Taipei Day One

Today was the first full day in Taipei, and  a lot of walking!

In the morning I headed up to the Baoan and Confuscius Temples in the north-west, very colourful.


After a cup of coffee and looking at a map, I decided to go to a place called Maokong in the south-east, which is a tea-growing area in the mountains.  To get there you can get a cable car (called a gondola here) near Taipei Zoo MRT station.  Great view from the cable car, even though it was lightly drizzling all day today.

Once there, I again went to various temples and a teahouse, and also down to the potholes in the stream where the water has eroded the rock at different rates.  (Maokong means 'cat holes', and looked a little like the paw prints of a cat, if you use your imagination...!) 

 Then on to Taipei 101 Tower and a little look at the shops.


 I've started to add my photos to my link on Holidays and Days Out, not culled yet though...  I rather like Taipei!  It's very easy to get around using the MRT metro system, and there's enough English everywhere to make it fairly straightforward to get to and enjoy places.  In the information centres, and some of the stations too, there are good maps and brochures in English.  I hadn't bought a Taipei guide book and it's not a problem - I've picked up plenty of information from pamphlets.

In the evening I went out to Shilin Night Market at Jiantan MRT, the largest in Taipei, and seemingly where half of Taipei gather after it gets dark!  Very busy and a nice atmosphere, although I liked the food selection better at Ning Xia Market at Shuanglian MRT last night.  But Shilin Tourist Night Market was much much bigger with lots of fairground type stalls  (resisted the temptation to try to win a large soft Doraemon), clothing and accessory shops, and food stalls.  For dinner tonight I had some kind of fried mashed potato with sweetcorn, pineapple, boiled egg and salsa in a very orange cheese sauce (60NTD) and a fruit salad (35NTD).  Didn't really fancy the frogs eggs...

Think I'm going to go to the north of Taipei tomorrow...