Tearing around Taiwan

As the others weren't due to arrive in the late afternoon of Monday we had a day free to wander at will - our favourite way of doing travel. We eventually managed to convince Jackson that we perfectly capable of looking around the city for a day by ourselves. And that we could even use a foreign MRT system on our own.

The first thing we noticed the next morning was the huge number of motorcycle and scooters on the roads. The next thing was how little horns are used. The streets are busy nut not cacophonous - especially as many of the scooters are now electric. Many streets had scooter lanes.

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The nearest MRT station was only about 400 metres away.

On the way we passed this street art.

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The station we used, Zhongshan, had a large section dedicated to book shops.

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There were probably 200 metres of book stores here. Nothing much in Taipei opened until 1000. This photo was taken on our return trip in the
afternoon.

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Something I have never seen before - an Umbrella Rental Station. One $A is roughly $20 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD)

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The ticket machines are easy to use and there is an English option. However you can only use coins for single tickets - no notes or cards. You nominate which station is your destination and how many tickets you want. We were travelling about 5 stations and it cost $20 NTD.

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The platforms have gates. And there are plenty of signs in both Mandarin and English. It really is an easy system to use. The platforms and trains are spotlessly clean. The the inside of the trains are similar to Singapore but the carriages are a bit wider.

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We were going to visit the Botanic Gardens not the Liquor Corporation.

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Off to the Taipei Botanic Gardens - free entry. This was our first real indication of how lush the vegetation is in Taiwan. They were extremely well cared for and attractive. Luckily for us it was a cool day without the normal high heat and humidity.

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You have been warned

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I got an IC card to use in Taipei, similar to Japan you can also use the card in many others places, very handy - also I hate the coins...
 
And more

The Red Building is the National Museum of History

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The gardens also contained the "Guest House of the Imperial Envoys". Built in 1882 the building is the only office of the Qing dynasty remaining in Taiwan.

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There was a Chines Astrological Garden

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I got an IC card to use in Taipei, similar to Japan you can also use the card in many others places, very handy - also I hate the coins...
We were going to get the card but after the guide was arranged it wasn't worthwhile. This was the only day we used the MRT.
 
There was a very nice pedestrian way above the MRT near our hotel.

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A little day market was alongside the walkway

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Plus a small but colourful temple. About 35% of Taiwanese are Buddhists, 33% Taoist and 4% Christians. The indigenous peoples are mainly Christian apparently due to the efforts of the early Dutch and Portuguese traders.

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We got a quick takeaway meal from Lae Dong Beef Noodle

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That afternoon the rest of the group arrived and we went to the first of many Night Markets we visited in Taiwan.

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A leftover display

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Traditional Taiwanese food. But they love pork so much it may as well be local food. When my daughter in law's mother visited Perth last year we went to a German Restaurant so she could have Pork knuckle.

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Pepper Pork Rolls cooked in something like a tandoor oven.

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It soon began to rain fairly heavily so it was an early night.

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Next morning we were taken to the Fu Hang Dou Jiang Restaurant for breakfast. It is apparently quite famous in Taipei and has been awarded a Michelin star on a number of occasions.

This is a slightly old review


We got there reasonably early (anything before 10:00 seems to be early there) so we only had to queue for about 15 minutes. The queue was longer when we came out. It winds it way up the inside stairway. Apparently this was still a quiet day. It was certainly worthwhile to experience it at least once.
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The kitchen is on full display

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The hot soy milk was very nice.

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Various breakfast foods. We got a few lines crossed among our group so a bit too much was ordered.

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Then we went off to the Presidential Palace. This was completed in 1919 and was originally built by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan from 1895 -1945.


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Inner Courtyard

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There were lots of schoolkids visiting. They are quite rightly proud of the way they transitioned from basically a dictatorship to a full democracy.

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There was also a display about the various indigenous peoples. I was unaware that that were Austronesians with strong links to South East Asia and the Pacific.

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The costumes and artworks on display were very similar to what we have seen in Sarawak and Brunei. Some of their language is, probably unsurprisingly, similar to Malay and we could read a few of the words.

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Next morning we were taken to the Fu Hang Dou Jiang Restaurant for breakfast. It is apparently quite famous in Taipei and has been awarded a Michelin star on a number of occasions.

This is a slightly old review


We got there reasonably early (anything before 10:00 seems to be early there) so we only had to queue for about 15 minutes. The queue was longer when we came out. It winds it way up the inside stairway. Apparently this was still a quiet day. It was certainly worthwhile to experience it at least once.
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The kitchen is on full display

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The hot soy milk was very nice.

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Various breakfast foods. We got a few lines crossed among our group so a bit too much was ordered.

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You were very lucky! I've seen reports of very long queues...like, 1.5 hours or something...
 
Next morning we were taken to the Fu Hang Dou Jiang Restaurant for breakfast. It is apparently quite famous in Taipei and has been awarded a Michelin star on a number of occasions.

We got there reasonably early (anything before 10:00 seems to be early there) so we only had to queue for about 15 minutes. The queue was longer when we came out.
haha... i think that is definitely not early for this place. They open at 6am or something like that.

Maybe you guys got in after the main breakfast crowd, and before the lunch crowd.
 
haha... i think that is definitely not early for this place. They open at 6am or something like that.

Maybe you guys got in after the main breakfast crowd, and before the lunch crowd.
Yes after my post my wife had a look at the opening times and we certainly not early like I thought as it opens at 0530. Just blind luck I guess.
 
We then headed off to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall opened in 1980. The impression I get, perhaps falsely, is that the Taiwanese are perfectly aware of the reality of his rule and various deeds but like most countries need to have a bit of a narrative about the founding of their country.

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We arrived just in time to watch the Changing of the Guard. It is fully choreographed with plenty of boot stamping and gun twirling.

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National Theatre Hall on the left and National Concert Hall on the right

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National Concert Hall

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The gardens are beautifully kept

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