CHIANG KAI SHEK MEMORIAL & MAOKONG - Day 6

With our major sightseeing plans over, we decided to visit areas nearby in Taipei. First of all is Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, easily reached by the MRT of the same name. It was crowded since it was the weekend.

National Theatre or concert hall, don't know which is which...

The actual memorial.

Looking down from the memorial, they were having a Halloween kid's event in the main grounds.

Can't see anything through the crowd. It was the changing of guards ceremony, held every hour.

Chiang Kai Shek, first president of Taiwan. The crowd only dispersed after all the action's over =/

Guards stand very still. There were idiots who thought they were fake and tried to poke them until they were cautioned by security to step back.

An art exhibit on the walls of the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall MRT. Next we decided to visit a place of interest that was situated near an MRT station. I chose Maokong Gondola, a cable car ride building situated beside the Taipei Zoo MRT. They have signs all over the place once you reach Taipei Zoo station so you shouldn't be lost.

The normal cable cars have no queue but the crystal cabins you have to obtain a schedule ticket since it was more in demand but less number of cabins & passengers allowed per cabin. We waited about 30mins before we could even go up, I didn't think it was worth the wait. You use the Easycard to pay for the ride.

Tour groups were queuing for the normal cabins, it was quite crowded since it was a Saturday.

View from the Maokong Gondola station. That blue bridge is the Taipei Zoo MRT track. You can just spot the peak of Taipei 101 mall in the background (2nd pointy thing from the right), which we were going to later.

Crystal cabins just have larger windows and a clear glass bottom.

The ride lasted about 15mins one way. Sometimes gusts of wind would blow into the cabin and everyone would be quiet lol.

They have 3 stops in the mountains where you can get off.

Walking down the road there were stalls selling street food. I wanted a BBQ Taiwanese sausage, going to the one stall with no customers! Fresh from the grill. It was empty when I ordered, then suddenly a whole bunch of people started to patronise the stall as well. This was annoying because some of the people wanted to cut my queue. Sheesh. Yummy anyway!

The view of Taipei up here.

Maokong Mountain is mostly tea houses, spend some hours here strolling and enjoy a pot of chinese tea. There are also some plantations and trails to explore. We didn't know which tea house to visit so we decided to walk down further into the mountains since some of these appeared too crowded.

A pack of stray dogs.

Quiet road. There are tea plantations around.

Large spiders dangling out of nowhere, mostly on the left side of the road, there were a lot of them! I was too afraid to go closer in case the wind changes direction and blew that thing onto me. With Taipei 101 looming in the horizon.

The tea shop we chose, it was a quiet part and further down the trail. It was down a steep slope at a corner. There was only one other customer there, and then 2 others as we waited for our food. It had an outdoor veranda with umbrellas or you could choose indoors. I chose this place because their sign said there was a good view and it was 24 hours.

The view from our table! It was chilly and windy here so later we swopped tables.

Tea seed oil vermicelli, 100NTD. The tea oil is trans-fat free, with vitamin E and the lady said it was easier to digest. It's very plain: just noodles, oil, fried shallots and spring onions. We had to wait 30 mins for our food to arrive since they only cook after an order is placed.

Giant claypot of bittergourd pineapple chicken soup, 400NTD. I had 5 bowls but the pot was still 3/4ths full! We couldn't finish it. It was delicious. The chicken was tasty I think they were local kampong chickens (ya know the kinds that are allowed to run about). The pineapple was just in the soup to make it sweet.

Cute puppies, related to the strays in the earlier photo. The tea house adopted them!

Cute and playful!

Next stop was Taipei 101 mall, once the tallest building until Burj Khalifa of Dubai beat it in 2010. It cost 400NTD (about US$13.40) to go to the observatory deck so never mind. I took a photo on the outside to show we were there! Taipei 101 can be reached by Taipei City Hall MRT and then you take a bus from outside the station. I can't remember which number we took but there are a few that passes the mall if you look at the bus route map.

TAIWAN TAROKO GORGE - Day 5

Yangmingshan was so pretty so my mom and I decided to see more nature landscapes! The night before, I did some extra research on traveling to Taroko Gorge (太魯閣); one of Taiwan's top tourist destinations, but it was 2 provinces away in Hualien. It required a train, and then either a bus or cab; taking a cab offers less of a worry since there are only a total of 4 buses going into the gorge for the whole day. Wouldn't want to be stranded in the wild.

I got up at 5.45am and since it was a Friday I was worried all night that I couldn't secure train tickets lol... Actually it's best to book 2 days in advance for a peace of mind.

Managed to book seats for the 7.20am Tze Chiang (自強) Number 206 train at Taipei Railway Station, just look for the two triangles 'mountains' symbol on the timetables (if you are looking at online schedules). It is an express train from Taipei to Taroko and has less stops. This is not the High Speed Rail (bullet train) but the normal train. I chose the Tze Chiang is because it is faster and more comfortable. There are cheaper trains available but too lazy to look.

My train reaches Hualien at 9.25am, about 2 hours of commuting. Booked return tickets as well, the 6.06pm Hualien train back to Taipei. Total is 792NTD (about US$26.25) for them.

Nice scenery while on the train. Try to book left seats if possible.

Eh this red bridge looks just like the one I made on an ACEO

The morning sun peeking out!

This is passing through Yilan (宜蘭) province I think. Padi fields?

The shores at Hualien

Upon reaching our destination, there was a queue of taxis waiting for tourist business just outside the train station. All of them offer day tours to Taroko Gorge. Simple. They are just normal yellow cabs. The price is 2,000NTD (US$66.25) to take you around the mountains for a day. Standard fees, don't pay more than that, unless the price has risen. The cab drivers speak Mandarin and Hokkien only. I read online about English tours being available, but these cost 3,000 - 5,000NTD depending on how many people are in the cab. I just went with whoever approached me first, the man is the first in line anyway. His name is Mr Hu, license plate 551, very friendly and a safe driver. He brought us to the main areas of interest, took photos of us, introduced the sights and best of all, his car doesn't smell of cigarette smoke.

Mr Hu asked if we wanted to visit a scenic broken cliff (清水斷崖)  just before going to the gorge, that would be an extra 500NTD since it was diverted off the route, we said ok. This cliff is on the outskirts of the gorge and used to be a road through the mountains heading towards Taipei. The tunnels collapsed and they were forced to close the roads down. So now it is just a site for taking photos, or a tourist trap.

It was a bit hazy that day due to humidity but as you can see the waters are aqua hued! The beach isn't sand but tiny pebbles. We didn't get to go down there by the way, just loitered along the roadside platform.

The main archway to Taroko Gorge. Mr Hu said we should take our photos at this gate to prove we've been here.

The waters are turquoise coloured! The rocks are marble, thus Taroko Gorge is also known as the Marble Gorge.

One of the trails called Shadakang. We had half hour at it while Mr Hu waited for us at the carpark.

The sign stated aborigines still lived in the mountains and may use the walking trails for commuting. Here's one.

Bridge of a hundred lions. Each carved lion is different.

Next we headed to Swallow's Grotto (燕子口). The swallows are only there in June-Sept, after that they fly away so the nests are empty for now.

You have to walk through the rock tunnel. Beware of falling rocks, helmets are advised. I noticed westerners liked to mountain bike or ride their own scooters. City folks prefer the cab. Mr Hu said 80% of his customers are from Singapore or Malaysia... The rest are mostly from Taipei or other parts of Asia. There are abundant tour groups especially during the weekends.

Waters spewing out from the faces of the cliffs all over Taroko, really neat!

See the face?? Mr Hu said it was a Native American side profile lol. The waters here are grey due to sediments caused by rain up in the mountains. When the sediments settle the waters are turquoise once more.

Old and new tunnel. The old one is too small for traffic so only humans walk through it now.

Ci Mu Bridge (慈母橋)

Next was the gorge's central village Tianxiang (天祥). They had food, toilets, a buddhist temple and a hotel there. Mr Hu advised us not to eat anything from the stalls due to hygiene. We visited the temple because I read the view there is great! See the pagoda up there? I'm going to climb it.

After a ton of stairs we're finally up here. 

I went up alone my mom couldn't take any more stairs lol.

The view was worth the climb but the wind was quite strong and I was getting heebie jeebies from the height. Felt like I was going to get blown over anytime.

Next we headed to our last destination. The Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞) was unfortunately closed due to falling rocks. The Baiyang trail which features a 2 hour trek leading to some cool waterfall curtains was also still closed from an earthquake collapse. Oh and the road leading to and out from Tianxiang was only open for several minutes per hour due to roadworks clearing a previous rockslide. We had to wait 40mins for the road to re-open before heading to the Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠) below. Mr Hu was playing hokkien music videos on his lcd display while my mom dozed.

This shrine serves as a memorial to the 212 workers who died while building the roads. They did the tunnels all by hand, not machinery.

There's a temple up there leading from the shrine... I couldn't climb anymore stairs so skipped it.

Very crowded here with lots of tourists from China and Korea. I know it doesn't look it in the photos.

We finished our tour at around 4.00pm, he brought us to a little shop where my mom could buy some ornaments (nope no commish). Actually it appears that almost all the rows of shops on that street sell gemstones like jade or rhodonites since it is Hualien's specialty. He said marble factories dominate the vicinity.

It was still early when we reached the train station and possible to swap the train tickets for an earlier time, but the tickets for 5pm were sold out and only had standing room available. So we stuck to the 6.06pm train while eating 7-Eleven bento at the station.