Category: Taiwan

Can’t believe our trip is ending soon! I’ll miss Taiwan! Though I haven’t been able to do much shopping (luckily I haven’t because I think my luggage is already too much for me to handle) but we have been to many places. It was a fruitful trip. =)

We drop our luggage at the shopping centers near Taipei Main Station, there are lockers provided.

So you see… the price of the lockers. It is about 30 to 50 TWD for 4 hours or something, depending on the size of the locker too.

Went for lunch at the food court, I don’t remember which shopping mall.

They staffs will give you this thing after ordering and you have to collect the food when the alarm goes off.

This is what I ordered and I think it’s value for money as compared to the food here. There’s minced meat rice, pork cutlet, veggies and a soup.

While boyfriend had some spicy korean ramen.

More calpis!

Went to get tickets for the bus.

Agnes b. bunny.

Eventually we got bored of walking around and decided to just proceed to the airport instead.

Chilling at Mr. Brown Cafe.

Ordered a meat ball soup.

As we’re walking to the terminal.

Nice walls.

Waiting for the plane.

Our meals on plane.

Woke up late and I’m in my new boots, only TWD150 because the shop is closing down.

We going to do some praying at Long Shan Temple (龙山寺).

Bought our share of joss sticks and the praying starts…

More pictures.

Bought some snacks at the shop next the train station before we’re off to our next stop.

Garlic bread which was quite good and filling.

Pudding! You can get this from the 7-11 stores. I’m simply in love with it.

Hot spring spa at Sun Shine House (阳光瓦舍)! Not the right time to do it when it’s so cold though, that is why there is offer on Groupon.

Behind the door.

This is how the spa room looks like.

Filling the tub with hot spring water.

The water is not really that hot during this season.

To the cafe for our cakes and drinks.

The staffs have already prepared warm water for us. Good service!

There’s only 2 choices of cakes but we can choose most of the drinks from the menu.

Boyfriend went out to take pictures of the scenery while I stayed in because it’s too cold!

Our cakes are here!

Our teas! I like the cranberry apple tea I ordered.

All gone~

=P

We ordered a smoked salmon toast and actually waited for the cook to come back from his break because it looks too good to be missed. We did not regret waiting. If only I could stuff more of it down my tummy…

Very satisfied!

Back to Shilin, since that’s the area we’re staying at.

Tried the fry oyster egg from this stall, it’s the most crowded stall.

I find the red sauce weird, too much cornstarch. Miss the one I had while I was in Hualien.

And this stall always had such a very long queue whenever we passed by and finally while we were passing by today, there’s no queue!

Don’t like it. The leek is too overpowering.

Deesert.

We will be going to Jiufen (九份) today. Just go to the bus stop near Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝复兴) MRT Station and take bus 1062.

The bus tickets. Return them to the bus conductor when you are getting down the bus.

This will be the stop if you are going to the Gold Museum.

It was raining and since a guide was asking if we wanted to view the history of the place in the old Japanese house, we gladly went in.

And we were given a tour in the old Japanese house which has been rebuilt before with it’s original materials as much as possible. The pictures are a little blur, as it was dim inside.

Don’t you like the rocking house?

Going up… and still raining…

Got in a cafe to hide from the rain again…

We ordered a sesame oil chicken which was very oily but oh-so-very-good!

And a bento lunch, you can just bring this whole set home. The whole thing is just too pretty!

I really really love all the pork chop rice in Taiwan. Why is it that all of them can cook so well?

Walked deeper into the place.

Boyfriend showing off how good his newly bought umbrella is, truly flexible.

At the Gold Museum.

The biggest block of gold in the whole world, too heavy to carry around.

Some gold mining machines.

Outside the museum. I wanted to go to the place when I could do some gold mining or rather sand washing myself, and then they will store it in a glass bottle for you to bring home. But the place is already closed when we got there. =(

Jiufen Old Street, just take bus 1062 and go back down.

The travel guide states that the Red Wine Vegetarian Meat Ball (红糟素肉圆) here is good.

We shared one and it was good. Chewy and bouncy skin with generous fillings.

There’s an artist whom likes to create lots of masks, he has all his artworks in this gallery.

Too many of them, I wouldn’t want to scare all of you away, so I better not put all the pictures here.

A few shops away, there is this place which you just have to pay a certain fee and you are free to use all the props inside to take pictures. Nobody was there when we went in and we kind of got in free.

Back to Shilin Night Market and this Minced Shrimp Cone looks interesting to try.

It definitely was good and there was a lot of fillings inside.

Finally going to get the Ah Zong Mee Sua (阿宗面线)!

We loved it! Be aware that there is no oysters inside but big intestines.

We not sleeping early and I asked boyfriend to go down and get some cup noodles. I loved how they have big chunks of meat inside.

Next stop! To the place where this voucher will lead me to and I brought it from the Taiwan’s Groupon site.

There! It’s right there! The one with the blue lightbox, A380 空中厨房.

We didn’t call to make any reservations, which we should but I totally forgot about it. I asked whether if we could still dine in even if we didn’t make reservations (the restaurant looked kind of empty since it was still early) and the lady was kind enough to let us in. Yeah!

We can only choose from the menu here, which was good enough.

They even have got in-flight souvenirs.

First, the salad with fresh and crispy lettuce.

Cream of pumpkin. Quite good.

Minestrone.

And the butter rolls which came with the soup was… well, empty. Hahaha! But it was alright, butter is still not my kind of food.

Here comes my Enormous Steak and that was really big.

I think it’s as big as my face. The steak was tender and juicy, even though they didn’t ask how well do I like it to be.

Then, boyfriend’s French-style Spring Chicken with Herbs. Whole chicken.

My flower tea has a lot of foam in it, I wonder why.

By the time we got to dessert, both of us were like ‘argh’, I don’t have much space for the cake anymore.

The meal is pretty enjoyable, I would say. =)

Next, Mirarmar.

To the ferris wheel!

Ticketing booth.

Bought our tickets. Again, get your discount if you have the Youth Travel Card.

And we’re given a pair of Haagen-Dazs discount coupons.

We waited very long for our turn because we wanted to take the totally see through cabin. There was only two cabin in the whole ferris wheel, so you could just imagine how long we waited for.

This is the normal cabin.

And that is the see through.

Finally in! After about 2 hours of long wait.

Up we go.

❤

Too dark inside.

Ice-cream at Haagen-Dazs after our ride. =)

Did a little shopping around and I bought my bath salts from Muji and bubble bath sugar from Lush.

Finally to Shilin Night Market (市林夜市)!

Of course, we went to buy a lot of food back to our hostel for supper.

This is where the Night Market has moved to.

The fried chicken cutlet at Hot Star Large Fried Chicken (豪大大鸡排).

There was a lot of people queuing for this, 老市林大饼包小饼, so it must be good.

The lady will crush the fried cookie which could be salty or sweet and then wrap it with a flour skin together with other ingredients.

A lot of different flavours.

And so, this is how it looks like inside.

I haven’t shown all of you how my hostel looks like. It’s called Fun Taipei Backpackers Hostel and I booked it at Hostelworld. I would recommended booking it from the owner directly if possible, if not you will have to pay another 10% by booking from the hostel sites.

The room is cosy, clean and the decor was great.

There’s even a huge fridge and TV. The hostel we stay at Hualien only had the very basic amenities.

Dresser and wardrobe.

The bathroom isn’t as comparable but it has got a bathtub. Yeah!

Bedroom slippers provided, good for those freezing tiles in the bathroom.

We moved from Taoyuan to Taipei and our hostel is going to be just opposite Shilin Night Market. Just how wonderful is that going to be?

Yes! Shilin Night Market station!

We got to the hostel early and a lady was still cleaning the room, we just left our luggages in the room and left for the expo which we saw while the train was passing by. I think it was like one or two stops before Shilin?

You’ll see planes flying pass, across the sky.

The Flower Bllom Art exhibition was available and it just happens to be something I would love to see.

Bought a pair of tickets at the counter, enjoy a discount if you have the Youth Travel Card.

The tickets.

The whole expo is pretty big.

Going in!

This lady greeted us at the entrance.

Xmas tree.

Talk less, more pictures. Use two different cameras, hence the colour and quality difference but you’ll get more angles. I was using my Canon Powershot E1 while boyfriend is using my Panasonic LX-5.

That’s a lot of pictures, right? Wait, it’s not half of it yet. Haha!

Cow on the loose!

Love these roses!

I still don’t think these rainbow roses are pretty.

Love the colour combination of these flowers.

This is a cute one.

This makes me dream of a yellow wedding.

Finally… done with the exhibition and out to the garden outside the expo.

Lots of flowers around the garden! Happy me!

I have no idea what is the name of these flowers.

Sunflowers too.

I better stop here for now, too many images in one post. I’ll continue in the next post. =)

Morning! I mean Good Afternoon!

Lunch at a stall that specializes in duck meat, seems quite popular and it’s open 24 hrs daily.

鸭肉荣.

I ordered a Sha Cha Duck Kway Teow (沙茶鸭果条).

And a duck soup.

Boyfriend had a duck rice set. The steam egg is wonderful! So smooth and full of flavour.

Off to Taipei again.

Took Chu-Kuang train for the first time, slightly cheaper and there’s not much time difference as compared to Tze-Chiang.

I forgot to bring my mrt card and so I had to get this coin looking thing.

We’re off to Shida Night Market (師大路夜市). A place definitely worth visiting for all the food and shopping even though it might not be as affordable as Wu Fen Pu (五分埔) but there are different things you can find.

Visited i-baked by Ivy.

Lots of choices to choose from.

Decided on the Chocolate Marshmallow and Chocolate Chip cookies.

Next, the barbeque scallop stall.

When you bite, the juice oozes out from the scallop. Oh-so-heavenly!

Said ‘hi!’ to Rila.

Tidbits. Some cute and some big.

Our first milk tea in Taiwan.

As big as my face.

And this stall, must be very famous…. look at the crowd. We joined in too.

I want my share too!

Still waiting…

Yum!!!

I got a new Sentimental Circus iphone casing! It’s not the real thing of course.

Bought tickets back to Taoyuan which is early…

And so we walked around a little and shops are already closed.

Bought herbal duck soup for supper from the same stall this afternoon again. It’s too good and soothing for this chilly weather.

Added another side dish of stew egg, tofu and seaweed to share.

Love that seaweed!

Apple flavour milk. Yuck! I thought it’s yogurt.

I got this bath salt from Shida Night Market.

Drop it in the bathtub and waited for it to dissolve.

Hi, Shappo!

I believe everyone has been waiting for this post? Hahahha! I’m sorry, I was very busy with work last week. =P

Everyone holding their cameras and mobile phones, getting ready for pictures.

Here it goes!

I animated a part of the pictures I took.

A few of my favourites…

And here’s the full video of the fireworks.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf

Happy New Year from Taiwan! I look too ugly in this photo.

Be happy always…

We went to the other side where the concert is and squeezed through the crowd a little.

That’s Show Luo on the screen.

We left after a short while. couldn’t stand the crowd. We had a hard time or rather I was the one who had a hard time while trying to get into the train station. We had to queue with the crowd outside the entrance, so literally when the staffs decide to let a certain number of people in… I was lifted up, squashed and pushed to the front. Damn painful, hurt my spine a little. I can’t believe I was so light and easily lifted.

Still got train tickets back to Taoyuan on this very day.

Just queue at the ticketing machine and get it yourself.