Last year's Taipei stint

As we had visited the few nice places in Taipei before, we didn't have the interest to revisit them during the recent trip.

To name a few favorite places I would recommend anyone visiting Taipei are:

1. Hualien Taroko National Park. Though the journey is longer, it's totally worth it. I had been there twice but I think the more memorable one was the first one we had with JM. We were blown away with the beauty of the scenic gorge.

2. Yehliu. Natural rock formations. Been there twice or thrice too, can't remember. Uniquely different and awesome.

3. Chiufen.

4. Yangmingsan.

5. Tanshui.

I have a few favorite food I absolutely love too, but not the street fare type. I just can't find the appetite for them, not 10 years ago, and not last year too.

The last trip, hubs asked me what I wanted to eat to revisit those taste buds. I gave it a long thought, and listed a few things I wished for. Bubble milk tea, which can be obtained anywhere at all, yien-shu-ji (a type of fried chicken bites stirfried with dried chilli), ting kwa kwa fried chicken drumstick, salty pepper prawn, and, I can't remember now.

In the end, I had a cup of bubble milk tea each day, had yien-shu-ji and ting kwa kwa, but not the salty pepper prawn, which is a bit hard to find.

We went to Shihlin night market on our first night for dinner and shopping. Can't find anything much to loot home, as comparatively I think things are rather pricey there.


The highlight for me was visiting Taipei International Flora Expo, while the hubs was away visiting his client. I arrived after 3pm and paid for the reduced entrance fee of NT200 from 300. It was so crowded with people. I didn't really survey before what the highlights of the Expo and just went in, playing by ear.

Saw a long Q to an exhibition hall, and I was told it would be roughly 30 mins wait to come to its entrance. Thought it would be rather silly to waste 30 precious mins waiting in a Q line, especially in the very nice chilly weather to be enjoying the outdoors, smelling the flowers.

So I took a long big walk around 1 of the 4 BIG areas. The Expo took up an area so big that there are 5 entrances and shuttle buses ferrying visitors between the areas.

Nevertheless, it was a HUGE garden with lots of different variety colorful flowers to admire. I felt so happy and contented. But I wanted to cover as much as 2 areas as possible, so I had to walk rather briskly, not really stopping to enjoy each and every display in detail. More like touch n go.

It was a very fruitful time for me indeed, and by the time I made a big loop from where I began, I saw the line to the first exhibition hall had disappeared! Everyone were at the Q in another hall instead, where bright lights and lasers were the highlight.

I went into that first hall, and there were displays of competitors for flower arrangement and theme settings. What an eye opener indeed! Every display and artwork is just breathtakingly beautiful.

It was evening by then and hubs SMS-ed me to get my ass back to the hotel room to have dinner with him.

Dinner was at Taipei 101. A free shuttle bus took us from the nearest MTR station, driven by a skinny dressed Santa Claus. The whole bus was decorated elaborately to give a vibrant lively Xmas feel, and it worked! I felt so thrilled riding in it! Definitely raised the mood up 1 notch higher!


Went on the Maokong Gondola, and as you can see from the picture above, a few of the gondolas have glass as the base where you can see the view below. The fare is the same as normal gondolas, but the Q for the ride up is roughly 30 mins, as these gondolas are few. We took a normal one up and this one down, for there wasn't a need to wait for that on the return journey. But to cater to the demands, we need to ride in 5 in each car, so there wasn't much privacy. As you can see, there were the legs of a couple in the pic.

Maokong has not much to offer to tourists, but we could have seen more venturing on the few hiking trails available, if given more time. As we were rushing off to Tanshui to meet a friend of hubs, we just walked a bit on the top of the hill and came back down not long after.

In Tanshui, the friend dropped us off at a hot springs center while she continued on her work at her office nearby. This centers are so convenient for people to sneak out quietly for a rendezvous, paying at the guard post, and driving straight in to a garage which is opened when paid. After parking in the garage, we just need to press for the button to lower down the shutters and walk up the stairs to the room which is fully equipped with four poster bed, large plasma TV, adjacent restroom with a big jacuzzi for hot springs like above and ... movies to "arouse" the senses!! What a romantic and sexciting room. Some rooms are equipped with karaoke units too, if you so wished. 3 hours in this room costs something like NT3000. Our friend paid for our un-romantic time, since we are already "loe fu loe chai" *sigh*

And that was how our Taipei 4d/3n itinerary looked like. Not much going on, but it was, as my blog title aptly put, simple yet sweet.

If there's ever a next time visiting Taiwan, I think I would want to go for the famous sunrise at Alishan and the few cities apart Taipei. Then again, I don't think there would be a next time for a long long time.