taiwan day 9: maokong gondola
the blog lives and my will to finish writing about my taiwan / japan trip will never die. again, beloved reader, this trip WILL be blogged about. and the next trip. and the next trip. forever. anyways, have fun with this one and stay to the end for a surprise :)
i started my last day in taiwan by doing what i always do: getting a coffee. i took the train to ogawa cafe near taipei 101. my plans for the day were in this direction and this cafe looked cute and good. i drank my coffee out in their little covered patio area. to be honest, i was so hot and sweaty, ordering a hot coffee was a mistake… but it was good :)
after i finished my coffee i got back on the train and rode to the terminus: the taipei zoo. my activity for the day was riding the gondola to maokong: a mountainous area southeast of the city famous originally for tea growing. maokong has many interweaving footpaths that were once used for transporting tea. now, maokong houses many traditional tea houses, temples, and views of taipei city.
a gondola runs from the taipei zoo at the base of the mountains and winds its way up over the trees. the weather was quite cloudy and misty which is pretty typical for taipei.
to my pleasant surprise, the gondola car was decorated with cute animals to advertise the zoo.
i payed a little extra to get a gondola car with a glass bottom so i could see the tea farms below me as i passed over.
here are some views from the gondola:
i rode the gondola all the way to the top first and then stopped at other sites on my way back down. the station at the top had these cute cat sculptures:
i was sorta visiting on an off day, so many of the teahouses were closed, but i still explored the little stone pathways winding up and down the mountain.
after a while, i hopped back on the gondola and rode it down to zhinan station to visit a few taoist temples with (would have been) great views of maokong and taipei.
right outside of the gondola station was xian shan tian long (i could not find this name in english): a smaller taoist temple with a cool tower.
i walked further down to lingxiao palace:
and continued along the covered footpath:
lingxiao palace from a distance:
finally i arrived at zhinan temple (it was really hard to take pictures of because of the size and the available angles lol):
the entire time i was in maokong, i felt like i was almost the only person there. it felt a little end-of-the-world eerie, but it was also nice having everything to myself.
afterwards, i rode the gondola back down to the zoo and hopped on the train back to the city. for my last meal in taipei, i went back to sihai soymilk and had a little breakfast for dinner. simply the best.
my flight out was really early in the morning, so i booked a pod at the capsule hotel at the airport. it came with free tea service:
overall i had a wonderful time in taiwan and was a little sad to be leaving… but was also excited for the next steps on my trip. i will do a little more reflecting on my time in taiwan as a little wrap up once i finish writing about my time in japan. but until then…
BONUS!!!
what would a day in taiwan be without a little capybara action??
