Tag: travel

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.

Food Tripping at Bali Ferry Port

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 14, 2009

bali

Bali Ferry Port
No.36, Guanhai Blvd., Bali Township, Taipei County, Taiwan

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On our way back to Tamsui, we decided to hang out for awhile at the Bali Ferry Port.  This was because when we got down the bus from Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology, we saw numerous stalls selling street food.  They just look yummy that we decided to try out some before riding the ferry.

Honestly, it was overwhelming!  We wanted to try out each and every street food.  There were so many choices!  You know what?  We can only eat so much 😛  So I was only able to try like 5 different types of street food at Bali Ferry Port area.

This one, they called it, car wheel treats.  They sell it for 10NT each.  You can however buy 3 and get 1 for free.

balifood

Remember my ever-favorite Taiwan Street Food?  You guessed it!  Would you believe they have it here too?  But honestly, nothing beats the one I’ve eaten at 中和市興南觀光夜市 (Zhong He night market).  It is sold at Bali Ferry Port for 25NT.  The price includes 2 tofu in 1 stick.

tofubali

Now, this food item was something we wanted to bring home.  Dried meat & we call it “Ma Pa” here in the Philippines.  Yummy, yummy yummy!  This was sold at 100NT per pack.  Anyway, I wasn’t able to bring it home coz I was able to finish it when we got back to the hotel hahaha!

driedpork

Lastly, our favorite from all the ones we tried:  Potato Chips.  Pretty innovative, they were able to put all those potato chips in one stick.  Such great presentation and yummy too btw.  I wasn’t able to buy one coz I was really full.  My friends let me try theirs so I can say that it tasted good.  It was just 35NT per stick.  Affordable!

potatochips

Hayyy, I really miss Taiwan!  I wish our country had a place like this where we could enjoy street foods like there’s no tomorrow.  Such a great experience 🙂

More of Bali Ferry Port here.

Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On December 13, 2009

shisan

十三行博物館 Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology
249臺北縣八里鄉博物館路200號
886 (02) 2619-1313
admission: 100NT

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Shihsanhang Museum is located in Bali but can be reached from Tamsui.  We just need to ride a boat from Tamsui fisherman’s wharf to Bali then ride a bus going to the museum.

The museum is such an awesome site!  It has astounding architectural design that is very hippy & modern.  We even stayed a bit outside the museum appreciating all the sights there.  As you can see in the pictures, the inclined roof is actually a staircase where we can climb up and have a look into the youngest volcano in Taiwan, Taipei Harbor & even the Tamsui River.

shisan

museum

Anyway, Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology offers exhibits on artifacts from Taiwan’s earliest residents.  The museum had a lot of interactive areas in each of the exhibits.  It was very kid & child-friendly!  Those areas would really make your kids and also young at heart like us to be very entertained.  They will also make our brains work coz some of the games were presented in trivia form.

museumgame

Here are some of the exhibits during our visit:

  • Taiwan Landbridge Fauna – during the 1970s, fishermen caught a number of human & animal fossils in Penghu archipelago.  The exhibit showcased the story of those discoveries as well as excavation & restoration.
  • Back to Shihsanhang – the story begins with a Major in the Taiwanese Air Force who discovered the Shihsanhang Site. While flying over the site, the major recorded strange readings. The Major’s recording and other reports on the “rescue excavation” from the site is used to introduce visitors to the Shihsanhang people who lived here.

vase

people

artifacts

You can find more pictures of Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology here.


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