Day 5, Taipei Zoo, Maokong Gondola & Raohe Night Market

Day 5 - Thursday 12th December 2013

Entering the fifth day! 

Again and again and again, we started off the day late, the Taiwanese dramas on the TV was just too interesting you know D: and its funny.

We visited the zoo. The zoo station is the last station of the brown line, very easy to go to. The zoo is not so much of a tourist place to go but I love animals! Especially red pandas!

Show your travel youth card, and get half priced tickets! The entrance fee is only 60NT! I think this is the world's cheapest zoo. We got it for 30NT with the travel youth card ;) .

 30NT zoo ticket! That's about 1 SGD. Dirt cheap

 Sandwich; Rice ball o:

We wanted to have some decent breakfast at the McDonalds but the queue was just too freaking long. The zoo on the day was filled with school kids from 5-6 schools. School kids everywhere. So we settled for some light snack from 7-Eleven store in the zoo. They taste pretty good though. Especially my tuna rice ball, with wasabi in it. That totally woke me up.

We also grabbed an English zoo map from the visitor centre. And there we go!

 Greetings from bear and dinosaur

 Butterfly in the Butterfly Garden and Beetles collection in the Insect House

There's really alot to see in the zoo. The zoo is so much bigger than Singapore Zoo, and it looks pretty well maintained. Of course, the panda was the highlight of the zoo, the pair of pandas actually gave birth to a mini panda during the period we went so only the male was on display while the female was nursing the the baby. Pandas bunch of fluffy furballs. So cute.

After spending 4-5 hours in the zoo, we went to the gondola station in the zoo and take the gondola up to Maokong (the last station of the gondola). You can either take the gondola straight from the MRT station or from the zoo. Easy card payment is available here ;) 

 Kitty statue; View from the Gondola

Greetings from the cat statues, follow the stairs up there's a cafe, serving drinks and coffee. As expected, prices here (at such a touristy place) will be slightly higher than other cafe. You are paying for the atmosphere, the views ;) .

Heading towards the left you will see a food court with different stalls, and food. We did not try anything from there. Walk further down you will see a few more stalls on the road side. We saw quite a few people queueing for this stall so we decided to give it a try. Basic principle: When you see there's a lot of people queueing for one thing, be a tourist, bandwagon and join them!

 Lao Cong Bing stall; and the fried spring onion omelette

This deep fried spring onion omelette is AMAZING. Its so crispy! Having a hot food during the cold weather makes the food tastes hundred times better! Walk further down the road for another 5-10 minutes you will see a couple of tea shops, restaurant and cafe. Maokong is famous of their tea and cafe. But we did not try anything. The prices again, are slightly higher and we don't actually fancy any of the drinks. I missed my brown sugar milk tea back in Taipei city ):

Tea houses

We headed back to the MRT station after spending about 1.5 hours at Maokong. Also, you can take the Eye of Maokong. Eye of Maokong is a crystal cabin with clear floor. It only departs from the first station and the last station. The queue for the crystal cabin was insanely long at Maokong station. So we gave it a skip.

We took the MRT back to our accommodation, took a quick rest and  head towards Roahe night market for some food. About 15 minutes walk for us from our accommodation. 

 Roahe Night Market

Fu Zhou Pepper Bun

 Pepper Bun

First stop: Fu Zhou pepper bun

This stall is the first stall you will encounter when you stepped into the Raohe night market. Long queue again with all the famous place, and so we decided to bandwagon and join in the queue. After a 5 minutes queue, we got our bun. It was ok, nothing amazing as I would expected. Maybe I had high expectation on it. Moving on. 

Raohe night market is actually one of my favourite night market in Taipei. Is not as messy as Shilin night market with stalls all over. There's only one street for Raohe night market, with all the stalls forming 2 lanes. If you are after some cheap Japanese eats, Roahe night market is a must go for you.

 Oyster Omelette

We tried the oyster omelette, mmmmm, my boy likes it. I don't. I'm such a fussy eater eh. It wasn't that bad but is a little too floury for my liking. 

Stinky Tofu

We also tried stinky tofu at one of the stall. That was me first time trying stinky and I LOVE IT. The tofu is so crispy and with the sauce, along with the pickled vegie, is so delicious! Is not as stinky when you eat the tofu ;) . There's a group of Caucasian came sat beside us and ordered the stinky tofu as well, I think they liked it, cause they keep nodding x: . Travellers should give it a try!

 Fukujimaya, maru maru yaki

 Okonomiyaki, (Japanese pancake)

I am a big big fan of Japanese food (and Japan), so when we saw this stall, definitely is a must try food on my list. We joined the queue and got our serve of okonomiyaki after 5 minutes. With the generous amount of mayonaise, this is wicked! Stuffing has egg, strips of bacon, strips of ham and cabbage. I would go back for a second serve if I wasn't too full. We've been snacking all our way through the night market.

Pearl balls

Didn't take a good picture of this, but we bought a milk tea from this stall with their special pearl balls. The pearl balls contain different stuffing in it. We tried the red bean pearl balls. Something special that you can't get anywhere and its good! I love pearls! The pearl balls are huge too!

 Bird Egg Prawn Balls

We grabbed our last snack before heading back to our room. Bird egg prawn balls for 50NT, tastes not bad, but I think the sauce is a little lack in flavour. Again, something special to try ;) .

This ends our day 5.

Day 4, Formosa Chang, Wufenpu, MaLa Hotpot

Day 4 - Wednesday 11th December 2013

Day 3 was a pretty easy day for us. We actually planned to go Leofoo theme park today but last night we came to a conclusion that we did not want to go cause someone is scare of all the thrill rides cause they have pretty scary rides there. 

Again, we woke up pretty late. By the time we were ready, is about lunch time. So we decided to go Formosa Chang that is nearby Wufenpu. Formosa Chang is famous of their braised pork rice.

 Menu with pictures

 Braised pork rice; Green bean soup served cold

The braised pork rice is delicious! Wouldn't mind having another 3 bowls of it. The fats, the sauce. Who cares about calories when you're travelling! The green bean soup is just soso, the boy likes it. I don't really like green bean or red bean soup ;) 

 Pork chop

The pork chop tastes good but it is abit too oily for my tasting. Nevertheless, good lunch!

Formosa Chang

Cross the zebra crossing above from Formosa Chang, keep walking straight and you'll reach Wufenpu. 

A few things to take note of Wufenpu:

1. Wufenpu do not open on Monday for retail business, Mondays are dedicated for wholesalers

2. Most of the shop start operating at 2pm 

3. Most of the shop do not allow you to try on their clothes, check with the staff before you put on anything on to avoid unpleasant experience

Did not take any pictures in Wufenpu. Didn't get much stuff in Wufenpu too, probably because of the season, it was winter. I don't think the stuff in Wufenpu are that cheap after all. Most of the sales items are out of size. Maybe its just me, I'm not a great fan of shopping and yes, I'm a girl :| .

We spent about 2-3 hours at Wufenpu. Since there's nothing much to see, we decided to go Zhongxiaodunhua to have a look. They have SOGO and Eslite shopping mall there. Love the Eslite book shop. Is a must visit ;) 

After a long walking day, we decided to have our dinner at the famous MaLa steamboat. They have different branches. You can check out the website to find the store that is most convenient for you. However, I do believe they have different pricing for different store as well. Do check out their facebook page for occasion deals.

 Menu

You will probably need to reserve your seats. We were very lucky to get a seat, because we went there quite early, about 6pm ish.

 Collagen soup based

There's 2 hours limit dining time. First you need to choose your soup base first, and order the meats you want from the menu. We ordered everything to have a try. There's about 7 types of meats available. 

 New Zealand Loin

Angus Beef

I would say the meats served were of pretty good quality. They will be served in a tray with corresponding tag. Absolutely love the meats provided!

There's a range of fishballs, meatballs, seafood such as mussels, prawns, crab meat, a variety of vegies, variety of mushroom, fruits that were extremely fresh and sweet, sauces for the steamboat. Variety of drinks such as tea, juices and soft drinks, beers. Branded ice cream such as Moven Pick and Haagen Dazs. Mint choc flavour of Moven Pick ice cream is tasty ;) 

We spent 1196NT (inclusive of 10% service fee) for 2 pax, they do charge 10% service fee here. Is a really really good deal, you can't get such a cheap and good steamboat anywhere else except in Taiwan! Steamboat buffet is a must list try on your list.

After a satisfying dinner, we walk around the shopping district nearby before calling it a day.

Day 3, Miniature Museum, Beitou, Tamshui & Shilin Night Market

Day 3 - Tuesday 10th December 2013

Again, we woke up pretty late again (about 10am ish). We had our breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang. I don't think this chain is the famous Yong He Dou Jiang. There are a lot of places with the name of Yong He Dou Jiang but actually they are not related to each other. Nevertheless, we wanted to try the local breakfast in Taiwan, and the place is just around the corner of our place. Again, you need to grab a ordering list from the counter and mark down whatever you want to have. Give the order back to the staff at the counter and pay there. We ordered the three things, 102NT all together. It was not great, but ok.

 The menu; Mushroom noodle (but no mushrooom?)

 Spring onion shao bing with omelette stuffing; Warm soy milk

Shao bing the chinese flat bread with various stuffing in there. You can have the plain shao bing too.

After the breakfast, we went to visit the Miniature Museum. Stop at the Song Jiang Nan Jing Station along the brown line and walk to the museum using our GPS. The museum is located underground of a company building. No. It doesn't have a building on its own. 

 Miniatures Museum of Taiwan (MMOT)

 Labbit; Entrance of the museum

 Some miniature figurings

Fancy little things you can see in the museum. 1-2 hours should be enough. You can grab a stamp passport for little kids, to play around with. They can collect stamps in different stamp stations when they journey through the museum. Everything in the museum is so tiny, so cute. You will be amazed by the little details of the work!

Remember the Travel Youth Card (click here to check my post about it)? Show the staff and get 10% discount. If you are still a student, be it overseas or local (Taiwan), show then your student ID and you will get student priced entry tickets. Cheap tickets YAY.

We headed towards Beitou after visiting the museum. We took the brown line and head towards MingQuan West Road on the red line. Take the red line to Beitou and change to pink line to XinBeiTou.

XinBeiTou Station

 BeiTou Station, platform 4 to XinBeiTou

It was about lunch time so we head towards the famous MaLai ramen place in XinBeiTou. Jot down your name on the form or register yourself with a staff. Yes, they do have a long long queue. It wasn't too bad when we went there, about 15 minutes wait for us. Keep walking straight when you exit from the MRT station.Cross the intersection and the ramen shop will be opposite from the BeiTou Park.

 ManLai Onsen Ramen 

 Mini Game

There a mini challenge for every group of customers that came in. You can deliver your own order using the the suspended string stretching from the dining area to the kitchen area. If you can successfully ring the bell then you can get some special deals of the month, in our case, half price for the tofu side dish.

Tactic: Like playing badminton, you need to use your wrist instead of swinging your whole arm like your playing tennis.

We ordered a pork ramen and corn ramen, price range about 100-150NT per bowl. Side dishes we ordered are 40NT each. I like the noodle, very springy and it looks like the wholemeal version of the normal ramen noodle.

Corn ramen, pork ramen; Ramen noodle

 Tofu and pickled seaweed

Love the seaweed! Tofu is not bad too. But we forgot to order the famous hot spring egg ): . Overall pleasant lunch. After lunch we headed towards Hot Spring Valley. Along the way (ZhongShan Road) we checked out the Beitou Library (famous of its architectural design) and BeiTou hot spring museum. If free to go into the museum however, you need to take off your shoes and wear the slipper provided.

 BeiTou Library

 Hot Spring Museum's Tatami

 Old Hot Spring Bath Tub?

Hot Spring Valley

Hot Spring

Is pretty amazing to see all the mist coming out from the boiling hot hot spring. Not sure will it still be like that during the summer. We spent about 3 - 4 hours in Beitou. We did not experience any of the hot spring bath because we were too lazy. Anyways, give it a try if you are keen, there's lots of hotel and public bath available on the way.

Next destination was Tamshui. Take the MRT back to Beitou station (red line) and from there to Tamshui. Tamshui is the last stop of the red line.

Map or Tamshui just at the exit of the MRT station, Tamshui famous food street

And of course after all the walking in Beitou, we went on a food hunt the moment we got down from the MRT. First stop, the chicken nugget. Don't really like it, it has bones in it ): , 55NT a serve. 

 Takoyaki, Plum Juice

The Tako ball is a must try! So tasty and its only 40NT ;) and the plum juice was delicious as well. Apparently is the most famous plum juice (30NT) around tamshui and is a must try as well.

 Fried Milk; Ferry ticket counter

  

Some weird thing along the way, fried milk (20NT) pretty tastly, the milk just melts in your mouth when you eat it. After have a tour around the old street, we went to get our ferry ticket to Fisherman Wharf, for 120NT per way, so we paid 240NT at the stall above. Now, I advise you to go around and check the ferry prices from other stalls before getting one. Apparently we got it for way too expensive. I saw stalls that advertise for 80NT for the whole trip. So we basically just paid way too much. The stall above, which I encounter, will be the first stall you see that sells ferry ticket if you walk along the beach when you got down from the MRT. Just be careful. It is very competitive and there will be people walking and trying to sell you their tickets. 

If ferry is not your thing, alternatively you can take bus to Fisherman Wharf.

The Ferry Entrance 

So we took the ferry and headed towards Fisherman Wharf!

 Love

Lover's Bridge

There's actually nothing much to do in Fisherman Wharf, but the incredible scenery view makes it worth while. A very romantic place for couples too ;) . Best to go there during the evening, where you can see the sun set and the lighting of the bridge as well.

We headed back to Tamshui after a short tour in Fisherman Wharf. 

 Ah Ge; Fish ball soup

 Ah Ge

We had the famous Ah Ge in Tamshui as a light snack before visiting Shilin night market for proper dinner.

Its basically a vermicelli noddle stuffed tofu in sauce.

Something special to try, taste good too.

Hand crafted chinese zodiac miniatures

Found this side shop selling these cute miniature. Wanted to buy one with my zodiac and my boy's zodiac on it but I don't quite like the fingerprints on the miniatures. So we gave it a miss. 190NT for the pairs, and 100NT for the single one.

And no, we didn't try the famous iron egg in tamshui. They usually sell them in bulk as souvenirs.

Next stop, Shilin Night Market 

Hop onto the red line and get down from Jiantan Station, not shilin station. Follow the sign, there's big big sign of shilin night market everywhere because is such a touristy spot ;).

We tried a couple of thing and get out there pretty quickly because there's just too many people around. There's a underground food court which I think is pretty cool but I wouldn't spend much time there. It gets pretty smoky and heaty and the with all the crowd.

Tamagoyaki

We found this stall that sells tamagoyaki (fried eggs with stuffing like cheese, roe, ham etc), we went back for the second time. It's so good! no cheap though (compared to the other stuff), one is about 60NT?

 Fresh fruits look really good

My boy actually got one papaya/pawpaw fruit milk drink from the other stall, he loves it, I don't quite like papaya.

I read around on the net and many had bad experience buying fruits in Shilin night market. 1. the fruits a generally more expensive in Shilin night market, because is such a touristy place, 2. more often tourists do not know how Taiwanese sell their fruits (usually by gram not by pieces) and they get 'scam' without reading the vague sign properly. So I would advice you to avoid getting fruits in such touristy place like Shilin night market

Shilin night market; Ah Liang mian xian 

I personally enjoyed this Ah Liang (阿亮) mian xian (intestine noodle) in Shilin night market than the famous Ah Zong (阿宗) mian xian. It has more flavour to it. This stall is at the open area of the market, just right in front of the temple. The oyster omelette from that stall were good too.

 Cock-shaped snack ._. ; Cheesy potato

Did not try the cock-shaped thingo, looks weird and there's no people queuing for it. On the other hand, the cheesy potato is sooooo good. The stall name is Little Prince Potato. Is a must try ;)

And this ends our Day 3 ;)