Dorinda Gym

Solo Taipei Trip- Day 2 Hiking Trip to 金面山

This might be my favourite post among all the others that I have posted. Even thinking about it now makes me happy. First of all, I had a great coffee with great cafe ambience to start off my day. Then I had a great workout hiking up, last but not least I was on the hilltop overlooking the whole Taipei city. Ahh... just satisfaction.

1st stop - Louisa Cafe 路易莎咖啡

So when I reached the Nei Hu 内湖 station it was already way passed breakfast time, like almost 12 noon already. But I was starvingggg and I couldn't possibly let myself go hiking without some food in my stomach right.

" A (good) coffee a day, makes me happy for the whole day."

After scouting around the area I decided to go to this cafe with a motto that suits me well "Coffee For Life". Yasss, also I checked with the staff they do sell sandwich and wrap (smething filling) before heading in.

COFFEE FOR LIFE

I went in October and they had these cute little Halloween decorations around the shop. It's a rather small shop with about four or five tables and capacity of maybe 20 people. But I liked how it was, a small and cozy cafe. Just look at the menu, simple and clear. Check out the way they place the mugs and magic powder (coffee powder I mean).

Love everything about the cashier and barista area.

Halloween theme. What a geat wall that can be updated accordingly. They even have Wifi password there (lol! I only realised now)

Cappuccino as usual

I was too hungry and ate the wrap right away. It was really good actually. Sorry I don't have a pic here, but trust me it was really worth the try. Filling and delicious at the same. Ohh, before I forgot, I brought this book along with me to kinda record some of my adventures in Taipei. It was THE FIRST TIME I traveled alone to visit a new country and I wanted to make sure I rmb every single bit of it.

Before coming here I actually saw one way of making memorable souvenirs (especially for coffee lover!) is by collecting the coffee stain from the coffee mug that you drank from. I was planning to do that until I realised they gave me a paper cup. Noooooooooo TT Nevertheless I did my best to create it. I even drew the logo of the cafe, quite cute huh? =)

One of the common scenes in Taipei is a parking space of these orange Ubike. They have it at a lot of places. Basically you just have to tap the card to activate/release the bike from its' lock, then just ride! And when you're done with it, just park it any Ubike parking space. I actually wanted to try it out but didn't manage to. I shall make sure I try it the next visit.

Do you know how to ride a bike?

Taipei Nei Hu neighbourhood

Now let the adventure begins~
Walking around the neighbourhood area is rather relaxing. the buildings are quite different from what we have in Malaysia. It feels like I'm in Japan or smtg. Everything here makes me happy, even the font of the shop makes me happy. It feels like everyone is living their life at their own pace and there's no need to rush or shout or be rude at anyone.

Don't you feel relaxing looking at this?

I just find these residential buildings really cute

dorindagym in Taipei ya'll

While setting my camera~ Ohh so how did I manage to take these photos on my own while traveling alone? The answer is.... I could connect my camera to my phone though Bluetooth to take photo.

Can you see my travel card inside my phone cover?

Hello!

Purposely bought this drawstring bag from the Shi Lin night market the night before (I only had a handbag with me!) and so a shout-out for it in this picture

Last one before continuing the journey, at this point I still don't know if I'm heading the right direction. Just blindly following the Google map.

2nd stop - Neihu and Shi Lin Hiking Trail 金面山

金面山亲山步道

Here's the entrance

Before sweating and all

Took this in case I got lost inside

The road less taken?

From here, you can see that taking photo for yourself doesn't always turn out like how you imagined.

Failed

Check

Failed

Failed haih

Failed again

Failed

Okay fine I give up, selfie will do heeeee =P

After that, I found myself walking in the woods ALONE. It was not scary at first because I could still seepeople walking down. But after that what accompanied was just the sound of bugs or cangkerik (I think) and also my ultimate enemy- SANDFLIES. What made it even scarier was when my phone's battery started to drain out. I think the Google map really consumed much of the battery and also because I connected the Bluetooth earlier.

So I gathered all my courage and kept climbing and climbing until I reached this. Does this look like rock-climbing to you? Because I felt like I was rock climbing looo!

Can you see how steep it is? It's like freaking 45°

So I continued to climb by holding closely to the rope provided and Thank God I survived!

View while climbing

View after finished 'rock-climbing'

yassss I survived

Then I thought 'Hmm how come it looked a bit different from what I saw here?"

So while I was catching my breathe and resting on the rock, I saw a couple walking down. The i asked them if there are more up there. And the answer is "Yes! just a little more and you'll get there already. Add oil!"

"Well I guess I gotta keep climbing then"