Ni Hao, Taiwan! (Day 3)

Ni hao! Welcome to the leg 3 of our Taiwan trip! 🇹🇼

If you missed reading my Day 1 and Day 2 blog posts, kindly click the day names in orange. ⬅️

Since I'll be dumping lots of pictures for our 3rd day in Taiwan, let me make this quick and short by sharing our itinerary. 

DAY 3 ITINERARY:

1. checked out the art street mecca of Taipei located near our hotel in Ximending

2. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

3. Taipei 101

4. Maokong Gondola

5. back to Ximending

Before we started our day, we fueled ourselves with the usual breakfast-eating at the hotel. Then, while waiting for our companions to finish fixing themselves, I, Lyle & Angelo decided to take pictures with the street murals that's just very near our hotel. 

So.. Without any further ado, here's the art street photo series that I'm telling you about:

My favorite travel couple (of course, they're my friends! char!) - Angelo & Lyle. 💕

When you see it - "DIT IS TAIPEI". 🇹🇼

As we walked more, we saw these Marvel-inspired murals.

Damnnn. It was mind-blowing!

My favorite Marvel hero - Dr. Strange.

After doing some photo walk at the art street, we didn't waste time anymore and started with our itinerary already.

Ximen Station x Kuya Cliff.

It was barely a 20-30 minute train ride, then we've reached our first destination already - Chiang Kai-shek. If I can recall it correctly, we did 2 train transfers to reach this place. Sorry, I wasn't paying much of attention with our train rides because we were accompanied by a local. Hehe. Peace!

Then ta-da! Here we are now at the famous Chiang Kai-shek.

Labshoo, Balengs! 😚

After visiting the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, we decided to go to Taipei 101 already.

And here's the signage for the Taipei 101/World Trade Center train station.

Then from Chiang Kai-shek, I think, it only took us 15 to 20 minutes to reach Taipei 101.

Hello there, beaut! 😍

Inside the World Trade Center which is actually a mall, I found these things that fancied me. Hehe.

By the way, there's a food court and a bunch of bags, clothes and shoe store inside the World Trade Center. The first Din Tai Fung in Taiwan is also located just outside this food court that I am talking about.

And then, we out here going to our itinerary's last destination - Maokong Gondola.

For the Maokong Gondola, the admission ticket isn't free. You can either buy tickets for it ahead of time via Klook or just buy it on the same day through their ticket booth. And we didn't choose the via Klook anymore since it was a package - Maokong Gondola admission ticket + night Taipei City Tour (in a double decker bus), which was priced at almost 400.00. Also, we didn't want to do the Taipei City tour anymore. That's why we just bought the tickets at the Maokong Gondola ticket booth itself.

By the way, as of this writing (July 28, 2019), Klook doesn't offer anymore the package I've mentioned above. Rather, they offer this one now: Maokong Gondola admission ticket + a 24-hour ticket Taipei City Tour (still in a double decker bus but you can do the city tour during daytime, evening or anytime given the 24-hour frame) via Klook. And its price is: 984.00. Sounds pricey? Here's the good news: you can already avail Maokong Gondola tickets without the city tour via Klook! So, yay to that! Mas tipid!

Screenshot of it is below:

To reach the Maokong Gondola station a.ka. Taipei Zoo Station, we took this train station - Daan.

And few minutes after and some walking, we are here now! 😬

I think, the admission ticket costs 120 NTD = 204.00 pesos each.

Sorry! I just wanted to share that most of the restrooms in Taiwan looks like this.

Here in Maokong Gondola, you have the option to choose between the regular gondola or the crystal one. And guess what? Of course, we chose to ride the glassed/crystal-ed floor gondola for some thrill! Hehe. If ever you'll choose the crystal one, just be patient with the line because there are only few crystal gondolas. That's why you have to wait for a little longer for it. Also, the ticket for it is a bit higher compared to the regular one.

Riding the gondola now. Yeyyy! 😍

Trying my best not to show my fear. Haha.

View from inside the gondola.

Once you reach the end of the gondola ride, you'll only see a number of restaurants around the area. And for me, the place was very Tagaytay-like since it's in the mountains.

The restaurants there looked pricey. Good thing that there was a canteen there that offers affordable food! We can finally eat! Haha.

And I ordered Braised Beef - 40 NTD = 68.00 pesos. 

The canteen looks like this by the way. Parang yung sa K-dramas lang! Hehe.

After eating, we decided to go back to the hotel already. And there are 3 options for us to go back to the hotel:

1. ride the gondola again

2. ride the bus and train

3. ride a taxi

Of course, being the budget-traveler that we are, we opted to ride the bus. And it was this small (scroll more). LOL.

It would have been fine if not for the zigzag road that we passed through. Also, we were standing the whole time because the seats were very limited. That's why finding our balance was such a struggle! Kaloka! Gusto niyo ng tipid ha, tiis kayo ngayon sa nakakahilong bus ride. Haha. 

It was a great and funny experience to share though. LOL.

This bus ride was only 15 NTD = 25.50 pesos per head (compared to the 204.00 peso gondola ride). Hehe.

Then after 15-20 minutes of that crazy bus ride, we're back at the Taipei Zoo train station.

I love the bag compartments in any of Taiwan's mode of transpo. 💕

Picture time with Kuya Cliff! Our never-ending thank you talaga for your time, effort (and money), Kuya Cliff! Hehe. 💚

But before going back to the hotel, we decided to pass by a church. At least to thank the Lord for this blessing - traveling with my family and friends. 💕

And here's the Taipei MRT map being shown by Kuya Cliff to me.

Pokemon-Goers. LOL.

After a short train ride and a pretty long walk, we're finally at the church! ☺️

Uy. Nasa Valero ba ako? Haha.

To go back to the hotel, we'll just ride a bus. And here's a photo of my travel buddies at the waiting area.

The buses here in Taipei have numbers in front. It corresponds the destination or stops that you're going to. And for our case, I think we rode the 218 bus to go to Ximending. Feel free comment down if I'm wrong. 😬

Then, inside the bus now.

Once we got off the bus, my friends told me that they're going to the grocery store first before going back to the hotel. And I tagged along with them since I'll be buying very few pasalubongs too.

Legit pala na may Klim talaga? Haha. Akala ko, "cream" lang talaga yun eh.

This Boba Chocolate is the bomb! I would have bought a lot if only I have money. LOL.

This is the name of the grocery by the way - Carrefour.

After buying some Taiwan goodies, we went back to the hotel already. Thanks to Google Maps for teaching us the way. Also, to Angelo and Lyle for always navigating! Hihi. 💕

And from here, I'll just be sharing the spots we passed by as we walked towards our hotel.

#NoFilter

I'm into collecting flag patches now. So feel free if you want to give me some. Hehe.

Then just like that, we're near our hotel area now. Yey!

When the night came in, I and Lyle decided to do our last Taipei food trip before heading home the next day. And the first food that we bought was this: 

Misua Noodles which I liked! But not for my family and friends. LOL.

That evening as well, we were treated for a dinner. Hihi. Thank you, sponsors! 💚

My favorite milk tea here in Manila which I was able to taste from its birthplace. Hehe. Sadly, hindi ako nasarapan. Huhu. I'm not sure if I just picked the wrong variety or because the sugar level was at 50% only? Haha. Oh, well papel!

Then for the last photo of this blog post, I'm sharing with you this double purpose couch that has a drawer under (where you can place your bag and other stuff while eating). How useful, right? WALA LANG! Haha.

And like the usual, here's my expenses that day:

DAY 3 EXPENSES:

(these are estimates only as I lost the list of our expenses here. huhu)

255.00 or less - all train rides that day

204.00 - Maokong Gondola admission fee

68.00 - Braised Beef lunch at Maokong Gondola

25.50 pesos - bus ride from Maokong Gondola

24.00 - bus to Ximending

510.00 - grocery for pasalubong

102.00 - Sharetea milktea

1,188.50 - TOTAL

So, that's all for now. Thank you for reading this yet and another blog of mine.

See yaaa,

Dona