Yuanshan 圓山 & Maokong 貓空

My parents sometimes do tai chi at Yuanshan, so I got up really early to go with them...only because the cooking class teacher is one of their tai chi friends, and he's making coffee for us all XD

Yuanshan is home to "The Grand Hotel". It's one of Taipei's landmarks, and still attract overseas tourists....(ha!) Methinks this place is just placed in the itinerary to beef it up. I hear D's parents didn't even bother to get out of the coach to go in. LOL.

we went up a path to the hill behind the hotel...the whole place was 'developed' in a haphazard manner, with 'private' lots for tai chi, badminton, dancing, and very loud karaoke (noise...noise pollution..orz).

the weather was very temperamental - by the time I got up to the lookout, it was drizzling and everything was covered in a thick mist, and that's why this photo is in sepia...haha. You can sort of see 101 on the left. The domestic airport is by the bridge, and I saw planes land and take off (would have made for great photos on a clear day...damn >_<)

Cooking Sensei brought in organic coffee (grown by one of his students in Nicaragua!) roasted and ground by him til 2 am He says: you'll come to see the benefits of being friends with us. Well, with such good coffee, I see it already :D We brought a really good cheese cake from 雅力根坊. We only went in to the bakery by chance, and didn't know it was a really famous and popular bakery til other people told us :)

on the way down, mum nearly stepped on a very well camouflaged inchworm...and that started my parents' search for bugs for me to photograph.

Dad: "here's an ant! do you want an ant?"....orz (to his credit, it was a fairly big one)

*

We then went to 木柵 aka Mudja, Mucha, or Muzha. I saw these transliterations within a few km of each other lol. Use whichever makes you happy, I say! today I'll go with Muzha haha. We came here to catch the Maokong gondola, which run from the Taipei Zoo MRT station, over 4 km, to Maokong at the top of the mountain. It only opened in July last year.

view of gondola station on the 4th floor (3rd for us aussies), and the view outside

we lined up for around 1/2 hr. predictably, the family behind us asked us to join them so we can purchase a discounted group ticket. They had to abandon this plan because we would only get one ticket for the group (not good if you want to get off at diff stops), and because the discount is based on adult rates (and they had 3 kids). LOL. I knew this was going to happen, and don't know why they bothered, since a single adult ticket to Maokong (the furthest of the 3 stops) is only NT$50 (~ AUD$1.50).

you can't tell from the photos, but we were really high up! 4 km is fairly long, and we went over lots of gullies and ridges during the 15 min ride.

it drizzled a little, so we got a kickass rainbow! All the better rainbow photos have my mum's face in it, so you just have to believe me that it was very special to see a rainbow following you from up high. I recommend going to Maokong when it's drizzling XD

hmm...the ride was very enjoyable, but once we got to Maokong we found it to be another one of those places that was not developed according to a proper plan. Nevermind the illegal construction of restaurants and shops, the lack of a footpath meant that we had share the road with cars, scooters, and buses, which was not great. There were lots of speical buses that take you around Maokong, with no limit on how much you use it in one day, all for NT$15/AUD$0.5. Good idea, except I think they could use small shuttle buses instead (and while I'm dreaming, why don't they run on propane or CNG/LNG as well? LOL).

we had lunch at 雙橡園...and here's a pet boar, sleeping

The food was soooo oily! we and another table both told the owner...so it might be better next time. The view was great though!

Maokong gondola station is on the left hand side (but not in the photo). 101 is on the right, and the big building with the domes sort of below it is ZhiNan Temple, the 2nd stop.

The gondola queue for the return trip was so long, we took a small local bus instead. It was a great idea, especially since a local on the bus helped us out. Small shuttle buses don't have any announcements and we would have found it hard to know where to get off. If, like us, you parked at the open-ground carpark across the road from the Taipei Zoo MRT station, you can catch a bus down to avoid the gondola queue, get off at National Chengchi University, walk to the bridge, don't cross it, turn right and and follow the bike path along the river, and that will take you to the car park. It's a 15 min walk, but I'd rather walk than wait any day :)