Taiwan - Overview

The Master Plan of Taiwan

So you are thinking about travelling to Taiwan and have no idea where to start? Here's some information of my itinerary for my trip. Guide for 7 days in Taiwan.

Day 1 - Arrival
Our flight ticket was just Rm900 with return flight, however this consider a mid range priced(can get even cheaper if we purchase earlier with AirAsia free seat promo). We ain't complain much on winter season.
Due to night flight, we stay our night at City Suite @TaoYuan for Rm300.

Day 2 - TaiChung
Took bullet train to TaiChung from TaoYuan that cost NTD540. Then we checked in to our Ming Shu which can be found in HERE.
Feng Jia Night Market, our night activities. Forget about dinner, snack your way through this night market and be a happy kid to sleep at night.

Day 3 - Qing Jing Farm(清境农场)
We have hired a local tour of 4 days to ease our trip, because some places are just too difficult to go. His name is Panda, although is a bit expensive as compared to other, but his service is very good.
We visited Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁),Qing Jing Farm(清境农场), Carton King(纸箱王) and Small Swiss Garden(小瑞士花园).

Day 4 - Sun Moon Lake(日月潭)
We visited Sun Moon Lake(日月潭) and Paper Dome.

Day 5 - Jiu Fen(九分)
Visited Jiu Fen and Jiu fen Old Street(九分久道)

Day 6 - Yang Ming Shan( 阳明山)
Visited Yang Ming Shan, have lunch at Kuang An Temple(广安庙). Then headed to Dan Shui(淡水).

Day 7 - 故宫(National Palace Museum)
Visited 故宫(National Palace Museum), then Xi Men Ding(西门町).

Day 8 - MaoKong, Shi Lin Market
Visited MaoKong for some tea. Then Shilin for the food.

Day 9 - Taipei 101
Visited Taipei 101.

Total Cost : Rm2.5k

Ok I lied, it surpose to be 9 days, but 1st and last day doesn't consider full day, So make it a 7 day guide?

Anyway, have fun in Taiwan.

Day 9 Taiwan - Country with love and food

I'll be back

The last day at Taipei, and is rainy. Finish packing, and is time to say good bye.

Rainy 

Before we leaving to the airport, we always wanted to try the Taiwan's origin, the best franchise restaurant in the world. Ding Tai Fung(鼎泰丰).

Xiao Long Bao (小笼包)

Their signature dish, Xiao long Bao. 10 piece for NTD 100. Pretty good deal, and it taste superb. Be careful thou, as when you take a bite, the meat juice inside will burst and might burnt your tongue. I did.

Vegetarian Bun - Chai Bao(菜包)

Fried rice 

Tan tan noodles - 担担面

Beautiful cooked Ramen served with minced pork sauce.

Pork Chop w/ Omelet rice - 猪排饭

Eight Precious Pudding - 八宝饭

Cloth to cover our bags, and jackets

Satisfying breakfast, but is still very early and our flight is at night. We decided to park our luggage in a locker on the main station of Taipei then walk to Taipei 101 tower and have a look.

Taipei 101 - Fog

We unable to witness the majestic of Taipei 101 due to heavy rain and fog.

Rental bike

Taipei 101 and its shopping mall

Beneath the tower, there's a huge shopping mall. Just like KLCC

Entrance

Wall of fame to those help in building Taipei 101

Wall of Fame

Time for lunch!

Food court

Even is the food court food, the food here is delicious and not that pricey surprisingly.

Food

While we on the street, we encounter a pack of protestors marching on the main street of the Government Office.

I think the protest is about the transparency of the government and the high tax of the country.

Random Art

About 4pm, we took a bus and back to Tao Yuan international airport.

Taipei, Always more Delights

At the airport, we found this lovely booth. Hello Kitty theme Eva Air. I wanted to ride one!

Kawaii!~

As usual, before we leave, final round of Taiwan's delicious!

NTD 100 - Deep Fried Pork Chop Udon on a Sizzling Plate

These huge portion of food, only cost NTD 100, and it is so good!

NTD 100 - Deep Fried Shrimp with rice along with mushroom on a Sizzling Plate

Time to check in.

Long que before 3 hours of the flight - just to check in

The long que of the check in counter, luckily we arrive early!

Immigration 

This is it, is time for us to leave. Wonderful trip I say.
Good bye to food, good bye to pretty ladies, good bye to the warmth hospitality and good bye Taiwan!

Day 8 Taiwan - Tea

Day 8 Taiwan - Tea

Relax

Almost the end of our trip, we have our last day as a more relaxing day trip to any where we want. After some serious voting and discussion for 30 sec, we choose MaoKong for some tea tasting and the infamous Shilin Night Market to beat our curiosity.

Let's go!

Crowded as usual in the early morning at Taipei Train Station.

Gondola to the Moutain! Maokong

Day 7 Taiwan - Hipster

What do youngster eat?

Is Taipei! The city of traditions and modern youngsters. As a typical Malaysian, where we are multicultural, we get to choose roti canai, nasi lemak, variety of noodles, western, capati, and much much more. Common Malaysian problem is, we always in headache to choose what type of food we wanted to have since we have so much to choose from. How about in Taiwan where they are less multicultural? We'll see.

But first, in day 7 - we woke as early as 7am and get prepared for your guide-less trip. Pack up the essential, jackets, umbrella, water, camera, etc and lets go!

The huge interlinked subway station of Taipei, it is a hall cum subway stations!

Taiwan subway system is just freaking awesome. May be I have not seen other countries's, but this is an eye opener for us. There's a mall inside which spread around 8-10 stations I think, is so huge that if we miss 1 or 2 stations and walk back via the underground passage, if would take us 30 mins. Yes we done that.

First stop, 故宫(National Palace Museum).

Lobby of National Palace Meseum

You can easily reach this place by taking railway - station National Palace.

Day 6 Taiwan - Old vs New

History shall prevail 

Rain and rain and rain. The last thing we wanted is rain. Aren't we get enough raining in Malaysia?
Day 6, we went to the famous Yang Ming Shan( 阳明山). Please do not come during winter time as you will miss out a lot of attractions. Yes again, due to fog, we are not allowed to go to the top. So we went to the Guangfu Building instead, just on the way to the top of the mountain.

Sad morning face by Lim Laa laa

GuangFu Building(光复楼) - Built in 1971 to commemorate the Xinhai Revolution, some historical stuffs, inside now is a gift store.

These stuffs is amazing when curing our throat

Day 5 Taiwan - Exotic

Back to the 80s

Here we are Jiu Fen(九分), Tohua(豆花).

No seriously we at Jiu fen Old Street(九分久道). This place also known as Nine Ruifang District. This place was one of the old time Taiwan nine development program, hence this place is historical.

This somewhat is similar to our Malaysia's Petaling Street. The moment we step in, whole area is filled with history, old shops, old people, traditional food.

Like I said in the previous post, the weather is cold, and is been raining for 9 days non-stop! Quickly grab a bowl of fish cake soup to warm out bodies.

Handmade fish cake with fish ball soup. Located just beside the entrance, packed.

Day 5 Taiwan - Gold digger

Raining of Au everywhere

So is day 5, fatigue in every parts of the body, whole 4 days of trip to mountain to lake to Taipei, I think is the whole year exercise quota we did, ouch. Is K! Lets fuel up with some delicious breakfast.

The legendary salted soya bean soup(咸豆浆)

This... Roti Canai + You tiao(油条)

Egg pancake with chicken floss

The salty soy bean soup is delicious, at first I was being sceptical because, who drinks savoury soy bean anyway? Is like having a salty chocolate, it should taste awful right? The soup is heavenly delicious, topped with sesame oil, chives, salty vegetable, and chill oil will wake you up full with energy!

Today is the last day tour by Mr.Wang - and what a great weather to start

Today's trip is to jiu fen(九分), one of the most rained city/state in Taiwan. When we reached the Yeh Liu Geopark, our natures pop, talk to the locals. One shocking factor is, they told us here has been raining for 9 days. 9 DAYS!!! *faint*

Day 4 Taiwan - Unique

What is this magic?

On the same day itself, after our god damn healthy lunch(me want meat!), we went to the Sun Moon Lake to have a boat tour on the lake!

WTF is wrong with this fog!?

Okay, this fog is seriously getting on my nerves, by spoiling 2 great visiting spot/activities. Argh! Well, since we are here, then we decided to talk a look around the lake see what hidden treasure lies within.

Quiet street, might be due to off season or the fog

Some traditional scarf in Taiwan

Hate the fog

Day 4 Taiwan - History and Animals

Chicken and Egg, Human come first?

It is day 4 of our trip, and we don't feel like it. Largely is because of the environment being so relax, we lost track of time.

Was wondering, is it the winter season causes the cloud more dense? which make such awesome sunlight on cloud

As usual, more food. This is the simplest breakfast we had throughout of our trip.

Really, the table is so empty. It is so not wolf team

Porridge with fermented tofu

Then we pack up get ready to leave Tai Chung after our schedule and we will be staying in Taipei for the rest of the trip.
Our tour guide bring us a surprise trip to the casting scene of  賽德克·巴萊(Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale). He told us some history of the event, show us around, and we did some exploring ourself. I did watch the movie, it is really good.