23rd November 2014, Sunday
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| Peanut Bar |
Today, we need to take the train to Taichung but we still ended up waking at around 8 plus. So we got ready and did our last minute packing to check out the hotel. We just took out time to walk to the train station. When we were just outside of
State Temple of the Martial God (台南武廟), we saw people queuing up to buy bread toast on a small stall. So we queued to buy it, while i was queuing, there was a couple behind me saying in an alley opposite the street, also had a super long queue buying the same food. So the lady was asking the guy which one to queue, the guy went into the opposite alley and checked it out. When he returned, he was telling the lady that apparently the one inside was the main stall and the outside one was a branch out....hehehee....It took us a long time before we got our breads. The auntie had to fry the eggs and then toasted the bread, all were done using charcoal which was interesting. Beside the bread stall, was an uncle selling peanut cake. What's interesting was the uncle would take the peanut bar and heat it up over charcoal and then flatten the bar. And then he would roll it up once flatten, either to wrap it up with chinese parsley. The uncle did let us try abit of the peanut, it was nice. So we got a small box.
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| Yum Yum!! |
After eating the breads, we continued to drag our luggage to the train station. We passed by the noodles shop which we missed to eat last night. While we were wondering whether was it opened as it was only 10.30 am, we saw there was a lady seems like be buying the noodles. So we went and checked it out, it was opened for business!! My friend took the menu and looked, it was all in Chinese (as usual)....so she asked the lady customer what was nice in the place, apparently the lady understand English and was able to speak too. Think my friend very happy that got someone she can talk to, so we just sat on the table beside the lady. And the lady recommended us 2 noodles to try, so we said ok. While we were still looking at the menu, the lady's husband came. He was able to speak English very well as he had lived in Singapore for about 8 years. The husband went with me to order our noodles and he even paid for our meal (first time got treated by a local during holidays)....hehehee...They were very friendly, they even treated us a side dish they ordered..boiled cuttlefish (my favorite)...hehehe...It was dipped with chilli mixed with washabi....chilli wasn't very spicy though...So about the couple, they were actually living in Kaohsiung and they were supposed to go to church today. But the wife was having craving for food in Tainan, so they came to Tainan and were having breakfast there in the noodles shop where they met us. The wife said she likes Tainan while my friend told them she likes Kaohsiung...hohohoo...The husband had studied in Singapore during his 8 years of staying and he now has his own business in Taiwan. He said they went back to visit Singapore 2 years ago and said Singapore had changed alot since his last visit...hohohoho...But i think they too like Singapore. Ohhh...did i mentioned...the noodles were way nicer than our last night's dinner?kekekee.....
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| Special Teas - Nice Nice!! |
The husband later went to buy teas for his wife, he treated us each a cup..1 was winter melon milk tea and the other don't know what is it...inside got long long jelly and it was a bit sour...he said Singapore doesn't have it. So we tried them...ohh...soooo damn nice...i like the winter melon milk tea more....We also asked them to recommend us some nice places in Hualien. The lady was saying there was a bus which can cut from Taichung to Hualien without passing Taipei. But the journey was super long and we didn't have time for it. Anyway, it was nice chatting with them, and they had to leave for their next food hunt place. We said goodbye and thanked them, and we too continued our walk to the train station....But it kind of feel good...it's like someone had made your day happy early morning and you will feel like you going to have a good day ahead....hahahaa...It was quite a distance more to the train station, so by the time we reached there, we were a bit tired. Then i went to the counters and bought the tickets to Taichung. And we had to rush in to the platform again cos the train was already here and the whistle was being sounded (Luckily they don't have so many platforms)....
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| Taichung Station |
It was a 2 hours ride to Taichung, so i ended up sleeping on the train while surprisingly my friend was supposed to be a transport pig didn't sleep this time...hahahaa....We reached Taichung at around 1.40 pm, there were a lot of people when we came out from the train station and it looked very crowded. I went and asked a cab driver to bring us to our hotel. All he said was it was very near, can walk to there and pointed to me the direction to walk... -_-"...weird....the visitors information center was also closed for lunch break. So we just walked down the direction the cab uncle had pointed. And we did still managed to find the hotel, it was just 5 or slightly more minutes distance away. So not so bad....when we were looking from the opposite side, there was 1 building beside the hotel and it looked super rundown and horrible...i asked my friend not that building right? hahaha....gave me a scare...Then we checked in and rested in the hotel room...tired already...when i tried to on my ipad, it went dead...nothing was showing on the screen but it was still on...haiz...first time brought it outside of SG also can die like that...and at a time when i am jobless....pek chey....
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| Monkeys |
We left the room again at around 2 plus, i went to the hotel staff and asked for directions for the places we want to go..apparently only
Carton King was the nearest we can go. So we went to the main train station to take the bus she told us. But when we went to the visitors information center and asked again, i was told on a different bus to take...weird....anyway we followed the directions given by the staff in visitors information center and went to Carton King. It was 45 mins bus ride, and as usual, my friend saw a shop where a lot of people were queuing for it. I didn't notice it when the bus passed by. And she said she wants to go try it later. We alighted at Da Ke Roundabout bus stop and went in to Carton King. It is actually a museum which displays arts done by cardboards....The entrance fee was NT$200 per pax and if it was your birthday month, the entrance fee will be free. There was animal kingdom and famous buildings, all made of cardboards.....so we just walked around the area, on the 2nd level, there was a honey museum too, where they were selling honeys...there was even a display of real bees outside the door. There was also a very big mushroom, where there was a house selling stired-fry mushroom and mushroom snacks. We had a black pepper stired-fried mushroom as i was very hungry...it was very nice and smelled good!!! We bought some mushroom snacks too and we walked around some. By the time we left the place, it was already dark. Some of the displays were even lighted up with lights. Had a free gift too, after we had finished stamping on our entrance tickets (there was a mini game to collect all the stamps from different areas). Inside the place, was its own restaurant too, where the food was served on cardboard plates and bowls. And the food looked nice and yummy.
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| Yam Yam.... |
When we were outside the place, there was a group of 5 trying to take a group photo and were having fun too. My friend went and said she will help them take the photo and asked the last lady to join in the photo shoot....hahaa...They thanked us and then we walked down the road to find the long queue shop which my friend saw during our bus ride. We saw a restaurant selling barrel chickens too, it was cooked the same way as we had in Guanziling. But we walked past it, until we reached the long queue shop. It was a purple signboard, and it was selling yam desserts. Seems like it was a famous shop there, so we went buying it. We got 2 cold desserts - Yam with mixed (4 different ingredients) and Yam with red bean....Half of the bowls were ice and the yam were 3 big blocks...quite full too after eating. After eating, we went to take bus 68 to
Fengjia Night Market (bus stop name: 逢甲大学). We waited for almost half an hour for the bus to come. And when my friend stopped the mini bus, i cannot see the bus number on the side. But we just boarded the bus and i asked the bus driver was the bus going to the place...he said yes and gave us a temporarily bus card to tap first. Heng ah....if not, we had to wait for don't know how long if we missed this bus...
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| 1973 Fried Chicken |
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| Backed Potato with Cheese |
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| 冰火波蘿油 |
It costs us NT$68 to reach Fengjia area, we had to tap the temporarily bus card again when we alighted to see how much was the fare. There were many shops and food stalls in Fengjia Shopping Town, you can see Macdonald's, Stay Real, Nike, Nets, addidas, etc...and there were a lot of people too....But i was urgently in need of toilet, so we went to Macdonald's and faint ah...the toilet queue also very long...but there doesn't seem like other places having free toilets around...so we queued for it. After that, we started our exploring...at the first turn, i saw a Stay Real shop and was very excited. I just pulled my friend to the shop to look around. I got a new tee-shirt with cowboy design and asked my friend to buy one too...hehehe....The design she wanted don't have her size, so i chose a tee-shirt with mummy design... :P....After that, we went outside the streets and walked around the place. Bought the 1973 Fried Chicken and walked till the Fengjia Night Market, and we just bought along the way...see what was nice to eat...i got baked potato with cheese too. There was pig's blood cake too, like a lot of people buying it. Bought a bbq corn for my friend to eat...As it was crowded, we couldn't really eat while we walked.We walked further in the streets and saw a stall selling an unique buns...called 冰火波蘿油. We bought 2, 1 with cheese and 1 with butter and cheese. After buying this, we made our way back to the hotel. Ahh...passed by bear's paw stall too but no one was buying it and it was quite hidden away from the busy street. But we didn't know where was the bus stop for bus 25 or bus 35. So we walked a bit further away from the fengjia shopping town, but at least while we were walking on the road, we were able to keep seeing bus 25 coming by (not in Tainnan, no bus one)....Walked in Birkenstock shop to check out the prices, had to remove shoes to go in the shop too..hohoo...the prices wasn't much difference from Singapore, maybe abit cheaper and i saw a notice saying there is a additional charge of NT$200 for sizes bigger than 40...hohoho...
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| Baked Potato with Turkey Ham and Cheese |
We made it to the bus stop and it was already past 10 pm...luckily we didn't have to wait very long for the bus to come and we were carrying the food we bought from the market to go back eat...It was about 15 mins or so back to the hotel. Finally can rest feet and eat our food!!! The fried chicken and the baked potato were nice...the 冰火波蘿油 nice!!! After food, it was shower and sleeping time...hehehee...
Hotel Stayed: VIP Hotel
Places Visited:
Carton King
Fengjia Shopping Town
Fengjia Night Market
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