Day 12 -- Bitan and Shilin Night Market (Taipei, Taiwan)

12/29/2016 Thursday

We took the metro to XinDian station to Bitan which is pretty far from our place. I have heard good things about Bitan but never been there. In addition, we wanted to rent the bicycle since we wasn't able to do it in TamSui last time.

Bitan is in the outskirts of Taipei city and has a very scenic surrounding. It's where the locals hang out during the weekends to relax. Bitan means green lake in Mandarin and once you get there, you will see why it's named Bitan.

In Bitan, you can rent a bicycle or the duck shaped boat to ride on the lake. We decided to rent the bicycle first since we promised Mason. The bicycle rental was very cheap (US $3 each bicycle for 2 hours). Since Maddie is not able to ride on her own, and the bicycle that they had with training wheels was a little too small for her, she and Anthony went on the tandem bike while Mason and I each had our own bike.

It was drizzling a little when we reached there but it didn't spoil our mood to bike around the lake. We ride along the bicycling route while enjoying the view.

After 2 hours of riding, our legs were pretty tired, so we didn't try the boat ride. We went to check out their eating area where there are a few different stalls selling food and you can sit and enjoy the nice view of the lake.

There are many different cute statues and Maddie tried to imitate each of them. Pretty cute.

 After taking the pictures, we decided to cross the bridge to go to the other side. It was a suspension bridge so it moved as we walked across.

There are some hiking trails across the bridge but we didn't go as our legs were really sore at this time.

We took a quick look before heading back. On the bridge, we could have a great view and the picture below shows the area where the food stalls were located.

There was a water show at 6pm but since we have seen many different water shows, we decided not to stay. It was already starting to get dark and the bridge was lit up. 

We left and went to Shilin night market again. The kids played some games and we bought them each a souvenir since we were leaving soon.

After the games, we went for some shave ice. This time, we ordered the fruit shave ice. We were surprised that they had mangoes as it was not in season. Turns out they had frozen mangoes.

Day 11 -- National Palace Museum, Taipei 101, Vieshow (Taipei, Taiwan)

12/28/2016 Wednesday

It's raining today, so our plan is to visit the National Palace Museum and spend a few hours looking at the exhibits indoor. We took the metro to Shilin station and after exiting the station, we walked towards Watson store to the bus stop. There are a few different buses to National Palace Museum and we just hopped onto the first bus that came. 

We used our EasyCard to pay for our bus ride as well as our metro ride. It was a pretty short bus ride for about 10 -15 minutes.

I took the kids to the kids section to play while Anthony went to queue up for tickets. There were a lot of visitors, so it took a while for him to get the tickets.

After getting our tickets, we went in and started with the first floor exhibits. There were altogether 3 floors of exhibits.

Each exhibit room has a number and are grouped by the kind of exhibits. Taking pictures are mostly allowed but no flash is allowed. I did encountered 1 or 2 exhibit rooms that did not allow taking pictures, so do take note.

After finishing the first floor, we went to the second floor and by this time, the kids were getting tired of looking at the exhibits. They kept asking when we are leaving. 

There was a section where the kids could draw and we could take some pictures. We spent some time there and skipped a few exhibits in the second floor before going to the third floor.

We barely saw the exhibits in the third floor before the kids started complaining again. So, we left soon after that.

We would have stayed much longer if not for the kids. We took the bus to Shilin metro station and there were several food stalls outside the station, so we bought some snacks to eat.

 Chinese pancake or Chinese Pizza as they called it. It is basically flour with green onions. You can add an egg to it if you wish. 

Grass jelly drink which Anthony loves.

Queuing for pearl milk tea which I am a fan of. You have to try it when you are in Taiwan. It was originated from Taiwan and is the national drink.

After finishing our food as no food or drinks are allowed in the metro station, we went to Taipei 101. This is our second time to Taipei 101 for this trip.

We shopped a little before deciding to leave the mall and venture to the neighboring malls. 

We walked across the overhead bridge to go to Vieshow as we plan to watch a movie.

Dabbing again

The kids have never been to a cinema in Taiwan, so we thought it would be a good experience to have and since it was raining, it was perfect for a movie. We queued up for the tickets and it was a long line considering it was a Wednesday night.

While waiting for the line, Mason took a picture of Taipei 101.

After waiting for 30 minutes, we finally got our tickets for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The prices of a movie ticket is about the same as U.S.

We didn't have much time before the show, so we went to the food court next door to eat something quick before the show.

Me and my pearl milk tea again

After a quick dinner, we bought some popcorn, churro and drinks for our show.

It's been a long time since I last saw Chinese subtitles in a movie.

After the movie, it was pretty late and we went home afterwards. The good thing about the metro is that the last train is at midnight, so we didn't have to rush.