Taipei

Tea tasting and the elusive Taipei 101

After a good night’s sleep we were all ready to go early.  Jonno led the way and we were soon at Ximen metro station.  We were discussing the queue markers on the platform when a Taiwanese man helpfully pointed us to the right location.  I thanked him in my best Mandarin and he was effusive in his praise and thought I could actually speak Chinese.  Clearly my pronunciation had improved after many efforts by G to coach me to say thank you correctly.  He happily chatted to me the few stops till we needed to change.  He was very impressed that we were headed to Maokong as it meant we must have done some good research.  He was from Chiayi and had moved to Taipei to go to university.  He also volunteered at the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial which meant he would have held opposing views to our tour guide yesterday. 

We changed to the brown line, which was above ground and we had occasional glimpses of Taipei 101 Tower as we travelled through the city to the Taipei Zoo station which was also the location of the Maokong Gondola.  I had read that the queues could be bad on weekends, and there was a bit of a queue but it moved quickly.  We amused ourselves trying to spot the gerbil a young boy was carrying in a pink rimmed container. 

We were able to swipe our easypass to use the gondola and it cost around $6 AUD for the 25 minute, 4km ride to Maokong.  We could see occasional glimpses of the Taipei 101, sometimes the base and sometimes the top, but never the whole building.  We amused ourselves working out which gondolas had the crystal, see through floor - turned out it was the red ones.  We passed a few cherry blossom trees and temples before reaching the top.  We emerged to the sounds of a saw-player setting up and it seemed he had a two-song repertoire that echoed repeatedly and irritatingly across the hilltops. 

We walked uphill for a few hundred metres, but there was nothing to see.  A map showed that we needed to head downhill to the tea houses, and Jonno found a walk to Mt Ejaoje Mountain that had the most direct route to a lookout.  It was 1.2km to the top and easy walking up steps that were sometimes a little slippery.  The views at the tops were amazing, but cloud covered the top half of Taipei 101.

We took care on the way back down, soon emerging onto the road and walked down to the cluster of tea houses.  Ice Climbers was one  I had seen recommended, and given that Jonno liked the name, we decided to go there.  We ordered four pots of tea, which included the three different local teas and a second pot of the local oolong.  We sipped our tea in tiny glass cups, comparing the different flavours and decided on our favourites, whilst enjoying the views across Taipei.

Following the recommendations of the Ice Climber staff, we went next door to the Tea Masters shop to buy some tea.  I said hello, again in my best effort at Mandarin, and the young man in the shop spoke to me in English. He said that his mother had asked if I could speak Chinese.  I laughed and said I only knew a few words and he said that many people said hello but not many knew how to say it.  We later asked how to say a few more words in Mandarin, given that I was keen to be able to say more than hello and thank you. 

Given that positive start, we spend a lot of time in the shop trying the teas they brewed for us. They made all the teas themselves and the son explained that they were the seventh generation to grow tea.  G bought a four tin collection to take home, and I bought two boxes of different tea bags for us to enjoy on our travels. 

Jonno checked the buses, and advised that we needed to walk 6 mins downhill and wait for the bus there.  It was drizzling and the cloud had set in, so we were glad we had decided to catch the bus back down.  We picked up some bread and biscuits for a quick snack at the nearby store and discussed the merits of cycling the narrow road as the bus wound its way down the mountainside.

Back on the metro we headed for Sun Yat Sen memorial hall, only to find that google maps had sent us to a university hall of the same name.  Not to worry  as it was the same metro stop for Huashan 1914 National Creative Park.  We detoured down a little side alley to find a street of restaurants and chose one for lunch.  A young Taiwanese guy moved tables so we could sit together.  He asked where we were from and I told him. In response, he told me he was from America and I praised his accent, while his new table companion turned her head away and laughed hysterically into her hand.

The Creative Park was buzzing with live music and lots of interesting shops and exhibits.  We agreed to meet in 45 minutes and Simon and I wandered around enjoying the atmosphere and looking at all the different craft stores.  We didn’t find anything to buy and found the kids near the main stage.

Our final stop was Sun Yat Sen Memorial station - where we knew we would find the correct Memorial Hall.  The building was impressive and we admired the smaller statues outside then the massive one inside, though only Jonno obeyed the instruction to salute. There were two small historical exhibits outlining his life and influence.  From the square in front we could see most of Taipei 101 - but still the top remained in cloud.

Back on the metro, it was only a few stops to Ximen stations - where crowds of people alighted.  There were lots of people waiting to see the dragon lantern, as today is the official day for the Lantern Festival, and the whole of Ximen was heaving as we made our way back to our apartment. 

It was about a 20 minute walk to the Ningxia Night Market, promoted as a relatively small and accessible night market.  There were two rows of stalls running up a wide road with just a narrow walkway between the stalls, just wide enough to walk in single file. Some stalls had long queues behind them and a few had tables and stools.  Being our first night market we tried a few different stalls, I mainly opted for those without queues. Jonno, G and I started with a pork sausage in a thin pancake, After finding Simon who’d gone on ahead, we then went our separate ways.  G queued for a fried shallot pancake and Jonno queued for a kebab in a roll, Taiwanese style.  Simon and I shared some mustard salted squid and noodles in pancake, Then G, Si and I finished with a shaved peanut brittle and icecream in a thin soft crepe. 

We were relieved to leave the crowded street and make our way home. As we approached Ximendeng, we passed a garden of lights - the beginning of an amazing array of light installations as part of the Lantern Festival.  The pavements were heaving as we walked along the Friendly Display Zone with lighting displays from a range of Japanese, Korean and other cities.  There were so many people and the traffic was at a standstill.  The lights continued further down the road towards the Dragon Lantern. But we were happy to turn into our little alley and quiet apartment, which was just 300 metres away  from all the action.

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