21st November 2014, Friday
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| 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.
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| 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)....
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
