Maokong, Taipei

Moakong is the name given to the Southern hills of Taipei, they have a history of tea growing and there are numerous tea shops dotted around. This is where i went the other day and is probably my favorite place in Taipei. Despite spending 10 hours here, i still didn't have time to see all the sights here, in fact i think i saw very little. My main problem is planning, or a lack of; this normally means that i arrive at place and wander around for about an hour hoping to discover something, when this fails i usually go the information booth and find a map and some information. This is pretty much how my day started. 

To get to the top of Moakong, you take a 20 minute gondola which had some pretty amazing views, they would have been more amazing if it wasn't cloudy/ Taipei wasn't so polluted. The gondola had a few stops to get off at, one being Taipei zoo. I didn't get off here because i'd been here before; the second stop however stopped at a place called Zhinan Temple. I got off here an had a look round for a while, there were a couple of temples here and a few short walks round the mountain. There wasn't so much to see here so after about an hour i got back onto the gondola and proceeded to the top!

A 10 minute gondola ride later i had arrived at the top. This is when i did my usual thing of walking around aimlessly for an hour. I had heard that there was a temple over the other side of the mountain, that had a tunnel in it that came out behind a waterfall, i though this sounded like a pretty good place to go. Even though i didn't know where it was or have a map, i decided to try and find it. The search started pretty well, there was a sign post for a trail i knew would take me close to the falls. The only problem was that i had to get to the top of the mountain which mean climbing about 700 steps, due to a combination of me not doing much exercise in a long and the weather being very humid meant that this was a struggle and by the time i got to the top i was knackered! At the top was a very small path with a sign leading down the other side of the mountain, it look as though no one had been down in a very long time but i thought 'what's the worst that can happen' and continued on anyway.

I walked down this path to the bottom of the valley for about an hour, it wasn't the easiest track in the world, some parts of the part had worn away, others were covered in slippery rock and on some bits, the decent was so steep that a rope had been tied round a tree to help you down. It was after about 40 minutes down this path when i realised that there weren't any signposts or markers but i didn't think anything of this and keep pushing on. Little did i know that 20 minutes later the path forked and I'd be in a bit of a dilemma. When this happened, i walked down each path for 10 minutes and didn't find anything so i gave up and walked back up the the top of the mountain. I was a little annoyed to say the least and to add insult to injury, when i got to the top, i looked in my backpack for some water and found my lonely planet guide which when i read though properly, it told me which direction to go. This has not put me off though, i will be going back to Moakong before i leave to find this place, if it's an anticlimax when i get there i won't be happy!

Needless to say i needed a rest after my pointless trek, so i went into one of the many tea shops and tried some local green tea and had a waffle to perk me up again. Maybe it was just because i was tired but this was the best waffle i'd ever eaten.

I think i stayed in the teashop for about 2 and a half hours before thinking that i should probably get a bit more exercise so went for another search of the area. I soon found an old Kitchen/ tea drying room which was quite interesting, but i was soon chased off by an angry sounding dog. I still don't know weather it was a tourist attraction or if i'd walked into someone's house by mistake.

I spent the rest of the day walking around the right hand side of Moakong, i visited another temple and saw numerous tea plantations and crops. It was a really cool place but i think i only saw about half of it and there are a few museums and other attractions i am yet to see so i'm planning to head back there before i return home. It's definitely a place i'd recommend to anyone going to Taiwan! 

Taipei 101, The Grand Hotel & Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

I now only have a week left in Taiwan so i'm trying to do as much as i can each day. This is  not as easy as it sounds and is quite a challenge! Partly because i can't seem to wake up before 10am and partly because the last 3 days have been around 30 degrees and very humid, when the weathers like this it is very tempting to spend the afternoon in a nice air conditioned bar!  Nether the less, i fell i have been quite productive over the last few days.

I've been to Danshui again, i'd been here once before but didn't manage to see everything. I had another wander round the street markets and visited Fort San Domingo, a Spanish fort from the 18 hundreds. However, this was about all we saw because tiredness and the heat go the better of us so we retreated to a bar to grab a beer!

On the way back from Danshui, we stopped in at Taipei 101, the worlds second tallest building and took the worlds fastest elevator to the 90th (top) floor, this took about 36 seconds, pretty impressive i thought. The view from the top was nothing spectacular but i did get a beer float which was, in my opinion, a culinary sensation. It's basically a cup of beer with a scoop of ice cream in it. It was worth paying to go up Taipei 101 just to have one! 

Last Sunday was Mothers day (sorry i didn't ring mum, it's too expensive) and i was taken out to the grand hotel by my boss in Taiwan and his family. I had a great meal (roast beef) and had a really good day. We ate in the hotel club restaurant; i am lucky because you have to be a member to go there so most tourists cannot go there.

The next day i went to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial hall, i know even less about this guy than i did about Chiang Kai-shek, come to think of it i know nothing about Sun Yat-sen. I didn't even go inside the hall because it was too busy and i wasn't prepared to queue. I did wander round the place though and snap a few pictures. I had a good view of Taipei 101 from here too.

I didn't spend too much time at the memorial hall and decided to head towards Taipei 101 again so i could go up it in the daytime. On arrive, i realised that i wasn't willing to pay again to go up, it was very expensive compared to other attractions. Instead of going up, i went to an Irish bar with a view of the tower and had a Guinness!  

Palace Museum, Din Tai Fung, Beef Noodles & Snake Alley!

I think i did more walking today than i have over my entire trip in Taiwan. In the morning i went to Taipei Palace Museum, it wasn't the most exciting museum and i wasn't aloud to take pictures inside. There were hundreds of Jade, bronze and clay artefacts as well as lots of painting and parchments. I don't know how i managed to, but i was looking around for about 3 hours.

After 3 hours of walking around a museum, i had worked up a monster appetite, so i went to a famous dumpling restaurant called 'Din Tai Fung', i've eaten loads of dumpling while i've been in Taipei but these were by far the best i've ever tasted! The restaurant had 3 floors and each one was packed for most of the day, Luckily we arrive at about 3pm so didn't have to queue but if you go after 4.30pm there is normally a 2 hour wait and queue a block long. 

The dumpling were amazing but there was still more to come. Close to the dumpling place was a restaurant with the best beef noodles in Taipei, since i was so close i figured i better go. I was glad i did and the noodles lived up to expectations, i had to bring some home with me though because i couldn't finish them, they'll do nicely for breakfast!

After filling up on some fine cuisine, we went to get some green tea to clear the pallet. There was a really good organic tea shop near the restaurant so we went there and i learnt how to properly brew green tea. 

I'd heard about a place called snake alley which is in one of the many night markets in Taipei so our next aim of the day (technically it was dusk by this point) was to find it. After a lot of getting lost and a very long walk we finally found the market, in snake alley there are lots of restaurants that sell snake soup, which consist of meat, snake blood and snake venom, it cost $700 to buy so i didn't buy any but i've heard it tastes as bad as it sounds. You could also buy a shot of snake wine, a snake is put into a jar full of alcohol and venom, this also tastes as bad as it sounds. There was also turtle soup available, maybe i'll try it one day!