New Taipei City 新北市, Taiwan Trip (Day 15)

1st December 2014, Monday

Christmas Bears

Ahh...so fast is the last 2nd day of the trip. Today we were supposed to go to Jiu Fen, but we ended up sleeping until 11 plus. And by the time we 2 got ready to leave the hotel, it would be almost afternoon. So i told my friend don't go to Jiu Fen anymore, as it would be rushing for us too (still need to take train and take the bus, and then cannot really see much and would need to rush back to Taipei again). And i told her let's just go to Long Shan Temple (龍山寺) and then go Taipei Main Train Station to buy sun cakes. Although i had visited it before, but i still want to bring her go there to take a look. Then we just took our time to get ready and went out. When we first stepped out from the hotel, it was soooo cold and it was still so sunny yesterday. And then we 2 went back to the hotel to grab our jackets....kekeke....And so, we boarded the metro and when i saw the stations along the line, i saw a station named Banqiao. So i told my friend hey, that's the station the lady in Rock Coco who told us the tee shirt design was in. Then my friend said go there and check the shop out, maybe would be able to get the shirt. So we alighted at Banqiao station instead of Long Shan Temple....hohohoooo....Once alighted, we walked to see whether we can find the shop through wi-fi or maybe the shop was under the station. Though we didn't manage to get connected to the wi-fi, we managed to see a visitors information counter. So i went and asked the lady to help me google where is the shop in Banqiao. Luckily, the lady still managed to find it on the net. It was inside a shopping mall 2 blocks down and on level 6.

Transformer

So we walked from the station to the shopping mall, there was TSR, HSR and TRA trains in the station and later i realized this was the New Taipei City. When we came out from the station, there was a big square with merry-go-round and a big christmas tree. It was 17 degree celsius and it was very windy (finally..cooling weather). Then we had to cut through the New Taipei City Hall building, inside there was a yellow robot display. It was their new metro train, which can be transformed into a robot...hohohoho....Then we crossed the road junction, and reached the shopping mall. Once there, i was trying to look at the shop directory to find the shop but there wasn't any. But we still went up to level 6 to check, it was all sports shops and there it was, a small shop and it was Rock Coco. Then i went up to the shop assistant and asked her whether they still have the dragon design. She told me it was all sold out, i was disappointed but we told her that the ximending branch staff had told us their shop was still having the stock, so we came here. The shop assistant looked abit confusing and puzzled but she still helped us to look from their system to check. Then she told me there was 1 stock left and the size was XL. I was so happy that i told i wanted XL size. But later she told me it was red color, and she told me there was no more black when i asked her. Then she checked her system again, this time she told me she had 1 black stock left, 1 and only 1 and it was XL. I said ok...i take it...but she still said the stock was to bring to their shop from another place, which would be arriving at around 4 pm. So i said ok, i will wait for it. But my friend was asking me whether they can bring it to ximending branch so we can go there and collect instead of waiting here. The shop assistant told me she could only got back to me after half an hour time when i asked her. So we went around the area for shopping. Went looking for sports shoes and polo tees for my dad....we just kept walking from shops to shops slowly and to pass the time.

Gingerbread Man (From Krispy Kreme)

Snowman (From Krispy Kreme)

We shopped until it was about 3 plus, then we went back to the shop and checked with the shop assistant again. She told me that their goods had arrived, including that tee-shirt and they were just downstairs. And she was going down to pick them up. So we had to wait for it again. It took quite some time before the shop assistant was back. I was so happy that we managed to buy the shirt...and i kept checking on the size too. Can't believe it.....hahahaa.....Then we walked around abit longer, got a watch for my grandma too...Then we went back to the metro station and walked to see the shops there. Saw Krispy Kreme and dragged my friend inside. Bought a original glazed doughnut and she bought a don't know what flavor doughnut...hohoho...Then we just sat there and eat....ohhh...the original glazed tasted the same as the one i ate from KL...not like Singapore (super sweet).....This one was nice and made you want to eat some more. And so i did, my friend bought another 2 original glazed back for me....tomorrow's breakfast...hahahaa...We sat there until 5. 15 pm....played with wi-fi until we forgot the time. We were having a dinner reservation at the mala steamboat at 5.30 pm!!...So we quickly went to take the metro and went down to the restaurant as fast as we could. There were already people queuing outside the restaurant when we reached, luckily we still made it on time. Then we ordered the soup base and the pork...yum yum....the soft drinks were 1 bottle and there were veggies, crabs (which were gone once they were out for grabs), prawns, desserts (ice- creams and puddings) and they even have free flow of beers.....and we had only 2 hours to eat. Actually, 2 hours should be enough for dinner but not sure why, we were both rushing to eat our food towards the end...i didn't even have chance to finish drinking my sprite and they don't allow people to take their food or drinks out... :P....My friend had almost 2 whole crabs on her own...i had alot of the pork too...ohh..and their milk pudding was damn nice...smooth smooth....It was a nice dinner....hohohoho....and we were soooo full!!! Oh ya...and the staff came and asked us to pay for the meal when we were enjoying the meal in the middle. Think it was their practice....and the price increased on the 1st day of December but they were having promotion so there was some discount today too.......

Our Mala Steamboat Dinner

Pork!! Must Try!!

Fish and Prawn Pastes (Must Try!!)

Puddings (Must Try Milk Pudding!!)

After the dinner, we walked on the streets to digest first...Saw the price potato with cheese (which i bought from Shilin Night Market earlier) in an alley beside The Face Shop...then i dragged my friend up to an anime/comics shop....bought anime files there...then it was time to meet my friend's job agent who helped my friend to have a job in Singapore. We went to Starbucks, then my friend was telling me it was that lady standing in front lah...i asked her sure anot cos the 2 of them haven't met for like 8 or 9 years....hohoho...We didn't want to go Starbucks, so we went to a cafe opposite, called Rolling Cafe. It was quiet and lesser people. And so they started to chat, i just joined in to chat as and when....if the topic happened to be on Singapore...hahaha...The agent actually was a Singapore PR and even just renewed her PR too. And she had a company registered under Singapore and even have a flat there. But she is staying in Taipei for many years. She said she could manage to understand Mandarin and speak a little after many years but still couldn't speak it well...hehehee....And ya, of course to her Singapore is a very good country and she said every one in Singapore will have a roof under them but not in other countries. And taxes are much lower in SG than others.  She is a nice lady, had fun chatting with her too.... :)...We chatted until 10 plus, then she paid for our drinks. She went to our hotel with us, she said wanted to see how our room looks like....hohoho...And then my friend brought her to the lift and chatted there...i think...lol....When my friend came back....we just took our shower in turn and packed our luggage to prepare to fly off the next day.....

Hotel Stayed: Rainbow Hotel

Places Visited:
Banqiao

Europe 2nd Trip - Pompeii, Italy (Day 3)

27th Oct 2013, Sunday, Cloudy

Rooftop Garden

Today we are going to visit the city of Pompeii, had to give up hiking Mount Vesuvius cos both of my friends were tired from yesterday's walking. So we woke up at 5 or 6 am plus, then prepared for breakfast. Ooo...the breakfast area was on a rooftop garden, it was so cooling to have breakfast there and can see the blue blue sky. They even have a small area for table tennis. The croissants were great too and there was a cute triangular pantry that we all love it when we had it the first time. I tried the yogurt too, it was apricot flavor. I love the red orange juice too, it was in red color..different from the normal orange color. It was nice!! And the ham was nice to go with the bread.

Metro Tickets

After we had the wonderful breakfast, we made our way out to Pompeii. We had to buy our metro tickets from the ticket machine, which was 'hiding' in a corner. It's a ticket for 90 mins, and gosh, the metro was damn slow..We took like almost an hour just to reach the main train station to take the circumvesuviana train. By the time we reached there and got our tickets, it was like 10 plus to 11 am. There were a lot of people taking the train too, we made our way down to the platform to catch our train. We had to wait for another 15 mins or so for our train. Finally, our train arrived and we all boarded, it was packed with people. There was no available seats, so we stood near to the door. Luckily, there were some seats empty after a few stations, we were able to sit down (legs tired from all the standing...hohoho). Along the way, was able to see Mount Vesuvius, it was so beautiful. After the long ride, we finally reached the station of Pompeii. There was a tourist guide counter just in front of the station and the staff were trying to get people to buy their tickets for their guided walk. We just went in straight to the main counter (which was at the entrance of the city) and got our tickets.

Steep road to enter the city

Here is a brief introduction on Pompeii:
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was once prosperous during its time. There were gladiators fighting in the theater and the people were still using horse chariots. But all these were gone after the city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Now what is left are the ruins that you can see in the visit and try to understand how the people had lived at that time.

When you first passed the entrance, there was this very steep road that you need to walk up to enter the main city (which is the city gate). One of my friends went on her own, listening to the audio guide (which we downloaded from Rick Steve) whereas mi and another friend, we went in walking with the guide taken from the book. The road of the city were all built with big stones (basically, you can see 1 stone and 1 stone as the road, not like our normal road that were built with tar). I had to jump from stone to stone to walk around...hohoho...One of my friends had a fall when we were walking up to enter the city (hurt her ankle but luckily, it wasn't too serious...). Anyway, she continued on her walk, and mi and my another friend continued ours. The road really wasn't easy to walk around, had to jump from rock to rock. The city was super big and amazing....we tried to follow the self guided tour and went and see those highlighted sites. And there was this 3 bigger and higher stones on the road, they were used to let pedestrians to walk around the streets when the streets were filled with water (used for washing the streets). As we walked further in, there was a big main square, where the temple of Jupiter and the city hall stood. Then we went to see the Basilica and the fish and produce market. Inside the fish & produce market, there was a display of plastic molds of Pompeiians who were caught in the disaster. Behind the molds display, was a wall of pictures that was kept preserved. We walked abit further in the market, there was display of actual mummies of the Pompeiians. 

Stoves made of marbles (Fast Food Joint)

After some time, mi and my friend just got tired and hungry. We bought a slice of pizza and ate before we continued our journey again. I saw my friend when we were just continued walking, i asked my friend, "Isn't that person look familiar?"...hohoho....
Next, we continued walking down the streets and saw the fast food joint, where we can see the stoves made out of marble. Then we just continued walking and we ended up on a stairs that lead us to a higher ground that we had a high view of the city of Pompeii. We took some photos there and headed back down to the city again. We ended up at the House of Tragic Poet. Next, we walked till the House of the Faun, this house was the biggest house in the whole city of Pompeii. But 1 side of the house was closed off, there was a big complete picture (which was showing the battle of Alexandra, the original is currently displayed in the National Archeological Museum) on the floor at the courtyard. Then we continued walking on the streets again, we ended up at the theater, which we caught with our friend. We took a moment to sit around at the theater, i climbed all the way up to the top. And from there, you can actually see Mount Vesuvius at the left side. Too bad, it was too cloudy, the clouds were covering the volcano..not able to take a clear shot of it.

Seafood Pasta

Then we left to see the biggest house again (as my friend had not seen it), mi and the other friend tried to find the 2000 years old lead pipes. It was caged at one of back alley, it wasn't very noticeable. But it was definitely old lead pipes..hohohoho....Then my friend brought us to the public bath, the entrance was very dark, as it was getting dark. We went in and take a look, it was dark inside, with no much light. And there was a black dog sleeping inside too, can't even see it. The bath was further inside, it was soooo big. By the time we finished walking, it was already 5 plus and the sun had already set, it was getting dark.So we made our way back to Naples train station. The train back to Naples was also packed with people and while we were on the train, there was a group of teenagers, shouting around the train and were very anxious. Later, we saw some of them were running out the 1st station and some of them were running in to the train. There was like a big commotion but they were all speaking in Italian...don't understand, so got no idea what was happening. When the train reached to the 2nd or 3rd station, we saw the teenagers ran out of the train and some were suddenly got caught by police, who were waiting at the station and they were in full amour. Hahhaa...one of the teenagers was still sitting beside my friend, she kept joked that she seated side by side with a criminal (Forget whether is the one seated beside got caught by the police...hahhaa...). After this commotion, we just waited for our train to reach Naples train station...like long journey back...Then we headed down to a restaurant nearby Naples train station area to have our dinner. The restaurant name is called
La Cantina dei Mille. We had a pizza and pasta (my friend ordered another pasta too cos they were too hungry), free bread were given too..but the bread was hard as rock...hahhaa..my friend knocked the bread on the table, and it sounded like taking a stone and knocking on the table...so funny...

I don't find the food bad, it's just salty for me to accept (the seafood was fresh and the prawns really smell nice). Anyway, i ate a little and as we were paying, the boss gave us his namecard and wanted us to give feedback on tripadvisor...kekeke.....Then we made our way back to hotel. The metro really cannot make it, we had to wait and wait for it to come.
Finally, we reached our hotel and we can rest for the day...yeah!! (Too bad, didn't even have time to shop around the streets near our hotel, there is a Disney store there too...)

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tolendo

Places Visited:
Pompeii