So day 2 of our Taipei trip begun with a morning train ride to the Taipei Zoo station, where we took a bus to a nearby town and started out ascend to Maokong via the Zhinan temple.
I had the route setup in my phone with steps throughout the way so as not to get lost.
After setting up the GPS, we were pretty much on our way.
The first stop was the temple itself, which took quite a bit of stair climbing to get to, I'm not sure if it's me who hasn't been training steps for awhile, or whether there were seriously too many steps in the area, but I was pretty tired by the time we got to the top.
I kinda regret dashing the first few flights, which made me huff and puff the remaining few. Shufen on the other hand took it like a champ.
Cool as it was, there were quite a bit of tourists in the area, so not wanting to hang long, we moved off and continued on our was upwards.
Or downwards for that matter as per the image below.
Our next stop was the Tea Exhibition Centre, which allowed you to stop by for a free cup of tea, which we did!
The run didn't take long and before we knew it, we were passing the touristy portion of Maokong where the gondola station was, and after hanging for a bit, we headed to the plantation side to check things out.
The main attraction wasn't just the tea plantation though, which was the highlight for many tourists. Further out was Yinhe where there was a temple built into the mountain itself, with a waterfall right beside it, really beautiful stuff.
After visiting the area, we decided to head back, and just like my HK trip last year to Lantau, we ran up, and took a cable car down. Best part? We were looking to take the ordinary ride but got a crystal cabin with a see-through bottom instead, win!
By the time we got back, we were pretty tired and smelly, and after a short rest and shower, we made reservations at Kanpai which my cousin had recommended, and took a train down to try the food at the place.
I'm going to cut in here and say I did not expect myself to rave over kimchi...I mean...it's kimchi, how much raving do you need? But this, this was REALLY GOOD! I could gobble this down throughout the day if I had a tub beside me, the veg was delicious and the sauce base was the thick kind, shiok!
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| Beef Tongue |
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| Pork Belly |
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| I believe this was just regular chuck |
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| Lean Pork |
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| Premium Ribeye |
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| Err...Chicken? |
Overall the food at Kanpai was pretty delicious, and the service was REALLY GOOD! Fast, prompt, polite, helpful, I went in not expecting much but was really happy I made the trip down.
We ended the evening we some more walking around Ximending, and eating street vendor foods, as well as oyster omelette which was different than the ones done locally, but the oysters here are a lot fresher and I really enjoyed eating them surprisingly!
So that sums up day two of the trip, will find time to blog about the remaining 3 days.
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