Gondola to Maokong

Today we took the train to Taipei zoo station. No, we didn’t go to the zoo – it was the starting point for the Taipei’s new gondola (cable car). There was a very long queue of people waiting outside in the sun. We joined it and waited for more than an hour outside wishing we hadn’t bothered. It was unbearably hot. We were the only people in the queue not accompanied by children. We were starving by the time we actually got inside the terminal building, but at least we were now cool. I left David in the queue and went to buy some water and buns. I only wanted 4 buns, but you could only buy them in boxes of 16 so we shared them with the family behind us.

The gondola was worth the wait as it turned out. It was a 30 minute ride with stops at South Zoo and a temple famous for being ruled by an unmarried god who likes to break couples up. We gave that a miss and went right to the end of the line: Maokong.

Maokong is a tea growing area, but most people visiting by gondola don’t leave the restaurant area near the gondola station. After a quick lunch of noodle soup and a piece of green Swiss roll, we walked on looking over tea plantations and views of the city below. We visited a temple, and then stopped for tea at a café called “Cat’s got nothing to do”. I had a black tea with milk which was ready made up in the pot and David had his first espresso in 5 months. I awarded my tea an 8 out of 10 and the coffee was a 9. We are both pretty critical, so these are very good scores.










The gondola station was full and noisy which annoyed me after the serenity of the tea plantation areas. People were starting to get on my nerves. It bugged me that people came all the way up and didn’t take the chance to see some of the lovely, peaceful countryside.

We ended up sharing a gondola car with the same family we had shared our buns with earlier. We chatted to them all the way back. The 2 little girls wanted to practice their English, but got as far as “My name’s Emily and I’m 9” and “My name’s Fiona and I’m 7” and then got too shy to try anything else. I couldn’t think of anything else to ask them so chatted to their parents. I am going to have to work on my repertoire of “things to talk to children about” as I am often in this situation when I travel and I want to make more of an effort. It doesn’t come naturally to me.

At the end of the ride, we said goodbye and headed back to the MRT station with the aim of staying out of the heat for the rest of the day.

Cartoon humans serve tea

Teatime! We nipped into a teashop and were greeted by a human cartoon character dressed as a 19th century maid. She looked about 12, as did her colleagues (one dressed as Strawberry Shortcake). The clientele? At first glance, we just saw tables of lone old men smoking cigarettes. Were they dirty old men getting a kick out of being served by strangely dressed young girls? Maybe. Through the glass partition were tables of teenagers pouring over anime comics the way they do in Japan. A geek cafe. We ordered jasmine tea and I made a sketch of a cartoon milkmaid in the notebook provided on our table. Strange place.

Culinary Taipei

One of the benefits of having local guides is that you get to try really interesting local food. Vivien and Dino really took us on an interesting culinary tour of Taipei on our first night. We tried the famous flour noodles in broth first. We joined the dozens of locals on the pavement outside and ate the noodle soup standing up (the thing to do). Next we tried BBQ chicken Taipei style, veggies, tofu, Chinese sausage and fishcake from a different street café. In case this wasn’t enough we got big mango juices from a street stand. I had noticed lots of trendy bars in the vicinity, but we soon discovered that they are actually tea shops. I tried a black tea this time with “pearls”. The pearls are tapioca balls and you suck them up through a straw. Interesting experience! I ordered a “small” one, but it was probably the biggest tea I had ever had – it came in a pint glass! We staggered home around 11 with full bellies. What a good start to the holiday!

高山茶

One thing that I don’t see in Japan are the tea stations and they are all over Taiwan. I soon spotted the Chinese character that I know very well (茶) which identified little counters selling a choice of 50 types of tea, freshly made, shaken over ice and served with a straw in a plastic cup. I like my tea so I was very excited about this discovery. I was keen to have one immediately and walked up to the counter:

Me: Mihao
Tea girl: Mihao (plus lots more Chinese I couldn’t understand).
Me: Can I have a cup of tea please?
Tea girl: Blank stare
Me (wishing I could speak Chinese): Tea please

I know this was a stupid thing to say at a place that sells 50 kinds of tea, but I hoped I’d get the default tea of the day or something. It wasn’t that easy. The tea girl gave me a menu with lists of tea all in Chinese. I spotted three characters I recognized 高山茶　(high mountain tea) and pointed at it. 30 seconds later, I was drinking a gorgeous, slightly bitter iced green tea through a straw and was very pleased at my accomplishment.