8 Days Taiwan Trip 2014 Itinerary

Being consistent and with a little bit of determination, I've finished writing about my 8 Days 7 Nights Taiwan Trip 2014. And now, I think it is better for me to do a summary. Kindly click the name of the places that you are interested to be linked to my detailed blog post. =)

Day 1 (Taipei):
-- Airport
-- Longshan Temple (龙山寺) & Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (华西街夜市)
-- Ximending (西门町)

Day 2 (Taipei):
-- Yangmingshan (阳明山)
-- Beitou (Steamboat lunch)
-- Beitou Hot Spring Museum (北投温泉博物馆)
-- Beitou Thermal Valley (北投地热谷)
-- Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf & Tamsui Old Street (淡水渔人码头&淡水老街)
-- Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) Part I & Part II

Day 3 (Taipei):
-- National Palace Museum (故宫博物院)
-- Famous Yongkang Beef Noodle (永康牛肉面) & Smoothie House (思慕昔)
-- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正纪念堂)
-- Hello Kitty Sweets
-- Taipei 101, Wufenpu (五分埔), Raohe Night Market (饶河夜市)

Day 4 (Taichung): 
-- Lavender Cottage (薰衣草森林)
-- Shengxing Railway Station (胜兴车站)
-- Longteng Broken Bridge (龙腾断桥)
-- Gaomei Wetland (高美湿地)
-- Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市)

Day 5 (Taichung):
-- Sun Moon Lake (日月潭)
-- Sun Moon Lake Peacock Garden (日月潭孔雀园) & Chung Tai Monastery (中台禅寺)
-- Cingjing Veterans Farm Green Green Grassland (清境农场青青草原)
-- Dinner: Cingjing A Dong Roast Chicken (清境阿东甕仔鸡)

Day 6 (Taichung):
-- Hehuanshan (合欢山) & Lushui Trail (绿水步道)
-- Taroko Gorge National Park (太鲁阁国家公园)
-- Qingshui Cliff (清水断崖) & Jiaoxi Town (礁溪)

Day 7 (Taipei):
-- Jingtong Railway Station (菁桐车站) & Shifen (十分) (Sky Lantern)
-- Eyeglass Cave (眼镜洞) & Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布)
-- Dongbeijiao (东北角) & Jinguashi (金瓜石)
-- Gold Museum (黄金博物馆) & Jiufen Old Street (九份老街)
-- Ningxia Night Market (宁夏夜市)

Day 8 (Taipei):
-- Breakfast: Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆浆)
-- Eslite Bookstore (诚品书店) & Ximending (西门町)

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Accommodation list:
1) Fun Taipei Backpackers
2) Ezstay Taipei (Taipei Main Station)
3) Holo Family House
4) 爱上逢甲
5) Cingjing Margaret Garden Villa
6) Jiaoxi Onsen Residence 

Taiwan: Day 8 Eslite Bookstore 诚品书店 & Ximending 西门町

After we checked out from our hostel (Holo Backpackers), we managed to leave our luggage in the hostel. Great! We can shop without carrying luggage with us. 

Last few stops before we fly back to Malaysia. Awww... How I miss Taiwan now. I'm grateful that I chose the night time return flight so we have more time to spend in Taiwan. Shop Shop Shop! Eat Eat Eat. Explore Explore Explore. 

First stop: Eslite Bookstore (Dunhua) (诚品敦化店)

This is the largest book store in Taiwan. Eslite Bookstores are famous with its 24-hour operation time, where people can spend their night there to read if there's any sleeping problem. A very good way to support reading culture. <3

Spotted some cute decorations. Shall I buy?? 

Books are arranged very nicely in the bookstore. Plenty of them.

Last photo before the worker stopped me from snapping photos. =P

****************************************************************************

2nd stop: Ximending 西门町

We decided to have lunch and dinner at Ximending, and also do some last minute shopping there. 

Sai Men Tian Bu La (赛门甜不辣) -- a famous "Tian Bu La" (甜不辣) stall in Ximending (西门町)

3 of us shared a bowl and this is really good. The sauce is kinda special, love it.

Accidentally spotted my favourite S.H.E recommending this stall too! 

After enjoying our "Tian Bu La"(甜不辣), we headed to try some Tainan noodles at Cheng Wei Zhen (程味珍台南意面)

After eating, we walked around and did some shopping. Bought myself a pair of slippers! Yeah! Then, I requested my friends to try out a coffee shop with me. 

Oven Coffee!!
I passed by this coffee shop earlier and was attracted with the awesome coffee smell.

Little oven as decoration in Oven Coffee.

Taiwan: Day 8 Fu Hang Dou Jiang 阜杭豆漿

~ Day 8 of my 8-days Taiwan Trip 2014 ~

Woke up at 6.30am!! That's how stupid I look early in the morning.
Nerd look for Day 8. =)

Why I wake up so early? I wanted to try a famous breakfast shop in Taipei -- Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿) in Huashan Market (华山市场). I read lots of reviews saying that there will be super long queue and hence I decided to wake up earlier to queue. Save time for shopping later. 

At first, none of my friends are keen to try this breakfast shop. They wanted to sleep. And cleverly, my phone alarm wakes all of them up, except myself. Yes, it rang for 20 minutes and I did not hear a thing. (My ringtone is "The one that got away" cover. LOL) So, they woke up and accompanied me to queue for the breakfast shop! Yeah!! Except Jiemin, who need her beauty sleep. 

Huashan Market (华山市场) isn't too far from our hostel (near Taipei Main Station 台北车站). We walked about 10 minutes to reach the market. It is labour day and hence, a public holiday. Look at the queue!!!!

Huashan Market! (华山市场)

The queue!!
The breakfast shop is at 2nd floor and from here, we haven't even reach the entrance to the staircase. Horrible!!

While queuing, we were too bored and took turn to walk around. The couple went to hunt for coffee, the remaining 3 of us spotted another famous breakfast shop --> Yong He Dou Jiang (永和豆浆). This one has a lot of branches in different areas of Taiwan, but since we found one nearby, and we have nothing to do, we decided to give it a try.

Spotted the stall!

Tyng and I walked to the shop and takeaway some food.
Was contemplating what to order as we are gonna have similar food in Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿)

This shop has a much much much shorter queue than the one in Huashan Market.

We ordered a cup of hot soy milk (热豆浆), egg cakes (蛋饼) & "Hou Bing" with egg (厚饼夹蛋)

The soy milk is just simply diluted. =( *disappointing*

Ta-daa! The "Hou Bing" with egg (厚饼夹蛋). The outer layer (biscuits) is quite crunchy. But compared with the one in Fu Hang Dou Jiang (which I tried later), this one is just OK. 

Egg Cake (蛋饼). This one is good! Much better than the one I had on the 2nd day.

Trying to "advertise" the egg cake (蛋饼).

Sorry, I'm hungry. 

This was about 35 minutes queuing and we still yet to reach the bottom of the staircase. 

After about an hour plus, we are on the staircase! And that's the entrance! FINALLY~

They even have a map to teach you how to queue.
So, queue is normal here. Very normal.

Taiwan: Day 7 Ningxia Night Market 宁夏夜市

After we checked in to our last night accommodation -- Holo Backpackers, we headed out again for night market. Last night in Taipei must be fully utilized. *wink* Where to go??? Hmmmmm..........

Guess from the video below! Huge clue given!!

We decided to try Ningxia Night Market (宁夏夜市) as we read a lot of food blogs saying it is a good place for food hunt. *how to resist when one of the famous stall there sells Fried Taro Ball*

Holo Backpackers is near Taipei Main Station and hence it is pretty easy for us to find transport! MRT again! We took the Tamsui Line (Red line) towards Zhongshan MRT station, and walk westward  (following Nanjing west road) to Ningxia Road. 

Spotted a cute traffic light. Different sound for different directions. ~~ creative!

After about 5 minutes walk from MRT station, we've reach Ningxia Night Market!!

Before we reach Ningxia Road, we spotted this famous Fried Oyster Stall -- Lai Ji (赖记鸡蛋蚵仔煎)

How can we not try??? =) (Please kindly ignore my exhausted panda face)

This stall has more eggs and less chewy thingy.

(Not bad! But all my friends prefer Malaysia-version)

Entrance of the night market!

For your information, this night market is pretty small, compared to other night markets that we've been. A bit "night market culture shock". HAHA.

Taiwan: Day 7 Gold Museum 黄金博物馆 & Jiufen Old Street 九份老街

~~100th post~~

Continue from previous post -- Day 7 travelogue. -->
Taiwan Gold Museum (黄金博物馆)~ Jiufen Old Street (九份老街)

Gold Museum (黄金博物馆) is located in the mountainous town of Jinguashi (金瓜石) in Ruifang Township (瑞芳). With plenty of historical, humanities and natural heritage, the park is the first ecology museum in Taiwan, specially emphasis on heritage preservation, sustainable development. Old buildings are reuse as well as localized operations aimed at promoting regional development. ~~(Information from this website)

Gold Museum is located in the gold ecological park. It was opened during 2004 as one of the Taiwan's first museum planned as an eco-museum. The aim is to combine community power and preserve the precious natural resources, mining relics, landscape, historical memories and cultural property of Jinguashi. The Gold Museum is housed in the former offices of the Taiwan Metal Mining Corp.

The 1st floor displays the journey of discovering gold, Benshan Tunnels, old mining equipments, mining transport system and a brief introduction to the WWII Japanese Allied prisoners' camp. The 2nd floor uses gold and the main theme displaying gold characteristics, art works made of gold, and a world record, 220kg, 999 pure gold giant for visitors to see and feel.  There's even a billboard beside the giant gold piece stating "If you can lift me, carry me home!" ~~ (Information from TravelKing)

The Gold Museum (黄金博物馆)

The map of the gold ecological park.

Gold building. Sounds grand right. XD

One of the Benshan Tunnels (Where mining took place)

Once you stepped into the museum, you will see a huge wall coated with gold.
(So difficult to read the words on the golden wall!)

Mining process!

Look at the miniature! Look so cute and it really could tell us story. Awwww......

Gigantic 220kg Gold! 

Taiwan: Day 7 Dongbeijiao 东北角 & Jinguashi 金瓜石

After lunch at the scenic spot, we continue to explore the coastline, for more scenic spots.

Dongbeijiao (东北角), is like the Taiwan version of Great Ocean Road in Melbourne. It is a nice place to visit, and capture the nice views with your own eyes. Cameras do capture moments, cameras do have panorama setting, but sometimes, you still need to enjoy with your eyes. 

2 cute whales. May be a good spot for proposal. XDOne of the spot, but we did not explore. Car just slowly passed by and we could take photos. 

Nice view of Dongbeijiao (东北角)

Then, we had a little walk to The Placard Longdong Bay Cape scenic spot (龙洞湾岬观景区) for some photos. It was drizzling when we reach the parking spot. >.<

LET'S WALK!!

Look at the deep blue sea!

At first I thought that was our lunch spot -- BUT NO. 

Some description of this scenic spot.

It was very windy. Look at the grasses! (Can't feel? I have more evidence)

Gate is the photoboom.

Windy #1~~ Rain Drops~~
But the view was amazing!

Windy #2. Still can smile happily and pose huh.....

Windy #3. Wind is really annoying. >.<
Uncle endanger himself to take this group photo. He stood at a very sloppy spot. Awww.....

Taiwan: Day 7 Eyeglass Cave 眼镜洞 & Shifen Waterfall 十分瀑布

Back to Taiwan Trip! Sorry for going off-topic!

After choosing souvenirs, we left Shifen Sky Lantern place and headed to Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布)! This is the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen -- maybe not for people who travels a lot.

Before we reach Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布), we passed by another smaller waterfall at Eyeglass Cave (眼镜洞). 

You need to cross a bridge --> a canopy --> a bit of railway --> to reach Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布)

View from the canopy.

Water is so clear!

This is the canopy! 

With the blogger.

You need to walk to the other side of the canopy to check out the Eyeglass Cave Waterfall.
Spot it???

Closer view. You need to I-M-A-G-I-N-E!

After crossing the canopy, you are not far from the waterfall!

Remember I said about the little bit of railway? Here it is!
This railway is still functioning and I'm risking my life for photography (cheh....) 为艺术牺牲

Thanks to my photographer! =) 

And here we are! We reached the entrance of the waterfall.

Let me describe a bit about this waterfall. This falls' total height is 20 meters (66 feet) and 40 meters in width, making it the broadest waterfall in Taiwan. (WOW!). It is a cascade waterfall in which the water flows in one direction and the rock is sloped in the opposite. Uncle said this is the Taiwan version of Niagara Waterfall. ~~ Some description I took from Wikipedia *as usual*

Presenting to you the beautiful Shifen Waterfall!