We were planning to have a tour with the taxi driver to Jiufen and surrounding area today as I have previously made arrangement to book him for the entire day for about $100. Unfortunately, both the kids woke up with a fever, so we had to cancel the trip last minute and tried to reschedule it. However, since it is holiday season, the driver was fully booked for the entire next week and we can't do it this week as we were planning a 5 day trip to Tainan (south of Taiwan).
We took the kids to the doctor and after seeing the doctor, we had bags of medicine for them to take. The fee for seeing a doctor was pretty cheap compared to U.S. It was about $50 for both kids including the medicine. That is probably less than the copayments that I would have paid in U.S. with health insurance. Imagine seeing a doctor in U.S. without health insurance. It would be easily several hundreds of dollars per person just to see a doctor. One thing that I also noticed during this doctor's visit was that the wait was super short and they gave lots of medicine for patients to take.
After the doctor's visit, we rested a little more and had lunch. By the afternoon, the kids felt much better, so we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. We took the metro and got off at Chiang Kai Shek station.
There were maps right at the metro station which shows you where to go. We took Exit 5 and after a few minutes, we were at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
The building below is the Archway and has sapphire blue tiles on top of the white pillar. Every hour, the guards there will have a change in shift.
The number of steps to the memorial hall is 89 which symbolized the age when President Chiang Kai Shek died.
We were pretty lucky as we were there close to 3pm and just in time for the performance which lasted about 10 minutes.
There is a small area at the corner which had an exhibit of items related to President Chiang.
I planned my day by trying to visit nearby places, so after the memorial hall, we decided to take the metro to Daan Park.
Below is a picture of the Daan Park metro station which had a very sleek design. Even the apartments nearby looked really nice.
After exiting the station, we walked for a few minutes before we reached the children's playground. It's a very big playground and the kids have a great time here playing with the slides and swings. There is a huge sand pit area as well but the kids didn't try it as we didn't bring any slippers for them to change.
Taipei 101 building in the background of the picture below as it is pretty close by.
After we left the playground to the metro station, we saw the water show at the station. It looks like they have a water show every hour right outside the station. We then took the metro to Taipei 101 station to check out the malls.
You can go up to the observatory deck for a fee but we didn't do it since it was already dark outside. I prefer to go there before sunset so we get to see the surrounding area while it is still bright and wait for the night lights after sunset. If you take the elevator to the 5th floor, you can buy the tickets and take the special elevator to the 85th floor.
After shopping around, we ended up not buying anything as the things inside the mall is very expensive. We then went outside and there was a very big and pretty Christmas tree in display.
After dinner, we left and went to Songshan station to check out Raohe Night market. One thing about Taiwan is that it not only has many 7-11 stores but it also has quite a few temples.
Below is a temple next to Raohe night market.
After crossing the street, we reached Raohe night market. It's a much smaller night market compared to Shilin night market but still pretty packed with people.
Like the other night market, there are many food stalls and some games stalls.
After playing some games, we decided to call it a day and head home. We had fun but our legs were really sore.
No comments:
Post a Comment