Food trip at Taipei

Day 3
Dec 1, 2014
Taipei

It was December and suddenly, the weather became cold. It has been warm the past 2 days so it was surprising for the weather to quickly change on the 1st day of December. Finally, I got to use the jacket I recently bought.

Our first stop for the day was at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, erected to commemorate Republic of China's first president. The hall square is actually an excellent location to photograph Taipei 101.

After a brief train ride, we reached Daan Forest park, which is known to be Taipei's version of New York's central park. There was not much to do here, judging by number of people in the park - three - Rissa, Enoy, and myself. No one else was in the park so we quickly left to find a place to eat lunch.

We ate lunch at Yong-Kang Beef Noodle. Judging by the number of people eating inside and waiting in line outside, this looked like the place to be to eat Taipei's best beef noodle - and it really was. The beef was cooked to perfection and the soup tasted just right - not too tasty but not bland either. Not bad for a 200 TWD lunch.

Next on our list was Mengjia Longshan Temple, a famous place of worship built in the early 18th century.

Our next two stops were two famous themed restaurants in Taipei. Fist one was Hello Kitty Sweets. Everyone was required to order at least 300 TWD worth of pastries and drinks so I ordered cheesecake, which was just ok, and pudding bubble milk tea, which was really good.

The second one we went to was Modern Toilet restaurant. In direct contrast to Hello Kitty Sweets where everything is pretty and sweet, Modern Toilet may not be one's idea of a hearty and appetizing dinner. We were seated on toilet bowls, drank from a urinal-shaped glass, ate from a toilet-shaped bowl, and ate ice cream shaped like you know what. It was a fun experience even though the food was not exceptional. It was a good night to end our Taipei trip.

Estimated expenses:

   990 PHP - Air fare to Taipei

 1475 PHP - Air fare to Manila
   176 PHP - Bus fare to city center (125 TWD)
   176 PHP - Bus fare to aiport  (125 TWD)
 1044 PHP - Easymind Hostel (740 TWD /night/person)
 1410 PHP - H132 Hostel (500 TWD/night/person)
   705 PHP - Taipei 101 Observatory (500 TWD)
   353 PHP - National Palace museum  (250 TWD)
   113 PHP - Yehliu (80 TWD)
   282 PHP - bus fare to Yehliu (100 TWD/one way)
   423 PHP - Hello Kitty Sweets (300 TWD)
   423 PHP - Modern Toilet (300 TWD)
   423 PHP - MRT (100 TWD/day)
 1692 PHP - food ( 400 TWD/day)
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  9,685 PHP

Tour at Yehliu Geopark

Day 2
Nov 30, 2014
Taipei

On our second day at Taipei, we went to Yehliu Geopark - a 1700 meter-long cape of rock formations in the shapes of mushrooms, sea candles, a fairy shoe, and a queen's head, which actually commands quite a long queue for a picture-taking.

For lunch, we ate at one of the seafood restaurants found across the park.

It was already late in the afternoon when we got back to the city and it was time to visit Taipei 101, once the world's tallest structure at 508 meters.

Going up the observatory floors was quite costly at 500 TWD but they do offer quite a few attractions. There are multimedia gallery featuring different trivia about the structure, souvenir shop, art boutique, and one particular highlight - the world's largest and heaviest wind damper - the only one in the world that is displayed for public viewing. That was quite amazing - for something that was worth more than 100M TWD, it better be.

Around Taipei City

Day 1
Nov 29, 2014
Taipei

It has been over a year, September 2013 to be exact, when we booked our flight to Taipei. And yet, more than a year later, we still did not have any itinerary a day before our departure. Worse, we had not booked any hostel yet for our first night.

It was only a few hours before our flight that I finally was able to find a hostel - Easymind Guesthouse - that would allow us to check-in a few hours after midnight. We arrived in Taipei at 12 AM but we had to wait for two hours for the bus to arrive to bring us to the city. It took 50 minutes to get to the city and it was already 4 AM when we finally arrived at the hostel. We felt bad for the receptionist who we had to wake up to let us in but I felt worse for the guests that I awaken while preparing to sleep (damn squeaky bed!).

 A few hours later, it was time to to check-out and move to our next hostel. I thought Easymind hostel was already cheap at 740 TWD per night but our next hostel - H132 Hostel - was even cheaper at 500 TWD. What made it even better was that the rate included a simple breakfast - bread, jams, fruits, and coffees. H132 hostel is definitely highly-recommended.

It was already afternoon when we finally started sightseeing. One thing that is great about Taipei is its very efficient train system - it is very easy to get from one tourist attraction to another. The people are also very disciplined - they fall in line while waiting for the train. They also stay on the right side of escalators to give way to rushing passengers.

The first place that we went to was Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, built in the memory of the former president of Republic of China. The Memorial Hall square is used for mass gathering while the National Theater and National Concert Hall are popular venues for events.

We then went to the National Palace museum where we spent a few hours checking out the different galleries that describe Taiwan and China's rich history and culture. There were paintings and calligraphy, centuries-old ceramics, wonderfully-crafted furniture and some exquisite treasures such as the Ivory Ball from Qing dynasty.

 The last stop for the day was at Shilin night market where we bought a few souvenirs - some shirts, oolong tea, and pineapple cakes.

We ate at Double Content which is found in Shilin market. I was surprised to see the big servings  - my order was actually good for 2 people and yet I only paid 150 TWD. It was cheap but the food, especially the hotpot, were really good.

Elephant Ride at Bangkok

Day 9
Nov 20, 2013
Bangkok, Thailand

It was only the night before that we were able to find a supposedly cheap way to get to the Elephant camp of Damnoen Saduak so we can ride an elephant (something we can't do in Manila) - we found a tour operator near our hotel which offered to get us there for 1800 Baht in a private van. We thought it was a good offer since the tour packages we found online cost more or less 2000 Baht for each person.

However, we found later on that we still need to take the floating market tour worth 1000 Baht (definitely a tourist trap) since that was the only way to get to the Elephant camp. Furthermore, the elephant ride would cost an additional 500 Baht. (Checking online further now, I found this tour which only costs 1150 Baht.). I guess it was really important to research online prior to the trip to make sure to get the best deal possible.

Boat ride to the Floating Market

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Expensive items for sale at the Floating Market

Damnoen Saduak Elephant Camp

Elephant feeding at Damnoen Saduak Elephant Camp

We also went to Damnoen Saduak Tiger Zoo for some photo-op with a few tigers (something we can actually do in Subic).

Damnoen Saduak Tiger Zoo

Back in the city, before our flight back to Manila at midnight, I decided to splurge a little and try Thai massage - I figured there was no better place to experience it than in Thailand. And so I went and looked for massage parlors and found myself in upscale Breeze spa in the 5-star Amari Watergate hotel. It was definitely the best way to end the 9-day trip.

Estimated Expense: