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

Yang Ming Shan 陽明山國家公園, Taiwan Trip (Day 14)

30th November 2014, Sunday

Qixing Bus Stop

Today, we were supposed to wake up early and go to Jiu Fen and Shi Fen area but we 2 ended up getting up almost to 10 plus...getting super tired already...hahaha...So i told my friend just go to yangmingshan instead, as it was nearer. We got up to get ready and made our way to Jiantan Station to take the red 5 bus to go up. It was almost to 1 pm when we finally reached the national park. Then we changed to bus number 108 to go to the attractions around the park. We wanted to go to the waterfall stop, which was the further up. But the bus we got on was like only going half of the route and there were only single seats in the mini bus, most of the people have to stand and it was round and round up the mountain roads. It was damn bumpy too..We got off at Mount. Qixing bus stop and we were like stranded at nowhere again....hahahaa

Mountain 'Smoking'

Boiling Water

Fried Sweet Potato..Must Try!!!

So we just took the round Mt. Qixing Trail to walk to Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑), where there is 'smoke' coming out from the mountain...hehheehe.....It was stairs and stairs again, i really not feeling the mood and energy to do the hiking trails anymore. We were too tired....Once we reached xiaoyoukeng, we just went and see the 'smoke' coming from the volcanic pit on the mountain...There was a puddle of boiling water at the side too. And there was a very strong nasty smell too. After this, we went to the bus stop to catch the bus again. This time the bus was going up to the waterfall, and we had to stand on the bus. It was so hard to keep balance when the bus was going up the road and rocking from left to right. We passed by some bus stops on the top and we saw the people queuing to take the bus....is super super long....and it was like around 3 plus. And the further up we went, the more people we see at the bus stop. So we just decided we better don't alight the bus, if not, we won't be able to get back on the bus later on. There was even a point where the road was jammed with cars on both sides of the traffic. When we reached back to the bus terminal, it was about 3 plus. There was a food stall opening and we went to grab some food as we haven't had lunch yet. Most of the dishes were sold out too. The fried sweet potato snacks was the best of all we ordered...hahaha...even my friend likes it...we ordered 2 plates of it.

Gates of Yang Ming Shan

After that, there was a walking trail to yangming park. So we just walked slowly that trail and we didn't reach the park too...hahaa...it was like super far and we don't want to end up having no bus back again. So we took a bus back to the bus terminal and then we bought a packet of oranges from the side stalls too. The auntie was telling us 1 packet of 5 oranges costs NT$50 and there were own grown, very sweet. Those bigger ones were NT$50 each....The auntie didn't lie to us, the oranges were really sweet!! Sweeter than the ones we bought at Guanziling....After that, we queued to take the red 5 bus back to Jiantan station. After we came down to the station, we made our way to Shilin Night Market. It was different from my first visit, all the food stalls are along the road. As we were still full, we went abit of shopping first....hehehee...Then we just kept walking further in until we saw interesting food and then we will stop and buy back. There was a cake stall inside the market too, which was having long queue. So we went and buy 1 box too, similar to the one we bought from Tainan. But It wasn't so nice as the one we bought in Tainan. I would recommend to buy the one from Tainan instead of this one.... :P...It was quite crowded as we went in further and worse still, we both need to find restrooms.....

Super Big Sausages

Nice Nice Chicken Cutlet

Cute Dragon Design

Then i saw a Stay Real shop there (cannot help not going in the shop..hahaha), so i went in and asked whether the designs my friend (working in KL) wanted are available...hohohoho...1 design was worldwide out of stock and the other is selling only in Japan stores. Before we exited the shop, my friend pointed to me one design which she said it was cute too and asked me to take photo and go back ask my friend. Then we went to find restrooms but ended up walking to the next metro station. As we wanted to go back to the hotel, so we went into the station and the restrooms were inside (after the gates). After that, we took the metro back to Jiantan station and went back to the night market again. This time, we just went to buy the food we wanted to eat (got potato with cheese and chicken cutlet which was fried and then grilled). Then we took the metro back to the hotel, where we had our snacks. The potato with cheese wasn't as nice as the one i bought at Tainan. Here the potato was fried instead of baked...but it was a popular stall in Taipei...(later i saw the same stall in one of the alleys at Ximending too)....hohoho...Once back in hotel, i connected wi-fi and messaged my friend to let her know on the bad news and also showed her the one we took photo in the shop. She said she wanted that, so i went to the rock coco (which was also under stay real) branch in Ximending and helped her check on that design. Again, they don't have the stock anymore and the only store still having the stock was in Banqiao, which i didn't know where was it and i thought there wasn't enough time for us to travel there to buy the next day too. So i didn't ask the staff to help us reserve the shirt in that branch. I wanted to get one shirt for my friend, as she will be very disappointed if i going to tell her the bad news again. But that branch was too small and i didn't find a design that she will like. So we went back to the hotel.....and continue eating my potato and chicken cutlet....

Hotel Stayed: Rainbow Hotel

Places Visited:
Yang Ming Shan
Shilin Night Market

Taichung 臺中, Taiwan Trip (Day 7)

23rd November 2014, Sunday

Peanut Bar

Today, we need to take the train to Taichung but we still ended up waking at around 8 plus. So we got ready and did our last minute packing to check out the hotel. We just took out time to walk to the train station. When we were just outside of State Temple of the Martial God (台南武廟), we saw people queuing up to buy bread toast on a small stall. So we queued to buy it, while i was queuing, there was a couple behind me saying in an alley opposite the street, also had a super long queue buying the same food. So the lady was asking the guy which one to queue, the guy went into the opposite alley and checked it out. When he returned, he was telling the lady that apparently the one inside was the main stall and the outside one was a branch out....hehehee....It took us a long time before we got  our breads. The auntie had to fry the eggs and then toasted the bread, all were done using charcoal which was interesting. Beside the bread stall, was an uncle selling peanut cake. What's interesting was the uncle would take the peanut bar and heat it up over charcoal and then flatten the bar. And then he would roll it up once flatten, either to wrap it up with chinese parsley. The uncle did let us try abit of the peanut, it was nice. So we got a small box.

Yum Yum!!

After eating the breads, we continued to drag our luggage to the train station. We passed by the noodles shop which we missed to eat last night. While we were wondering whether was it opened as it was only 10.30 am, we saw there was a lady seems like be buying the noodles. So we went and checked it out, it was opened for business!! My friend took the menu and looked, it was all in Chinese (as usual)....so she asked the lady customer what was nice in the place, apparently the lady understand English and was able to speak too. Think my friend very happy that got someone she can talk to, so we just sat on the table beside the lady. And the lady recommended us 2 noodles to try, so we said ok. While we were still looking at the menu, the lady's husband came. He was able to speak English very well as he had lived in Singapore for about 8 years. The husband went with me to order our noodles and he even paid for our meal (first time got treated by a local during holidays)....hehehee...They were very friendly, they even treated us a side dish they ordered..boiled cuttlefish (my favorite)...hehehe...It was dipped with chilli mixed with washabi....chilli wasn't very spicy though...So about the couple, they were actually living in Kaohsiung and they were supposed to go to church today. But the wife was having craving for food in Tainan, so they came to Tainan and were having breakfast there in the noodles shop where they met us. The wife said she likes Tainan while my friend told them she likes Kaohsiung...hohohoo...The husband had studied in Singapore during his 8 years of staying and he now has his own business in Taiwan. He said they went back to visit Singapore 2 years ago and said Singapore had changed alot since his last visit...hohohoho...But i think they too like Singapore. Ohhh...did i mentioned...the noodles were way nicer than our last night's dinner?kekekee.....

Special Teas - Nice Nice!!

The husband later went to buy teas for his wife, he treated us each a cup..1 was winter melon milk tea and the other don't know what is it...inside got long long jelly and it was a bit sour...he said Singapore doesn't have it. So we tried them...ohh...soooo damn nice...i like the winter melon milk tea more....We also asked them to recommend us some nice places in Hualien. The lady was saying there was a bus which can cut from Taichung to Hualien without passing Taipei. But the journey was super long and we didn't have time for it. Anyway, it was nice chatting with them, and they had to leave for their next food hunt place. We said goodbye and thanked them, and we too continued our walk to the train station....But it kind of feel good...it's like someone had made your day happy early morning and you will feel like you going to have a good day ahead....hahahaa...It was quite a distance more to the train station, so by the time we reached there, we were a bit tired. Then i went to the counters and bought the tickets to Taichung. And we had to rush in to the platform again cos the train was already here and the whistle was being sounded (Luckily they don't have so many platforms)....

Taichung Station

It was a 2 hours ride to Taichung, so i ended up sleeping on the train while surprisingly my friend was supposed to be a transport pig didn't sleep this time...hahahaa....We reached Taichung at around 1.40 pm, there were a lot of people when we came out from the train station and it looked very crowded. I went and asked a cab driver to bring us to our hotel. All he said was it was very near, can walk to there and pointed to me the direction to walk... -_-"...weird....the visitors information center was also closed for lunch break. So we just walked down the direction the cab uncle had pointed. And we did still managed to find the hotel, it was just 5 or slightly more minutes distance away. So not so bad....when we were looking from the opposite side, there was 1 building beside the hotel and it looked super rundown and horrible...i asked my friend not that building right? hahaha....gave me a scare...Then we checked in and rested in the hotel room...tired already...when i tried to on my ipad, it went dead...nothing was showing on the screen but it was still on...haiz...first time brought it outside of SG also can die like that...and at a time when i am jobless....pek chey....

Monkeys

We left the room again at around 2 plus, i went to the hotel staff and asked for directions for the places we want to go..apparently only
Carton King was the nearest we can go. So we went to the main train station to take the bus she told us. But when we went to the visitors information center and asked again, i was told on a different bus to take...weird....anyway we followed the directions given by the staff in visitors information center and went to Carton King. It was 45 mins bus ride, and as usual, my friend saw a shop where a lot of people were queuing for it. I didn't notice it when the bus passed by. And she said she wants to go try it later. We alighted at Da Ke Roundabout bus stop and went in to Carton King. It is actually a museum which displays arts done by cardboards....The entrance fee was NT$200 per pax and if it was your birthday month, the entrance fee will be free. There was animal kingdom and famous buildings, all made of cardboards.....so we just walked around the area, on the 2nd level, there was a honey museum too, where they were selling honeys...there was even a display of real bees outside the door. There was also a very big mushroom, where there was a house selling stired-fry mushroom and mushroom snacks. We had a black pepper stired-fried mushroom as i was very hungry...it was very nice and smelled good!!! We bought some mushroom snacks too and we walked around some. By the time we left the place, it was already dark. Some of the displays were even lighted up with lights. Had a free gift too, after we had finished stamping on our entrance tickets (there was a mini game to collect all the stamps from different areas). Inside the place, was its own restaurant too, where the food was served on cardboard plates and bowls. And the food looked nice and yummy.

Yam Yam....

When we were outside the place, there was a group of 5 trying to take a group photo and were having fun too. My friend went and said she will help them take the photo and asked the last lady to join in the photo shoot....hahaa...They thanked us and then we walked down the road to find the long queue shop which my friend saw during our bus ride. We saw a restaurant selling barrel chickens too, it was cooked the same way as we had in Guanziling. But we walked past it, until we reached the long queue shop. It was a purple signboard, and it was selling yam desserts. Seems like it was a famous shop there, so we went buying it. We got 2 cold desserts - Yam with mixed (4 different ingredients) and Yam with red bean....Half of the bowls were ice and the yam were 3 big blocks...quite full too after eating. After eating, we went to take bus 68 to Fengjia Night Market (bus stop name: 逢甲大学). We waited for almost half an hour for the bus to come. And when my friend stopped the mini bus, i cannot see the bus number on the side. But we just boarded the bus and i asked the bus driver was the bus going to the place...he said yes and gave us a temporarily bus card to tap first. Heng ah....if not, we had to wait for don't know how long if we missed this bus...

1973 Fried Chicken

Backed Potato with Cheese

冰火波蘿油

It costs us NT$68 to reach Fengjia area, we had to tap the temporarily bus card again when we alighted to see how much was the fare. There were many shops and food stalls in Fengjia Shopping Town, you can see Macdonald's, Stay Real, Nike, Nets, addidas, etc...and there were a lot of people too....But i was urgently in need of toilet, so we went to Macdonald's and faint ah...the toilet queue also very long...but there doesn't seem like other places having free toilets around...so we queued for it. After that, we started our exploring...at the first turn, i saw a Stay Real shop and was very excited. I just pulled my friend to the shop to look around. I got a new tee-shirt with cowboy design and asked my friend to buy one too...hehehe....The design she wanted don't have her size, so i chose a tee-shirt with mummy design... :P....After that, we went outside the streets and walked around the place. Bought the 1973 Fried Chicken and walked till the Fengjia Night Market, and we just bought along the way...see what was nice to eat...i got baked potato with cheese too. There was pig's blood cake too, like a lot of people buying it. Bought a bbq corn for my friend to eat...As it was crowded, we couldn't really eat while we walked.We walked further in the streets and saw a stall selling an unique buns...called 冰火波蘿油. We bought 2, 1 with cheese and 1 with butter and cheese. After buying this, we made our way back to the hotel. Ahh...passed by bear's paw stall too but no one was buying it and it was quite hidden away from the busy street. But we didn't know where was the bus stop for bus 25 or bus 35. So we walked a bit further away from the fengjia shopping town, but at least while we were walking on the road, we were able to keep seeing bus 25 coming by (not in Tainnan, no bus one)....Walked in Birkenstock shop to check out the prices, had to remove shoes to go in the shop too..hohoo...the prices wasn't much difference from Singapore, maybe abit cheaper and i saw a notice saying there is a additional charge of NT$200 for sizes bigger than 40...hohoho...

Baked Potato with Turkey Ham and Cheese

We made it to the bus stop and it was already past 10 pm...luckily we didn't have to wait very long for the bus to come and we were carrying the food we bought from the market to go back eat...It was about 15 mins or so back to the hotel. Finally can rest feet and eat our food!!! The fried chicken and the baked potato were nice...the 冰火波蘿油 nice!!! After food, it was shower and sleeping time...hehehee...



Hotel Stayed: VIP Hotel

Places Visited:
Carton King
Fengjia Shopping Town
Fengjia Night Market