Taiwan: Day 10, 11 & 12

Dear readers.

We have come to the end of Taiwan series. I will combine Day 10, 11 and 12 because the second last day was just a walked around our area in the morning to buy breakfast and padlock then head to Taoyuan Airport. Surprisingly when we were at the cashier at Carrefour, we saw a huge Golden Retriever lying dog lazily by the cashier. Wow! Taiwan is such a pet friendly country. Day 12 was transit from LCCT back to Penang.

We woke up about 10am in the morning today. It was free and easy so we decided to go to Maokong Gondola. We sat on the MRT to Taipei Zoo Station via Wenshan-Neihu Line. For cable car ticket prices click on the link. We bought group passes which entitled us 20% discount. Entrance to the Taipei Zoo costs NT 60 and opening hours from 9am to 5pm.

You have a choice to ride on the crystal cabin or the normal one. All of us chose Crystal Cabin. It wasn't that scary because the cable cars were not high enough. You can clearly see the trees and road beneath you.

Awesome view all the way up.

I got braver and started to meditate. See I am floating!

You can spot Taipei 101 from here. All the gondolas were decorated in animal prints.

Nice view.

We reached the highest station where there were tea houses. There were 4 stations in total; from Maokong Station (ground) you can either stop at the Taipei Zoo Station, Taipei Zoo South Station or here, Zhinan Temple Station.

We were heading up that building for tea.

We went up to the highest floor.

Interior of the tea house.

We had a great view from our table.

Chinese tea was served alongside with some snacks.

Right after our visit to Maokong, we headed to Tamsui for a late lunch. This prehistorical town used to be called Huwei. It is located at the most north side of Taipei. Attractions here include local food products, the amazing sunset, the serene riverbank and Lover's Bridge.To get here, hop on an MRT and make a stop at Tamsui Station. Even the station looks very prehistoric.

 

We randomly entered a Chinese restaurant and ordered fried rice. Rice with chives, garlic and bits of pork costs NT90. It was not worth.

After walking for 2 minutes, we reached this landmark of Tamsui.

Leaning forward overlooking the lovely scenery while enjoying the sea breeze.

Old town feel.

It was quite cold due to the strong wind.

Sunset as usual at 4:30pm. Do come here during sunset if you visit Taipei.

Random flags along the shore towards the jetty.

If you want to go to Lover's Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf you can ride on the ferry which only costs NT100. The ride will take 15 minutes to get to the other side.

 

To me, there's nothing over there except for the bridge. It's called Lover's Bridge due to its launching on Valentine's day.

We took the MRT again to Shilin Night Market and just about 4 stations later we got down at Jiantan Station. From Jiantan Station, walk awhile to Jihe Road and you will see the largest night market in Taipei. The customers were mainly school kids and on that night we saw some bunch of Japanese teens in their school uniform. My guess was they were having their field trip.

We had a couple of coupons from a friend worth RM10 each so we went to the underground foodcourt to find the stalls that accept those coupons. Actually the coupons can also be used at other listed night markets but we had forgotten about them.

OMG! It was so packed and humid in the underground. Hubby was being paranoid and kept telling us what if the cooking gas exploded. I would say we all die together! I could not stand even a minute down there so we hurried up to get some fresh air. Silly hubby also spent NT250 for sliced fruits. They were the sweetest and most expensive fruits I have ever eaten. Overall, I disliked Shilin night market. Too crowded, humid and stinky spoiled the experience. (Update on 2014: Gas did exploded but at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Read the news for more info).

 

 

The next morning which was Day11, we took a morning walk to hunt for breakfast but unfortunately all shops have yet to open so we just went to Carrefour to buy padlock for our extra luggage.

By 1pm we arrived at Taoyuan International Airport.

Our flight was on 3:45pm.

I was fascinated by the Hello Kitty counter. The Eva Air Hello Kitty flights only make trips to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Fukuoka, Tokyo and Sapporo.

 

Cute self check-in counters.

I believe this was the nursing room.

They even have cute pink public phones.

We had an expensive quick lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was delicious but the portion was too huge and we could not finish.

 Goodbye Taiwan! Taiwan really touched my heart.

Finally this was Day 12 where we stayed overnight at Tune Hotel again. This time we requested for aircon. Let me tell you the flight from Taipei back to LCCT was horrible that I swear I never wanted to fly with Air Asia again. The landing wasn't smooth and my ear drums were about to burst. That's not all, there was a gang of about 6 pax almost middle-aged thugs sitting at the middle row just beside me (I was on the window seat). They would find trouble with the female flight attendant and made a chaos. If this was a train or bus, I wouldn't be surprised if they bring out parang.

Here's  part of my haul because I took this picture on Day7. Anyway, we really enjoyed the trip and I will blog about Korea soon.