Taiwan trip

posted on 10:03 PM on Saturday 15 June 2019

After resting a day from Bali where my whole leg was covered in insect bites, we headed off to Taiwan for 5 days with the kids.

We took the opportunity to visit Jewel by reaching the airport early. Here is a photo of us outside Shake Shack which was filled with people.

We reached the airport early in the morning and took the Taipei Metro to the hotel. I must say that the metro is quite good, quiet, clean and fast. Had to do a short walk to the hotel from the station but it was just a couple of minutes. But the heat was really something. It was hot.

The hotel that we were staying was really quite nice. The rooms were not that big but sufficient and they had really innovative stuff. They had a foot spa, a small pantry and what Esther loved, free instant noodles after 8pm 🙂

They also had this vertical bed as a photo prop.

Since we arrived in the morning and the shops are not opened yet, we decided to catch a movie. Guess what, even before the start of the movie, Ernest fell asleep. He did wake up for the movie.

After the movie, the shops were opened so we did a bit of shopping and Esther got this really cute cat tank from a capsule machine. The cat is in the tank and it even shows its tail.

In the afternoon, we visited the art carnival near The Red House at Ximending. Esther got a really cool trinket made using electronic components. Unfortunately as she hung it on her bag, it broke the next day 😞

The next day we went to Shifen. The first stop was the waterfall which we did not visit when we were last in Taiwan about 4 years ago.

After the waterfall we went to Shifen Old Street where the last time we lit the sky lanterns. This time around, we did not do that but had a good walk around.

After Shifen, it was Jiufen where we had a much better time than the last time where it rained very heavily. Apparently in the subsequent days, we were in a cab and the driver was telling us that Jiufen rains very often. And true enough as we were leaving the place, it started raining. At least most of the time there was without rain unlike the last time where it rained for most of the time that we were there.

We had a reasonable lunch in one of the restaurants which had a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

We left the place a bit late and coupled with the rain, we were desperately trying to find our way down the hill back to the bus. We were so afraid that the bus would leave without us. But after taking a shortcut we made it in time. Take god for that.

The next day we went to the Maokong Gondola which we missed the last time we were here due to bad weather. This time round, we got lucky and managed to take the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was really scary for Pauline and myself since we are afraid of heights. But the kids were enjoying themselves.

We had a nice walk at the top of the mountain and had a nice lunch there.

Unfortunately bad weather started to develop as we were leaving and so the cable car service was stopped. We had to take a cab down.

The next stop was Taipei 101 which again was something that we did not visit the last time. This is like a revenge trip 🙂

The next day was a relax day so we spend some time shopping and eating.

On the last day, we got some cute stickers for the luggage.

Esther took the time to play a couple of rounds of the claw machines. For one of the machine, the stuff toy dropped into the hole but its chain got caught on the tail of a Pikachu. So frustrating and funny at the same time.

Ernest was sick on the last day but he made it in the end to the airport after vomiting a couple of times.

Esther had her first latte which she did not like.

A random photo of Pauline with a pineapple tart character.

What I did not mentioned so far are the night markets which was a daily affair. No photos there as we were all concentrating on food and more food.

It was quite an enjoyable trip :-)