Taiwan: Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is the world's tallest skyscraper. The structure of the building looks like a bamboo which has many repeated segments. Besides, there are many cloud-like ornaments placed at the tip corners of every segment. There are a few other feng shui elements that would bring good fortune according to Chinese belief. Please refer to wikipedia for more info as I'm not a feng shui expert.


Indoor observatory deck located at level 89 and outdoor observatory located at level 91 are opened to the public. It is a good opportunity for visitors to experience standing at a very high point from the ground and have a great view of Taipei city. Indoor observatory ticket is priced at NT$350 while additional NT$100 is required if you would like to visit the outdoor observatory. Due to the limited time, we only visited the indoor observatory.


There is an indicator showing us the floor, height, speed and timer in the lift while going up or down. We reached the designated floor in a split second with this rocket-speed lift.


A phone-like device is given to every visitor so that we can have a free audio tour with explanation in the language of our preference. There is also a souvenir shop. Besides selling a mélange of souvenir items, a book mainly about Taipei 101 is also available. The shop is the sole source to get the special book because the book is not sold at any other retail bookstores.


There are boards showing the cityscapes of each direction. So, we know we were looking at the view of which direction.


We feasted our eyes with the bird-eye view of the city. Luckily it's not hazy, cloudy, rainy or stormy on that day. The building with orange-color rooftop is Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.


The tuned mass damper.


A little profile about Damper Baby aka Wind Damper. His favorite outdoor activity is playing swing, favorite weather is gusty (and earthquake) and his destiny is to protect Taipei 101. Lol.


Top 10 tallest buildings in the world, ranging from Taipei 101 to Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong are shown on the board.


Not forgetting the icon of Malaysia, Petronas Twin Towers. It is proudly ranked at second place of world's tallest building after Taipei 101. For Malaysians, the common name of Petronas Twin Towers in mandarin is 双峰塔 but Taiwanese like to call it as 双子星大厦. BTW, it is just a name.


I'm the first one.


From another view, Number 1.

Technorati Tags: Taiwan Taipei Travel Taipei 101

Taiwan: National Museum of History

While heading off to the museum, I walked past this building, National Taiwan Arts Education Centre (国立台湾艺术教育馆). Although it's not the destination I was looking for, my curiosity brought me in but the dead silence inside brought me out within 1 minute. I couldn't see any shadows inside.


Normally the taufu-fa that we had in Malaysia comes with brown sugar or white sugar only. From the menu, I could see there were too many choices with different flavors. Before entering the museum, I had this taufu-fa with aloe vera. There was ice at the bottom of the bowl and it made the taufu-fa tasted frozen and not smooth. Not so nice.


Voila, I reached National Museum of History (国立历史博物馆). I bought a concession ticket was priced at NT$150. The ticket included the entries to the museum and Terracotta Army of Qin Shihuangdi Exhibition. Camera was prohibited so I couldn't take any picture. There was a gallimaufry of artifacts such as buddha statues, lots of china pots, Taiwanese traditional embroidery and the like. There was a section about Book of a artist (艺术家的书-从马谛斯到当代艺术, Le livre d'artiste-de Matisse a l'art contemporain). I could hardly believe my eyes because there was French inside a Taiwan museum. Matisse was a French artist. This section displayed many books with major artistic pictures and minor words. Quite interesting. Besides all these historical items, there was a cafe, facing the lotus pond at botanical garden, in the museum. The customer could enjoy the beautiful scenery while sipping the coffee.


Terracotta Army of Qin Shihuangdi Army Exhibition (兵马俑) was going on at the same time. It's an eye-opener for me as I had never seen before. Various warriors of Qin Dynasty, their roles in the war, the detailed description of each warrior, the horses and carriage, the weapons, terracotta entertainers and so on were revealed. This was a great archeological discovery.


This was the Kneeling Archer displayed at the surrounding of the museum. A few of these warriors could be seen at MRT station too. If you watch Survivor China, you would know that they use this archer as the immunity.


I walked by this National Education Radio signboard while looking for my way to the MRT station. Just took a picture for it.


I went into this Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School to ask for the direction. Do you notice the huge pumpkin? Halloween was not around the corner by that time, an early celebration? Trick or treat? The kind-hearted guy showed me the way to CKS Memorial MRT station.


On my way to the station, I passed by this Stamp Museum. But I didn't go in for a visit.


This long queue that almost utilised every step of the staircase struck my interest and made me walked down to find out what was so special down there.


This uncle was selling dumpling. The bakchang must be super yummylicious that worthed the wait.

Technorati Tags: Taiwan Taipei Travel Museum Terracotta National Museum of History

Taiwan: Botanical Garden

After crossing a few roads and shops from Xiaonanmen MRT station, I arrived at this botanical garden. This was the map showing the locations of various gardens and plants.


I was first greeted by all these tall palm trees. I had no idea where should I go, so I just followed and let the pathway to be the guide.


I remembered I visited a garden where all the plants were resided indoor. After that, I saw this, the Scarecrow. I think the last time I saw a scarecrow was many years ago when I was still young at the paddy field near to my hometown.


There were many teachers bringing the kindergarten children to this botanical garden for outdoor activities and perhaps more effective ways of learning. I could see many groups of these children wearing in uniforms and holding hands in hands.


And a few of them playing with the plants.


Then, I saw this area whereby the 12 Chinese Zodiacs were matched with 12 different kinds of plants according to their characteristics. But, I think the plants were lack of care and weed grew around them.


Actually I was not that interested in plants. So I skipped many gardens and paid a visit to this building I stumbled upon. The structure and design looked like a temple but it's actually a Yamen, a place where criminal cases were judged in ancient Chinese days. This building was named as Taiwan Bu-Cheng-Shih-Sz Yamen (布政使司衙门). If you watch 包青天 or 包拯 drama before, you'll definitely know what place it is. I wonder why there's such a building inside a botanical garden.


I followed a group of children, so that I could get free explanation of the history from the volunteer working there. Many senior citizens in Taiwan work as volunteer at public places. So this was the area where people shouted "weiii wuuuuu". The courtroom.


Sets and props were on display too. This was the parang used in carrying out punishment. The apparatus were made in wood.


Did you know who are the two people painted on the old wooden door? They were the Door Gods (门神). They tend to shoo the evil spirits away.


After visiting this Yamen, I asked the volunteer for the direction to go to National Museum of History which was just a stone's throw away from here. They told me there was a short cut near to the waterlily pond. On my way to the waterlily pond, I saw these 2 people waiting with their cameras setting up and facing a tree.


While I was taking the picture, an uncle approached me and asked me whether I knew what picture did I take. He told me that there's a hole on that tree and they had been waiting for a bird species for a few days. If I saw that bird, I could win the lottery already. They were like waiting for the solar eclipse to occur. Of course, research needs patience. Did you see the hole, or bird?


Finally I found the lotus pond. To my awe, this lotus pond was really huge.


Many painters were sitting in front of the pond and drawing the panoramic view into their pictures.


Besides the lotus in the pond, there were other waterlilies planted in flower pots too.


Like this, the purple one.


I saw another senior painter working on his painting while looking for the back door exit to the museum. His drawing was impressive indeed.

Technorati Tags: Taiwan Taipei Travel Botanical Garden Lotus

Taiwan: Ximending

Ximending (西门町) was the place we had been looking for. It's a common rendezvous for young people. We could see many dandy and trendy people clad in fashionable attire hanging out there. Florinna was putting on her Harajuku costume already.



Basically, Ximending is an area with a few streets and many shops along the streets. I think this is the place where you can find the latest Japanese/Korea fashion clothing.


Many rich guys like to stroll their expensive dogs there too. This dog was wearing a pair of sun glasses. She was well-trained and clever enough to follow her owner. Besides, she managed to pose candidly when her owner asked her to do so.


Sony Style. I went in to take a look for the gadgets and asked for the price of 2Gb Memory Stick Pro Duo. But there's no stock.


Ironically, I saw a few street food stalls at Ximending also. It's out of my expectation.


Lastly, Ah-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle (阿宗面线) was the ultimate food you should try out there. The culture of eating this noodle was standing in front of the shop and eat. Everyone was doing this although the noodle was damn hot.


Since 1975. The recipe was passed down from his grandfather? Btw, it's really delicious.

Technorati Tags: Taiwan Taipei Ximending Travel

Taiwan: Shilin Night Market

Taiwan is well-known with its night market. For sure, we wouldn't miss Shilin Night Market. Even One Utama also has one shop called Shilin Taiwan Street Snacks selling all these Shilin food delicacies. Actually I didn't eat much of those Taiwan food but it's good to introduce some famous one.

This large-size fried chicken steak (大鸡排) was selling at NT$45 per piece. And, the queue was long. It's something not to be missed at Shilin Night Market.


Large and crunchy. There should be one fitness centre around this night market area. =P


And also, super large sausage (大香肠). Again, the queue was long as well.


Different flavors of super long and fat sausages.


These 2 stalls were located at the entrance of the night market. We walked further in to see what else could this night market offer us. The stalls inside didn't have so many customers. Perhaps, it's still early for dinner time. Many chinese words looked unfamiliar to me, for example this 天妇罗, I think it's tempura and translated to chinese word according to the japanese pronunciation.




From what I could see from below of the menu, this stall had appeared on various TV shows and drama series. There must be something special from this stall.


This is a place for food lover.

Technorati Tags: Taiwan Taipei Travel Shilin Night Market Food