Taipei, Taiwan - Every year since 2015, we see to it that we go overseas to take a much needed yearly vacation. Last November 2023, we set out to go to Taipei, Taiwan!
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| Inside Taipei Main Station Day 1 |
It was a dream destination for my mother and I, since my late father always tells stories of how beautiful the country of Taiwan is. Although lately there has been rumblings regarding the communist China to take over Taiwan (by force) estimated by year 2027, we took the liberty to fly out to Taiwan to appreciate our other neighboring country. Also, to fulfill a promise to my late father to bring my mother there as soon as possible. The time has come to fulfill that promise.
So we booked a flight to Taipei via Cebu Pacific and catched the morning flight of 7:10 AM bound for Taoyuan airport. We arrived by 9:15AM without delay.
DAY 1 - ARRIVAL AT TAOYUAN AIRPORT, NEW TAIPEI CITY ACCOMODATION AND XIMENDING AREA
Most of the tourist who visit Taiwan knew that there is an on going project by the Taiwan tourism department regarding a promo(?) which is called the Luckyland. We tried our luck for this so we signed up online before we saw the kiosk at the airport. Unfortunately, we didn't won. Then we exchanged our money at the machine just right outside the exit, bought our sim card with 5 days of unlimited data to install on my TP-Link wifi. After that, we proceeded to the food hall of the airport. We ate our morning snacks then we rushed to the train area to catch a ride going to Taipei. We took the purple line as it is the fastest train directly to the Taipei city center. The other line is a public train commuter with a lot of stations. The purple train line costs about 150NTD per person. Oh, we also bought our Easycards inside the train station to be used on other train lines after the purple line. The train ride going to Taipei Main Station took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the destination.
Soon as we arrived at the Taipei Main Station, we did our best to navigate ourselves inside the Taipei Main Station which is humongous. The goal was to get ourselves in the main hall which is located at the middle of the main station. And it resembles the one where Seita died at the grave of the fireflies. It's almost 1 in the afternoon so we decided to eat inside the main station, the food court located at the second floor.
We chose to eat at a restaurant which unfortunately we cannot understand since it's spelled in Chinese. We ordered for three people, and ordering is a bit difficult since Taiwanese are not that adept speaking or even understand english. It's a pretty good experience talking to them so we can get used to their way of speaking.
After lunch, we soon headed to the orange line to go to Taipei Bridge station. Our accomodation is located at Zhengyi which is called the Walker Hotel. It is in the heart of New Taipei City so there are more stores and a lot of locals in the area. We even have a local cinema located at our street. Our check in time is 3:00PM and is the common time of check-in at Taipei. Other countries are 2:00PM. We settled down a bit for two hours then at 5:30PM we're bound for Ximending. We also decided to take the public bus; which is a first. We mostly take the train and a bit of taxi when we're overseas. Time to brave another adventure. But surprisingly, it's too easy to ride the bus in Taipei as compared to other countries. I am only using Google Maps throughout as we navigate online. Lucky for us, most of the information needed are all provided by Google maps already. So I never get to download any 3rd party applications.
We disembarked the bus exactly at the Ximending bus stop. Then we watched a street performance being held outside. We just walked along Ximending, decided to go back to our accomodation, bought KFC for dinner.
DAY 2 - KLOOK TOUR YEHLIU GEOPARK, SHIFEN AND JIUFEN AREA
We started our second day by having our free breakfast included in our package at the 2nd floor of the hotel. Some pretty decent meals are served, most common taiwanese breakfast banquet are present. We availed our hotel accomodation with free breakfast by the way. We stuffed ourselves enough to last until afternoon snack time. Time then was 7 in the morning, then after having breakfast, we proceeded to the bus shed then decided to take the train instead since it's faster. We're rushing to reach Taipei Main Station before 8:30 AM call time.
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| Our free breakfast buffet at the mess hall |
Upon arrival at the Taipei Main Station, we searched for east exit 3. Then we saw a lot of people who we assumed will take the Klook tour as well. We looked for our tour specifics, then met Ms. Josefina Hong, who'll serve as our tour guide during the day. After which we were instructed to board our bus.
Soon as we took off, Ms. Hong played a video showing the safety precautions to be observed in and outside the bus. As most of us are Filipinos, she introduced herself formally; and she's capable to speak English. Then she started telling us stories this and that, until we reached our first destination which is Yehliu Geopark.
Yehliu Geopark is one of my bucket lists as my late father have been there a several years back. He often recalls a story of a certain rock formation which resembles a hand of God. Unfortunately during our stay there, we never saw that as it may have crumbled a long time ago. The place was indeed marvelous of its kind. See photos below.
After Yehliu, we now proceed to the Yin Yang Sea, then climbed the steep hills to reach the Jiufen waterfall. It's not one of a kind, but pretty marvelous to say the least.
Then off we go to Jiufen old street. Upon arrival, the temperature really dropped! So we wore our jackets. We walked along the street to see a lot of stores, street foods etc., Not impressive in my opinion. I saw a lot of these in other countries, still we really appreciate the cold weather.
We departed Jiufen after eating some lunch/snacks. Then we've gone to Jiufen old street. Nothing to see here though, the flying lanterns is a common sight here so......... we ended our tour, returned to Taipei Main station, rode a train back to the hotel. I guess the photos can give justice to my long story.
DAY 3 - TRIP TO TAMSUI OLD STREET AND CHIANG KAI SHEK MEMORIAL
Our third day started with a trip to the northern most art of the Taipei red line train system, which is the Tamsui old street. Actually, the third day is only a trip using the red line train route. We first set off to Tamsui then travel down Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall station.
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| My third day breakfast |
Honestly, I stubbornly planned to go to Tamsui since I heard its not that very common for tourists as it was popular for the locals. It was the best destination on our whole trip to be honest. It was the most casual coldest weather I've experienced. This is where we decided to shop around than go to a night market such as Shilin night market. What we observed during our entire stay is that they were selling the same stuff; items, foods, clothing etc., even if you had to transfer on a different area. Since Tamsui is huge and is selling the same items, we walked around and bought our pasalubong here. Then we had our lunch there also before we set out for Chiang Kai Shek Memorial hall.
We walked back to the train station then head straight to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall which I think the most tourist-y place we visited. I was impressed by how big the area is. An excellent place to take photos. Basically, that's all we did there sans watching the changing of the guards.
I forgot to add; it rained during our stay there. That's the start of my stuffy nose upon going back to the hotel.
DAY 4 - MAOKONG GONDOLA AND TAIPEI 101
Maokong Gondola is a must visit whenever you are in Taipei. We never missed the chance to go there. It was also a bucket list for me. We never expected that it'll rain the whole day. Add the extreme temperature drop without the appropriate jacket.
So we rode the red line to Da'an to cross the brown line. We only used our pre-loaded Easycards for our train rides. Of course you have the ability to load your cards when you are out of credit from any train stations. We reached Maokong Gondola station for just 20 minutes.
Since it was raining, we prepared our umbrella which we bought from Shifen old street, walked at least 5 minutes to reach the Maokong Gondola south station, which we will be riding a cable car to reach the last station.
We purchased our tickets via Klook. Here, you have to choose between the regular cabin or crystal cabin. We chose the crystal cabin as it provides a better angle of the whole scenery while inside the cable car. The floor of the crystal cabin is transparent unlike the regular cabin. Although, the regular cabin is faster in line. The crystal cabin might take you a while. I suggest you choose the crystal cabin going up, then regular cabin going down, or vice versa.
Upon reaching the last station, It was extremely cold. The temperature reached 15 degrees according to Google that time. Unfortunately, I was wearing a dri-fit shirt and a rain jacket only. Not enough to fight the cold, I was now feeling unwell as I was sneezing the entire time. I feel that I'll be sick later. We only had a soup there at a local shop, then decided to go back asap and proceed to Taipei 101.
From Maokong gondola station brown line, we returned to the red line Da'an station, then off to Taipei 101 station.
It was still raining upon reaching Taipei 101 station. The weather in Taiwan is unpredictable, so it was quite a hassle. We never got the chance to take selfies with the façade of the Taipei 101 building. Inside Taipei 101, I guess this is the only real mall I saw during our entire stay. Compare Singapore or Thailand which is full of shopping malls, as this is the only place I can compare them.
Again, our tickets are availed via Klook. I'm confused now if I'm endorsing Klook.
Klook, beke nemen.
Just like any tower, nothing to see here but to marvel the very Taipei landscape. You can see photos here.
This is the part where I really felt ill and It's just 2:00 in the afternoon. I was already pondering if we should go back to the hotel. I never got the chance to at least rest before our flight the next day, the airport management might use an infrared scanner and might take action to prevent me from flying back due to covid. Disclaimer, I don't have covid.
We were scheduled to meet a friend there in Taipei 101 but unfortunately I have to go back and rest. But things turned our favor as they were okay to meet us back to our hotel. They are good friend of ours. As we got back, her and her husband brought me Taiwanese medicine for fever and cough. Knowing Taiwanese medical care, they are one of best in the world. And I can testify to that. It worked wonders as the next day my fever and cough were all gone!
Day 5 is alloted for our trip back to the Philippines. We checked out at 6:00AM in the morning rode the train from Taipei Bridge station to Sanchong station to ride the blue line back to Taoyuan airport. Flight back is scheduled at 11:00AM then arrived at NAIA terminal 3 by 2:00PM in the afternoon. We arrived safely at our house by 3:00 PM.
Well that concludes our Taiwan trip of 2023!
WATCH MY VLOG HERE:
LAST 2 DAYS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGb7zTGu7CM&t=118s
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