Last Day in Taipei

Last Day in Beitou & Tamsui (Danshui)

 (and a little more of Downtown) 

After a long (but worth it) day trip to the Toroko Gorge, we decided to take the day easy by waking up late and heading to the hot-springs for a blissful and long-deserved rest :)  After waking up long after the sunrise, we took the MRT all the way up to Tamsui (end of red line) first to see the river, and walk around the district a little before heading down (along the same red line) to Xin-Beitou!

We were lucky to have a gorgeous sunny day for our last day (as the day before was rather gloomy)! It was perfect weather to walk around the river-side looking at the locals who also decided to come out to enjoy the beautiful day :)

After walking around the river-side, we checked out the town a little! We stumbled across this apparently famous shop for more sweet-snacks and mochii, and decided to finally do some souvenir shopping! (and endlessly snacking on the samples)

We bought this Danshui Cake, which is sort of like a asian version of a cookie! It's chewy, and not flakey despite its appearance and actually not too sweet! My friends who I bought some for also loved it, so it definitely makes a great souvenir :)

Pictured above is is my FAVORITE snack found in Taipei! The Brown Sugar Mochii and the Black Sesame Mochii was the chewiest and most delicious thing I had eaten in a while, and they are so much better than the cheap-version found in the street-snack shops! Remember to go into a proper shop and buy these! They are AMAAZING! 

Apparently the district's another specialty were what they called "Iron Eggs"... although they came highly recommended by couple of my Hong Kong friends.. I just could not get myself to eat these Blackened Eggs... eeks 

There's not really a lot to see at Tansui (formerly known as Danshui), but it's a great place to go to for a more relaxed atmosphere and stroll along the river! It's a bit far from downtown (45 min or so) so if you have a tight schedule it's not worth the time!

Aftewards, we just followed the red-line down a few stations to Beitou and switched to the Pink-line (for ONE stop) and arrived in Beitou! This was definitely a hot-spring district, and felt more like a small village in Japan rather than Taiwan!

Okay.. this might not have been the best destination to walk around on a Hot Day, as we were soon sweating and puffing, but we did manage to snap away couple of awesome shots :) 

After walking around for a while, we decided to check out the Public Hot Spring called the Millenium Hot Spring. It's really cheap, and although we were initially skeptical as to the hygiene and the overall-experience, it turned out to be really relaxing and not weird at all! It's very local (as I imagine most tourists head to the private spas/springs), and they had strict rules to keep the springs clean! (they had these 'officers' who would tell you off if you didn't wash your feet etc.) Oh and remember to bring your swim-clothes! After being done with the spa, we each had a peanut flavored ice-cream  :) mmmmm.... :)

The public hot-spring concluded our itinerary for Beitou, and we quickly made our way down the RED MRT line to  Yuanshan Station to visit the two temples:

TAIPEI CONFUCIUS TEMPLE AND DALONGDONG  BAO-AN TEMPLE  

I loved these two temples! They were a lot more impressive and enjoyable than the Longshan Temple. We simply just went around this mostly empty temple (maybe it was because we went right before sunset)... and soaked in th beautiful and ancient architecture as well as the atmosphere of serenity... :)

Although we wanted to stick around the temple a little longer, after skipping lunch for wide-ranges of snacks we stuffed ourselves with during the day... we decided to check out yet another street-market for some cheap quality food! :)

Mathias's last dinner in Taipei? Fried Chicken of course.

Hand made Egg-rolls! The smell of pure butter and sugar was so thick and intoxicating... that I just HAD to buy one to make sure it tasted as nice as the smell :)

After eating a quick-dinner, we found ourselves absolutely worn out... and despite our grand-plans to check out the night-life of Taipei for one more night... we decided to accept that our old aging bones needed some rest and went back to our hostel early :)

Despite it being arather spontaneous and last minute trip to Taipei, I think we ended up having more fun than we had expected to find here! Although it might not be packed with activities and sights like Hong Kong, Bangkok etc. It's definitely worth the visit if you plan out and search for sights like we did!

Also make sure you go OUT of Taipei and go explore the mountain side, the beaches, the coasts and the beaaaaaautiful countryside of Taiwan! Oh... and of course, make sure you bring extra-big clothes..as you will fill them up pretty quickly after a day or two  :) 

Second Day in Taiwan: Maokong Mountain and Taipei

Taiwan Trip Day Two

After waking up rather early, we headed out to search for breakfast before making our way to the Maokong Mountain. We found this little stall selling pan-fried buns right around the corner from our hostel and decided to try a few. The guy did not speak a word of english... and so we just picked a few with different fillings hoping they would be delicious...

We ended up with ones with black sesame and vegetable filling! They were both really delicious and different from the ones we had last night! There seems to be quite a lot of street vendors selling these around Taipei, so next time you see one make sure to try out the black sesame one (it's marked with a black sesame on top of the bun) as they are small enough to be a guilt-free afternoon snack!

We woke up extra early as I had though that the MRT ride to the bottom of Maokong Mountain would take quite a while!!! But the whole journey lasted only 30 minutes or so, and we soon landed on the bottom of the mountain where we walked just a little to the Cable Car station or 'gondola' station as they would call it.

There are two types of cable cars, one was the 'special' one with the glass floor and the other one being just a normal cable car. The line for the 'special' cable car is usually much longer but as we went in the morning it was short enough for us to bear the extra wait... :)

The view is rather scenic, with the city of Taipei clearly visible from the cablecar as well as the endless tea fields scattered over the mountains.

When we reached the top, we got to walk around the 'village' which consisted of many tea houses, restaurants and homes of the residents. It wasn't overly touristy or crowded and it turned out to be a very enjoyable stroll in a breezy spring morning.

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Although the place had more than enough restaraunts and tea-houses to choose from, the food was rather expensive and over-priced! Plus my friend wasn't a big tea-person unlike me so we decided to ditch the tourists and join the other local families and students by eating street-style food at a shabby canteen by the cable-cars!

I got to have my favorite food though!! :) I love sweet corns!!! And this one that I got from the old-lady on the street was so fresh, juicy and sweet that it totally made up for the bizarre lunch I got next...

Even after eating this.. I was still not sure as to what it was that I had ate.. I thought it was liver and tofu.. but it was DEFINITELY not liver. It was most likely blood-jelly.... even with my high-tolerance and appreciation of strange food and organs, this was a tad too much and stranger to enjoy.

My friend was a little more succesful than I was by going with a much more safer and generic choice of Fried Chicken... Needless to say I mooched off his lunch.... :(

Afternoon: Longshan Temple

After finishing our morning + lunch up in the mountains we came back down to the city to go visit the Longshan Temple ALthough the temple is far from 'breathtaking' or spectacular (I've been to way too many temples living in Asia), it was definitely worth the quick-visit.. I had more fun staring at the people praying, and the beautiful ornaments and carvings statues scattered around the temple.

     

Night: Endless (and I do mean endless) eating at Street Markets
We firstly visited the one closes to the Longshan Temple, which was the Tonghua Night Market. We were warned beforehand that this market is infamous for selling 'exotic meat, but that did not prepare for the strangest food being sold there... Ranging from 2m snakes to alligators to unknown creatures.. this market seemed to have it all... We ended up getting watermelon juice from one of the stalls whilst watching snake being sold in the shop opposite us. 

But near the entrance of the night-market there are many generic stalls selling 'normal' street food as well as cheap clothes and t-shirts as well! 

We then headed to Shilin Night Market where I met up with my friend studying in Taipei to try out some of the renowned street food that Taipei is famous for... :)

Chicken Kebab in a Bun? YES it was delicious. 

Random dried squid(?)- Check :)

Quail Egg Skewer? - MY FAVORITE! 

Fried Milk on a Stick? Best Dessert :) 

Instestine Noodles! THey were suprisingly 'ordinary' tasting! Plus now I get to say I've had intestine noodles hehe :) 

'Gold Medal Taiwan Beer'

We ended the night on a slightly 'healthier' note by trying out guava in a bag sprinkled with brown sugar! I've only ever had guava juice, and although they had a slight twang that I was unfamiliar with, it was a definite 'refresher' after all the heavy eating we did throughout the night! :)