Free & Easy Travel to Taipei, Taiwan from 17th to 21st March 2010

Photograph of a Giant Panda at Taipei Zoo.

Date of Travel: 17th to 21st March 2010
Via Air Asia X Flight No. D 72672 (9.50 AM to 14.50 PM) and Flight D 72605 (15.40PM to 20.50 PM).
No. of Travellers: 7 (Seven), i.e. Elder Sister, Wan Lai Meng, Younger Sister, Wan Lai Ling, Youngest Brother, Aaron Wan and Wife (Liza), My wife, Ting Sow Lan, my son, Wan Wai Yan and myself, Wan Heng Kei.
Return Fare: MYR 418/person (5 persons)
Accomodation: Lilai Hotel, No. 21, Sec 1, Zhonghua Road, Taipei City 100. The location of this hotel was superb as it was within walking distance to Ximen and Taipei Main Station Metro Stations. Due to our early booking, we had special rates at this hotel @ TWD 1180 (double occupancy + 2 breakfasts) per night with free wifi.

Free & Easy Travel to Taipei, Taiwan is very much easier now that Air Asia X has daily flights(from Kuala Lumpur LCCT) and also from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. If you are going to Taipei, my recommendation is to travel on your own as Taipei has it vast network of communications such as Metro (few lines), 1st class roads & railways. My wife and myself have good memories of Taipei & Taiwan as the last time we were here was almost 29 years ago sometime in Sept 1981 as part of SA Mass Wedding & Honeymoon Tour of Manila, Taiwan (Taipei, Hualien, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Tai Chung, Sun Moon Lake and back to Taipei), Hong Kong and Macau. I vividly remember the first day when we arrived at Taipei, it was a public holiday being The Mid Autumn Festival or the 15th Day of 8th Month based on the Chinese Lunar Calender. Back then in 1981, Taipei City was jammed with vehicles (as there were no metro or first class railways) but now it is so easy to travel within this tourist-friendly city. Clean f.o.c. toilets are every where; free filtered drinking water & sometimes hot water can be found in public places (e.g. Danshui Metro) and Taipei Zoo. With the exception of National Palace Museum (it f.o.c. on Saturdays from 5pm to 8.30 pm), The Taipei Zoo and Yehliu Geopark, there are hardly any entrance fees (unlike China) and more so, the Taiwanese are one of the most tourist friendly people in the world.

About a week before our departure, the MATTA Travel fair was held at Putra World Trade Centre, KL and within walking distance from The Wan Family House in Tiong Nam Settlement. We managed to obtain some travel brochures & Taiwan Easy Card (pre-loaded with TWD 50) from The Taiwan Tourism Promotion Board. The Easy Card was given to all travellers who has travel bookings destined to Taiwan. The Easy Card can be conveniently used for most travels within Taiwan such as Metro, All Buses, Entrance to Taipei Zoo, etc., otherwise, you have to provide exact fares. So, if you are going to Taiwan, make sure you purchase the Easy Card on arrival there.

Wednesday: 17 Mar 2010 - Our Flight D 72672 arrived at Taipei International Airport approximately 20 minutes ahead of schedule. After immigration clearance, we proceeded to the Bus Transportation Center and at Freego Counter, we purchased return tickets directly to our hotel at TWD 260/person; child @ TWD 140. The journey took approx. 1 hour and upon arrival at Taipei, we have to change to another mini bus which took us to Ximenting (opposite Lilai Hotel) for check-in. A short rest and we are off to the nearby Ximenting; in the evening, we walked to Taipei Main Station; top-up our Easy Card and then took the Metro to Shihlin. From Shihlin, we walked southwards towards the night market for night shopping, dinner, etc. Finally towards Jiantan Metro for our trip back to our hotel at Ximen.

Thursday: 18 March 2010 - Early breakfast and then we took Taipei Metro from Ximen to Taipei Muzha Zoo (via Jhongxiao Fuxing Metro) from 9am until 12 Noon. Entrance fees @ reasonable TWD 60/person. The Taipei Zoo is one of the largest zoo in Asia. It displays animals from Taiwan, Africa, Australia, the Asian tropical rainforests, the desert and the temperate zone, an insectarium, amphibian and reptile house, penguin, koala and panda exhibition. In 2008, the Taipei Zoo received two Pandas from China named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan (meaning REUNION) as a gesture of Unity. If you are in Taipei, you must visit the Taipei Zoo. it is one of the best zoos in the world.

After visiting the Zoo, we took the Metro to Taipei City Hall; from here we walk to the nearby TAIPEI 101 - presently the 2nd highest building in the world. There is a free bus service from Taipei City Hall to Taipei 101 but we opt to walk so that we could photographed 101 from the distance. We also visited the nearby Taipei 101 Mall, had our lunch there and then took the free bus shuttle to Taipei City Hall. On arrival, we took a 10 minutes walk to the nearby Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and spend an hour there; watch the changing of guards and in the late afternoon, returned to our hotel for a rest. In the evening, we took the metro from Ximen for 1 stop at Longshan Temple; visited the temple and thereafter visited the night market at Huasi Road, dinner and later back to Ximenting and our hotel for the night.

Photograph of myself, my son and wife taken at the entrance of Taipei Zoo

Another photograph of my wife, son and myself taken within Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Outdoor Garden

Group Photograph my my elder sister, Lai Meng; my youngest sister-in-law, Liza, my youngest brother, Aaron, myself, HK Wan, my son, Wai Yan and my wife taken at Taipei 101 Mall

Group Photograph of myself, my youngest brother & wife, my son, my wife and elder sister taken at Chung Cheng Park, Keelung. The Statue of The Goddest of Mercy, Kwan Yin @ 22.5 Metres High is the largest within Taiwan.

Photograph of my wife & son taken at Yehliu Geopark

Another photograph of the Queen's head taken at Yehliu Geopark. In the photograph - my younger sister, Lai Ling, my wife, Sow Lan and myself, HK Wan

Friday: 19 March 2010 - Immediately after breakfast at Lilai Hotel, we walked to Taipei Main Railway Station and purchased 7 train tickets from Taipei to Keelung @ TWD 43/adult & TWD 22/child. The journey took 50 minutes. On arrival, we walked to the nearby bus terminal and took a bus to the nearby Keelung City Hall. From here, we walked our way up to Chung Cheng Park. It was a 30 minutes walk and rather tiring since we were walking uphill. However, I would recommend that you should take a taxi instead of walking (uphill). The Chung Cheng Park has 3 levels, the first level is a historical fort; the second level is a Buddhist Library and 2 temples, i.e. Chung Lieh Temple and Chu Pu Tan Temple. At the third and highest level, there is a statue of a smiling white Buddha and a 22.5 Metres white statue of The Goddest of Mercy, Guan Yin. This is one of the most popular landmark of Northern Taiwan. You can also climb the stairs inside the Guan Yin Statue for a splendid view of Keelung and the ocean. Due to rush to visit more places within Keelung, we spent about an hour or so at Chung Cheng Park. Thereafter, we walked all the way down from Chung Cheng Park to the nearest bus stop where we intend to take the stage bus from Keelung destined to either Jinshan or Danshui as we intend to go to Yehliu Geopark. Buses destined to Jinshan are more regular and the journey from this bus stop to Yehliu Geopark took about 1 hour. On arrival, we had our lunch at a nearby restaurant and then visited Yehliu Geopark. Entrance fees: TWD 50/adult. We spend approx. 2 hours at Yehliu Geopark. We then took a 20 minutes walk to the same bus stop and took another bus to Danshui. The journey slightly more than 1 hour and by the time we arrived at Danshui, it was almost 5.00 pm. Earlier, we have planned to go to the fisherman's wharf and the Red Fort but since it was already late, we opt to walk around Danshui Town, the night market, Danshui's promenade. It was quite an interesting place as you can watch public singers, performers, stalls of Taiwanese Food, etc.

At about 7.30 pm, we took the metro from Danshui to Longshan Temple (for dinner and Huasi Night Market) and finally back to our Hotel at Ximen.

Photograph of my wife, son and myself taken at the Sulphur Spring, Yangmingshan.

Another photograph of my son and wife taken at the Flower Clock, Yangmingshan Park.

Saturday: 20 March 2010: As our holidays coincide with early Spring, a visit to Yangmingshan is a must. We took the Metro from Taipei Main Station to Shihlin Metro and from here we boarded a mini Red Bus No. 5 to Yangmingshan. As it was a Saturday, the red bus was full and we were standing all the way for the 45 minutes ride to YMS Bus terminal. On arrival, we took the Bus 108 @ TWD 60/person for a 1-way circle route that serves all the attractions on Yangmingshan for a total of 13 stops. As we were in a rush, we only went for a few stops such as Xiaoyoukeng ( a sulphur pit on Mt. Qixing), Lengshuikeng ( Milk Lake due to the sulphur content of the water). As our visit to YMS coincides with the 2010 Yangmingshan Flower Festival (from 26 February 2010 until 28 March 2010) which was held within the vicinity of YMS's famous landmark, a large flower clock made of flowers with a diameter of 22 feet. Water runs around the flower clock and music is played every hour. It was blooming flowers every where and the park was exceptionally beautiful in spring with all kinds of flowers blooming such as cherry blossoms, Azaleas lily, camellia, peach blossoms, etc.

We left YMS at approx. 1.30pm and took Bus 260 back to Shihlin; had a late lunch and then proceed to Yuanshan Metro; from here we took Red Bus 21 to go to the Martyrs Shrine. On the way, the bus passed by
Taipei Grand Hotel which used to be one of Taipei's landmark. My wife and me visited this place way back in Sept' 1981. The Martyrs' Shrine was built in honour of 330,000 men who sacrified their lives fighting for the Republic of China (Taiwan). There were 2 military police officers guarding at the front gate and another 2 other officers guarding the main shrine. The guards are supposed to remained silent and still (like statues) during their shifts. You should not miss the changing-of-guards every hour as it was an elaborate process.

From Martyrs' Shrine, we took the same Red Bus 21 back to Yuanshan Metro and then to Jiantan Metro; from here, we took Red Bus 30 to Taipei's National Palace Museum. Our plans was to visit this place on Saturdays, after 5pm whereby it will be free of charge to all visitors (Normal fees: TWD 16,000). We arrived here at approx. 5.15pm. The National Palace Museum of Taiwan has permanent collections of ancient artifacts, artworks, porcelains, bronzes, paintings, jade, carvings, etc. of over 8000 years of Chinese History from neolitic age until the Ching Dynasty. A large number of the collections were obtained from China's ancient imperial families. It is also one of the largest and best museums in the world. If you are in Taipei, it is a must to visit The National Palace Museum. We left the museum at about 8.00 pm and proceed to Shihlin Night Market for our dinner and last minute shopping.

Photograph of my family, i.e. wife, son and myself taken at Sun Yat Seng Memorial Hall Garden

Another photograph of my family taken at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

Sunday: 21 March 2010: This was our last day at Taipei as tomorrow being a Monday and my son, Wai Yan and my younger sister, Lai Ling (a teacher) would have to be back in school after the 1 week holiday break. As our flight was 3.40 PM in the afternoon, we do not want to waste any precious time. After breakfast at Lilai Hotel, we took the Metro from Ximen to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall - 2 stops away and the next thing, we are already inside CKS Memorial Hall. It was a bit windy that morning and we had our coolest time in Taipei. CKS Memorial Hall was built in memorial of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of Taiwan. The monument was surrounded by a park as well as the National Theatre and National Concert Hall. The Presidential Building was also located nearby. A large bronze statue of a smiling and seated Chiang Kai-shek dominate the main hall. Military Police Officers guards the main hall during opening hours and the changing of guards take place every hour attracting visitors (similarly as at the Martyrs' Shrine and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall).

After visiting this place, we headed back to our hotel and made the necessary arrangement FreeGo Airport Bus to pick us up at 12.00 Noon. The waiting place was just 50 metres from the hotel and the airport bus arrived at approx. 12.30 pm bound to Taipei International Airport for our flight back to LCCT at 3.40 pm.

Although the 5 days4nights holidays at Taipei was rather short (during the March'2010 school holidays), we all really enjoyed our holidays at Taipei, Taiwan.

Posted by Wanhengkei on Sunday: 24 April 2010

(Email: hengkei@gmail.com)