Recently, I went to Taiwan in order to visit my fellow colleague who is studying at NTU with my friends. It was a fun first time trip here, and also worthy for blog.
Day 1
Just woke up a bit too early compared to flight schedule (5.00 compared to flight around 13.30). I arrived there about late afternoon, did some check-in at hotel and setup stuff needed for traveling.
Setup stuff before traveling around
It is common and very convenient to travel around Taipei via bus and MRT (Mass Railway Transit) so make sure to have an EasyCard when I you arrive there. Also, EasyCard can be used for paying stuff in store e.g. 7-Eleven. (Don’t try to ask for “AllMember” there, alright?)
Day 2
Longshan temple
We spent our first full day at the Longshan temple, which is opposite to Longshan temple MRT station. This place is famous praying for love. (but there are also more gods in other aspects e.g. works, finance, family and health) There is “เซียมซี” which is works out a bit different from Thai culture that it is not for “fortune telling” but for asking for advices or guidance. More likely “a hint from Buddha”. You can also ask staff at the temple to translate the guidance since it’s peom or an excuse of not using Translator app.
There is an amulet store inside the temple, which is “a lot”. But don’t worry, there are guides provided on which amulet we can buy. So just note list of amulets you want to order, send order and you’ll get them.
Also, you need to “activate the amulets” by put amulets to incense smoke pot at the middle of the temple. If you buy dozens of amulets, it’s okay to put the whole bag to smoke.
Tasting beef noodle
We visited nearby beef noodle restaurant nearby Longshan temple. Normally, food in Taiwan is not that spicy as expected and have a lots of carbs that some food it more of “carb-on-carb” (or “fat-on-carb” for some of them). Anyways, the beef noodle is satisfying for me, even more satisfying when mala chili is added more. They also have dozen of side dishes e.g. tofu and pork.
National Taiwan museum
There are many museums and art galleries in Taiwan. We chose to visit National Taiwan museum since it’s nearby hotel. The general ticket costs $30 (TW usd) for main museum and Land Bank of Taiwan museum which is adjacent to main museum.
The main exhibitions in main museum are
- natural science e.g. species of animals and plants in Taiwan, rocks and history of nature exploration in Taiwan
- history of Taiwan e.g. timelines, some ancient artifacts in some periods and cultural artifacts
For Land Bank of Taiwan Museum, originally a bank built by Japanese during Japanese colonization years. Now it is renovated as another museum from its structure to exhibitions.
The hilight exhibition I recommend is history of economy of Taiwan situated inside the original vault of the bank. It has many historical artifacts e.g. coins and banknotes, accounting books, equipments for finance operation from microscope for fraud detection, coin sorter and even an operable bank account printer, you can print you own Taiwan bank account as souvenier!
Roche night market
The number of night markets is as many as museums and art galleries in Taipei. We visted Roche night market at the night. There are a lots of foods and drinks stalls and also bunch of people gathering around. One thing I recommend “to try” is stinky tofu, it is something that is either you like it or hate it as the most hated thing you hate and has a “memorable” scent.
For me, it is “PTSD” food.
Day 3
A trail at Yangmingshan
We decided to take a trail session at Yangmingshan national park. You can take from bus to it to many section of the park so do some research on bus line we need to hop before going there which takes about an hour to the mountain.
Yangmingshan has a lots of natural spots you can take e.g. mountain peak, grassland, the Magic pond and rainforest biome around the mountain. For trails, there are a lots of trails vary from a very short trail around 2km. to 6km. We took a short 2km. trail with about 2 hours walk.
A first memorable thing is its climate, we expected a sunny cheerful trail but got a “the Mist” vibe. It’s pure cold (around 20 C) and foggy weather. Most of things arounds are grasses, trees, some bugs, a lots of spider webs. Most of the trail path is easy to walk, some sections are a bit steep and needs to be cautious to walk up or down. For our trail session, it is harder a bit for humid weather since rocks are slippy.
After a really long trail, we took our feet some rest at hot spring. There are both small spot for putting the feet in and whole hot spring house for full-body onsen. Yangmingshan is originally a sulfur mine, this is a source of heat for relaxing our lovely feet.
Taipei 101
It’s a normal place for check-in in Taiwan. Our schedule was a bit tight that we didn’t have a chance to go to observatory at top of the building. We took couples of photos of Taipei 101 from around there but there are more beautiful spots that you can take a photo of the building e.g. from Elephant mountain or city hall.
Xinyi
This is a district I visited with another group of friends who are also in Taipei (two are Thai, one is Singaporean and one is Taiwanese). The night club here are vary from chill bars, dancing pubs,rooftop bars, some are even using footpath as drinking place. We didn’t expect a very densed atmosphere at the bar. Still, we could take our seat in a bar after a long walk from footpath and pubs. And the vibe is fun and great anyway. 10/10 recommended to get drunk and lying at the street. (kidding, just drink responsibly.)
Also, people around there has a very friendly vibes.
“No photo at this section, xoxo”
Day 4
Keelung
Keelung is the city nearby Taipei which took around 1 hour via train. It is a port city with a lots of attractions around e.g.
- The color building port
- Old port ruins which operated during 1900s
- Shillen bridge
Rouyuan
We found a restaurant selling rouyuan, it is a fully “carb-on-carb” meal with flour and meat packed with another flour sheet served with soup. For some reason, it is unexpected delicious food for me that I recommend you to visit and try some.
Jiufen village
Jiufen village is a mountain-top village nearby Keelung packed with temples, souvenier stores, restaurants and homestay. It has a stunning view to the sea from the village and I think this is good place for buying souveniers.
One good advice is this is a place that bus can be fulled quickly, so check the bus schedule and prepare some spare time on coming back to Taipei.
This is also a place you can experience “a bus drifting downhill” (in a good way). Every drivers are like that “Tofu-car” driver, drifting around curves, nearly crashing a side fences and car in other lane. They drive “professionally”.
Day 5
All good trips always come to an end.
It is last day in Taipei and we needed to hop back to an airport. I think it’s good 5 days trip here because of many good spots to visit and good people around here. I plan to take another here for more museum and some nature spots in the central region of Taiwan.
After thoughts
- Found out how I like trekking (or hiking) in the forest (compared to my childhood days that I would cry)
- Taipei is pretty clean, easy to travel city. Mass transit is a foundation for quality of living
- I think there are not that many food that I really like during this trip. I kinda miss Thai-seafood a lot during lunch in Keelung. (Day 4)
- Taiwanese are friendly, even when I’m drunk. (Or because I’m drunk?)
- Found out it’s just few places I have visited in Taipei, I would love to come to hop to other places next time. These are some list I will drop to myself in the future
- Taipei 101 Observatory
- National Palace Museum and some other museums (up to mood)
- Go for indoor bouldering (Climber always climbing)
- I also would love to visit other region in Taiwan too, maybe at the South?
Bonus: A very quick review of worth mentioning stuff from Taiwan 7-Eleven
- x is for fruit, “X milk” — In my opinion, it is something that manufacturer thinks that they don’t know what to do with over-produced milk, so just dump X to it, e.g. apple, papaya, mango. I tried apple milk and I felt confused.
- Guava tea — this is what I really recommend. refreshing and delicious.
- Coffee — bro, you come Taiwan. drink tea or boba tea, please.