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

Jiaoxi 礁溪, Taiwan Trip (Day 5)

17th May 2018, Thursday

Wu Feng Qing Waterfall

Today, we have to move to Taipei and since we had bought a lot of stuffs, we decided to hire Mr Zhu's service to drive us up to Taipei. So we had our breakfast provided by the hotel and got ready. Mr Zhu arrived early to pick us up too, and he recommended some attractions to bring us for the day before we headed up to Taipei. First, he brought us to visit Wu Feng Qi waterfall and let us walked up to see the waterfall. There were three levels which visitors can climb up to view the waterfall at different sections. However, the first section is closed off for maintenance. There were a lot of steps which we had to climb up. Then we walked to visit the church on top and i was already starting to sweat. It was sooo hot.....After that, we walked back down the mountain and Mr Zhu drove us to another hiking trail (草湳湖周邊步道).

It was a long hiking trail and it leads to another trail name - Linmei Shipan Trail. So Mr Zhu told us that he will pick us up once we are done with the hiking. Then we went ahead and started hiking. Of course, we also didn't fail to forget to turn on our pokemon go app to clock the distance for the eggs. It was quite a long long hike as it took us about 30 mins out to reach the start of the Linmei Shipan Trail. Then it was another an hour or so trail to complete the full trail, the road was quite okay to walk and there was stairs too. There was a metal bridge leading the way up to the valley, which of cos had around 100 plus steps up. It was really quite nice to do a hike in the morning and sweated it out.

Linmei Shipan Trail Entrance

Logs Display

Metal Bridge

Seafood Market

Live Seafood

Live Clams

After the hike, we walked back to the starting point of the 1st trail and messaged Mr Zhu to come pick us up. While waiting, i bought a bag of oranges from the roadside stalls (In the end, the oranges travelled back with us to SG...hahaha). Then Mr Zhu offered to bring us to the harbour where we can pick live seafood and have lunch. He told us it was one of the popular harbours where the boatmen will go out to the sea and bring back the fishes to sell and he had brought many of his customers there to eat the seafood. When we reached there, Mr Zhu told us it was quite different as the boatmen no long selling the live seafood at the harbour. There was a enclosed market where there were seafood stalls owned by the boatmen. However, it was quite a disappointment when we can't see much of the live seafood. But we still settled for one of the stalls for lunch. Mr Zhu helped us to order the dishes, which we had fried noodles, fried rice, prawns, fried fish, clams and veggies.

Fried Noodles & Fried Rice

Fried Fish

Prawns

The portions were big for everyone to share, but when we KT and Ss took their first bite on the fried rice, they found it to be sour. After S tried, she asked Mr Zhu and he confronted the stall owners after he tried it. He told them that the ingredients used had turned bad but the stall owners said it was due to the spring onion and it was not bad. However, Mr Zhu had become quite upset about it. The stall owner offered to cook us another plate, but Mr Zhu rejected it. We continued to eat the rest of the dishes, luckily they were not bad but i don't find it tasty.  When we were about to leave, Ss went to buy drink, however she was having trouble understanding the stall owner. So S went over and check it out. After that, Ss told us that she did not understand what the stall auntie wants. She was asking how much was the coke and tried to pay her with $10 but the stall auntie rejected it. Then she tried to give a bigger amount, still the stall auntie rejected it. She can't get what the auntie wants. And, S said she did not hear what the auntie wants and just paid the drink in small change...It was so funny,,,,

Mr Brown's Cafe (Castle 1)

Afternoon Drinks

Windmill

Mr Brown's Cafe (Castle 2)

After the lunch, we left but we can see Mr Zhu was very upset as he kept scolding the stall owners as not being honest to tourists and to locals. As we were walking back to the cab, we heard the stall owners from other stall starting to quarrel over something. When we got on the cab, Mr Zhu was still scolding the stall owners along the road. We went to Mr Brown's cafe which is on top of a mountain and the cafe was in a castle. There were quite a lot of visitors there when we reached the cafe and it was quite packed. Mr Zhu offered to help us get a table while we go buy our drinks. I got a hot chocolate as usual and it was quite nice to drink in the afternoon. Mr Zhu also showed us his photos with his customers and the places he brought them. Again, he scolded the seafood stall owners. But he told us he will bring us to another live seafood place where we can eat fresh seafood. After the drinks, we went out to explore the area where we took photos with the castle and the windmill. Mr Zhu took us to the 2nd castle, which was further up in the mountain and there were lesser people around. Mr Zhu told us that the 2nd castle was built due to the expansion of the business.

Turtle Island afar

Wanai Beach

Lanyang Museum

After that, we went to Wanai bench where the sand were black in color. We took a walk to the sea but there wasn't much wind, so it was quite hot too. There were also a few of bubbles fishes dead on the beach. From the beach we could also see the turtles island (it was named as turtles island as the shape of the island looks like a giant turtle). We spent there around 15 mins or so, we left and Mr Zhu drove us to our last destination of the day which is Lanyang Museum. It was famous for the unique design of the museum. However, Mr Zhu got a bit lost and had us alighted at the far back of the museum. So we just took some photos there.  After that, we were on the road to go to Taipei. We reached our hotel in taipei around 5 plus. We thanked Mr Zhu for his service and went up to our hotel. It was hidden inside the alley.

Mala Steamboat

Stay Real Cafe

Desserts

We went up to our hotel room respectively and set to leave for dinner at around 6.30 pm. After resting for a while, we went to the mala steamboat place to check out if there is any table available. Luckily, there were tables available, so we went ahead to have our dinner there. The steamboat was still keeping their standard and the mango was sweet and juicy. Stomach got heavier after the diner. After that, we headed down to StayReal Cafe. By the time we reached the cafe, it was almost 9 am plus. So we went in for a drink as we were very full for any cakes. But the cakes do look cute and yummy. We stayed for an hour and we headed back to Ximending as it was getting late. As usual, Ximending was crowded with people. We went abit of walking around, i also went searching to buy stamps till late as i had to ask about 4 or 5 7-11 shops (keep getting out of stocks). By the time i went back to the hotel, it was already almost midnight.

Places Visited:
Wu Feng Qi waterfall
Linmei Shipan Trail
Mr Brown's Cafe
Wanai Beach

Hotel Stayed:
VIA Hotel