The Tea Farms

We've done a lot fun things since being in Taipei, but one of my favorites was a visit to the Tea Farms. All you have to do to get to this beautiful place is take the MRT to the Taipei Zoo and from there you can take a gondola ride up the mountains to the Tea Farms.

Of course this is Taiwan so the cost of riding the gondola is only $1.50. And this is for the more expense car with the glass bottom.

The funny part about all this was the line. The line for the cheaper gondola was nearly three flights of stairs. The line for the expensive car was almost nonexistent so they kept ushering us forward and we cruised past everyone. This has happened to us on several other occasions and I'm pretty confident we're missing something. Certainly everyone wasn't waiting in the long line because $1.50 was too expensive?

But does it matter if a Rolex is fake if no one can tell the difference? And does it really matter why you skipped the entire line as long as you didn't have to wait in it?

I want to make note that the below photo is not downtown Taipei, but actually the outskirts. The center of the city is just beyond the horizon, where the skyline becomes hazy.

We stopped for a bite to eat before exploring the trails. It was here that I ate the most disgusting pizza of my life. Two words; Kraft singles.

Afterwards we went in search of a tea house. We were, after all, at the tea farms. We walked along the road for awhile and, after turning left at the shack housing an obscene amount of trash, came across a long staircase. It was only a few steps before we knew we'd found a gem.

The set up was lovely and so was the view. (We did of course need a tutorial.)

"Rabbit face" is a phenomenon that began soon after my braces came off in 2007.

Our friends Cory and Jamie met us at the tea house and agreed we had found ourselves an awesome spot to enjoy Chinese tea. Afterwards the four of us spent the remainder of the day exploring the trails. If you look closely you can spot Taipei 101 in some of the photos. Until 2010, Taipei 101 was the world's tallest skyscraper. (It's also quite close to our Hotel)

A gondola makes its way up the mountain.

 The farmers were completely unphased by the tourism.

We visited a temple while we were there and two gentlemen gave us a crash course on how to pray to Buddha. Of course I was the only one who did it.

So here's how it goes down; You hold two blocks together while you pray to Buddha. When you're done you drop the blocks and depending on how they land determines whether you can continue speaking with him or not. You have three tries and on each try I got the symbol for a smile. He neither denied me nor did he permit me to ask him my question, he simply just smiled at me as if saying "Hello. Welcome to Taiwan." I thought that was cool and perfectly fitting.

Before heading home we had dinner with Jamie and Cory. It's because of this meal that I can now say, "Yes, I have eaten Kung Pao Chicken in Taiwan." Excuse me while I go ahead and check that off my bucket list.

Later we told our friends at the beer shop how much we enjoyed visiting the tea farms. I believe there exact response was "Why? This is so boring!"

I find the Statue of Liberty to be excruciatingly boring so I will let them have this one. Nils and I did not, however, find the Tea Farms boring. On the contrary we spent the whole day enjoying the weather, taking pictures and sipping tea.