15-18 January 2015
I thought we had already left behind the
bad luck from Taipei 1.0. It was a new year after all. But alas… a week before
our trip, we realized that we made a mistake in booking our tickets. Instead of
booking for 3 days in Taipei, we only booked for 2 days in Taipei. So, we had
to cram our original itinerary and slash out a few activities. But the biggest headache
was that the Pope was arriving in Manila on the day we were supposed to leave. Don’t
get me wrong, I like the Pope but there were scheduled roadblocks around the
airport, making it impossible to get into the airport 3 hours before our
flight. As a result, although our flight was at 22:00, we arrived at the
airport around 12:00. Plus, a lot of flights were cancelled and although ours
was not, we were worried that if there weren’t enough passengers on our flight,
Cebu Pacific might cancel it—after 10 hours in the airport!
To make matters worse, I had a slight
discomfort in my chest, which signified that I was about to get sick.
Nevertheless, I placed all my anxiety inside a box and put myself in
positive-mode. Although we almost missed the boarding call again (Our
gates changed last minute and Cebu Pacific didn’t even announce that our flight
was already boarding 10 minutes before the actual boarding time), at the wee
hours of the morning, we found ourselves in Taipei. Yay!
Day 1
We started the day early and took the
train to a nearby town called Shifen. Part of the Pingxi Line, it’s a quaint
old town with a railroad crossing the heart of what they call Shifen Old
Street. Along that railroad are shops selling Chinese food, souvenirs and
lanterns that are meant to be lit up with your wishes.
 |
| Train passing thru Shifen Old Street |
After writing our wishes on a sky lantern
and letting in fly away, we went to the Shifen waterfalls. It was about
20 minutes away from the Shifen Old Street.
 |
| Shifen Waterfalls |
Originally, we were also planning on
going to Jiufen, another town along the Pingxi Line. However, we decided to go
back to Taipei. That night, we went to Ximending, the trendy area of
Taipei, and had our dinner at the Modern Toilet Restaurant. There was
nothing special about the food but what was unique about the restaurant was how
they serve it—in a toilet bowl.
 |
| Modern Toilet Restaurant |
After dinner, we went to the Shilin night
market. I wanted to try some street food but nothing caught my eye. In the end,
we decided to join a long queue for chicken and mashed potato in gravy sauce.
 |
| Shilin night market |
Day 2
I had a nasty sore throat when I woke up.
Luckily, my friend had some Paracetamol and painkillers, and since we were
already leave by midnight, I just had to survive the day. We checked out first
thing in the morning then left our bags in a locker at the Taipei Main Station.
I
wanted to go the National Palace Museum but all my companions wanted to go to
Taipei Zoo. I don’t usually fancy animals in the zoo (I prefer to see them in
the wild) but I have to admit it was nice to see an adorable panda eating bamboo
grass and the giraffe was so clean it looked fake. The zoo was really big and
although we spent the entire morning there, we weren’t able to see all the
animals.
 |
| Adorable panda eating grass |
In the afternoon, we visited the Chiang
Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Confucius temple and Lungshan temple. Gail bought a
kite and ran around, outside National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. We had an
early dinner at the popular Din Tai Fung in Taipei 101, where we had Xiaolongbao
(soup dumpling).
 |
| View from Chiang Kai-Shek |
After dinner, we went up the 88th
and 89th floor of Taipei 101. I wasn’t really fond of the cityscape,
but I was eager to see the damper ball. The damper balances the building’s
vibration during earthquakes. And right
before we left, we went to the outdoor deck on the 91st floor.
 |
| Taipei 101 damper ball |
We couldn’t stay much longer since we had
a flight to catch. Our trip in Taipei was pretty quick but in some ways, I was
glad we were going home that night because I was pretty sick and I felt like
sh** (I had a fever by the time we reached the Philippines).
 |
| Taipei 101 |
|
Category
|
PHP
|
NTD
|
|
Transportation
|
10,502.57
|
962.00
|
|
Airfare
|
7,992.57
|
0.00
|
|
Taxi, metro, train, etc
|
340.00
|
962.00
|
|
Travel Tax, Terminal Fee
|
2,170.00
|
0.00
|
|
Accommodation
|
555.66
|
1,322.00
|
|
Food
|
125.00
|
547.00
|
|
Attractions
|
0.00
|
600.00
|
|
Shopping
|
0.00
|
350.00
|
|
Personal souvenirs
|
0.00
|
250.00
|
|
Gifts
|
0.00
|
100.00
|
|
Others (Visa)
|
2,100.00
|
60.00
|
|
Total
|
PHP
13,283.23
|
PHP
3,841.00
|
|
Grand Total
|
PHP 18,696.55
|
|
