Taiwan 2007 - 1st March(part 2)

Itinerary for Day 1

KLIA -> HK International Airport -(transit)-> CKS International Airport(TTY) -(airBus 33)-> Hotel -(MRT)-> CKS Memorial Hall -(MRT)-> Ximending -(MRT)-> Longshan Temple -(walk)-> Huaxi Street Night Market -(MRT)-> Ximending -(MRT)-> Hotel

Upon arrival at CKS International Airport(TTY) we were ready to shoot rite out of the airport. We got our passports stamped and grabbed our bags as soon as they came out. Taipei's airport is like Melbourne Airport except smaller, nothing much to see/shop there.

We headed out of the airport, turned left heading towards the bus companies and quickly purchased a ticket(airBus, bus No.33) that drops us rite in front of our hotel(NT$110 per person). We stayed at Taipei Fortuna Hotel. It took us around 1hr30min to reach the hotel. We checked-in and got our keys as well as a 3pin adapter for our camera chargers. Without wasting any time, we dumped our baggage, washed up a bit and headed out the hotel.

We walked to the MRT station which is like 2 blocks behind our hotel, its not that far. Taiwan has a smart card system - EasyCard, you can use it on the MRT, on the bus and even in convenient stores, wherever you see this logo.
The cards cost NT$500(each) with NT$100 refundable and NT$400 usable credit, with minimum NT$100 top-ups. You also get a 20% discount per trip on the MRT.

Taipei's MRT is very easy to use with good signage both in Chinese and English, spacious and a queuing system which people actually USE! There are MRT attendants standing in front of the MRT directing people from exiting and entering the MRT, to prevent accidents from happening. At the main stations where you switch trains there are MRT staff everywhere, controlling the traffic flow and to be of any assistance to passenger who have questions.

Okay enough about the MRT. Back to my TRIP.

The station behind the hotel is Minquan W. Rd station. Our next stop was CKS Memorial Hall station to see the Memorial Hall night scene. When you exit the MRT station turn to your right and you will see the "National Concert Hall". Opposite it is the "National Opera House". And rite at the far end at 70 meters in height the "Memorial Hall. Because the Memorial is encircled by a garden of 25 hectares, everything has been executed in grand dimensions. Opposite the "Memorial Hall" is " The Gate of Great Centrality and Perfect Uprightness",this is the main entranceway to the memorial.

I went there with the purpose of capturing the night scene but the main hall was not exactly brightly lit. I was dissapointed that i could not get nice shots. There was a sort of an exhibition of Lanterns made by primary and secondary school children. This is not your ordinary lanterns you carry around, these are huge lanterns which have music and moving parts as well.

There was a mini "visit your country"(Macau, HK, Philippines, Malaysia...) sort of setup at the front of the gates. It looked odd to me to be displaying these there but it was there. We soon set off to go visit the "Longshan Temple". Went back to the CKS Memorial Hall station and got off at Longshan Temple station. Now how easy is it to get to your next tourist spot, they are named after it, hehehe.

When you exit the station turn right again, walk all the way until you reach the crossroad, its on your right(you won't miss it). Manka, now known as the Wanhua district, is the first part of Taipei to be developed. Longshan Temple is a famous old temple in Taiwan. It is for worshiping Guanshiyin Buddha and other divine spirits. Longshan Temple is facing the South. Its architecture is a three-section design in shape. There are the front hall, the rear hall and the right/left dragons protecting the middle hall. The layout is square and serene. The temple was built in Chianlung 5th year in Ching Dynasty. Due to natural disaster and damages caused by men, the temple was restored for several times.

Again i was disappointed not to get good photos again, cause this time i did not bring a tripod and it was very dark without good lighting. Admission is free by the way.

Exiting the temple we turned right and turn right again at the crossroad to reach Huaxi Street Night Market. The night market, together with night markets on Guangjou Street, Wujou Street and Shichen Street have formed a large unique market. Various commodities are sold here and it is one of the favored sites of tourists. In the early years, Huashi street is famous for congregated porno shops. After prostitution is banned by Taipei City Government, the sightseeing quality is greatly uplifted and the place becomes safer. Huaxi Street Night Market is famous for snake shops. There are about 2 to 3 snake shops that demonstrate snake processing and snake fights at nights. The shows usually attract a large crowd.

We did see the snake shop but it wasn't that interesting as said and there was definitely no crowd. Maybe due to the fact that it was a thursday night. We didn't spend much time there and headed for the MRT station again. We didn't want to spend much time there cause we wanted to go to Ximending. We took the MRT to Ximen station and came out at exit 2. Ximending pedestrian mall has been the fashion Vatican for young people since its establishment.

By the time we got there we were pretty hungry, so we went scouting for food. Food is not an issue in Taipei, its everywhere and inexpensive. Along the roads there are stalls and eateries in the small shop lots. We soon found a shop selling fried dumpling, ordered 5 of their specialty dumplings(NT$5 each). Reverse a bit, upon reaching Ximending, you will notice the way people dress are different. Ximending is famous for Harajuku fashion(Gothic Lolita). You`ll also notice the crowd here are younger and more for the teenagers to hangout. You`ll see a lot of entertainment outlets as well, not with arcade games but with those toy machine games and basketball machine games(a very popular and favourite game machine in Taiwan, its everywhere).

After shopping around for a while and our stomachs filled, i too hit the entertainment shops with those basketball machines(one of my favourite i must admit). We ended the night just walking around and also visiting the Red Playhouse, which is exactly opposite the exit from the MRT station. We were quite tired by that time and didn't go in the red playhouse to explore and just stood outside to take some pictures. We left Ximending close to 11pm. Took the MRT back to our hotel and called it a night. While we're walking back to our hotel from the MRT station we passed by a convenient store, Hi-Life. We bought some drinks and instant noodles which we can't get back home and the variety they have just makes 7-eleven back home look understocked.

That's all for Day 1. Will post up the pictures from day one soon.

To be continued...