Taipei Revisited 2011-Lunch @XMD,Bank of Taiwan, National Palace Museum (国立故宫博物院）

 It's our last day in Taipei and I did not planned anything in the morning. Woke up, took breakfast and went back to our room to rest after 3 hectic days.

We checked out at 12pm and decided to pamper ourselves at the buffet restaurant we saw during our 1st trip here. Went to Rakuya BBQ restaurant located beside Rainbow hotel. Its at level 2. I forgot the prices we paid but it is not expensive at all.

At 12pm, the restaurant is pretty empty. Besides us, there is another Singaporean family having their lunch there too. There is however a time limit for the buffet, 2hours were allocated. We struck to the time limit though I don't know what would be the penalty for taking longer time.

Hotpot and BBQ

 The food selection here is pretty good. I loved the BBQ but not the hotpot though. Soup base tastes pretty bland no matter how much ingredients we throw in.

Mr Love looks like he is clapping. Haha

 By 12.30pm, the restaurant is filling up with locals and tourists. Am lucky that we came early and ordered whatever we want already.

There is a list of things you can order from and some counters that serves desserts and ice cream.

Hot pot

 Speaking of ice cream, this is the 1st time I've seen Haagen dazs ice cream served in a buffet can? I was so excited that I tried almost every flavour available. Haha Sua Ku.

Meiji ice cream

My favourite part of the buffet

王子面- Taiwanese maggie mee

 We took exactly 2hours to finish as I was keeping track of time. It is pretty stressful to eat within a time limit and I am not exactly very pleased with it.

Had a good and fulfilling lunch here and the price is reasonable.

Round 1 of the food we ordered

 After spending the most of our leftover for this buffet, we realised we need to serach for a money changer to buy more Taiwanese currency since we still have half a day more in Taipei. Asked around for the nearest branch of Taiwan Bank where they will accept Singapore dollars and walked in the direction of it.

Taipei hospital

 We then realised the bank is no where near XMD after walking for 10min. It is no where in sight and we came to a small neighbourhood. I didn't even know where we were. But there is no way we can take a cab since we did not know the exact address of the bank.

Thus I went into random shops along the way to ask for directions to the bank. We spent a good 15min trying to locate the bank all the while don't where the heck we were. The surrounding building look kinda old too. Its like a local neighbourhood instead of a tourist area.

Buildings near the bank

 Its a different Taipei that we seen. Though am not happy for taking so long to locate the bank but we are glad to have another feel of Taipei. The reason why we are searching for Bank of Taiwan is because the smaller banks do not accept Singapore dollars and there are no moneychanger in XMD or Taipei Main station area as far as I can see.

The only downside of Taipei as compared to HK is this. Nearly every where I go in HK, I can see a moneychanger accepting major currencies but not here in Taipei.

We finally found the bank after much asking and realised they closed at 3pm.Lucky for us, we reached at 2:45pm. Was directed to 2nd level to change the currency and were pleased to find that their rates were even better than Singapore. The only thing is, you must provide your passport/IC as proof.

Location of bank from XMD

I think checked with the bank teller on how to get to National Palace Museum(国立故宫博物院) from here as I had initially planned from getting there from our hotel. She gave me the most easiest way out, to take a cab. Haha. I told her I didn't want to, else will not need her help already. I can go on the street to flag a cab down.

I was hoping that there would be a direct bus from here. Either that or I could catch a bus to the MRT where I can transfer to Danshui Line. My biggest problem now is, I don't even know which part of Taipei I am in and the nearest MRT. Cannot be walk back to XMD right?

Turns out, there is a direct bus 304 at the nearest bustop to the bank. We were warned that the journey is pretty long but decided to push thru anyway. Another option is to take a bus to ZhongShan MRT station where I can take the train to Shihlin station where I will have to catch Bus R30 to the museum. Either way will take equal time we reckon.

1st look of National Palace Museum in Taipei

The bus journey was about 1hr plus and we slept all the way to the museum since it is the terminal station.

No phototaking is allowed in the museum and thus explained the lack of pictures in this post. Tickets are priced at NTD160 and I overheard some neighbour country citizens commenting that they still have to pay to see exhibits of their country. Hur Hur.

 National Palace Museum boasts the world's largest collection of Chinese art & aritfacts. We randomly went around the exhibition halls checking the exhibits out and stood near to the tour group to hear what their tour guide is explaining hehe.

But it was impossible to cover all the halls in the 2hours we had there and we skipped some of the exhibits. The museum also changed their exhibits periodically since they had some 655,000 pieces with them. I think it is quite impossible to display all out at 1 go.

 The must see collection piece here would be the jade cabbage, pork belly jade and passenger boat craved from an olive pit.  When we realised time is runing out, we went around the museum seraching for these. Haha

I even brought a replica keychain from the gift shop.

We then took R30 back to Shihlin station where we transferred to Jiantan to visit Shilin night market for 1 last time before departure.

It has been a good 4 days here and I look forward to our next visit.

National Palace Museum,Taipei

Add: No.221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin District, Taipei City
Directions: Take MRT to Shilin station, at Exit 1, take bus R30
Opening hours: 8:30 -18:30
Tickets: NTD 160 for adults
              NTD 80 for youth travel cards

Taipei Revisited 2011-Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall-中正纪念堂

 We gave this place a miss during our last trip due to the typhoon. I planned this place in this round. As we stayed in Xi Men Ding, it pretty easy to get here. There are 2 ways in fact.

1). At Ximending station, take the blue line train to Taipei main station, transfer to the Green line towards Xin Dian (新店）and alight at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station (中正纪念堂站).

 2).  At Ximending station, take the light green line train and alight at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station (中正纪念堂站). This is a preferred way as it is less crowded, no transfer is needed and of course faster.

Of course, we chose the 2nd way.

Map of the park

The front gate

 The memorial hall is right beside the exit for the MRT station. I once heard that Taipei rains 200+ days a year and it's the 1st day it rained since we reached here. Since the memorial hall is an enclosed area, we have no problem with rain but to walk from the main gate to the memorial hall is quite a distance. So still need to prepare an umbrella for the unforeseen circumstances.

Side hall

Main hall

Walking towards the main hall

Map of the main hall

 There are 89steps that leads to the main hall. These steps represent the age of Mr Chiang Kai Shek had lived. The opening hours are from 9am-6pm, admission is free.

However, we are too early today and had to stand outside to wait for the hall to be open.

View from the main hall

 At 9am sharp, the heavy door leading to the main hall open slowly and the huge statue of Mr Chiang appeared slowly before our eyes. A crowd had already formed by this time and were waiting patiently to enter.

Doors slowly opening

Guards all ready for the parade

Parade starting

 Similar to Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall and Martyr's Shrine, there are guards of the arm forces guarding the main hall during opening hours. Guard changing period will take place at every hour. I am not sure which arm forces these guards belonged to but it is said that they will rotate between the forces periodically.

KMT Crest on the ceiling

 After taking photos of the bronze statue of Mr Chiang, we moved on the various exhibition halls inside. Mr Love had been here before but had mostly forgotten what was on displayed. Typical him.

Photo of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek and Mr Sun Yat-Sen

More photos with other leaders of the time

Writings of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek

Signing UN Charter in 1945

 We went around the exhibition hall going through the photos on display and the various artifacts. I didn't have much concept of the history between Taiwan and China, only knowing the main outline.

This exhibition halls only display the life of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek but didn't mentioned much on the history on why he came to Taiwan. It is to say, there is no political links here as far as I can see. It is just like a history museum to us.

Victory over Japan day

With his wife Mdm Chiang

Moving on from the hall that displays photos and paintings, we moved on to the hall where artifacts are displayed. Here there are display of writings of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek, items that he used, gifts by other countries and many many more. There are far too many to take photo of them all. We moved on quickly with me only taking pictures of things that interest me.

Some writings with a lot of correction it seems

Mr Chiang Kai-Shek clothings

Various badges

With Mr Chiang Kai-Shek's car

Portrait of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek in his military uniform

Oil painting of Mr Sun Yat-Sen & Mr Chiang Kai-Shek

The car & I

Mr Chiang's sedan

The last exhibition we came to is where his former office are displayed. Not sure whether they are using the original furniture are used but it is display true to his last working place.

His office

1 thing I am sure is the clock displayed here is the very same in his office at the time of his death. It is said that the clock stopped at the time of his death, this is quite amazing to us.

Clock that stop at time of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek's death

Got bored after this and we moved to the gift shop to do some shopping. Still I find it interesting to visit here once when you are in Taipei to understand a bit about their founding father.

Taipei Revisited 2011-Keelung Miaokou Night Market (基隆庙口夜市）

Bus in Taiwan do not necessary stop right in front of your intended destination as there are usually quite a few streets surrounding your destination especially in a night market.

When we 1st alight at the bus stop, we had no idea where to go as we were dropped in front of a row of shops and the night market is no where in sight.

I randomly choose someone who looked like a local and asked for directions. Turns out, we just need to walk straight to the junction and cross the road. The entrance of the night market is there.

Keelung Miaokou Night Market is famous for the large selection of food and boy, it did not disappoint us. The crowd is manageable on a weekday night and we move around in ease.

Entrance of Keelung Night Market

Mr Love brought a spring onion pancake (葱油饼） from 1 of the vendors near where we enter and start munching away as we walked. Its tastes like our version of roti prata with lots, I mean really ALOT of spring onions added to it. Not too bad, but too much spring onions.

Haw candy

We walked with the crowd and came to the main food street where many yellow lanterns hang overhead. It was bustling with activity, vendors standing outside their stall trying to outdo each other with their shouting to attract customers.

The thing to note about Taiwanese night market is that the dining area is pretty squeezy. You will be sitting hand touching hand with each other in their table. Not very comfortable if you have a big bag but we survived. I just swing my backpack in front for the whole meal.

Yummy fried chicken

There is also a temple here, I guess the is where the name Miaokou (庙口） which means in front the temple came from. We didn't go in though, I just clasped my hand together and pray from afar.

Temple in the middle of Keelung night market

We found a stall selling hotplate noddles with either chicken/pork chops or steak and decided to take our dinner here. The vendor serves us free refillable cold tea.

The chicken chop served was generous. Dun even need to eat the pasta and I am already full. It was served with mushroom sauce and I broke the yolk and mixed it around the pasta.  Had a satisfied dinner here which sets us back by NT100 bucks (SGD 5++) each only.

Hoplate Chicken chop pasta

We walked around the night market aimlessly for awhile more and decided to call it a day. Notes had stated that we can walked back to Keelung train station from the night market and it is pretty near but we had no idea which direction to go.

Asked some random people who pointed to the same direction and we decided to ask as we walked. We exited from the night market where the main food street is and started walked straight and stop along the way to check out the stalls and shops. It was not a short walk like what was told to me. Again, I presumed it is due to the different definitions of "Near" and "Far" for Taiwanese and Singaporeans.

Asking you to treasure your life while providing a bin for the butts

Upon walking past the row of shops, you will come across a underpass, used it and cross to the other side of the road and you come face to a row of shop again. Walked straight again and take the overhead bridge. It will link to the train station but we turned left and walked down to Keelung Harbour.

Route from Keelung station to night market

There is a stretch of benches along the harbor with many couples sitting there, dating. Tried taking pictures but my stupid camera cannot take any decent night scene pictures.

Keelung harbour at night

Keelung bus station is on the same side of the harbor but need to walk past the row of shops to get there. We did not check it out as we going to take the train back to Taipei instead of bus. To get to the train station, we took the overhead bridge again.

Keelung bus station

Keelung station

Keelung station is the terminal station for trains. Thus there is no worry of not getting on the wrong train to Taipei. Trains here departure pretty frequent so it is pretty convenient to get back to Taipei.

Train schedules

Automated ticketing machines

As usual I couldn't figure out how to use the automated machines and used the conventional way to buy tickets via the ticketing counter. Tickets for express train back to Taipei costs NT64 (SGD 3). Journey is around 45mins.

Platform

Inside the express train

Snacks brought from 1 of the shops in Keelung

As we pull out of the station

Train tickets

We were pretty impressed with Keelung Miao Kou Night Market though it might be a bit out of the way from Taipei. But if you are going to a day trip to Jiufen, it might be a good idea to come here from there via bus.

It's worth making a trip here where you will find a lot of good food to try.