Exploring Taiwan - Rain, Rain Go Away

This is a continuation of my previous post. Please do check my write up on Exploring Taiwan - Tamsui & Shilin

DAY 2

Today, we were supposed to go to Ximending for shopping and to the National Palace Museum before our anniversary dinner. But since we overslept, we ended up going only to the museum. After had our lunch at the same place as day 1, we took the MRT from Jiantian To Shilin before continued our journey by bus to the National Palace Museum.

NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM

This museum holds nearly 700,000 pieces collection of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks and becomes one of the largest museums of its type in the world.

I was quite amazed by the historical range of this museum. They even tell you the history of ceramics, for example, back to the Neolithic's Era.

For the entrance fee, we paid NTD 350 per person and rent an iPod audio for NTD 150.

We spent almost 3 hours there because we were chasing time to get back and getting ready for our dinner. Indeed it is not enough time to cover all floors if you are in a rush and when the place is packed with too many tourists.

To learn the history of how Chinese artifacts were brought Taiwan back in the days was very interesting. What is even interesting to see how many tourists from the mainland are here to see for themselves their country artifacts. Just imagine the profit Taiwan Museum makes out of these exhibits.

Some of impressive collection of jade in the museum

TAIPEI 101

Formally known as Taipei World Financial Centre, Taipei 101 was built in a resemblance of a gigantic bamboo stick in 2004 owned by Taipei Financial Centre Corporation.

The restaurant that we wanted to go is located on the 85th floor. When we get to the 2nd floor to check our reservation and confirmed our names were on the list, the staff ushered us to the lift which took us to 65th floor before changed to another lift to the 85th floor.

Diamond’s Tony Restaurant is an exquisite fine dining Italian restaurant. To dine at this place, a prior reservation is needed and there is no guarantee that you can get sitting by the window. Thanks to @danieldoughty lawyerly like hustle, we eventually managed to get the sitting that we wanted. LOL

View of Taipei from our window

Toward the end of our dinner, we were presented with a little anniversary surprise from Tony’s.

Overall, we had a wonderful memorable experience at Diamonds Tony and the food is excellent. I don’t mind coming back for it’s grilled wagyu beef tenderloin 😁

DAY 3

Today's weather is not on our side but sure enough, it did not stop us from visiting Jiufen. From Songshan MRT Station, we boarded a bus for 1 and a half hours into the rural area and uphill ride before reached our destination. We didn’t really felt the distance or time as we were chatting and enjoyed the sight throughout the journey. Upon arrival, we experienced exceptionally heavy rain and got welcomed by the strong mountain breeze. We quickly looked for a place to warm ourselves at a little corner shop that has interesting food. As matter of fact, it was our first time having noodle herbal soup and barbeque pork on a stick that is very delicious.

Yummy noodle herbal soup

Getting ourselves a cup of coffee with Baileys 😋

Since there is no sign that the rain will stop, and we do not want to waste time, we continued our sightseeing walkabout.

Located in North Taiwan, Jiufen is a popular tourist destination which also known as the mountain city. tourists are more concentrated along the cobblestone steps of Shuqi Road where all the shops are. Dubbed as the Santorini of Taiwan, one can enjoy a cup of hot coffee while overlooking the stunning view of the Pacific Ocean. It was a romantic place to be, there was so much to see, taste and beautiful moments to remember.

Unfortunately, we had to cut the time short because it was getting too cold for our liking. We took a bus back to Riufeng station and board the MRT back to Songshan. Since we already there, we've decided to check out the Wufenpu wholesales market

Wufenpu is indeed a paradise for women, offers a wide variety of women’s clothing and accessories. Since now is winter in Taiwan, almost all garments sold are only suitable for this season.

We tried to visit the whole market area but since it is getting dark, we went back to Shilin market for dinner. Just before we called the night off, we did some shopping and lots more street food bites that is irresistible.

@danieldoughty and his fav food😆

To conclude, It was really a fun day despite the weather. Today weather was 8 degree Celsius, in all honesty, both of us was not really prepared for it. Yet, being true to the spirit of adventure we did as much as we could and still had lots of fun while being cold.

Today (04th February) we managed to go to Shifen despite the heavy rain. Gonna write about it in my next post.

Cheers 😉

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