ;)
At the Open Deck, Taipei101 provide us with a binoculars that can zoom in - until you see the cars passing by the street ! - (you need to insert 2 coins of NT 10)

I'm trying to use the binoculars ;)
The last thing that you can’t missed inside Taipei101 is the Damper, and their cute Damper statue !! :)
It is a big gold round thing inside the building, and the function is to hold the Taipei tower incase there’s a big typhoon (it happens a lot of time in Taipei).

The Damper inside Taipei101
From the observatory deck, we went into the food court to have lunch before continuing our journey.

The beef is so delicious and the noodle is so soft !
Our next destination for today is Maokong Gondola.

To get here : 

MRT Taipei Zoo, about 10 minutes walk.



If you have an Easy Card, you don’t need to buy a ticket.
You can simply use your Easy Card to enter the Maokong Gondola :)

The queue is very very long, it’s about 2km long!
But don’t worry, Maokong provide lots of Gondola so we only need to wait for about 1 hour to get inside the Gondola.
While waiting at the queue, if you’re lucky enough - like me, haha - , you can watch the Dancing Water show just beside the Maokong Gondola. It is very beautiful, especially at the Twilight <3

The dancing water 
There are two cabin types on Maokong. 
The first one is the ordinary cabin, and the other one is the crystal cabin.
The cost of the two cabin is just the same, and the difference is that on crystal cabin, your foot will step on a see-through window !
We choose the ordinary cabin since I am 100% sure that I can’t sit calmly for 20 minutes with a see through window underneath my foot ! 
I just can’t imagine how scary it is ! 

The view from Maokong Gondola is just beautiful. 
Even Taipei101 can be seen from the Gondola !
You can relax at the Gondola and taking some gorgeous picture :)


The view from Gondola

The view from Gondola
When you have arrived at Maokong, you can enjoy tea at some local restaurants there and enjoying the evening view.
Maokong is very famous for their Tea, and the price is a bit expensive. 

One of the Tea stall in Maokong

To get back to the MRT Taipei Zoo, basically you have two options.
  • Taking back the Gondola to the Maokong Gondola Station
  • Board a small bus (number 15 or 10, it is just the same) across the street 
The bus stop in front of Maokong Station
In my case, I board the small bus. Why is that? Because the queue of the Gondola is way to crazy! It’s maybe 4 km long and the wind is too strong and very cold! 
Whereas the queue for the bus is only 500m long. 
That’s why we choose to board the small bus. 

It’s our first time ever to board a small bus and stand inside the bus! 
It is very memorable since the bus is really small and crowded, you must hold the grip very tight or else you will fell down on the floor, and… you know what? We don’t pay for the bus!
Actually, I don’t know that we must pay for the bus because the driver don’t tell us anything and there are bunch of people that rush to the bus so we didn’t see that there is an Easy Card electronic scanner there. 
I feel so guilty until now :(
So for you guys, don’t forget to look for any sign of Easy Card scanner because it can be used everywhere ! 

The nice thing about taking the bus, it is directly stop at the MRT Taipei Zoo station, whereas if you take the Gondola again, you must walk for 10 minutes back to the MRT Station. 

It’s already 7 p.m when we get back from the Gondola, so we decided to visit Shilin.

There’s a very important thing that you should notice.

To get here :

If you want to visit their Night Market (clothes,bags,and so on) stop at the MRT Shilin, and walk for 10 minutes.
If you want to go directly to their food stall, stop at the MRT Jiantan station, and you only need to cross the road. 

Because it is my first time visiting Shilin, I make a mistake. I stop by at the MRT Shilin station and I need to walk far far away to get at the foodstall.
I almost think that in Shilin there’s no food stall at all, just clothes and stuff. 
Luckily after I take a very long walk I finally figure this out ! 

There are lots of food that you must try in Shilin which I’ll posts on my upcoming post ! 

Stay tuned guys!


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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Day 2 - CKS Memorial Hall, Red House (XiMenDing), Taipei101


First thing that we need to buy is the MRT Pass.
There are many kinds of MRT Pass, but I suggest you to buy the Easy Card.
Why? Because Easy Card can be use for MRT, Bus, Bicycle, and so on.
The Easy Card can be bought at the nearest MRT Station. 
(Another info that I got it is also can be bought at 7-eleven or other convenience store)
The price is NT 200, which are 100 as your deposit and 100 useable balance.
The card is refundable, so it will give you NT 100 plus the rest of your balance minus NT 20 for the handling fee.

I also grab some tourist information and also the MRT map so I won’t get lost ;)

The first place that we’re going to visit today is the Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall 
The place is very huge and so beautiful.

To get here : 

MRT Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall

You can go downstairs inside the Hall and take a look at the museum and learn about the history.

Near the entrance of Chiang Kai Sek

CKS Memorial Hall, you should go upstairs :)

Can you guess what it is? Just go upstairs and don't forget to look up to look this gorgeous ceiling!

Picture of my mom, dad, and I
After look around and take some rest, we go to the Red House at Xi Men Ding.

To get here : 

MRT Xi Men

At the afternoon, Xi Men Ding is not that crowded, and it is better to visit the Red House at the afternoon so you can take a beautiful picture infornt of the Red House :)
Red House is basically like a little museum for the artists. 
It got a lot of unique stuff like an old radio, old telephone, CDs, and so on.
You should visit it when you have some time.

In love with this one!
It's lunch time!! Yeah we are all so hungry. We decided to go around Ximending to look for a restaurant. 
Oh yeah, Have I told you that Taiwan is famous for their bubble tea?
You should try their bubble tea, my favourite is Coco Bubble Tea, and they have one counter in Xi Men Ding.
The main colour of the counter is orange. Their bubble tea is so yummy and it's just NT 30 ! 
Sorry I forgot to take a picture for Coco bubble tea because when I bought it, I unconsciously drink it all, hahahaha. 

Okay then, let's get back to the main story.
So, my family and I decided to try one of the Korean restaurant near Xi Men Ding area.
Well, it taste just fine for us. 
The thing that attract me the most is their spoon. Oh my, it's the biggest spoon I ever use in my life! Hahahaha.


Korean Food in Xi Mn Ding area - The Biggest Spoon I ever see !!
After we enjoy our lunch, we went to Taipei 101, because my mother has an appointment with her high school friends.
Her friends has been living in Taipei for 33 years, even he got married to a Taipei woman !

To get here : 

MRT Taipei101 

My mom's friend is very kind, he show us around Taipei 101, and also told us the nice spot to watch the new year's eve.
Taipei people usually watch a concert near the Taipei 101, and then when it is almost midnight, they will watch the fireworks at Taipei 101.
The queue for the concert is already so long!
Besides, we don't know Taiwan singer and their song, so we just take a look and then get back to Taipei 101 mall.
New Year Eve Concert Preparation 
Look at the queue !
Along the way back, we found some cute bicycle. 
My mom's friend told us that we can hire those bicycle by using our Easy Card.
For the first 30 minutes it is free of charge, and then it will charge you for NT 20.
You can easily found bicycle along the street of Taipei.
It is really nice to cycle around with this super cute bicycle :)

The very cute bicycle
After we say good bye with my mom's friend, we still have a lot of time left before we go to our spot to watch the new year's eve fireworks. 
We decided to go to the Taipei 101 observatory deck which is located inside the mall.
Taipei 101 mall is a mall full of high class branded stuffs. Yeah, everything here is branded !

Inside Taipei 101 mall
Unfortunately, because it's 31 December and it's near the New Year Eve's, the observatory deck is just too full and the queue is too long.
Then, we decided to move our observatory deck plan to the next day and decided to look around the mall, get something to eat and buy some snacks before the fireworks begin.

Taipei Snacks!
It's 11 p.m, we go outside the mall and go to our hot place to watch the firework.
When I go outside, there are already bunch of people around, it's getting a little bit crazy!
The street is so crowded and full of people. They are all waiting for the New Year's Eve.
The crowd 
The weather is getting colder at the night, because the wind is so strong.
We walk fast to our place near the traffic light before it's getting more crowded.  
We wait there while standing for about 1 hour together with other people. 

It is all worth our time !!!! One of the best firework I ever see in my life!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !!!!!





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Day 1 - Hello Taiwan!


This is my first time to post about do it yourself trip.
Well, I need some time because I need to prepare the photos and the steps. 
It is so much different than posting a usual post for food or others. 
I hope you guys can enjoy it and will be having your own DIY trip soon ! 
Oh, and don’t forget to share it with me :)

In day 1, basically my family and I only spent our time in the airplane.

Here’s some info that I can share to you :
  • From the airport, you can board Kuo Kang Bus 1815 to the Taipei Bus Station, the price is about 100 NT per person. From the Taipei Bus Station, you can continue your journey to your place by Taxi or MRT.
  • Hire a taxi straight to your place. Don’t worry, because the Taxi uses the meter fare, so you won’t be cheated. Yes, Taipei people is so warm and nice ! :)
  • There’s no MRT to the city yet. From what I’ve heard, this March or April 2014 the MRT will be finished soon. For you who’s travelling on April, maybe you can board the MRT !
In my case, I use a Taxi, because I arrived at Taipei on 00.30 a.m 
and the Kuo Kang bus is available only until 00.00 

I live in Happiness Hotel in Tokyo, located in Zhong Shang District
It is a really recommended hotel because it is so clean and neat.
The hotel officer also help us a lot ! They care about the customers. 
Not only that, if you walk out of the hotel, on your right side you’ll find 7-eleven, family mart, bakery, and restaurants. 
The other plus point, it’s just 2 minutes walk to the MRT Songjiang Nanjing.

I just can’t wait to explore Taipei !! :)


COMPLETE GUIDE TAIWAN TRIP : 




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