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

Guanziling 關子嶺, Taiwan Trip (Day 6)

22nd November 2014, Saturday

Pumpkin Cake (Fluffy!!)

Today, we were going to Guanziling, a place which is famous for its muddy hot springs and Fire & Water cave and its barrel chicken (桶仔雞). We woke up and had the cakes we bought last night as breakfast. The pumpkin flavor was better than the original flavor...hehehe.....Then we headed out to our destination. This time round, we don't have to chase for bus, so we took our time to walk to Tainan Train Station. And this time, we also passed by Chikan Peddlar's Noodle Restaurant. So i asked my friend to remember the location, we will come back tonight to eat as our dinner.

Stairs up Heroes' Slope

Once we reached the train station, i went to buy the train tickets to Xinying Station. As it had arrived at the station, we ran into the platform. Luckily it wasn't so far to the platform, and so we boarded. The train was like a MRT/Metro train and there were many people so we had to stand all the way until our stop. Once we came out from Xinying station, there were a few cabs asking anyone where they want to go. So i asked a cab uncle to bring us up to Guanziling for about NT$600. Along the way, i saw a lot of barrels with a metal pipe sticking out and signs stated as '桶仔雞' (It looked interesting...hehehee). The cab driver brought all the way up the hot springs zone (which was at the top).  We alighted and tried to look at the map for the whole area. Think my friend was still giddy from the ride (motion sickness from mountain roads), not in so good mood after alighting. Then we decided to walk up the road first, we came across Heroes Slope (好汉坡). It was built during the Japanese occupation by the Japanese to let those wounded soldiers to exercise and rehabilitate, it was really very tedious to climb up the steps. There were a totally of 300 steps up the LingDing Park, which was at the top. Whoever can do it will be a "HaoHan" or hero.

Dong Shan Instant Coffee

And since we were at the bottom, there was no description to the stairs, so we just blindly climbed up the steps...There were 3 resting huts to break from the stairs, damn tired from climbing. The description board of the stairs were at the end of the stairs, which was at the top. By then, we were panting so hard...hahhaa...Some people who were at the top saw the description board, didn't even bother to walk down the stairs to exercise...They just looked at us, as if wondering why we were climbing up the stairs from the bottom. After the tedious exercise, we walked around the park, which were having some small stalls selling products. We just saw a stall selling coffee and we headed straight for it (also don't know why...hahaa). The lady let us tried the coffee, without sugar...it was quite nice and was fragrant. It was named Dong Shan Coffee (which i didn't it was one of Guanziling products, in fact we didn't see the same coffee product anywhere else in Taiwan). So we bought 3 boxes of coffee powder and 1 packet of coffee beans. After that, another stall lady let us tried Longan Gan (龙眼干). My friend liked it, so she bought 1 packet and a bag of oranges too.

Barrels to cook chickens

Chicken!!! Must Try!!

After the shopping, we saw 2 restaurants down the road selling barrel chickens. I told my friend i want to try the chicken as we only saw it in this place, so should be their specialty here....hehehe....So we went in 1 restaurant to try the chicken, the small plate was half chicken and it was quite nice...tender and sweet. I showed my friend herbal tea egg and told her Singapore also have those. She said she had seen it around in SG but she never try it cos it looked black black and doesn't look nice...kekeke....After lunch, i wanted to go to Fire & Water Cave (水火同源). So we started walking down slope road to the cave. Gosh, i didn't know it was sooooo damn far. We walked at least more than 20 km down the mountain, what we had eaten for lunch were all digested....hahhaaa...But along the walk, we got a nice view of the scenery from the top and even saw oranges trees on the roadside. There was small boards of the attractions on the road, which was having tiny numbers. Everytime we saw 1, it was a reduction of 1 count but the distance between 2 boards was like 1 km away. We started from number 44, so by the time we reached the cave, we had already lost track of it...hahaha....After more than 1 hour or so, we finally reached the cave...阿弥陀佛 (a mi tuo fo)!!

Fire and Water Cave

出米洞

So we walked down the stairs to take a look and there were some people crowded in front of the fire. It wasn't really a cave, not sure why it was being called a cave though. What was special on this cave was there was fire burning on the rocks which water was at the bottom and the fire never got burnt out (The fuel of the fire came from underground spring which contain large amount of methane, when the methane is ignite the fire will burn forever). I can actually feel the heat coming out from the fire too. There was also a board on the legend of this Fire & Water Cave. After seeing the cave, we walked down to the shops area, where the shops were selling fruits, coffee, some food and honey. Ohhh...we also saw sausage trees too....the fruits of the trees looked like big sausages hanging...hohoho...Then we continued to walk down again and we were getting worried being stranded in this place again as there was no public buses or cabs around (The whole time when we were walking down the road to the cave, we didn't even see 1 cab or 1 public bus). As we walked down, we ended up at Temple of Azure Clouds 碧雲寺. What interesting was beside the temple, was a 'rock cave'. They had named it as 出米洞. It had a legend that this hole will release rice automatically (and magically), just enough for the temple to use. But one night, one greedy monk had stole all the rice for his own use. And so the rice cave never release rice anymore. So...don't be greedy....

Free Fruit to eat while waiting for bus

Then we went in the temple and see. I prayed for awhile and gave some donations. And then we walked to the opposite street to see the view. Able to see a big Guan Yin Statue at the bottom, should be another temple. I wanted to go down but my friend was worried we don't have transport back. So we walked around the place for awhile. Then we saw a mini public bus came by, we rushed to board it. Doesn't really care when it goes, as long as it can bring us back to the station or somewhere we can find a bus. I asked the bus driver we needed to go to Baihe terminal, so was asking where we can take bus yellow 12 or yellow 13. He said we can alight on the next bus stop and charged us NT$50 per pax. I was thinking why 1 bus stop needs to be so expensive, later then i know, it was really a long way down the mountain (down slope) and to the next bus stop. Imagine we were walking down the road instead of taking the bus...better to roll down...hahhaa...The driver told us to alight and cross over to the opposite side to wait for the bus when we reached the bus top. So i thanked the driver and we walked over to wait. Then there was an uncle approached us, asking us whether we are going to the train station. He can drive us there and charged us NT$200 per pax, but his car was not a cab. So i rejected but he kept walking around us to pester us to take his car. So i told my friend why not we walked down the street first while waiting for the bus (experience with Tainan public buses is either they come after 1 hour or so or it never come).

We walked until we reached the next bus stop, at least for me to get away from that weird uncle. So we waited there for the bus, no chairs to sit too. We were just standing on the road side, and we waited for quite a long time. We almost thought its the same thing as yesterday, no bus again. At around 5 pm, we saw a bus coming. Then i shouted to my friend, "bus is here bus is here"....my friend asked me back, "What number?"...And i just replied.."Does it matter?"...hohohoho....At least a bus came and we can go back to Baihe Bus Terminal.....It was a 20 mins ride to the terminal, there was people asking where do they have to wait for the yellow bus to go back to Xinying Train Station. So i told my friend to follow that group..going back the same place. But when the bus came, i don't have enough change for the bus fare and they don't give change back. So we dashed into the 7-11 shop and grabbed a chewing gum to buy. The bus driver was chasing us too, as he needed to drive off. Luckily we managed to get some small change for the bus fares. And we were on the way to Xinying Train Station, i saw the sunset from the bus, it was very big and red.

Train Tickets to Tainan

We went to buy the train tickets back to Tainan once we reached the train station. Got a faster train which doesn't need to stop at many train stations. It was also getting dark by then. Once we reached Tainan, we walked another street to go back to our hotel. Saw a bubble tea shop called Come Buy near the station and a lot of people were buying, so we queued too. My friend saw a group of Filipino ordering too, so she talked to them in Tagalog. Think the ladies were a bit shocked, my friend asked them what was nice in the bubble tea shop. And i went to order while she chatted with them. I noticed the ladies in the group were like quite arrogant, don't want to talk to her. Only the guy was chatting with her. After we got our teas, we continued walking down the street until we reached Chikan Peddlar's Noodle Restaurant. Funny thing was although it was a recommended restaurant on the net, there wasn't many people eating there. But we still went in to try the food, it wasn't up to our expectation. The food wasn't so nice as what was commented on the net and it was very small portion....Sad dinner...After that, we made our way back to the hotel. Saw a noodles shop packed with people, just hidden inside the street. So we got curious and went there to take a look. The noodles looked nicer and big bowl some more and the people eating were all happy. We should have eaten this instead for dinner....haiz...And it open only at 11 am, which means we can't eat it tomorrow too cos we will be heading down to Taichung in the morning... :(

Hotel Stayed: Famous Hotel

Places Visited:
Guanziling

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

Tainan 臺南, Taiwan Trip (Day 4)

20th November 2014, Thursday

Train Schedule

Today, woke up slightly early, by around 8 plus as we need to catch train to go to Tainan. So we packed our stuffs and checked out the hotel. We went back to the 2 same stalls where we went on the 1st day but the soup stall wasn't opened yet. So we got the red tea milk, a toast and 2 egg yolk piahs for breakfast. The toast was nice, with fried egg (the yolk will flow out type)and pork floss, i like it...yum yum...Then we made our way to the metro station and went down to Kaohsiung HSR station. Bought the train tickets from the self purchase machines, it was quite easy to buy and we bought the 11.36 am train. As there was still some time left, we just walked around to explore the station (didn't have time to take photos on the first day).

High Speed Rail (HSR) Train

The train arrived about 2 mins before the departure time and left the station on time. It was a 10 mins or so from Zuoying to Tainan ride by HSR. There was a couple who had changed their seats on their own but when the owner for the seats, they changed back to their original seats which were in front of us. And they just lower their seats, which were hitting on our luggage. Then they just pushed their big luggage to the empty seats beside us. And when the train was moving, their luggage moved over to our side. They didn't even realized it, so we just ignored it. We reached Tainan station around 11.47 am, and we made our way now to the Visitor Information Counter to ask how to go to our hotel. My friend went and asked first and she was soooo happy that the staff was able to speak English. So i let her do all the talking and questions (i can take a break)...hehehe.....

Weird Flavor Ice Cream

So we decided to take the free shuttle bus to Confucius temple, which was near our hotel and then take a cab from there. The cab from Confucius temple to the hotel was NT$85 and the hotel was hidden inside an alley. Luckily we took a cab to the hotel, saved our time finding it. We reached the hotel around 1 or 2 pm, so we took a rest in the room first before going out again. Then we left the hotel and walked to Confucius temple. Visited a Japanese house and passed by the weather center and a church and some temple. By the time we reached Confucius temple, it was already 3 plus. So we just walked around the place and i got a weird taste ice cream (got cola and mint)....hungry already...The uncle said he made it himself, NT$30 each.

After this, we went to the bus stop to take bus to Anping Old Street. We waited for quite a long time for it before the bus came. The fare to Anping was only NT$18 per pax, so we boarded. There was usb ports near each window for passengers to charge their devices too. My friend charged her iphone while we were on the bus. I thought the bus was going to Anping Fort (which actually we should have alighted at Aniping Canon/Anping Treehouse bus stop), but we didn't. Ended up we were the last ones with an old lady on the bus and the driver was asking us where we wanted to go...hohohoo...lost again...So we alighted at someware ulu...and tried to walk back to Anping street on our feet. It was around 4 plus when we started to walk, and we walked for almost half an hour or so before we ended up at the end of Anping street. By then, i was really very hungry. Luckily, we saw a stall selling shuai jian bao and it looked yummy. So we got 1 to try..it was nice and it costs NT$12 only.

Dou Hua (Normal and with Red Beans)

Jiu Cai He (Must Try!!)

Then opposite the stall was Anping Dou Hua, so we crossed over and bought 2 bowls of dou hua to eat. Beside it, was a noodle stall too. We also ordered 1 bowl of spicy noodles to try (not really spicy though). But the food was nice...yum yum...The noodles shop also sells prawn crackers, my friend bought 1 original flavor prawn crackers back (got black pepper and chilli flavor too)...hehehe...After eating, we continued to walk down the streets of Anping.  Along the way, we came across a stall by itself. It was selling Jiu Cai He (韭菜盒) , and people was queuing for it. I just told my friend let's queue for it too. While queuing, the people in front had given big orders for it. One even ordered for a box of Jiu Cai He.....And we were only buying 1 piece...hahhaa...And we know why the people are buying large quantity for it....It was damn nice!!! I told my friend i going to finish it all up if she still don't want to try it...hohohoo....Should have buy more (regret)....haiz...

Garden Night Market

As we walked down, we ended up at the Anping Treehouse bus stop but we cannot find the treehouse (don't know where is it hidden) and it was already dark. So we just continued walking down the street until the road hits the freeway. We was thinking whether to walk to buy the Jiu Cai He, before we saw a cab going to turn out from a side road. So we flagged it and go to Garden Night Market (花園夜市). It took us NT$165 to reach the night market and it was like 45 mins journey, kept hitting on red lights. Once we alighted, can see there were alot of motorbikes parked outside the market. And the stalls were packed in an area. There were alot of people in the market too, quite squeezing. All the stalls will have their own flags shown on top, you can easily see what is the stall selling. There are some stalls provided their own table and chairs for customers to eat in. We decided to just buy back to the hotel and eat, cos it was too crowded to eat and walk at the same time.

Fried Crickets

We bought a sausage and a intestine to eat, not nice. Bought an onion pancake too, not nice also (from the stalls near to the entrance)...very sadz....My friend saw corns again and she bought 1 white corn to eat...She said not very nice too, she preferred Kaohsiung one but the yellow corns were sweeter and nice. Then we just walked around the market, looking for food. Bought a box of crabs (fresh but i find the eggs abit bitter), a bag of guava (sweet and crunchy), yellow corns, duck slices and chicken breast....There were 3 stalls side by side which were having queue of people at the back of the market. 1 stall was selling chicken breasts (which i bought 1), 1 was selling something like prata type and another was selling fried crickets....hehehee...There were other stalls like games and selling clothes and bags around the market too. We didn't walk the other stalls as we both needed to go to toilet.... :P.....So we went back to the hotel by cab and ate our food, after which we rested after a long day.

Hotel Stayed:
Famous Hotel

Places Visited:
Confucius temple
Anping Old Street
Garden Night Market