On the Taipei Trip (2)

Day 3: We learnt to be smarter on the 3rd day, technically speaking, that the night falls earlier in winter in the Northern hemisphere. LOLS. So we decided to skip the later half of the conference to head up North out of Taipei city to another town where the Fisherman's Wharf is located, called Dan-shui.

While one of us decided to head back to the hotel to change into a more comfortable apparels, the rest of us decided to hang out in the park opposite the convention centre. The peace park is also where the National Taiwan Museum is located. However, due to time constrain, I spent the half an hour in the park taking numerous photos. The park is pretty beautiful, very peaceful indeed. But I doubt any tourist would be visiting this place as compared to most of the other tourist spots because it's probably just another park to most of us. But the architecture of the museum was pretty impressive with colonial columns and all.

When the friend who went back called up to say he was already on the way out, we hit the MRT up North to Dan-Shui. I don't know whether we should call ourselves lucky or what, despite some delay that I caused camwhoring at the terminal station, we managed to catch a bus to reach the Fisherman's Wharf just as the sun was setting. It wasn't a pretty sunset, but it was nice enough to see the sun set beyond the horizon. We stayed for a while longer until late evening when the bridge was finally lightened up. It was another sight to behold. But it was just that and nothing more. We took a speedboat back to the old streets of Dan-shui, and spent the rest of the night walking in the night market.

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Day 4: It was a Saturday where the gala dinner of the conference was scheduled on. We were to have it in Sheraton Taipei at 7p.m. in the evening, which left us not much time for sightseeing. But that didn't stop us from sneaking out in the afternoon as all the remaining oral tracks didn't interest me. In a way, I probably influeced my friends to go out to the Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall 10 minutes walking distance away from the convention centre. I thought it was just a small memorial park, you know, from what I saw in the pictures. But I was so wrong when I just stopped breathing for a couple of seconds when we reached the main giant arch. It was so amazingly beautiful that I thought I could just sit there and watch the day goes by. A lot of the residents in Taipei spent their Saturday afternoon in the park apparently. It took us almost 3 hours sightseeing in the park, who would've known there's a museum down in the memorial hall. Ooh, and we managed to catch the guards changing ceremony too!

We finally headed back to the convention centre after the sun set. Did I mention that the gala dinner was held in Sheraton Taipei? >.<

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Day 5: Our conference ends by noon. So we headed to the President's Resident. It was a Sunday, coincidently there was some Ministry of Youth's activity going on, so it was pretty happening and merry. We were lucky enough I guess, to be able to visit the entire palace as they opened up the whole place for the public, including those in the 1st floor where the President holds his meeting with foreign heads of government. It was amazing so to speak. We were just walking swiftly as there was another place in our itinerary before the sun set!

We took the train heading up North out of the city of Taipei to a suburban town called Jiu-fen. Apparently, Les Miserables went there for some shootings or whatsoever which turned the entire hilly town into a tourist place. It was a hilly town with narrow streets and man, it's just not a place for the claustophobics. But at the end of the streets, we were greeted with the most breathtaking view of the Keelung harbour. After much camwhoring, we finally left the town down to Keelung, yet another night market.

We managed to meet up with another group of colleagues of ours before we called it a night. Apparently the night in Taiwan was long enough for us to visit so many places. We headed down to Taipei 101, we didn't go in as it was already 10p.m., so we gave it ago.

I shall leave the itinerary of the last day for another post, where the tallest tower in the world is concerned. Taipei 101 ROCKS!!!