Taipei's Elephant Mountain Hike | Our journey to Taiwan!

were Helen and Tim travel full-time Adventure Travelers with the goal to see the world one man at a time in this video starts the first leg of our world travel journey we'll be showing you around some business class flights make a quick stop in Vienna and then we'll be taking you to the capital city of Taiwan Taipei is a thriving city with a lot to do we're excited to show you the Elephant Mountain hike which gives you Grand views of the city and also take you around town we're excited to finally embark on this world travel Journey with you so we finally made it to the first leg of our full-time travel internationally we are sitting in our hotel in Taipei Taiwan yeah but we're going to give you a recap of what has been going on we've been we've been moving a lot we've been bouncing around all over the place but we initially started back in the U.S with a road trip across the entire country from the west coast to the east coast we had several stops along the way we stayed in Sedona for a week we did some hiking we saw some friends in Phoenix then we went to Dallas Texas and we saw some family members there and then uh let's see we're going up to Michigan we saw some more friends and then finally over to Pennsylvania where we spent some time with my family and then we left our vehicle there that's where Tim's from which is where I'm from two hours Northeast of Pittsburgh and then after Pennsylvania we flew from Pittsburgh to New York City which again we saw another friend in New York spent a quick 24 hours there and that was my first time in New York yep probably his last Tim's not it's not a big city person I don't mind Metropolitan but there's a little much for me but yeah I think it's just the hustle is not what we we just like to spend more time in nature and well we originally were gonna fly out of JFK but our our flight got switched to Newark Airport because of an electrical fire and we were actually pretty nervous about not being able to fly out so we felt pretty lucky that our flight was essentially switched to a different airport versus canceled or rescheduled so number one of traveling is staying flexible you just never know what was going to happen in in this case we were very fortunate because we weren't on a time frame but as long as we caught our 24-hour flight out of Vienna to Taipei that was all that we worried about anyways yeah so everything worked out we got on our flight it was amazing flight the housekeeping just started vacuuming so sorry if you hear that in the background [Music] is that our plan foreign [Music] not on the plane yet so I found some amazing business class flights from JFK with a stopover in Vienna and then it would continue on to Taipei the first leg was on Austrian Airlines which has an amazing business class product especially the food they're very well known for the food and then the second part of the flight from Vienna to Taipei was on Eva Airlines and they have an amazing business class product so we used Chase Ultimate Rewards points I transferred those points to United and I booked United uh using United miles to book the Austrian and Eva Airlines for 88 000 miles each those each plus 21 dollars in fees each can you imagine two that was like 19 hours in business class for 88 000 miles plus 21 each so I I jumped on it lay flat seats I seriously have never been more comfortable on an airplane as Dirtbag people as we are they're like trying to play shirt back traveler doesn't like you know we usually are pretty budget Travelers budget conscious budget conscience the reason why you're able to fly Eva and Austrian they are part of the Star Alliance that United is also a part of so sometimes you can check other airlines to see if you can fly with their partnering Airlines for less for using and redeeming less points and Miles we're in Vienna so lucky that we got a room available the best is when you get to a hotel like six hours before check-in and they're like here's your room this is a really nice room look how big the ceilings are it's really rare for Europe I mean like we are really close I mean downtown area kind of the historic downtown so we should be able to walk lots of places and and see some sights our first stop was the schombrom palace which was an impressive 1400 room Palace we also did a self-guided walking tour with the Rick Steves Europe app which is completely free we stopped at the famous Saint Stevens Cathedral and also went to go see the Vienna opera house we ended the day with a fantastic dinner and had some of the best insole we've ever had so this is my favorite Wafers and all of the lands and we are here in the land of the wafers after a quick 24 hour layover we were sad that we had to go back to the airport so quickly but we're excited to visit the Vienna Sky Lounge before our Eva flight to Taipei Taiwan so the flight Airlines was 11 hours and Eva Airlines was it is really well known for their business class product overall both the soft product and the hard product so I mean the seat itself was nice can you explain what soft and hard products so the soft product is a customer service their food and beverage their hard product is like the seat the the hardware of the flight so think of like more of the seat comfort and stuff like that but overall Eva Airlines has an amazing Laurel class business class product so was super excited to spend 11 hours in it yeah we like a seven course meal I seriously feel so full it was all the food we've been eating yeah and then the the lay flat seeds have been really comfortable they give you the full blown serve we got an amenity kit we got pajamas it was like a full comforter basically that they came with yeah the pillow was great yeah and I mean I never sleep well on international flights I'm sure some of you might not either but even with a lay flat sea I was able to get a few hours of sleep which is more than what I would ever get the 11 hour flight seemed to go by way too quickly and after a breakfast which was this fresh squeezed juice and a hot oolong tea Tim got fruit and oatmeal and I got the traditional Eastern breakfast which was kanji and toppings we landed for our flight we were very sad to leave since our first time in a business class lay flat sea it wasn't each other so after two 24-hour legs between New York and Vienna Vienna to Taipei we have finally made it to our first destination of our 2023 I'm like I I was about to say 2022 2023 travel Adventure full time I will be seeing my family especially my parents and I haven't seen them in many years so this is a little bit emotional for me um it's going to be a wonderful time we're going to show you all around the beautiful country Taiwan is covered in 60 percent of forest so you can imagine there are mountains and a lot of natural beauty around here so change of plans we're taking the train instead so we ended up having to take the train instead because we don't want to wait an hour from the bus so if you do come here you have an option it's 1 45 new Taiwan Dollar to take the bus or the train to get to downtown Taipei let's go [Music] Taipei is the capital city of Taiwan and it's located in the northern tip of the country and it's over 27 million people and it is a very International cultural and economic Hub with it being Asia's second richest city per capita it is also home to the world's fifth tallest building in the world Taipei 101 the best times of year to visit Taipei are in the spring and the fall so you can expect some mild sometimes sunny weather it was definitely rainy when we were there we stayed a couple nights at the Grand Hyatt we did get our first night free with our Amex Platinum Card using the fine Hotel and Resorts credit we also got free breakfast early check-in and a hundred dollar credit will be used at the restaurants on site after traveling for many many hours across several days we made it to the Grand Hyatt in Taipei Gotta Love our Amex credit to get a free room upgrade how do you feel jet lag yeah right we're gonna take you and explore tomorrow when we sleep we were actually gonna go climb Elephant Mountain today and while the weather wasn't very good either so plus it's just a horrible idea it's raining it's gross we wouldn't have anything to tell any of you if we went today got a nice walk-in shower so with our room upgrade we have a nice waterfall shower and then we have a tub I actually think I might take a bath my feet hurt everything seems to hurt maybe because we just haven't slept really well so it is very normal to have a bidet in Asian countries Taiwanese people love their bidets my parents have one let's check out the view looks like a view of downtown Taipei pretty nice little View not too shabby hello [Music] she's like I don't have any energy left to cry hungry Taipei is known for its foodie scene so we definitely didn't waste any time at all our first stop was to have beef noodle soup one of our favorite Taiwanese dishes and then we went to a night market and enjoyed seeing all of the local Cuisine the two biggest night markets in Taipei are sheilin Night Market as well as ningja Jilin is one of the biggest and well-known night markets in all of Taiwan and it has been open since 1899 and we just love walking around the night markets because there's authentic Taiwanese snacks small eats enough where everything is under three dollars and it was nice to take in the scenery as well as all the smells I just got some barbecue and sesame on it really yummy red bean cream oh that's so cute [Music] as you travel around Taiwan you'll see a lot of temples there are over 15 000 official temples around Taiwan dedicated to hundreds of gods folk Heroes animals and more so you can reload your bus card and your train car pretty easily [Music] we're gonna take the red line when you're getting to that's the Chinese way of saying Elephant Mountain and it is essentially the last stop on the red line Chang Redline and you go all the way to the end of that line and you pretty much go with the escalators and start oh I'm just making sure to get booted off the escalator it's just a short walk the subway so nice little Urban hike in the city foreign Elephant Mountain is part of the four Beast essentially there are four different mountain peaks at the top of this Trail you can see that you can actually connect the trail system up and go much further and it's a circuit of trails up at the top we don't have time to do all of it today since I'm hanging out with my family today but we'll definitely show you up until the top of the viewing platform that overlooks the city foreign mountain and it's about 900 feet of elevation gain and we think just under a mile long so round trip so yeah it's going to be a quick one we should get going before the clouds move in the Elephant Mountain Trail or shangsan in Chinese is also one of the most popular tourist destinations along with Taipei and for good reasons because it offers stunning views of the city landscape and it is a very Steep and paved trail with a lot of stairs it's also a very popular place at Sunrise and Sundown because you can see all the twinkling lights in the city and photographers definitely love capturing the city Landscapes from this Viewpoint any of our hikes recently have been so many steps I think that's like step steps Phoenix Machu Picchu Taiwan so as you can see behind me this is one of the first viewing platforms kind of along the way we still have about nine more minutes to get to the actual top of elephant mountains but already some spectacular views of Taipei 101 and some of the other buildings behind me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] so we made it to the upper viewing platform so there are about three along the way this is the main one I believe there's a little bit more until we get up to the summit but these special design moving platforms really give you an expansive and panoramic view of the entire city of Taipei it is a very internationally driven City and as you can see it has a lot of wonderful aspects and I'm just so happy to be here foreign [Music] foreign mountain is part of the mango mountain system as you can see one of the highlights are the six giant Boulders at the top it's essentially etched into the side of the walkway not as big as I thought it was going to be but it was still pretty cool to see kind of the shapes of them yeah one interesting thing about the Nang nangang mountain system is that it's mostly composed of sandstone Rock and that's what basically with the boulders that that we do see at the top but it also has some beautiful views of the city of Taipei so I mean it's definitely worth the climb easily done in regular Street shoes like like we said earlier we just kind of did this last minute because the weather changed for the better and so we don't have our hiking boots on it was basically steps the entire way you'll have to do it slow because it does get slick when it's wet but there's a hand railing all the way up very well maintained and uh one of my favorite parts of this hike was just the different Flora so Taiwan is Formosa it's also known as The Garden Island so they're with it being a tropical environment there's all types of different foliage as you can see along the way I don't know what they're called but they're all beautiful I think another interesting thing that's really neat to see is that you see a bunch of elderly locals up here kind of exercising getting their daily walks in so that's pretty neat try not to fall definitely slick today from the rain about 10 percent of rain in the forecast last couple days but I will take this over anything that we've got the last few days so it took us about 15 minutes to get down from the top of elephant mountain and I think yeah it took us about 30 minutes 30 minutes round trip but we tend to stop a lot because we want to film and film take pictures so Tim forget his water bottle it's what you're trying to say is that I brought my water bottle up into one of the viewing platforms and we didn't just realize it until right now so so I'm gonna get a boba and wait at that store right there and you can go get your steps you see how sweaty I am when I get back okay bye so the e-bikes are located all around the city and you can pretty much type in on Google Maps you bike I said e-bike early I meant you bike and it's about five dollars local currency so that really comes out to be about 25 cents for the first 30 minutes of your ride not a bad deal if you're not wanting to pay for Uber or take the subway Liberty Square are also known as Freedom Square is a free public Plaza covering over 240 000 square meters at the East End of the Liberty Square Sansa National Chiang kai-shak Memorial there's also the national Concert Hall in the National Theater this area played an important role in the history of taiwan's rule from one party to the democratic system in the 1990s this is really pretty so we're at the Chiang kai-shack Memorial and they're about to do the changing of the card so we're definitely going to show you what it's all about [Music] thank you [Music] The Chiang kai-shock Changing of the Guard was very impressive it happens every hour on the hour from 9am to 5 p.m we are the most impressed with the soldier who has to stand at the memorial for about 45 minutes until the next guard takes over [Music] thank you on the last full day of our time in Taipei we took a day trip out to Joe Finn a mountain town located Northeast of Taipei that requires a 40-minute train ride and a 20-minute bus ride Joe Finn was once a Japanese era Gold Rush town which became famous once golders struck in the late 1800s the Japanese architecture has been preserved and you can see today the narrow Alleyways of the town are packed with tea houses a lot of street food vendors and shops and it was definitely a cool sight to see as many have said that this town was the inspiration of Spirited Away but that rumor has been debunked by the director of the film itself foreign [Music] it's like typhoon right now man yeah yeah it would be really windy if it was oh really yeah [Music] it's really hot oh my god oh it tastes good handmade avocado balls horror balls with green beans and red beans definitely has like brown sugar in it just got like a good for rainy day starchy emoji right we hope you enjoyed our video around Taipei Taiwan make sure to check out our Instagram at Helen and Tim travel to follow along for real-time updates to support this video hit that like button drop a comment subscribe to our Channel if you want updates on upcoming videos on our next adventure we're taking you to Sun Moon Lake the highest Alpine Lake in Taiwan thanks so much for watching we'll see you on the next Trail okay I was like let me go good transition and that's a wrap

Channel: Helen and Tim Travel

Views: 4,369

Keywords: elephant mountain, taipei, taiwan, taipei 101, taipei 101 view, elephant mountain hike, elephant mountain hiking trail, xiangshan hiking trail, xiangshang, 象山, 台北, 台湾, elephant mountain taipei, things to do in taipei, taiwan vlog, jiufen, night markets, travel in taiwan, taipei travel guide, what to do in taipei, elephant mountain taiwan, elephant mountain hiking, hiking in taipei, xiangshan station, xiangshan, business class flight, taipei taiwan travel, taiwan travel vlog

Id: u7xhwtS60NI

Length: 22min 49sec (1369 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 18 2023