Day 10 - Taipei

This trip, I didn't know we are going to be part of the history records. I only received the article from my Taiwanese friend later. 

The rainfall in Dec was the highest ever in more than 100 years! How is that for our holidays. Hahaha. 

Anyway for day 10, we cover the remaining sites in Taipei. 

Taipei Zoo

Before I go further, my rating is don't bother.  Maybe I was bothered by the rain but I felt it wasn't worth my time. 

The animals were poorly displayed and there are no close interactions with the animals. They didn't even bother to let you know that 团团 and 圆圆 will not be on display until Jan as they were renovating the panda enclosure and we were there to look at the political animals. 

Anyway, the zoo covers a wide area and poorly designed vis a vis our Singapore zoo although I have to admit that it is really much cheaper to visit Taipei zoo. 2 adults and 2 tickets based on my recollection was less than NT$200. 

Perhaps another way to describe it is that they didn't focus a lot on end users experiences. I will give it a miss. 

Maokong 猫空 

Compared to the zoo, I will say this is better in terms of user experience. 

My little tip is if you want to take the crystal cabin, do it on the way down as there will be less crowd and another tip is never try to take the cable car from inside the zoo! You will have to wait for a long time to get an empty cabin. Somehow they are not so flexible to send empty cabins up to pick passengers from the zoo. The station inside the zoo is the second stop. 

See the tea plantation below our legs? This is the crystal cabin for you. 

Anyway, there are many trails on top and you can wander around. However, not for us today as it was still raining non stop. 

We had a fun time snacking delicious sausages and oyster omelette at the top of Maokong station. After all, the breakfast at the hotel was bad...

If you are a Hello Kitty fan, this is the place for you! There are many memento  which you can take pictures of. The entire line is decorated with cute kittens. 

Ding Tai Feng 鼎太丰

This is after all the place where it was founded. The famous dumpling that won a Michelin star in Hong Kong. 

It started life as a cooking oil retailer until

the founder decided that it has to switch business for survival. And here you go, a flourishing dumpling business was created all over the world. I have to say that the standard was pretty consistent in Taiwan and Singapore. (Breadtalk holds the franchise in Singapore). 

Now this is something you don't get to eat in Singapore. The smaller "soupy" version (don't be jealous). It is only on sale on weekends and has limited supply. (We ordered in advance). 

You are supposed to dip the smaller

Dumplings (there are 20 of them) into the soup and then eat it. 

It is very very crowded and we waited one hour for it. Go early if you can. 

Le Jardin

To celebrate our last night in Taiwan, we decide to visit the French restaurant. (You can locate this from Tripadvisor). 

 

Amazingly we are the only family there compared to our visit to Osteria. 

The dinner is actually better than Osteria and it has a very comprehensive and impressive wine list. This is because the owner is the distributor of good wines from France. Don't bring you wine here, you can have a decently priced wine from its cellar. 

I always pre-judge a restaurant by the breads it served. I have to tell you the meat and butter served was simply heavenly. We asked for a second portion. 

I will just tell you what is good and what is to be avoided. The Iberico ham carpaccio is good. Can try

Skip the escargots. Too salty. 

 The pork ribs Tagliatelle is good. Can try. 

The mushroom spaghetti with truffle is average. Can give it a miss if you are not a fan. 

The ribeye was excellent. Cooked to perfection and medium. Best served with a french red wine. 

The creme brûlée and chocolate larva cake was great and even i am not a dessert person.

Afterthoughts 

Taiwan would have been a good trip if not for the lousy weather. I have not anticipated 8 rainy days out of 10, otherwise I would have chosen another destination.  The weather always make or break a holiday. 

The Taiwanese are hospitable but I am always weary after hearing some much negative news about the tainted

food products which is badly regulated. Nevertheless, we still drank the bubble tea and ate the taiwan sausages.  

The hot spring culture in Taiwan was inherited from the Japanese. I have to say that I wasn't too pleased whenever I see some locals bringing their small towels into the onsen pool. It would have been a big No No in Japan and the hygiene level is definitively not as refined as in Japan. 

Overall a pleasant trip but not something I can do on an annual basis like how we

visit Japan. Think it will be a while before I return here and I will cover the southern part next time. :)

Day 9 - Jiufen, Shifen

Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park 

金瓜石黄金博物馆

The gold ecological park near Jiufen is free, as such, expect to see many tourists. 

It is quite a pleasant stroll around the park despite the rain. The main attraction in this park is a giant gold bar weighing 220kg!

If you have been following the price of gold, it has fallen from a high of $1,700 to a low of $1,200 per 100oz in the last 12 months. 

The gold "bar" in this park is worth 220kg x 38,738 = USD8.5m. Hmmm don't seem to see many security guards around though. 

We paid for the optional tour into the deep tunnel used to mine for gold. 

It's a good place to hide from the rain though. 

"Miners" are strategically placed to educate visitors about the past history. The Japanese used to mine the gold from here. 

Anyway, I think it is worth a detour from

Jiufen to visit here. 

Jiufen 九份

It is said that this is a old mining town and got its name from a group of 9 families who always asked for 9 portions of everything. 

I think it should look good except that you can't get the feel of old town unless you wait till night time after all the tourists have left. 

This place is just too crowded for me as hordes of tourists from all over the world make this little town a "must visit" stop as a day trip from Taipei. 

It is enjoyable if you can stroll down the alley but there are just too many people. 

However if you want to hide from the crowd, you can try visiting the tea houses.  There are many tea houses here but be prepared to pay for the tea in order to enjoy the  peace.

The pot of tea with 2 pineapple snacks cost me more than NT$1,000. Ouch. 

Alternatively, you can try the local snacks. The round prawn crackers is good (too delicious and forget to take a picture). 

We tried the onion cake and the fish ball soup. Not bad actually. 

There are many different types of fish balls. 

Shifen 十分

This is the place to release sky lanterns. 天灯. Its quite fun to do this on a real railway track. Trains will be passing through once or twice per hour. 

There are shops to wander around and watch out for the moving trains !

Osteria by Angie

We had enough of Chinese food and tried the Italian tonight. Run by Italian. (You can check out the website) if you intend to visit. 

The food is decent and ambience good. Be sure to reserve as it was quite packed when we were there. 

Radium Kagaya Beitou

We stayed for 3 nights here and we came basically for the onsen baths and tatami beds. The water in Beitou is average although it has a huge bath area.

 

They served the same buffet breakfast 3 mornings in a row and I was appalled as there wasn't much variety to begin with. 

You wouldn't need to stay here unless you want some "Japanese" onsen experience. 

Beitou Hot Springs

Opposite our hotel is the hot spring park where you can make use of the public baths for a very low price in swim suits. 

It is actually a nice park and you can see steam from the flowing river. The hot springs was first discovered by a Japanese during the occupation. 

Further up the park is the 地热谷. This is where the hot spring flows up from the earth freely. 

This are within walking distance from the hotel and you can do this during a morning stroll. You can walk to this place from the subway as well. 

Happy hot springing. 

Day 8 - Leofoo Resort

This is the hotel lobby with a stuffed animal. The ringed tailed lemurs came into the lobby to hide from the rain while we were checking in, creating a little panic along the way as staff went chasing after them. 

Imagine staying inside a room that oversee the animals while they graze. Sounds like a perfect idea for the kids. Except that the animals don't feel up to it in the cold and rainy weather. Haha

The deco in the room had an African theme and there is a nice high table with high stools to view the animals outside. 

Even the bar stools have leopard spots. 

This is the view from our room window. In case you are wondering, no poo poo

smell. 

A lonely zebra grazing the grass with the flamingoes as companions. 

Ok finally they managed to lure 2 rhinos out to eat "breakfast". 

Accordingly to the hotel liaison officer, the giraffes are on MC today as the cold weather is not suitable. Keke ^_^

Conclusion 

Come to this resort only when the weather is good but unfortunately weather is beyond our control. Most people stayed for one night with a side visit to the Leofoo Theme Park. However, not for us this time. How to enjoy theme park rides in the rain ah...

上引水産

We decide to leave for the restaurant beside the fish market in Taipei to enjoy a nice lunch. 

If you want nice sushi and sashimi and don't mind standing at the counters to eat, then this place is for you to buy and pack out. Cheap and good. 

However, if you want to eat inside, they have a real stupid system. You can only choose to eat raw seafood OR sushi OR hotpot OR grilled seafood. Notice the big OR ? You can't have grilled seafood with sashimi. 

In the end, we choose to have grilled seafood. I have to say the standard is so so. Nothing special. 

Conclusion 

Buy the ready to eat sashimi and sushi for takeaway. There are standing tables for consuming them outside the shop. 

They are pretty fresh and good value for money. Don't bother with the grilled seafood (also known as 烧烤).