Category: Taiwan

Travel Diary: Taiwan 2009

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 31, 2009

taiwan ticket

After three months, I was able to finally finish my Travel Taiwan posts (which all happened last September)!  Wow, there was a lot of information to share.  It was why it took such a long time to complete everything!

To make it easy for you to track everything, let me share with you a list of all my Taiwan travel posts. Truly astounding!

Shilin Night Market
Ikari Coffee
Leofoo Village Theme Park
Lunch at 旭成港式料理
Taipei 101
Modern Toilet Taipei
Believe It or Not Museum
Food Tripping at Bali Ferry Port
Shisanhang Museum of Archaeology
Huwei Fort
Fort San Domingo
Bay Cafe Tamsui
Fuyou Temple
Tamsui Longshan Temple
Tamsui Morning Market
Breakfast at Dongwu Hotel Taipei
Taipei Story House
Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Confucius Temple
Pao-An Temple
Cheap Movie House in Taipei
公館 Gongguan
寶藏巖 Treasure Hill
Taipei Water Park
重順川菜餐廳 Chong Shun Restaurant
My Favorite Stinky Tofu in Taipei
中和市興南觀光夜市 Zhong He Night Market
Dinner at 周師傅
一號出口 Gate One Cafe Shop
人間 People Restaurant Taipei
國立臺灣博物館 National Taiwan Museum
台北二二八紀念館 Taipei 228 Memorial Museum
二二八人文咖啡館 Relax 228 Coffee Shop
國家圖書館 National Central Library
中正紀念堂 (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall)
哈瓦那咖啡 (Harwana Coffee)
西門町 (Ximending)
Taiwan’s Ever-Famous Pork Stew Rice (燉肉飯)
至善園 (Garden of Perfected Benevolence)
國立故宮博物院 (National Palace Museum)
饒河街觀光夜市 (Raohe St. Night Market)
Dozo Izakaya Dining Bar
Computer & Electronic Stores at Taipei
台北市動物園 (Taipei Zoo)
肯德基 (KFC Taipei)
蔥花 (Shinyeh’ Table)
台北捷運 (Taipei Rapid Transit System)
朱銘美術館 (Juming Museum)
信三肉圓 (Xin San Rou Yuan)
金包理老街 (Jin Bao Lane Street)
陽明山國家公園 (Yangmingshan National Park)
Breakfast at 美好美 (Mei Hao Mei)

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Shilin Night Market

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 31, 2009

Shilin Night Market

士林夜市 Shilin Night Market
Between end of Wenlid Road, Jihe Road & Zhongshan N. Road
MRT: Shilin Station or Jiantan Station

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If you only had only one night to spend in Taiwan then Shilin Night Market is that place to be in.  It is known to be the most famous and largest night market in Taiwan.  It is very popular among tourists and locals alike.

Vendors usually start to prepare around 4-5PM.  People start to visit the lively & crowded place at around 8pm and usually stay around until 12midnight.  We went to Shilin Night Market at around 10PM and was able to leave at around 1AM.  Wasn’t able to buy much things though coz I was dead tired hahaha!  Bad timing indeed!  I regretted that.

士林夜市 Shilin Night Market is divided into 2 sections.  First is the nonfood, which is a very loooooonggggggggggg strip of shops that sells clothes, accessories, jewelries & other stuff.

clothes shilin

shopping shilin night

There are even pet shops and arcades.   Look at the kittens below, super adorable!

kittens shilin

arcade shilin

The other section is all about food.  This is what Shilin Night Market is very famous for.  Eateries & food stalls cover the whole section.  It was a bit slippery as there were people who spilled food over the floor.  Anyhow, what famous food that can be found here?  There are fried bread, omelettes, noodles, stinky tofu, bubble tea, etc.

food shilin

My feet really hurt a lot after the experience.  There were just too many interesting places to go to!  Time was really never enough to walk around the whole Shilin Night Market.  It was a great experience and definitely unforgettable! 🙂

Did you just ask for more pictures of our last hurray for Taipei trip?  Here is Shopping Galore .

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Leofoo Village Theme Park

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 30, 2009

leofoo village theme park

六福村 Leofoo Village Theme Park
Guanshi Jen, Hsinchu County, Taiwan
886 (03) 5475665
Admission: 890NT

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10 day trip without visiting a theme park?  crazy!!  Well, we were not crazy coz we visited the only theme park in Taiwan, å…­ç¦æ‘ Leofoo Village.  It was an adventure!  We were pressed for time so we only had 2 hours to enjoy the very big amusement park.

I first heard about Leofoo Village through my Facebook.  I posted that I was in Taiwan and was enjoying my holiday when a friend mentioned that I should go to Leofoo Village.  To my surprise, the place is not in my Lonely Planet Travel Guide!  So we googled it and found Leofoo Village’s website.

This is what we found out.  There was a promo every April, May, June, September & October wherein you only need to pay half of the regular admission when you go during their happy hours which is between 3-7PM.  The thing was, when we visited the site it was written as 4-8PM.

We arrived at Leofoo Village at around 4:30 PM.  We were shocked that happy hours were actually 3-7PM and not 4-8PM as it was written on their site.  I even almost went into argument with the staff as she was insisting that whatever written in the website was right.  Well, she was partly right.  The thing is… chinese version has the right time indicated but with the english site which we visited, had the wrong hours written down.  The manager ended up giving us a discount.  We only needed to pay 4 instead of 5 tickets! wohoo!!! Great deal!!

六福村 Leofoo Village Theme Park is divided into 4 sections:

  • African Safari
Since the park was almost closing when we arrived, it already started to get dark.  We missed the zoo, the food and the shows.  Well, the rides are still the must-visit in the theme park so we didn’t really missed out much.  Though, it could have been much more fun if we were able to visit everything.

Sahara Twister

monkey ride

We were pleasantly surprised!  We were fooled into thinking that it was just an ordinary roller coaster ride, but eventually, it was not!  We had to go through a 360 degree spin thoughout the ride.  It was awesome!

  • South Pacific
Pagoda’s Revenge

pagodas revenge

Scary 3-second ride that lets you drop 17 stories straight down to the ground like a free fall.  I saw my colleagues as they were riding this.  I am too scared for this! hahaha!

Mighty Mountain Flume Adventure

mighty mountain flume adventure

If you like to get wet and scream your heart out while a canoe bring you down to a volcano-like-area then this is the place to be.  You’ll absolutely love it.   Oh and yeah, I chickened out! hahaha.  Don’t know what was with me that day.

Captain Cook’s Swinging Ship

swinging ship

This is similar to Anchor’s away (in Enchanted Kingdom, Philippines).  It swings back and forth 7-stories above the ground.  Well, you guessed it right, I chickened out of this too :P:P

  • Wild West
Screaming Condor

screaming condor

Three words: scary, scary and scary. 360 degree spiral whirl while flying and dropping fifty-six meters and running at 122 km/hr.  Yaiks!

Old Oil Well

old oil well

Just watching my colleagues, I could definitely say that this is one hell of a ride!  The thing just swings left to right, right to left then all over 360 degrees.  Definitely not for those weak at heart.

  • Arabian Kingdom
Ring of Fire

ring of fire

If you wanna go around for a 360 degree spin over and over, getting faster as time passes by? Then Ring of fire is for you! 😛

Sultan’s Adventure

sultans adventure

This is the safest ride of all!  hahaha.. no surprises just plain sight-seeing 🙂

The ones I mentioned were just the highlights.  There were other rides too.  You can see them all in my Flickr album here.  We really made good use of our 2 hours there.  Before we got home, we were able to see the dancing lights in the fountain and in the trees.  Astounding!

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Taipei 101

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 22, 2009

taipei 101

臺北國際金融中心 Taipei 101
8 Sung-Chih Road,, Taipei Taiwan, Taiwan
886 (02) 8101-8899‎

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I couldn’t leave Taipei without first visiting the famous tallest building in the world, Taipei 101.  You can easily see that it is tall and of course, beautiful!  We haven’t even entered the building when we started taking pictures.  It isn’t every day that you can go to the world’s tallest building unless you live in Taipei.

When you enter Taipei 101, you’ll be in for a treat.  We were awed at how breathtakingly beautiful Taipei 101 is.  In the basement, you will find a food court.  The lower floors is mostly a mall made up of well-known fashion brand stores.  Floors 89 to 91 are the observation decks where we were able to see the whole of Taiwan (more on that later).  The floors between the observation decks and mall are the most expensive office spaces in Taipei.  I wonder what offices are housed there.

taipei 101 mall

Our reason why we visited Taipei 101 was to go up to the observatory and experience for ourselves the view that you can see from there.  People do go to Taipei just to visit it.  We wouldn’t miss it for the world!  The ticket was priced at 400NT and will allow you entrance.  You’d be able to ride the zooming elevator and also access the observation deck.

taipei 101 tickets

Aside from being the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101 also holds the record for having the fastest elevator.  Believe me, I was able to try it and golly, it was really FAST.  We were able to reach the 89th floor from the ground for only 37 seconds!  that’s 381 meters high!  I was just in awe & I’m glad I didn’t miss the opportunity of taking a video of it so you could experience it as well even just virtually 🙂

As expected, we could really the see the whole Taiwan up there.  The sections are pretty much divided into North, South, East & West Taiwan.  Here are some pictures that I took:

taipei 101 observation deck

taipei 101 pics

taipei 101 view

I also took the chance to have my picture taken for a Taipei 101 memorial photo w/ visitor certificate.  It’s hilarious really!!  We were posing like crazy on a blank wall.  Our poses were like holding on to one another while hugging an imaginary big building, faking a fall or jumping in the air without a background.  The end results were astounding, seeing yourself posing with the photoshopped Taipei 101 😛  I remember spending 300NT for it but to my carelessness, I left the picture & digital copy of the picture at the hotel!! :'(

taipei 101 photo

Lastly, before we headed out to our next destination, we also bought some things to bring home to the Philippines.  We call it “pasalubong”.  They are things that we buy for our friends as souvenirs/gifts from our trip.  I bought like a ton of popular yummy take-home food from 新東陽, mostly at 100NT each.

xin tong yang

More pictures of Taipei 101 can be found here.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua where she talks about her travel experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Philippines and Asia, as well as her adventures in food and restaurants

Believe It or Not Museum Taipei

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 15, 2009

believeitornot

Believe It or Not Museum Taipei
No. 67, Gongming St., Tamsui Town, Taipei 251, Taiwan
886 (02) 2623-3140

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I don’t know if we were just lucky or what.  Earlier that day, my friends & I were given free entrance for the 2 places we visited in Tamsui (Fort San Domingo & Huwei Fort).  Then, when we arrived at Believe It or Not Museum in the evening, it was a pleasant surprise that they had a promo (for that day only).  Their entrance fee was 59NT!  The regular entrance fee is about 180NT.  Wow, we were just so happy!  We ended up saving almost 300NT.

I’m not sure if this is affiliated with Ripley’s but the concept is the same.  The museum is filled with interesting & unusual stuff.  Their material has everything for everyone.  Live animals, good places to take photographs and some not-so-kiddy stuff were displayed in the Tamsui Believe It or Not Museum.

I just can’t help but take a lot photographs & videos!  In fact, I took so much that all my remaining free camera memory was used up.  It was a good thing that my friend brought an extra SD card so I was able to continue taking pictures.  Here are some photos like me posing with a snake & as a prisoner 😛

snake

prisoner

There were many live animals on display.  I took several videos of them.  You can check them all out in my YouTube account.  Reptiles, Parrots, lizards, you name it.  They can be found in the museum!

turtle

Lastly, these items are not something you’d want your children to see.  Well, not yet anyway.  So this is parental guidance. hehehehe 😛  I’ll let you believe what you want to believe based on the pictures that I’ll share with you.

chastitybelt

elephant

horse

More pictures from our crazy observations here.

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