Qigu 七股, Taiwan Trip (Day 5)

21st November 2014, Friday

Sad Breakfast

Today, we managed to wake up slightly early to go down to the hotel's canteen for breakfast. My friend was not feeling well last night and had told me to go out myself today. But in the end, she wanted to come along too. There was just plain porridge and rice and some small side dishes for breakfast, but at least got breads...But it wasn't so nice to eat...Then we went back upstairs for my friend to shower.....After that, we went down to the lobby and asked the staff the direction to Qigu.

Salt Fields

The staff told us the bus number to take and where to take, then he told us the next bus will be arriving at the bus stop at 10.06 am and the time was already 10.04 am. So we quickly made our way to the bus stop, which we did managed to catch the bus. The bus fares was divided into 2 parts, NT$18 for the 1st part which was until Anping distinct and another NT$18 for the 2nd part which was until Qigu distinct. As we need to travel until Qigu, so it was NT$36 per pax for the ride. There was even usb charging for devices on the bus. My friend used it to charge her iphone while we were on the bus....hohoho.....It was quite long on the journey, we stopped at the terminal for the 1st part of the whole route. There was salt fields around the area and small 'hill' of salt. You can even pay a small price for an experience to scoop the salt on the field (don't know how to call it...heheee)....

Salt Mountain

After 10 mins at the terminal, the bus set off again on the 2nd part of the route. There was one part which was very long until it reached a small village. It was another half an hour or so ride until it reached the salt mountain. When we reached there, it was kind of empty...not many people around (which was good) but the mountain....only 1 side was having salt, the other side was just dirty sand...The area was big though, with a small amusement park at the back and you can play water golf too (which was just hitting the balls into the water) for a price of around NT$300.....hahahaa....So we just walked up the salt mountain, the salt were crystal-like grains...The production for salt pans was stopped in 2002, so this salt mountain was what it was left for tourists to come see and climb. But it was not what i expected it to be....hohohoo....but anyway the admission was free...so not so bad. There was a salt house which was really built using salt, the bricks were salt-built, which they had made a glass to cover it. Now they had made it into a love house, where tourists can go in and hang their love wishes on the wall.  While i was in the house looking, my friend was outside and she took a little bit of the salt on the ground and tasted it. Then she told me it was very salty... -_-"...hahahaa....Then we walked to the other area of the place, where there was a bridge linking to the bbq area, we walked towards the golf place where a family of 3 were playing.

Jade-like Bai Cai

Then we walked back and made a color layers bottle using colored salts...for NT$30 for a small bottle and it was DIY (you choose the colored salt you want and then fill in your bottle).  After that we went to the salt display there, there were some sculptures created by using salt and another exhibit which was showcasing displays of jade-like salt sculpture...very expensive sculpture, put up for sales. There was even a complete set of the zodiac animals and a very big bai cai.....After that, we went to a small canteen there and had our lunch. Just nice, after the lunch, the bus came. So we went to board the bus and we decided to alight at a Mazu Temple down a few stops down. We reached the temple at around 1.00 plus, and so we walked around the place for about 15 mins. Then we went back to the same place where we alighted for the next bus. By right, there should be a bus coming at around 2.45 pm but no bus came. We waited until 3.45 pm, still no bus came. There was not a single bus coming to that place, not even a cab!! We even walked outside to the streets to see whether there is any bus coming. There was 1 mini bus came in, different bus number...the driver asked us where we are going..so i asked him whether the bus we wanted to take was still in operation for the day. He said should be..so i told him we had been waiting for almost 2 hrs and all he can answered me was 'cannot be'..... -_-"...Then we saw the bus number we wanted for the opposite passed by but we didn't board and ask whether we can take up and then take back down again. So the bus left. And the mini bus also left out and we 2 were left stranded there again.

I was bored and hungry and it was getting colder as it was reaching 5 pm. My friend just stayed there and played her game. We even thought of going back Anping to get the Jiu Cai He again. But not fated to...haiz....So i just walked around to pass time, went to the small stalls to find food but nothing looked interesting. Then when i walked back to find my friend, i saw a card lying beside a tree. It looked like a Citibank SMRT card from afar, so out of curiosity, i walked over to pick up and take a look. It was really a Citibank SMRT cart and when i saw the name, i stunned for awhile. The name was my friend's...hohohoo..so i went and asked when did she drop her card. She didn't even realized it...hahaa...I told her luckily we didn't board the mini bus, if not, her card won't be found by me. Then another hour passed, still no bus came...it was already past 5 pm..We started to wonder why the people taking the bus up to Qigu and all never take bus to go back. Anyway, another mini bus came and this time we just boarded it so to leave that place. If not, we won't be able to go back to our hotel.

Meng Dong Cake (Original)

We paid the full fare to go to Tainan Train station, but about half way, we alighted as we saw an area which was familiar to us (when we were going to Anping). Then it was a straight road back to our hotel but got some distance away.  We slowly walked back along the road until we came to Meng Dong Cake Shop. There was a queue line, same as we saw yesterday when we passed by by bus. The people was waiting for the cakes to be taken out from the oven. The cake was huge and you have to buy in either small box or big box. And when the cakes were sold out, it will be gone. They were selling only 3 flavors cakes everyday. When we queued, there was 2 pumpkin and 1 original flavor cakes left. Once these were sold out, they will close the shop. Luckily, we managed to buy 1 big box of pumpkin cake and 1 small box of original cake. Then we happily continued to walk back while trying to eat on the cake....hehehee...It was very fluffy and nice, especially the pumpkin cake.

Xiao Long Bao

Then we continued to walk to find Chikan Peddlar's Noodle, a restaurant place which my friend saw on the net with good comments on the food. But we kept getting lost on the streets, until we were both tired and just settled a Shanghainese shop for dinner.....Gave up looking for it...so hungry and tired....hahaha....we ordered a few dishes, it was quite nice except for the kang kong which kind of tasted just normal (nothing special). Then after dinner, we continued to walk back to the hotel...finally!!


Hotel Stayed: Famous Hotel

Places Visited:
Qigu Salt Mountains
Qigu Salt Fields
Mazu Temple

Kenting 墾丁, Taiwan Trip (Day 3)

19th November 2014, Wednesday

Breakfast Place

Today, we woke up super late..more later than yesterday..hehehe...We left the hotel at around 11 am plus but we managed to take our breakfast at the rice shop outside the metro station. The shop was busy as there were a lot of people queuing and luckily we managed to find a table to sit. The food was nice and yummy, and cheap too. We had a pork ribs with bitter gourd soup, braised pork rice and a braised egg. After eating we bought a red tea with milk next door, but it wasn't as nice as the one we bought on the 1st day. Then we made our way to Kaohsiung HSR station, to catch a cab to Kenting. We had decided to go Kenting instead of Fu Guang Shan, as Kenting seems like a better place to go as many people had recommended it (even my dad was telling me to go Kenting and had said their aquarium is under the sea, not like ours).

Once we came out from the metro station at Kaohsiung main train station, there was a cab uncle approached us asking whether we are going to Kenting. He quoted me $350 per pax single way, then return trip was another $350 per pax. Return time just have to tell him first or call him, he will come pick up. So i agreed with the price, as previously i was quoted $400 per pax on the first day. But....the cab uncle wanted to get 2 more customers to come with us before we can leave. Alas, we waited for almost an hour before we can set out. The cab uncle initially told us to wait for 15 mins, then it was another 15 mins then another (i had to keep asking the uncle when we can leave). We even went to the shopping mall nearby and walked around, and even heard 1 lady telling her friend that don't know where the cab uncle will bring them go if they were to board the cab when they were being approached. My friend said must be Singaporeans, always kiasi of this and that...hahaha... We actually had decided to wait until 1.30 pm, if the cab uncle still don't want to leave, we will head out to Fu Guang Shan instead (there was buses to Fu Guang Shan there too). But by 1.15 pm, the cab uncle came back with a Hong Kong couple and he told us to wait there while he picked up his cab. While waiting, we just chatted with the couple by telling them how happy we were..finally can leave already..and we even got to know that the cab uncle had actually charged them $400 per pax. So we just keep quiet on our charges.

Street of Kaohsiung

And we were off to Kenting, but a little further away from the train station, the cab uncle stopped to pick up another family of 3 to go there too. So it was totally of 6 and half people on the cab, the little girl kept on singing and talking on the whole journey (don't even remember did she stop talking or singing for a while). And then it was a super long way to Kenting and going by the freeway...almost to 2 hours. And the cab uncle had to drop the family and the couple off their hotel first, so we were the last to alight. After dropping them off, the cab uncle asked me where we want to go..at first i asked him on the aquarium...he told me that the admission fee was expensive (forget how much already)...and he said don't want go there lah..Then he brought us up to the resting point for cabs and coaches, where we alighted and had agreed to go back to the same place at 6.30 pm. So we went ahead to walk around the place.

Kenting Beach

By the time we started exploring the area was already 3 plus. So we just went to Kenting beach first and went and see the big waves. The waves were really big here and it was really sunny too. We saw 3 kids trying to do surfing too but they weren't successful on their tries. After relaxing on the beach, we went walking along the shops. Went to a souvenirs shop and bought some gifts back. Then we continued to walk down the road, but all the food shops were not opened yet. So it was kind of dead street....Then we just continued walking until we reached another beach, where we went down to take a look. Wanted to have some finger food at the cafe but the food needed 30 mins to prepare, which we didn't have much time to wait. So we just walked down to the beach, just nice to catch the sunset there. After that, we started to walk back to the resting place. By then, we can see all the food stalls and shops starting to get ready for business. We saw pizza vans, which were using real stove made of bricks to bake their pizzas.  Went in to a Mexican restaurant to get some snack, had boxing chicken. It was very nice and crispy. But we were also greeted with mosquito there, even the beach had mosquito.

Wedding Couple

There was a wedding couple standing in the middle of the road, waiting to have their photos taken but their photographer was doing something else. So they were like left standing there with all the cars trying to avoid them. It was quite dark too, although it was only before 6 pm. Everyone else was also trying to take a good photo of them. By the time we reached the pickup place, it was only 6pm and we were not able to find the cab uncle around. Then we were approached by another cab uncle who quoted us NT$400 per pax back to Kaohsiung. So we went aside and discussed on it, whether to wait for the morning cab uncle to come back to pick up or just go with this 1. But it was getting very cold outside and my friend doesn't want to just stay outside to wait, so we went ahead with this cab uncle. The cab uncle said he could bring us to Lu He night market and not other night markets, which was better for us. So i told the cab uncle to bring us to Lu He night market instead of the train station.

Crabs!!

When we reached the night market, there was firework display, but didn't managed to see it. So we just had all our favorite snacks as our dinner here, crabs, papaya milk and corn....happy food... :)
After eating, we went back to the pet shop to look at the puppies again. This time we stayed a bit longer cos 2 puppies were actually fighting with each other. 1 of the puppies kept on biting on the other 1 until it snapped and fought back. But they looked so cute...hope they can find an owner soon, who can take care of the 2 of them together. After that, we walked slowly back to our hotel to rest..


Hotel Stayed: Holiday Hotel

Places Visited: Kenting