Thread: Taiwan
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Old January 23rd, 2013, 11:41 PM posted to rec.travel.asia
SMS
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Posts: 899
Default Taiwan

On 1/23/2013 1:14 PM, Alfred Molon wrote:
In article , SMS says...
Take the MTR out to the northern end to Tanshui. Walk along the
waterfront. Lots of good restaurants out there. Buy some iron eggs which
they are famous for.


Got it... it's called Danshui on Google Maps. I guess you mean the
waterfront on Huanhe road extending northwest along the river, 1km+
long?

Go to Yanmingshan National Park. Look for the giant cows, but I've never
found them. There's a bus from Taipei that goes there if you don't have
a car.

Go over the mountains to Keelung and drive back to Taipei around the
northern coast (assuming you have a car).


Is it for the scenery?

The Palace Museum has a lot of the treasures that the Kuomintang took
with them when they left China.


Photography not allowed there :-(

The Shilin Night Market (on the MTR line).


I think I've been there in 2005 (visited Taipei for a few days back
then).

Taipei Zoo, on the MTR line, go on a weekday because on the weekends it
is incredibly crowded.


Should be interesting for the kids.

Sun Yatsen memorial, Chiang Kai Shek memorial (even if you didn't like
him, it's interesting), 228 Peace Memorial Park.


Been there in 2005.

Costco. No MTR, take the bus.


This is a mall, right?


A store. Famous in the U.S. and wildly popular in Taiwan. But you have
to be a member to get in, and not much in terms of tourist appeal
(except for things like Taiwanese tea and other delicacies that I like
to buy to take home as gifts).


Can't help you south of Taipei.


Ok, but is there anything historical or natural sights outside Taipei?
Or was it the trip to Keelung and back?


It was mainly for the scenery. There was some sort of an aquarium in
Keelung but we didn't go. My Taiwanese friend is a photographer (Nikon)
and he wanted to go up to the mountains for bird photography so he
picked me up at my hotel at 4 a.m.. Then we went out to the coast, west
of Hsinchu for more photography on the beach.

Is it easy to rent a car in Taiwan? And is it easy to drive?


I would not want to drive in Taipei, and there is really no need with
the MTR, buses, and cheap taxis, but outside of the urban area it looked
fine. The mountain roads are very narrow though. I drove in Thailand,
outside of Bangkok, so Taiwan should be easy compared to that.

I really want to go further south to Taroko National Park next time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taroko_National_Park. You can get there
by train and then bus or taxi http://wikitravel.org/en/Taroko_Gorge.
Taiwan has a very good train system.

Last time I went, I was paying for the trip, and I stayed at the YMCA
hotel. Basic, but clean and inexpensive and just a few minute walk from
the main train station and two MTR lines. When I used to go for work, I
would be staying at really nice hotels like the Formosa Regent, which
wasn't that close to the MTR or train station.

I think two weeks just in Taipei is too much, you should go to a couple
of national parks if possible, but that's just like what I like to do. I
remember going into the office in Taipei on a Monday and telling my
Taiwanese colleagues that I had taken the bus up to Yamingshang. They
were amazed that a) I was able to figure out how to do this (it's just
one bus, 260, from the main train station) and b) that anyone would take
a bus anywhere, since none of them ever did.

We were in China last June, not on a tour (I hate organized tours), and
we did just fine. We took buses and trains everywhere, and only used
taxis a few times. You would have loved the section of the Great Wall we
went to for photography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinshanling.