travel: Taiwan 2012 Day 11: Taipei: National Palace Museum, National Science Education Centre, Shilin Night Market

This morning we checked out of Sato Castle and gave our baggage for safekeeping with the receptionist while we went out - as our check-in for the next hotel would not be until the afternoon. Our first destination for the day was to go to National Palace Museum. If you are not travelling solo and your time is limited, it's probably best to get a cab to get around Taiwan. Cab fare is quite cheap,

Museum fare is TWD 160 per adult, and non-chinese speaking patrons can get an audio guide for which TWD 100 is applicable. I really recommend to get the audio guide if you don't understand chinese, as the exhibition inside is definitely not english friendly. You would be blind without it and could easily get bored if you didn't understand the background or story behind the exhibited pieces.

My favourite would be the carvings exhibition - on jade, gemstones, bamboo, ivory, tusks, and even fruit seed. The workmanship is crazy! Current living artisans have nothing on these ancient artists/creators. Paintings exhibit area is also worth checking out - the pieces are beautiful and depict the ancient characters, landscape, and nature as the artists saw them in their time. Beautiful, detailed, and it transported you way back just for a few moments, mesmerizing yourself in complex strokes and colors.

Unfortunately, no camera is allowed inside the exhibition.

We did though, ate a wholesome brunch at the 4th floor inside the main building (yes, you have to pay the admission fee to get to this restaurant) - Sanxitang Teahouse. Taste's very nice and definitely worth to have a break and have some flavorsome meal.
We had seafood dumplings, pork bun, some rice dumplings, meatball soup, beansprout roll, and tea jelly.

Total damage: TWD 745

Then we went back to Sato Castle to get our baggage and took another cab to go to our accommodation for the next 3 nights. It's also the last hotel we will stay at during this trip.

Palais de Chine

Room Type: Executive

Cost: TWD 7590 per night

Despite being 5 star and fitted out nicely, rooms tend to be on the smaller side. Our executive room (and being a member of their preferred hotel group alliance - I Prefer) came with free wi-fi. But usually internet does not come for free here, which is weird - being the 5 star status, the price, and the business-like feel.

And not that I am being very picky about it, but all the accommodations we have stayed at during this trip provided their mini bar contents for free (included in the fare), even though the per night rate is below what we have paid for Palais de Chine. So why does Palais's mini bar not come included in the price? We received some welcome fruits though.

Room is beautifully appointed, though balcony view does not really show anything interesting (unless if there are some hot girls or guys swimming in that faraway pool...)

After checking into Palais, we went to National Science Education Centre - located in Shilin area. We went there basically to visit the Transformers exhibit (we heard about it on the radio when we were in Taichung), that will only be exhibited until March 2013.

Athough there are many exhibits, we were glued at the Transformers section for a couple of hours until their closing time.

The exhibit showcases Transformers robots through different era - from its initial design until the latest movie reproductions.
And some other style as well:

Star Wars: this made me smile.

The Avengers style: Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man

Ghost Rider:

Black Spiderman, and Venom behind him

And the celebrity of the exhibit: a true scale of Bumblebee figure reproduction.

shagshftyefwt!!!! So so so awesome

One more of Bumblebee. Just because.

Even without Transformers exhibition, I think this place is way underrated (it was so quiet when we were there), and definitely worth visiting for a day of fun. There are a lot of interesting sections/exhibits that we did not have the time to go to, and we plan to go back here the next time we are in Taiwan.

Next stop: Shilin Night Market for our snack/dinner fix.

these chicken pieces are quite yummy, actually. There are a few stalls selling similar ones, but this stall coated the chicken with some sauce, making it quite flavorsome.

The Foodcourt at basement level B1 was so crowded (we did not eat here though, gave me headache just walking through the crowds). The stalls provides seats, so I guess they are more tourists friendly than the stalls on the street above.

Then off we went to Palais de Chine to turn in for the night

Bose speakers (only two though) inside our room o_0

travel: Taiwan 2012 Day 10: Taipei: Taipei 101

Breakfast selection at Sato Castle was quite extensive - we are so used to getting good breakfast during this trip. This one did not disappoint, choice included eastern style (porridge and their condiments), and western style (some fried stuff, bacon, scrambled eggs, salad, etc)

After breakfast, we checked out of our Spiderman room and gave our bagagges to the reception for safekeeping until our next check in time (6 p.m. to a different room). It did not trouble us at all to do this, as we did not spend our day time inside our room anyway, and most likely will reach the hotel again late at night.

We went to Taipei 101 - the tallest building in Taiwan. From our hotel, we went to Jiannan Rd. station and took the metro rail to Zhongxiao Fuxing station, and changed train to the blue line to reach Taipei City Hall station. From the station, it was about 20 minutes walk to Taipei 101; or you could also take the bus that will drop you off in front of Taipei 101 directly.
Obviously, a visit to Taipei 101 meant that we had to go to the observatory. The elevator went so fast I had to neutralize my ears every 3 seconds. It only took 36 seconds to reach the top.

the damper for Taipei 101. Its main function is to 'stabilize' the building, to protect it against harsh wind or typhoon, and earthquakes

We also had a bit of snack - sushi train style - at Hi Sushi, located at the foodcourt level of Taipei 101 Dreamland mall. I could not go pass eel of course, and we also ordered fatty tuna (forgot to take picture -_-), which is still considered expensive here (TWD 150 each), but would easily cost double in Australia.

Lunch was at the nearby Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall at Shin Yeh Japanese buffet restaurant. We had the 2.30 p.m. slot, and you are allocated 1 1/2 hour to eat as much as you could fill your stomach space. Seriously, Australian's buffet restaurants - you should learn from this group. The price does not compromise quality. Perhaps for Taiwanese, this would be considered slightly expensive, but I'd gladly pay this price any day for the food selection they offered.
We were lucky to get a spot because we did not make a booking. After they let in the crowds that had made prior booking, there were still some spots left, and they let us in.

crazy queue

The above are just pictures of some of the selections. There were many many more.

I think the time slot when we dined in was quite cheap (dinner and lunch hour time would cost more). Including service tax, total damage was TWD 1012.

After some window shopping and when the sky turned dark, we made our way to a cute little tea house for a little relaxation - a bit out of the way from where we were.

Moonlight Tea House (玥飲軒)
Address: 80 Wenzhou St, Taipei (台北市溫州街80號)

One of their signature dish is milk tea hotpot, but as we were still bloated from excessive lunch, we just opted for some tea.
The place is charming and old style, with cute tables - especially the ones with some fish swimming inside them!

We spent the rest of the night at Miramar, where we met these patrolling superheroes - ready to save people from sadness or any sign of depression. How could you not be saved by these two bundles of cuteness overloads. One of them is apparently 13 years old, which makes him quite old for a dog. But his form and movement definitely did not show of the old age.

Then went back to Sato Castle to check our room for tonight. Unfortunately, again, we could not choose the room that we preferred as they are booked out for the other room. Regardless, our room tonight is still cool and fun.

Room Style: King type - Room 220 (theme 'West Side Story')
Cost: TWD 4880

Size is bigger than the queen room, and our room has its own car (obviously non operational) inside. 
As always, the bathroom also has infrared sauna (only available for queen & king type rooms)

small outdoor area

fake... obviously...