Written August 14, 2012
Today's destination was to be Maokong, which would require us to transfer subway lines twice from the green to blue to brown line. Instead, we opted to walk to the brown line station. Once at the brown line, we would take a cable car up the mountain.
Stepping out of Tim's apartment building, the scent of incense wafted through the air. A pleasantly pungent way to start the day.
We began walking to the brown line, stopping for some delicious noodles - I got niurou mian, a soup with noodles, brisket, and tons of garlic, while Tim got zhajiang mian which consisted of noodles with meat sauce. From there we started walking until we decided it was better to take a cab than walk through a busy tunnel.
The cab took us to Chengchi University, where we wandered around campus for a few minutes. Trying to find the subway from there was a bit of a bust. We wound up walking through back streets, up a long and windy hill with no sidewalks, then up several hundred steps on a side path to a small temple, and then climbed even more steps to another temple. After wandering around for a bit, we got some ice cream - Tim had vanilla and I had red bean ice cream with ... some kind of pineapple looking thing? We left there feeling refreshed and continued along until finding our way to yet another, bigger Daoist temple called Zhinangong. The temple was simply stunning, with so much painted detail that we just stood in awe. From there we finally found the cable car. We had walked 3/4ths of the way up to the top. That's a lot of walkin'! Once up at Maokong, we walked around and got some Tie Guanyin iced tea, a sort of locally grown oolong.
Our cable car to the bottom was shared with a Taiwanese lesbian couple and two super fashionable Japanese girls.
Deciding that taking the subway back would be a better idea, we made all the transfers until we got home.
In the evening, we met up with Dylan in Ximen for some delicious hot pot. I didn't bring my camera. I felt naked. The food was delicious. I got myself to try chicken foot, which was utterly nasty.
Niurou mian
Zhajiang mian
The cab took us to Chengchi University, where we wandered around campus for a few minutes. Trying to find the subway from there was a bit of a bust. We wound up walking through back streets, up a long and windy hill with no sidewalks, then up several hundred steps on a side path to a small temple, and then climbed even more steps to another temple. After wandering around for a bit, we got some ice cream - Tim had vanilla and I had red bean ice cream with ... some kind of pineapple looking thing? We left there feeling refreshed and continued along until finding our way to yet another, bigger Daoist temple called Zhinangong. The temple was simply stunning, with so much painted detail that we just stood in awe. From there we finally found the cable car. We had walked 3/4ths of the way up to the top. That's a lot of walkin'! Once up at Maokong, we walked around and got some Tie Guanyin iced tea, a sort of locally grown oolong.
From the small temple
The second temple
Red bean ice cream with ... ?
Zhinangong
The cable car had a glass floor
The cable car from the top of Maokong
View of Taipei from Maokong with Taipei 101 on the right
Tie Guanyin
Mountain pork with veggies
Our cable car to the bottom was shared with a Taiwanese lesbian couple and two super fashionable Japanese girls.
Deciding that taking the subway back would be a better idea, we made all the transfers until we got home.
In the evening, we met up with Dylan in Ximen for some delicious hot pot. I didn't bring my camera. I felt naked. The food was delicious. I got myself to try chicken foot, which was utterly nasty.
No comments:
Post a Comment