Last Day in Taipei, Taiwan Trip (Day 8)

20th May 2018, Sunday

Arghh...holidays coming to an end..so long Taipei. We woke up and started to pack our luggage to squeeze in all the goodies we bought. S and mi headed out to the popular braised pork rice shop for breakfast and KT and Ss headed out to look for their own breakfast (which is in Starbucks).  After breakfast, we met up and went buying the instant noodles that S had bought the night before. I also bought a small bottle of peach coke (ekk..regretted it)...Funny taste, don't like it...

Braised Pork Rice

Carrot Cake

After the last minute shopping, we went back to the hotel rooms and really packed our luggage for the last time. When it was time, we headed down to the back alley where Mr Zhu was waiting for us to go to the airport.  We said final good-bye to Mr Zhu when we reached there, he still insisted us to take a group photo outside the airport entrance...hahaa...After that, we went in to check-in our luggage and we went in to clear the customs. After everything was done, we walked around the shops in the airport to pass time. S and mi stayed inside a shop for a long time because we were trying to decide if we were to buy the cute musical boxes shown in the display case. There were so many designs to choose from, the musical boxes were made of wood and they were all so cute and nice to look at.

Instant Noodles

Peach Cola (Not nice)

Eventually we both decide to buy one each, so i bought one with a tiny train which will move around the box when it is played. After we done shopping, we headed to the food court to gab some food before the flight. We saw KT and Ss back with ichiran instant ramen packets..hahaa...After that, we headed to the gate to board the plane....Had to come back to face reality....sianz...

In-flight meal

We landed back in Singapore safe and sound (and of cos, unwillingly...hahaa) and we went separate ways to go back home. It marks the end of my Taiwan trip for this year....^_^

Taipei 臺北, Taiwan Trip (Day 7)

19th May 2018, Saturday

Today is a free day for us, which we had planned to walk around Taipei (just for shopping and eating). We woke up slightly late today as we had been waking up early for the past few days. After we prepared ourselves, S and mi headed down to You He Dou Jiang shop (recommended by her) to buy breakfast. There were already a long queue and full of people eating at the shop. We ordered a carrot cake, you tiao, dumplings and a roti-like prata. The carrot cake and you tiao was quite nice.

You He Dou Jiang (永和豆漿)

Breakfast

After breakfast, we headed out for our day walk. First stop we headed down to Dan Shui, which was the furthest away. When we arrived, we headed down to the old street to shop shop walk walk (without forgetting to turn on our Pokemon Go app so that we can collect the eggs back). I collected stamp chops as and when i could find in the shops. We also bought some souvenirs from the different shops we went. But the weather was really hot, was sweating quite fast. So i went ahead and bought an ice cream to eat along the walk. The twist on the ice cream cone was very very tall..and it was melting fast.. ^_^!....Ss also bought one when she saw mi having one...hahaa.. But we really have to eat quickly to catch up with the melting of the ice cream....

Seafood for sale

Fried Sotongs

Bubble gums from the old times

Cute Owls

We spent most of the day walking around the street of Dan Shui, i also managed to find Ah Ma Tien Dan which we bought a few packets home. Along the market, there were also tikam/lucky boxes machines where u can purchase the box for NT$100 and pray u will big prizes such as PS4 or xBox game consoles. I tried a couple of times with no luck, even got a toy cockroach which is kind of gross. After all the walking, we went over to the shopping mall across the street for lunch. There were multiple restaurants available in the mall, so we decided to go for Thai food. The waitress gave us a table with a nice view over Dan Shui and the sea. But i have to say, the food was not worth the price.

Nice scenary

Hello Kitty Shop

After lunch, we headed down to Taipei Main Station for the basement shopping area.  S bought us to the section where all the anime shops are located. There were really really a lot of shops selling all the anime toys and figurines, even Pokemon tettra. There were 2 Pokemon terra game machines around too but the people will have to queue to play with it. I also bought a legend pokemon terra card (too bad, it doesn't work with the version that SG machines are having...Sadz..). Think we probably spent around 3 hours under the basement walking all the toys shops. After that, i told them i want to find a egg pudding shop around in the train station. With their help, we did managed to find the shop (How Sweet Bakery). Woooo....so happy...the pudding is unique because it comes with the egg shells and it looks yummy.

Basement Shopping

Capsules Machines

Pokemon Tettra for Sale

So i bought a box of 4 egg pudding and we went up to look for a cafe so that we can rest our feet and try the puddings. We went in Mr Brown cafe and tried the coffee and chocolate, but it wasn't as good as the ones we had in Mr Brown castle. Anyhow, we tried our egg puddings...it was really good, smooth and eggy...i like it... ^_^...We rested there till 6 plus before deciding to head down to Taipei 100 tower.  When we reached Taipei 101, it was getting dark. So we just took some photos of the tower and headed to the shopping mall (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Place) opposite it. We spent the rest of the night shopping in the malls, where S wanted to buy her porter bag. Luckily there was a StayReal store in the same shopping mall, where i bought 4 teeshirts and a bag. I also managed to finally eat my favourite fried chicken chunks - 1983 Fried Chicken to eat for snacks (after so many days in taipei).

Egg Puddings in display

Set of 4 puddings

Hot Chocolate

After everyone was done with shopping, we headed back to Ximending where we had our late dinner there (as most of the shops were closing). We had korean meals as our last dinner there. S also went out to buy her instant noodles which she recommended to us too.  After dinner, we went back to hotel to rest and need to think of ideas to squeeze our goodies into our luggage...hahaa...

Kimchi Ramen

Places visited:
Dan Shui
Taipei Main Station
Taipei 101

Hotel Stayed:
VIA Hotel

Yehilu 野柳 & Ruifang 瑞芳, Taiwan (Day 6)

18th May 2018, Friday

Ah Zhu Mee Sua

Today, we are going quite a few places as recommended by Mr Zhu as we decided to engage his service again. When we met up with Mr Zhu, he told us to go have our breakfast at the famous Ah Zhu Mee Sua shop which is already open for business. So S walked us to the shop and we bought  4 small bowls of it. But i still find the size of small bowl big, it was quite nice to eat and there were pig's intestines inside.

After the wonderful breakfast, Mr Zhu drove us to Yehliu, where the Queen's head resides. He first dropped us at Wanli Distinct where we could see the great sea. We stayed around for 15 mins with toilet break and some photos taking.

Sea View

After that, Mr Zhu drove us to the entrance of Yehliu distrinct before we go to Yehliu GeoPark. Along the way, Mr Zhu kept telling us he will bring us to eat live seafood which will be better than the one we went the previous day. He told us to go take photos on the rocks which were created naturally and the rocks were very smooth and white. One of the rocks at the top was called "Camel's Humps" as it looks like there were two humps similar to a camel's humps.

Camel's Humps

Then Mr Zhu drove us to the entrance of Yehliu GeoPark and we went to buy our tickets. He gave us a short introduction on the naturally created stones and recommended us the must-see rocks in the park too. When we went in the park, there are a lot of people around and it was very sunny too. There were different forms of the stones and rocks to see. However, we kept walking to find the main attraction, which is the Queen's head. There was even a long queue line-up for photo taking, there was even a security guard monitoring and a line was surrounded the rock to prevent the public from touch the rock. It was mentioned that there was a crack line along the Queen's neck and it was rumoured that the head will be dropping soon. That is why a man-made replica on the Queen's head was built as a substitution. We walked around the park to see other rocks such as "The Slipper", "Mushroom Stones" and "Elephants". There were some tourists who just don't know how to behave in the park. They tried to climb up the rocks just to take photos and had to be shouted by the guards to get them down and not spoil the natural rocks.

Queen's Head

The Slipper

Elephant

Mushroom Stones

By the time we finished the park visiting, it was almost lunch time. As promised, Mr Zhu brought us to the live seafood restaurant located opposite the park. It was very crowded when we arrived there, most of the guests were in big groups. So we made our order first and Mr Zhu helped us to get the staffs to find us a table, which took a while before we had our table. Finally, we got our table and i was already hungry. When the first dish (which was live abalone) arrived, we were kind of surprised because the abalone were still alive. I even asked S whether we had to eat the abalone live...hahaha....Luckily we don't need, however, we had to witness the cooking of the abalones over the heated plate. The abalones were even jumping over the heat while cooking. After the abalones were cooked, we tried it...it was yummy with the freshness...(finally found something nice to remember there). But Ss don't dare to try it. We even ordered another plate of it...it was also very cheap as it costs around $3 plus for one piece. The fried fish was not quite nice as the fried skin was quite separated from the meat. But the meal was quite good as compared to the one we had on the previous day.

Live Seafood to choose

Wan Li Crabs

Live Abalones

Fried Prawns

Fried Omelette

Fried Fish

 After the nice lunch, we headed out to Ruifang where Mr Zhu wanted to bring us to see Shi Fen Waterfall. When we reached there, we went for a toilet break in a cafe. There, we saw red mangoes inside a box and Mr Zhu was telling us that the mangoes were sweet. Then he just bought two manages and treated us. Ss said she don't want to walk to see the waterfall as she was tired, so she stayed in the cafe and Mr Zhu told the staff to help him look out for Ss while he brought us up to see the waterfall... So we went ahead with the hike, there were many tourists there too and there was a suspension bridge to the waterfall. It took us around 15 mins or so to reach the waterfall and we spent another 15 mins to take photos there.

Suspension Bridge

Shi Fen Waterfall

After that, Mr Zhu brought us to Shi Fen to light sky lanterns. There were a lot of tourists there too and there was a heavy jam towards the entrance to Shi Fen. However, Mr Zhu drove through another shortcut to get into Shi Fen. When we reached, he took us to the very first-started up sky lantern shop where we bought a 4-colours lantern. There were around 9 colours (Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, White, Orange, Green, Magenta and Pink) with different meanings. We were instructed to draw our blessings on every side of the lanterns with the ink brushes provided. When we were drawing, there was train coming and there were shouting from the shops owners to warn the tourists to get off the railway track. After the train passed, everyone was back on the tracks again.

Colours to choose for

Sky Lantern Shop

Our drawings

Coming Train

After we are done with the drawings and writings, the lantern was set to light off. The shop staff just took our lantern and told us to each hold the corners of the lantern. So there was like a standard procedure where the staff told us to do different poses with each side of the lantern. After the photos taking was done, he lighted up the lantern and told us to let go when he finished counting 1,2,3. Our lantern flew up in the sky when we let go though we won't know where it will fly to.

Up up and Away!!

After that, we went walking along the shops and did a little shopping when Mr Zhu told us he going to buy a famous snack near the train station. It was BBQ chicken wing stuffed with rice. He wanted to buy more but we told him to buy just one and we will share it.. In the end, he still bought 2 of it which mi and S ate it. It was quite nice and filling because of the rice inside....Feeling full the whole day...hahaa....Kt was not feeling well so we were deciding whether to go back hotel or continue going to Jiu Fen. Eventually, we decided to proceed on to Jiu Fen, Mr Zhu brought us to go up a world war ruin building. There, Mr Zhu showed us the Gorilla Mountain (which looks like a big sitting gorilla) and the Yin Yang Sea (where there were two colours in the sea).

BBQ Chicken Wing Stuffed with Rice

Yin Yang Sea

Golden Waterfall

When we were done, Mr Zhu brought us to see the Golden Waterfall where we spent some time to take photos. After that, we went to Jiu Fen where Mr Zhu told us to drop him a message when we were done with our shopping. There were many tourists there too and it was very squeezy on the single road (it was the only road in and out). There were shops selling food and souvenirs where i also bought some customised stamps. We just walked along the road without trying any of the food there too as was still feeling full. Also, tried looking for the egg puddings but with no avail. After walking around an hour and it was getting dark, we got Mr Zhu to drive us back to the hotel.

Sausages

Narrow Road

 

BBQ Mushrooms

When we reached back to the hotel, we took a while to rest before deciding to go to Shilin. We eventually took the train to Shilin market and S brought us to try herbal soups with pork and chicken. The soup was yummy...we finished all of it.....hahahaa....After that, we went walking the market and even went playing with the capsule machines. By then, it was quite late and we went back to the hotel....So tired after a long day....

Herbal Soups

Capsule Machines

Ji Dao Gao

Places Visited:
Wanli Distinct
Yehliu GeoPark
Shi Fen Waterfall
Shi Fen
Gorilla Mountain
Yin Yang Sea
Golden Waterfall
Jiu Fen
Shilin Market

Hotel Stayed:
VIA Hotel