Taipei Trip (4)
Day 4This time I woke up very early at 5.30am because we needed to get ready by 6.30am to travel to Taipei Main Station to catch the 7.10am train. My skin was starting to feel dry and itchy from the dry weather in Taipei, as such, have to apply more moisturizer. Initially I thought that I was abit late in getting ready, but when I asked Nekki to call Hua’s room, it ended up that they had just waken up upon hearing the phone's ringing. Actually I already had a hunch that they would still be sleeping, so does this proved that I have started to know them quite well? =p
Hua and Ru quickly got ready within 15 mins, so we were able to arrive at Taipei Main Station by 7am on time. As all the shops were closed, the station looked very empty. We boarded the train and slept all the way throughout the 2 hr and 40 mins train ride to 花莲. Both sides of my neck kept aching because my head would tend to lean on one side when I slept. It ended up such that I kept changing my leaning positions whenever the opposite side of my neck hurt.
At Taipei Main Station
Boarding the Train
We arrived at 花莲 at about 9.45am. The train station is a far cry from the Taipei Main Station. It looks small and there’s only one 7-11 store there. When we walked out of the station, we immediately saw a man nearing 60s holding a placard indicating Hua’s name. He addressed himself as 张先生 and looked quite friendly. He would be our tour guide cum driver for the day. After some quick washing up, we got into his Mr Zhang’s cab and he started introducing the many facets of 花莲.
Hualien Station
Hualien
The first thing that he introduced about the the area is the famous 槟榔西施. These fair maidens(the ones that we saw there wasn’t so fair) are being forced by circumstances to sell betel nuts and they usually operate out of a small booth by the roadside. Mr Zhang stopped by one of the booths whereby the fair maiden really wore so little ah! Too bad that they don’t like us to take pictures of them because of negative publicity or else I would have like to snap a photo of her.
After that episode, Mr Zhang drove us to eat barley. The barley resembles corn, but instead of bright yellow, it is pale whitish yellow. Unfortunately, Nekki and I shared one that is over ripe, so it tasted very hard and non juicy. Hence, I had some difficulty in finishing it. Hua and Ru were very lucky to choose one that is not over ripe, which really tasted sweet and juicy. Thus, they were wondering why I ate so slow until Hua tasted mine. We also tried sweet potato whereby the flesh is purplish instead of orange. This time, it tasted very nice and sweet.
Thereafter, Mr Zhang drove us to the foot of Taroko, which is the famous marble gorge in 花莲. We first went to 太鲁长春. The small temple was built to commemorate the workers who had lost their lives while digging out tracks in the marble mountains. It was rebuilt 2 times due to earlier earthquakes. After that Mr Zhang showed us specific portions of the mountains which resemble a Red Indian Chief, a maiden, a gorilla and an aborigine. It’s quite amazing to see how thousands of years of erosion on calcium carbonate can create such beautiful images. This was followed by a short walk along the road looking at swallows’ grooves.
Foot of Taroko
太鲁长春
Doesn't this resembles an Indian's chief?
Swallow's grooves
Afterwards, it was time for lunch. Mr Zhang drove us to a mini shop selling food located somewhere higher up in the mountains. We ordered 竹筒饭, 糯米饭 and 2 side dishes which were mainly vegetables. The first one tasted normal while the second item tasted not bad. However, they paled in comparison with the earlier meals that we had for the past few days.
We went to 岳王亭 which is very near Chi Lai Mountain. When I saw the information board highlighting that there is a suspended bridge which links to the foot of Chi Lai Mountain, I was hoping that I won’t have to cross it. But, Mr Zhang really went to apply a permit and asked us to walk across the very, very long suspended bridge. It was so much scarier than the tree top walk because there is nothing except a stream under the bridge. The mere thought of falling down the bridge made my legs went a little weak. Mr Zhang realized that I have phobia of height and told me not to think about it as it is merely a fear coming from the heart. So I had to take a deep breath and walked across it. The bridge was shaking a bit when I walk on it, then I tried not to look below even though I can hear the sound of the stream. Even though the air is wonderfully fresh, I was too scared to enjoy it. Then Mr Zhang even asked us to stand in the middle of the bridge and posed for a group photo! Aiyoh…I had to cling on to nekki while holding on to Ru’s shoulder. So after making it through the bridge, we pose for a pict at the foot of Chi Lai mountain before having to cross back again. Hua was teasing me and Ru (she’s also quite scared of height) as we walked back. So notti of her hee. Mr Zhang and she even jumped up and down on the bridge to show that it was not scary at all ah!
On the suspended bridge
After that very exciting experience, we went to see 慈母桥, which was built to commemorate a Mother’s Love. This was followed by a long walk through the 九曲洞. Although the mountains looked very spectacular, but after seeing for quite some time, it could get a bit bored, so Nekki and I walked faster back to the cab to rest ha.
慈母桥
九曲洞
Mr Zhang drove us down the mountains, which was pretty long so I had a good nap on the car. He brought us to 七星淌 (it was so named before there were originally 7 large ponds which were land filled by the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation for military use), which was supposed to be Taiwan’s version of Hawaii. Hence there were many coconuts planted along the coast. However, it is quite wasteful as these trees would be easily uprooted whenever there is a typhoon. So the government has to replant them every year. This sounds pretty silly to me when I heard about it. Nevertheless, the place looks quite nice. It was pretty fun to pick up marble and jade pebbles from the shore and looking at the large waves.
Me and Mr Zhang
At the beach
Later we went to eat fish balls at a small habour. Nekki and I also ordered bee hoon to share cos I was feeling pretty hungry. The fish balls taste very different from Sg’s one. Ours are softer and sweeter. Hua also bought some preserved fruits for her mum at one of the roadside stalls.
By this time, we were feeling tired and we asked Mr Zhang whether we can change our train tickets to an earlier timing at 5.15pm so that we can returned to Taipei by 7.30pm. Before sending us back to the train station, Mr Zhang drove us to a jade shop. Since we don’t really appreciate jade, we merely walked around the shop before going to the famous 原发 mochi/mua chee shop. The mua chee is much bigger and plumper than the ones that I bought in jiufen. Plus, it tastes nicer too. Nekki and I each bought a packet for our family.
After that, we went back to the train station whereby we took a long, long ride back to Taipei Main station. So I took a long nap again. We decided to go back to our hotel first before setting off to Shilin Night Market. Shilin Night Market is split into two parts: one for eating and the other for shopping. We first went to the market which resembles a large non-aircon food court to have our dinner since we were terribly hungry. There we ate several stuffs: 1) XXL chicken chop (tastes better than Ximending’s one); 2) Taiwan Sausage (tastes good with just the right texture unlike that in Sg which is so rubbery); 3) BBQ Squid (the sauce brings alive the dish!); 4) Snow Ice (it will melt like snow once u place it in yr mouth); 5) 大饼包小饼 (which is like popiah except the fillings are biscuits; tastes sweet and crunchy) 6) Prawn and Oyster Omelete; and 7) 甜不辣 (which tastes better than MiaoKou Night Market).
Snow Ice
XXL Chicken Chop
大饼包小饼
Squid before it was bbq
甜不辣
By the time we finished the late dinner, it was 10 plus liao. So we walked around the shopping area for 1 hour plus. There we saw several things that we would like to have so we decided to come back on Friday. After that, we arrived back at our hotel at 12 plus am whereby we washed up and slept.
Taipei Trip (3)
Day 3
Woke up at 7.15am, I had a good sleep cos I was starting to adjust to the hotel room's environment. We bathed and met Hua and Ru to eat breakfast. The first part of the itinerary for that day was to go to Chang Kai Shek’s Memorial Hall. It was merely an 8 mins ride to Chang Kai Shek’s Memorial Hall Station. Taipei’s 捷运 or MRT is very similar to Japan’s transportation system. The machines for the purchase of train tickets even look similar, except that the cards that it issues are similar to the transitlink cards that we used to have. We purchased the one day pass, which cost NT$150 since we have to travel within Taipei for quite some distance.
The ticket machine
Seating arrangement on the train different from Sg's
At the memorial hall train station, the interior looks very beautiful. It even had a tastefully done passage leading to the exit. The passage was full of art paintings and we stopped by to pose with the pictures. Thereafter, we started to walk towards Chang Kai Shek’s Memorial Hall. Along the way, we saw the National Concert Hall and Theatre Hall, which flanks the Memorial Hall. They are of old architectural Chinese design and look very majestic and beautiful, really different from our own Victoria Concert Hall.
Passage leading to CKS Memorial Hall
National THeatre Hall
Upon reaching the Memorial Hall, we happened to chance upon the changing of guards’ ceremony. Even though there was no music, the guards seemed to have a sense of rhythm taking place in their own mind as they slowly march slowly but steadily up the staircase leading to the gigantic statue of Chang Kai Shek.
CKSS Memorial Hall
Changing of Guards Ceremony
Nekki was commenting that the ceremony is merely to cater to tourists as their marching and hand signals look very exaggerated and flowery. Soldiers in normal parade do not normally march in that way. Nevertheless, it was quite entertaining. After the ceremony, we took a few photos of the statue and it was off to hot spring in Beitou. We were too lazy to go to Martyr’s Shrine and the National Palace Museum hence we didn’t fulfill that part of the itinerary.
Initially we had some confusion over where the hot springs are. We arrived at Beitou station but the young lady who was at the hot springs’ helpdesk advised us to go to the next station, which is Xinbeitou whereby there are more hot springs. But upon reaching there, we don’t see any sign posts for free shuttle buses to hot spring resorts.
Since Zim had told us earlier that his group (he, Key and frens) had alighted at Beitou station last time, we went back to Beitou station again. This time, we went back there again and asked the young lady to help us call up the various resorts whereby free shuttle bus is being provided. We settled upon Lotus Hot Spring Resort as it costs the cheapest (S$25 for 80mins). Thanks to the young lady’s help again (Taiwanese people are very helpful), she called the shuttle bus to arrive within 8 mins.
The resort looks very nice and private rooms were provided to us. It was pretty relaxing to soak in the hot water although I got dizzy within a few minutes before I have to get out of the water. I still preferred Japan’s hotsprings whereby there is more variety of different types of water to choose to soak in.
Doesn't we look more refreshed and rosy after soaking in hot springs?
After that, we took the捷运 to Danshui, which is merely a few stops away. I was getting very hungry so before I alighted the train, I bought some sushi to eat. There, I saw fillings in the form of Hello Kitty (sooooo cute!)
We reached Danshui at about 1pm. By then I was terribly hungry, and could feel my gastric problem starting to act up again. Hua and Ru wanted to walk to 老街 first, because the street might have sold food that we could take for lunch. However, it ended up that the street mostly sells 铁蛋 (which tastes a mixture of sweetness and sourness), 草莓葫芦 and stuff which are not very suitable for a fulfilling meal. Thus, we went to Yoshinoya to eat. I ordered chicken teriyaki set which was much cheaper than that in Singapore. For a set meal that costs S$ of 4 plus, we can get to choose our own side dish: kimchi or Chinese pickles. The ice lemon tea (the cup was the same size as medium) also tastes great too! Not too sour and not too sweet, just the perfect combination. Nekki ordered salmon bento set, while Hua and Ru ordered udon and beef combi set.
Rows and rows of 铁蛋!!
After that, we went back to Danshui老街 again. This time, I bought guava whereby the flesh is reddish in color (it tastes very sweet and soft, unlike those in Singapore) and草莓葫芦. I was a bit shocked to find a big red ant stuck to one of the strawberries. Luckily the uncle agreed to let me swap with another one. The street is smaller than that of Huaxi, but more bustling than the latter as many youngsters love to go to the area. But that is merely the老街. The surrounding areas are full of shops selling lots and lots of food and all sorts of stuff i.e. bags, shoes, hats, watsons, 7-11 etc. It was quite impossible to walk into every shop within 1 day. Hence, for most of the shops, we just looked in.
At about 3plus, we decided to make our way there to the Lover’s Bridge so that we can catch the sunset. We chose to take a ferry there since it only cost S$2.50. The ferry ride was quite exciting, as the ferry was traveling at high speed. It was extremely cooling, with a little bit on the cold side as the wind was quite strong.
Lover's Bridge
When we reached Lover’s Bridge, we could see that there’s a crowd of people gathering there. We soon learnt that there were people filming a music video on the bridge. Unfortunately, they were not known stars like Jay or Yang Chen Lin. However, the male and female leads were quite good looking hee (I think Taiwan has lots of shuai ges and mei nus) As it was cloudy, we didn’t get to see the beautiful sunset. Hence we took a bus back to Danshui station, where we bought some bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Shuai ge and Mei nu filming MV
When we took the train at 6pm, it was the rush hour for the Taiwanese, hence it was pretty packed. The aunties and uncles were pretty rude and they would push their way in or out of the train doors. It was a pretty horrible experience to take the train during rush hours ah.
After we arrived back at Ximending, we went to 飞天麻辣火锅 (it is only 2 mins away from our hotel) to eat the buffet for only S$16. We chose 3 soup bases which are kimchi soup, clear soup and the mala soup. The kimchi soup is good as it is not so spicy and yet flavorful. We were able to choose the food to cook, which include noodles, bean curds, fish balls, vegetables, etc. So we kept taking and eating the food until we are full. We also found that ice creams were free. Nekki and the rest ate lots and lots of ice-creams (an average of 3 cones each). I could already see Nekki’s stomach growing bigger and bigger hee. After that, it was OTOT. Since we had to wake up very early in the morning for the next day as we need to reach Taipei Main Station by 7am, Nekki and I walked around Ximending shopping area (we bought XXL chicken chop and 奶茶again!) for a short while before we went back to hotel to sleep.
Taipei Trip (2)
Day 2Woke up at 7.15am to the sound of Nekki’s hp alarm. Quickly washed and rushed down for breakfast, cos we thought the driver would arrive at 8.30am. Ended up that there’s a slight misunderstanding, the driver that we had agreed upon was supposed to be 黄先生 and not王先生. Oh my god, how come it just so happened that their surnames sounded so similar in Chinese. So we ended up waiting for黄先生 to arrive at 9.30am. Luckily the guy looked cute enough for us to not remain unhappy with the misunderstanding. The van that he drove was pretty big for our group of four people and we were able to settle comfortably into our seats quickly. 黄先生asked us to address him as 阿宝 and appeared to be friendly as he started making small talk with us.
As we have booked him for 12 hours, Hua started to tell him our plans: 1) to go Taipei Main Station to purchase train tickets to 花莲; 2) to travel to Yeliu; 3) Keelung; 4) Jiufen; 5)Miaokou and 6)back to our hotel.
With the help of 阿宝’s superb driving skills, we were able to quickly settle the purchase of train tickets. After that, it was a 40 mins drive to Yeliu. As I didn’t sleep very well the previous night (maybe it was because I wasn’t used to the hotel room), I started to sleep during the car drive. Throughout the journey, I could sense that Nekki was taking photos of me sleeping (so notti of him ha).
When we finally arrived at Yeliu, we felt great to breathe in the fresh sea air, away from the pollution in Taipei. Yeliu is situated along the coast of Taiwan and there were those breathtaking rock formations formed by the numerous and continuous weathering and soil erosion. We were reminded of our secondary school’s Geography lessons as we looked and posed with the rock formations (These included rocks that resemble mushrooms, ginger and even mammary glands!) One of the most famous rock formations was Queen’s head which Nekki and I were able to identify it easily. After that, we headed for lunch at Keelung.
Mushrooms and more mushrooms!!!
Doesn't these look like those mammary glands?
The famous Queen's Head
Keelung is a sea port in Taiwan, and there are lots and lots of cheap and fresh seafood available there. At the wet market in Keelung, I saw lots and lots of live seafood like crabs, prawns, fish and even squids! This was also the first time that I see live squids swimming! It was quite interesting to see their tentacles quivering about in the water. We purchased prawns and crayfish (which Taiwanese people called it as little lobsters) and went to the restaurant recommended by 阿宝 to have them cooked. Each dish only cost NT$100 which was quite cheap and the dishes were the best cooked seafood that I have eaten so far. *Yummy yummy*
At the wet market in Keelung
After a great and filling lunch, 阿宝 drove us to see the deserted copper factory and also 阴阳海. At the same time, it started to rain heavily and it was fortunate that we were traveling by car instead of by foot; else our spirits would have dampened greatly. We stopped by the side of阴阳海 and took some pictures before we proceeded to the museum in九份. The sea is so called mainly because of pollution of sea water by copper deposits. As for 九份, it is situated in the mountainous area. The mountain roads appeared reminiscent of the roads in Initial D, as there were lots and lots of loops, so it required great skills to drive up the mountain, especially with the bad weather.
At the museum, it was pretty amusing for the curators to ask us, “How come we come here instead of studying?” We must have resembled students greatly as Nekki and I were both dressed in T-shirts and berms. It was pretty interesting to note that the museum is not like those in Singapore: instead of one entire building, it consisted of several small buildings. As we walked towards one of the buildings that held the main exhibits, I started to feel cold due to the pouring of heavy rains and blowing of winds. We learnt that the area was originally full of gold deposits. In the past, gold is used as the standard for trading instead of paper currency. Hence, lots of people were attracted to the area in the hopes of becoming rich, thus establishing Jiufen as a prosperous small city. During World War II, the Japanese colonized the area and many native Japanese were sent to the area to mine gold. As mining is a pretty dangerous activity, it was unavoidable that some people were sacrificed in the process. Hence the museum was built as a memorial to them.
There was even one area whereby you can pay NT$200 to mine for gold. Hua was pretty “gian” to do so, but she had to abandon the idea as it was raining heavily. Afterwards, we went to Jinshan Street. The area is full of old shop houses reminiscent of 1960s’ building and there were many shops selling yam dish and other local dishes. It reminded me of those shophouses in Kyoto, selling various foodstuffs and ornaments. We tried the yam balls in red bean soup and sago soup, which on the whole looked similar to tang yuan.
Nekki and I also bought lots of packets of muachees as they tasted great and only cost S$5 for each packet.
Eating the yam balls
After that, we went to Miaokou’s Night Market, where we tasted the various foods, i.e. crab soup, fish soup, 甜不辣 (which is just fried fish paste, but doesn’t taste as nice as Singapore’s fish cakes), 三兄弟’s desserts and soya noodles (which I don’t really like). Each bowl of dishes merely cost NT$50 and we ended up paying very little for our dinner as two persons shared each dish.
At Miaokou's Night Market
We were feeling pretty tired by the time we reached our hotel, so we decided to release 阿宝’s services even though he haven’t fulfilled 12 hours. We decided among ourselves that it was OTOT so Nekki and I explored西门町 again whereby we bought XXL chicken chop and 奶茶 before going back to hotel to rest.
Our friendly coach driver 阿宝
Taipei Trip (1)
Came back from Taipei since last Sunday evening, really missed that place! Missed all the good and cheap food (XXL chicken chop, 珍珠奶茶, seafood, 阿中面线, snow ice etc) plus the cheap clothing (cos they are trying to clear the previous season's stocks). Don't feel like working after being in Taipei for 7 days. Alright, will slowly update my blog with my entries about these few days (cos need time to type these entries) :
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Day 1
Woke up at 9.30am and started preparing to go to the airport. My parents offered to send me off and we met up with Nekki at my flat’s lift lobby before we proceeded to hail a cab to Changi Airport Terminal 2. I was brimming with excitement: finally a 1 week break from work and a chance to get out of Singapore which has been hazy for most of the time! As Hua and Ru haven’t reached the airport yet, we decided to check in our luggage first. We waited for approximately 15 mins before they arrived. Coincidentally, Hua also wore a pink color windbreaker whereby the color is almost similar to my pink color adidas jacket.
After they have checked in their luggage, we decided to enter the departure gates first, so that we can walk around the premises first before boarding the plane. Hua and I were getting hungry so we tried to find Macdonald or Burger King. However, to our dismay, we couldn’t find any such outlets nearby, so we had to bear with our hunger pangs and waited for lunch to be served on board.
We expected SIA service to be fantastic and their service certainly did lived up to our expectations. Hot towels were first served before they serve us peanuts and drinks. This was followed by lunch. Nekki and I both chose international type of lunch cos it included smoked salmon. The food was great, and not tough and tasteless unlike those served by other airlines. Because the air inside the plane was very dry, I had to keep asking for warm water. The air stewardess who was in charge of our cabin remembered me after 2 times and would henceforth asked me with a smile whether I would like to have more warm water whenever she walked past me. Really appreciate her attention ah. In addition, the inflight entertainment system was superb: I watched the Devil Wears Prada and played nintendo games.
We arrived at Chiang Kai Shek Airport at 6pm behind schedule as there was a typhoon in the South China Seas. Hence the plane needed to make a detour around the typhoon. The first thing we did was to rush for the customs clearance and then picked up our luggage. The next thing to do was to find the bus interchange. Initially, there was some slight confusion over the location of the bus interchange. Luckily, after asking one of the store vendors, we found it. Hence, we purchased 飞狗巴士 tickets and waited for the bus to arrive to bring us to 大顺大饭店.
After arriving at our hotel, we discovered that there was some miscommunication between us and the hotel staff. They thought that we would only arrive at 9pm so they only allowed us to check in at 9pm. After some haggling with the hotel staff, one of the rooms managed to be ready by 8.30pm and we deposited our luggage there first. After that, we immediately went to Family Mart to purchase local telephone cards and called the bus companies in order to book buses to bring us around 九份 and 花莲respectively.
PS: Hee we depended upon Hua's bargaining skills with the coach companies to obtain good prices.
By the time we had settled all these stuffs, it was 9.30pm, so we quickly went to orientate our way around 西门町 and find a nice place for dinner. Unfortunately, lots of restaurants had closed for the day so we ended up having our first dinner at Taipei in Macdonald. The food was cheaper than Singapore’s Macdonald by 2 dollar. In addition, the size of the drink cup was so much bigger. So it’s really worth it to eat there.
Afterwards, we walked to Huaxi Night Market. It was great to walk towards there as we saw another side of Taipei. The buildings were old and reminiscent of all those 80's buildings: old and greyish. There were street hawkers hawking food like porridge and people standing along the streets eating the food. Even for Huaxi Night Market (it was the first Night Market in Taiwan), it looked like those 1980s market with a lot of elderly people. We also saw lots of snakes, which was pretty frightening for me as I have a slight phobia of these creepy, slimy creatures. Therefore, we didn’t try the snake soup which is its famous delicacy. After that, we walk around its area and find that there were lots and lots of street carts. It is reminiscent of those pasar malams in Singapore except that there were much more varieties, not only in terms of food, but also in terms of the goods sold. Nekki bought 葱油饼, which was pretty good as it’s crispy. We also shared a chicken chop which costs only S$2. The guy selling the chicken chop was quite shuai and he obliged to hua’s request to cut the chop into pieces (must be cos hua is pretty hee) even though there was a signboard hanging there that they will not obliged to request to cut the chicken chop in order to retain its original juices.
Huaxi Night Market
Me along the streets of Huaxi Night Market
By the time we explored finish the night market, it was 11.30pm, so we quickly walked back to our hotel and washed up before calling it for a day. I was watching TV halfway when a guy identified himself as 王先生 called our room and told me that he’s the driver we had contacted to bring us around kee lung, yeliu and jiufen. So I told him to arrive at 8.30am sharp the next day. After that, it was time for a good sleep.
