A long waited family holiday at last! We actually have to brainstorm where we can bring them for a short holidays. Hong Kong ? Macau ? Bali ? Vietnam ? Finally, we settled for Taipei as the food and language seems most suitable for the older folks, and hopefully not too tedious for them. They have been to Taiwan more than a decade ago but they seems to have forgotten many of the places they have visited.
Anyhow, we planned to have a really relaxing holiday with minimal itinerary planned.
Off to Taiwan from beautiful Terminal 2!
It took about 4.5 hours to reach Taiwan. We arrived too early .. it was only about 5:30am when we reached Taoyuan airport ! We bought bus tickets to Taipei city. It was an early day ... which posed as a problem :) We alighted at Taipei main station thinking that we can rest and at the same time eat a long breakfast at the foodcourt there. Unfortunately, the food court will not opened till 9am! We explored the underground but only Starbucks and 7-Eleven were opened which my dad was not keen. It was really a challenge especially when you were tired hungry and your legs needed some good rest. In additional, it was really inconvenient to drag our luggage around! In the end, we bought some packed food from 7-Eleven and ate at the main station! These were some of the inconveniences faced for wee hours flight unless you have ready accommodation which you can checked in immediately.
There was plenty of time after breakfast before we can check in our apartment. Therefore we decided to go to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Statue of Sun Yat-sen
Backyard view of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. There was a guard exchange ceremony inside the main hall which was very interesting and impressive. Pity the guard though as they have to stand for hours before another guard took over from them!
Having while at least 2 hours Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, we decided to call the apartment office if we can check in at 2pm instead of 3pm. It has been a very tiring first day for all of us! We were glad that they were able to do so.
We walked from Sun Yet-sen Memorial Hall to "Zhong Xiao Dun Hua" which was a train station away. It was a reasonable 15 minute walk before we locate the building called "Apollo building" where we would be staying for 5 nights. It was an old building and we were puzzled by the out-dated design of the building. The lobby of the building was not attractive too ... we were started to wonder if Opohills Boutique apartment (Apollo A - 3 bedroom apt) is as beautiful as it was in their official website and all the good review of their apartment ? When we saw Apollo A at the fifth foor, we got a good feeling it was going to be good from the look of the rather grand main door !
The apartment was clean, huge and spacious!!! It was worth the agonizing long wait!
Love the white open-concept kitchen! The apartment has everything you might need or not needed! A 2-door fridge, oven, microwave, utensils and even a washing machine at the yard!
Mum checking out the kitchen and hubby checking out the brochures placed on the counter!
The rather European style dining area. We really felt right at home immediately the moment we stepped into the cozy apartment!
This 2-bedroom apartment was able to house up to 8 occupants! Each bedroom has 2 queen-sized bed. This was bedroom number 1 with no attached bathroom.
This was bedroom number 2 which was the master bedroom with an attached bathroom. Similarly, it has 2 queen sized beds too.
The two bathrooms are clean and functional, it was a joy to take a hot shower after a tiring day. Overall, the apartment was tastefully decorated and spotlessly clean! It enjoys a central location with a metro station (it has an underground shopping mall) just 5 minutes away and it was great if you are bringing older folks or kids who will enjoy more space under the same roof!
Through my friend, May, she has arranged Mr Wu (taxi driver) to bring us around to a few places slightly outside Taipei city. The first stop was at Yeh Liu (野柳) in the town of Wanli. Yeh Liu is a popular tourist spot from the number of tourists we saw on a Friday morning. The entrance and walkway were well-developed to where the hoodoo and cape were.
The icon of Yehliu .. the Queen's head ... in a cute character statue found on the way to the cape.
The hoodoo from a distance ... it looked small but it took a while to explore the entire area.
The Yehliu cape from a distance. The northern part of the cape was where you can find the famous queen's head
(女王頭).
Natural background for a photo
Just an amazing sight!
Pretty rock formations against the blue sea.
"Ponds" formed to hold waters ... assuming from the rain or sea waters ...
Sea Candles (燭台石)
This place was
not to be missed and it was just about 45 minutes drive from Taipei city!
Next, we headed to Jiu Fen (九份), another popular spot for tourists.
I believed there are several ways to explore this town. The first time when we visited Jiu Fen in 2011, we lighted at Shuqi Street (豎崎路) which we needed to climb up escalating steps to reach the peak. It would be too challenging for our aged parents.Therefore, we specifically told Mr Wu that we would like to go to Jiu Fen old street where there was minimal walking. Indeed, the place he alighted us was at the entrance of Jiu Fen old street. Just next to the 7-11 was the narrow and populous old street.
This street was full of life and vibrancy! It was a brilliant place to get lost in for hours! Unfortunately we have only an hour or so. As we walked along the narrow clean street, there are many small stalls, most selling food authentic Taiwanese food!
We settled our lunch at this beautiful restaurant, certainly a relief for our parents to rest their legs !
The neat street with its array of stalls....
Some shops selling handicrafts too.
Next, we proceeded to Shi Fen (十分). We wanted to visit the waterfall at Shi Fen, unfortunately it was raining and we needed to abandon the trip to the waterfall (十分大瀑布). In fact, the rain started pouring when we were walking half way down the trail. Luckily there was a shelter and we waited for the rain to subside slightly before we went back to the taxi. Mr Wu drove us to the Shi Fen old street where we can release "Sky lantern"
(天燈).
Our sky lantern managed to fly off successfully despite the strong winds !
The nostalgic train tracks .. yes, there are still train going through these tracks daily..
The suspension bridge
Another old street on the way back to Taipei city from Shi Fen.
Very clean and neat old street, accordingly to Mr Wu, the shops sell the best stinky Dou Fu here! Non of us were adventurous to try it.
The schedule for day 3, a trip to The Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園).
We have plans to eat at Five Dime Restaurant but it was raining very heavily! In fact, we were braving a typhoon! Luckily, it was a stone's throw from the Metro to Miramar Entertainment Park!
We have a good lunch at this restaurant recommended by a Taiwanese lady.
Very nice and healthy steamboat.
Our second last day at Dan Shiu!
There are many eatery stuff to buy in Dan Shiu. Generally, the food stuff seems slightly cheaper in Dan Shi than Jiu Fen in comparison.
Overall, we did not explore a lot of places this time. A lot of time, we would head back to the apartment so that our parents can rest.
There were about two times that hubby went out to the night markets, his little escapade. The two of us also have a dinner at a western cafe near our apartment for one of the nights. From this trip, we realised that for aged parents, it will definitely be more ideal to bring them for a cruise or self-drive holidays. Nonetheless, it as great to be able to have family holidays together once in a while. We have also enjoyed the wonderful customer service from most vendors and the friendliness of the Taiwanese.
