This time we were fortunate to have a slightly extended stint of 5 days to explore a little further afield and decided on Taiwan with some of our friends. This is a very clear example of why relocating to Singapore was attractive… travelling to destinations I otherwise probably wouldn’t have thought of! As this fell over a public holiday in Singapore, we actually had booked up well in advance, hoping to avoid outrageous prices. With over 3 months to plan we were pretty well versed on what we were going to do there.
So we caught an early morning flight (ok it was 8.55am but it did mean I was waking up earlier than I would have, if I was going to work…) and took the 4 and a half hour flight to Taipei on good old Tiger Air. We opted for extra leg room because all 5ft2 of me needs it, ate some yummy homemade thepla (an indian dish, I have no idea how to describe in English) and ta-da, a film later we had arrived in Taipei. We went with a pretty packed agenda, so upon arrival it was a drop your bags off and head straight out kind of scenario.
Our hotel (CityInn Hotel Plus) was located right next to the MRT station “Zhongshan Junior High School” on the brown line, which meant we could sit on it the whole way to our first destination – Maokong Gondola (that’s cable cars to you and me). The fares work according to distance so you pay more if you go further. We had discussed buying an MRT card, but firstly the fares for single journeys were pretty cheap (averaging TWD 25/ SGD $1/ GBP£0.50) and secondly, I’m not sure we actually worked out how to do it.
So we arrived at the Maokong Gondola (Taipei Zoo on the MRT) and purchased a single ticket (TWD120/ SGD$5/ GBP£2.50) from Taipei Zoo up to Maokong Station – we could have purchased a round ticket, but there is no savings for doing so. I feel like I have been on quite a lot of cable cars in my time, and this 4.03km ride wasn’t too different, however when we reached the top, there were tons of tea shops, so we found ourselves a spot and ordered some authentic Taiwanese drinks (Taiwanese Tea, Taiwanese Ice Coffee and Taiwanese Coca Cola… ok fine just normal Coke...). The Taiwanese Tea was actually pretty interesting, given they brought out a portable kettle for you to heat your own water with! Given our puzzled looks, it wasn’t long before someone came out to show us how it was done (although making an obscene amount of mess whilst at it).
The initial plan had been to make it up and down from the Cable car, and climb up Elephant Mountain to watch the sunset. It’s likely we were a bit too optimistic about how thinly we could spread our time, and ended up watching the sky turn glorious colours of pink, orange and red, whilst sipping on our selected beverages at the tea shop.
We opted to take the Cable Car back down to Taipei Zoo MRT although there was the option to take a car to wherever your ongoing destination was. Being in a cable car in the darkness is probably slightly more terrifying, specifically for those scared of heights, but the views became more and more magical as slowly all the twinkling lights of Taipei began to switch on. That combined with attempts to complete the flip bottle challenge (google it) made time run very quickly and we were at the base before we even knew it.
That evening we went to Modern Toilet – a restaurant with a toilet theme. No I am not joking, someone genuinely thought that would be a great idea. We were drawn in by the fad, but a quick look at the plastic toilet seats (which were mildly uncomfortable) and the unappealing menu, and we walked straight back out of there, although not before using the photo opportunity, that this restaurant was clearly built for.
Instead we wandered around the Wanhua District and quickly stumbled upon a little pizza place called SoFree Pizza (misleadingly not “soFree” but compared to other places in Taipei, very reasonable). The pizza was impressive, and we opted to share three amongst four of us, attempting to try as much as we possibly could. The sweet potato and rosemary definitely won, with the smoked cheese second and the mushroom one coming in third. The restaurant itself is quite interestingly designed, almost like a ski lodge – with a lot of wooden furniture (which I believe the boys found particularly uncomfortable – a theme in Taipei?) but actually quite charming to look at. Having previously been discussing my obsession of libraries, identification of a very high bookshelf with a range of interesting titles, quickly drew our attention, and it wasn’t long until Sham climbed up on the table, and nabbed a book, whilst almost getting his hand chopped off by an electric fan. For all that effort, it is definitely the next book on my reading list.
For our first full day in Taiwan (and amidst warnings there was going to be a typhoon) we decided to take on a full day tour of Shifen and Jiufen which are roughly an hour east of Taipei. We booked a driver from our hotel for 8 hours at TWD 3,150 (SGD $130/ GBP £65) – Judy arrived nice and promptly at 10am and when we told her where we would like to go, she gave us a few recommendations of her own. Our first main stop was going to be to Shifen Old Street, but en-route she stopped at a cute little bakery in the Wanli District – here we tasted cakes and she also offered us some of her homemade radish cake, which was kind of like a radish pancake more savoury than sweet.
We reached Shifen Old Street at approximately 11am, and were surrounded by a bustling hub of tourists. The setting is an old railroad town, which has a distinct ancient charm about it, surrounded with local food, souvenir shops and the occasional train puffing through the town, it really is a gem.
The most distinct thing to do here was to release a sky lantern, which appears to be the pull for many visitors. Each lantern colour represented something, and
we were asked to pen our own calligraphy on each side of the lantern before releasing it. The cost of these lanterns are between TWD 100 -150 (SGD$6/ GBP£3) depending on colours.
Another significant thing to do in Shifen is to visit the 20 foot waterfall that creates a rainbow as it splashes down into the lake. Unfortunately for us, the fear of the terrible typhoon meant the area was closed off and we didn’t get to see it.
There was also a little bridge, which was great for a photo opportunity, but I wasn’t entirely sure of its significance as there appeared to be nothing on the end of it.
We then moved on with our journey, but not before a quick stop to see some large Lilly pads, and a diversion to the police station to use their bathrooms… (totally aware of how weird that sounds). Judy had some great “hidden spots” so she drove us up, what felt like a mountain, and paused to give us some incredible views, before we all sprint to the car to avoid the thunderous rains, which appeared from nowhere.
We then reached Jiufen (think Jew-fen when pronouncing, although we had some corkers on this), where there were windy streets of different local food stalls. Here we tried a few things, limited for vegetarians, but Judy went out of her way to bring me things to try. Generally the food was ok, but a theme which I noticed, was the food could be quite bland, until you add a kick of chilli, which credit to it, was killer. Jiufen is said to be the Santorini of Taiwan, whilst the weather wasn’t ideal, you could kind of see it.
At this point we were all pretty shattered and when Judy suggested we go to a Cat village, I can’t say I have ever felt less enthusiastic, thankfully we were all in agreement that a village of cats wasn’t our thing and we head back to Taipei City.
With a couple of hours left on our clock, Judy insisted we try the famous Mango Ice at Ice Monster – which is essentially shaved ice with real mango in various forms (TWD 220/ SGD $9.90 / GBP £5.45). It was delicious – and massive! Thankfully, we got one between four and we just about dented it.
Then Judy took us to an area to get foot massages, which given how lethargic and full I was feeling was a very welcome treat. Once Judy dropped us back at the hotel, we went up to freshen up and then head back out for dinner at Din Tai Fung. Now this is a notoriously famous restaurant in Singapore, but the original is in Taiwan, so despite all my travel companions having already been, we went and broke my DTF virginity.
Following dinner we thought we’d go for a cheeky beverage and stumbled upon a bar called Barcode. The minute we walked in I saw Neil’s eyes light up, and it took me all of two minutes to realise why. The bar was home to a pool table and a fuse ball table. Before the drinks were ordered we were on the fuse ball table, with four people attempting to manage a six person table. With the dim-lighting and my terrible hand eye co-ordination, I was beyond shocked at the sinking of three goals, resulting in an Ardeshna/Patel victory! Clearly this was the start of some real competition so after the drinks were in, we went onto play pool. Unfortunately for us, this wasn’t a winner, with the Kakkad’s taking this one home, (I was still pretty impressed I managed to pot more than one ball, which wasn’t a black or for the opponent!)
The self-proclaimed “better” player from each team then decided to take one another on. This game lasted a hell of a lot longer than the doubles, and ended pretty close – which then nicely led us out of the bar and to another a place we had wanted to check out – Brown Sugar.
Walking into this live jazz bar had a very clear 1920’s feel about it, as such I fell in love with the décor and the venue. Unfortunately for us, the music wasn’t exactly the jazz style we had hoped for and had a women warbling songs we hadn’t heard before. That combined with some seriously steep prices for a drink, we quickly dipped out, had a night cap back at Barcode and called it a night, in awareness of the typhoon coming.
Friday morning we rose late, having purchased snacks at the 7-eleven the night before in the event the typhoon left us stranded in the hotel with no food. So let’s get into this typhoon. Named Nepartak, it was due to hit Taipei on Thursday evening and all of Friday, as such many precautions were taken, with sandbags at almost every corner and in front of every shop. When we woke on Friday morning, we were honestly expecting the worse. Not being able to leave the hotel, fallen trees, blown over cars, the lot. Especially the way the hype was built up by a certain someone (*cough**Neil**cough*) – but when we ventured out, we were disappointed with just a strong wind (nothing new to those in the UK) and a bit of light drizzle.
As it wasn’t as bad as expected we thought we’d try our luck out and visit the Sun-Yat San Memorial Hall, however the fear of Nepartak kept everything closed and it wasn’t long of wandering the streets we realized we weren’t in for much luck and head back towards the hotel to grab some food at Very Thai, which had been recommended by the hotel staff. The food was very well received, and is on my recommendation list. We had a fusion of dishes, all of which I found very appetizing.
That evening we head towards Taipei 101 for dinner after a failed attempt to go to Mayur’s (obviously Indians in any country always have to find the Indian restaurant) and ended up finding Taipei’s very own Vapianos. The concept of Vapianos is that you go to the counter, order whatever you wish and then they tap it onto your card, which you settle the balance on at the end. Offering pizza and pasta, we were satisfied and whilst sat on the balcony, enjoying the last of our wine, we decided to have a bit of a bar hop.
We started at Brass Monkey, which had a very pub-like feel to it, where before we knew it, it was midnight and we had to make a move to the next place, Frank – which was a club right by Taipei 101, giving some great views.
We then moved on to Chess, which had a relatively large queue outside, but was worth it when we heard the music. Entry to clubs is set quite high, but usually includes drinks. Also note to self: do not wear heels on a night out, everyone was loving life in their converse! The Taiwanese locals and expats a like were super friendly, and a visit to the toilets felt like a night out in London, with me leaving the loos with three new best friends.
At this point, we were dead set we wanted to end the night with karaoke. Given we spent most of the trip to date humming made up songs (ask Pooja to hum "One Dance"), or singing along to Judy’s awesome old school songs, we felt it would be more than appropriate. I wish I could tell you the name of the place we went to Karaoke, but I genuinely have no clue. All I know is when we walked in, it looked like hotel lobby, there was a girl collapsed on the side, with her friends hovering around her and the women told us there was only a limited selection of songs available in English. None of this stopped us, and before you knew it we were singing our hearts out to Backstreet Boys!
The next morning with slightly heavy heads we went to Mayur’s to get our dose of Indian food and it was surprisingly good, if not slightly too spicy on some dishes. Again, it’s on the recommendation list! That afternoon we had a tour booked to Yangmingsan National Park and the Hot Springs. Our guide picked us up from the hotel and took us to the National Park where we wandered for 20 minutes, saw a flower dial and ate some ice cream.
After that we were shown some hot springs, which as soon as you stepped out of the van, stank of rotten eggs. It was something to do with the natural Sulphur in the water, and then we went on to some hot spring baths.
So there is an option to have a private hot spring experience or use the public ones. The public baths are split male and female and require its occupants to be naked. No lie, butt naked, with everything hanging out. Thinking it was a joke, when offered to take a look, I did and quickly requested the private baths! It would take a much braver person than me to opt for the public baths, but I imagine it is all part of the experience. In the private rooms, we were essentially sat in a bath tub, where the water was naturally very warm. In all honesty it was a very odd experience, and not sure it would be something I would repeat! In fact, it was too hot, even for me, and I rather be out of the water than in it!
We then went to Shilin Night Market, which is a good place to buy anything you could ever imagine. Clothes, gifts, jewellary! Not being huge shoppers, after an hour or so Neil and I found food and he tried a bit more of the local cuisine (fried chicken… think KFC) – we looked long and hard for the sausage in sausage that had been recommended, but with little luck.
Before we had got there Neil had said that Taiwan was what he imagined New York to be like in the 60’s, and I genuinely cannot think of a better way to describe it. The gridlike design, the interesting architecture which hadn’t yet been updated, even the colour of the buildings. There is so much to see and moving from one area to another you can feel the city change. Something else which I found really evident was that during the day, Taipei is quite a calm city, but as soon as the sun goes down the place really comes alive and is buzzing.
This having potentially been my longest blog of all time, just goes to show how much there is to see and do in Taiwan, and is a country that comes highly recommended from the lanterns in Shifen Old Street to the Nightlife by Taipei 101 – Taiwan, it was a pleasure.
P.S Shoutout to Neil's navigational skills #googlemaps
