Welcome to Taiwan~ Part 3

:: Hari Lima (27.05.2007 Sunday)

Destinations for today:
（1）孙中山纪念馆
（2）鼎太丰
（3）五分埔
（4）新光华商场

We planned to catch the 10am honor guard exchanging ceremony (ceremony happens hourly) so we reached thr b4 10am.



Sun Yat Sen Statue..


View of Taipei 101 from SYS memorial hall..

We were quite lucky to catch the ceremony just in time.. =)





This is the place which both guards will stand for 1 hr without moving. I wanted sooo much to go ka jiao them when they were standing still but the area was cordon off. *sigh*


The front view..

Next place:

Once again.. Taiwanese gave us the wrong direction again. There are in total 3 branches of DTF in Taiwan & the first person tt we asked pointed to us a further DTF. I feel it's not right so we asked another person instead. We always cannot get the right direction at first but managed to find the rihgt place in the end. Heng or Sway?


I must admit I was rude in taking this picture. Without asking for their permission, I stood up, aimed my camera at them and shoot. They were shocked but smiled after this picture was tken =P



On the right is 小小笼包。It's not 小笼包，it's 小小笼包。The size is twice smaller than the usual 小笼包 in singapore's Ding Tai Feng. We choosed this instead of the normal size cos we had nv try it before.. I wont be able to put the whole normal 小笼包 into my mouth but this one i can!


We are so heng to go early and avoid the queuing crowd.

Place 3: to 五分埔



Shopping haven~

We stayed here for quite a few hrs.. all of us shop until KA NENG (脚软). I bought 4 tops.. not consider to have buy a lot cos controlling my budget. The clothes there are really pretty, hip, fashionable. I feel not really tt expensive too.. despite ppl telling me the price is not really cheap. Price can be comparable to Singapore's Bugis Street. I love this shopping place.

We were so 'lucky' to enter the first shop with a SUPER ATTITUDE salesgal. 我看中一件上衣，欣也看中一件。When we asked for the price, we can feel that the salesgal dun really wan to entertain us.. she replied our qns w/o looking at us & rather walk to a big mirror in her shop and look at her face for pimples!!! She told me the top i wanted will cost 300plus NT. As it was the first shop we stepped in, we wont wan to just chiong chiong buy it.. furthermore, buy it from a super bochap salesgal. After tinking for a while, i stepped out of the shop & know wat? The attitude salesgal said to my back:" 等一下你回来就400多台币了。”

*@&#^*&@^#& I dun know wat is wrong wif her lor.. I nv do anything and she TU us like tt! Recallng back, I should have turned ard and TU her back!! But sadly, i just diam diam walk away!


introducing 甜不辣。。。

I bought this halfway during the shopping. More like 酿豆腐 pattern.. mixture of diff food with a special sauce & bit of chili. Not bad. Though I love pig's blood but i hate the 猪血糕(brown food at the side) in the 甜不辣

Last stop: 新光华商场 (a temporary place that sells comics, books, pc parts,dvds)


我们在这里横扫comics & dvdz！！This place was not part of our itinerary originally but I wanted to buy comics so ya...but it was a good choice!!

Comics here cost only ard $4 plus.. (Taiwan comics cost $8plus in Singapore k) and the best thing is discount was given for every comic books! Main dish is already good enough and they throw in a dessert which is a free book cover for every comic book purchased. WA LIEW! I wanted to buy many comics home lor........!!

But due to budget & luggage weight constraint, i controlled myself. SIGH...I just buy and focus on wat i wan to get.

My other frens focused on DVDs and keep telling me to go buy a DVD player.. Oh ya, i bought CSI computer game too but havent touch it till now,hahaha

All shopping and no rest makes me a tired gal... so we headed back to XMD (it was late too)

Ah Lan & Ah Xin went to pluck eyebrow after a rest while I accompanied Ah Yi on a treasure hunt search for his Birkenstock (Her fren said there's a Birkenstock shop in XMD and it's cheaper). Instead of finding her shop, I found all my shops!! hahaah..

We were walking and searching den suddenly i saw:" eh? isnt tt 阿宗面线？”
walk somemore..."哦！老天禄食品 Leh!"
Turn here, turn thr.. walk walk..."啊！德德小品集！”



鸭舌 from 老天禄食品..(Im cheated cos taste exactly like chicken leg and very expensive)

We managed to find her B.shop in the end.. with the help of me!! Hhahaa. i urged her to sms her fren to ask..

:: Hari Enam (28.05.2007 Monday)

Early in the morning..
We bought movie tickets to watch....

Their ticket pricing it different from Singapore. Price differences are not by weekday or weekend but by different timing of the day. Morning slot will definitely be the least popular slot and thus is the cheapest..
We may have choosed the cheapest slot but. . . it is still nt cheap.
200NT = ~$9 plus

Monday Morning in Singapore supposedly shld be the cheapest price of the week but in Taiwan, we were charged by the most expensive pricing in Singapore.

Breakfast today was delicious. A bowl of delicious noodle with 泡泡茶..Ah Yi carrot cake was nice too..

After movie, we went to Carreflour. Once again, misleading directions from Taiwanese again. -_-"

The reason for a visit to Carreflour is because... Ah Lan & Yi wanted to buy Taiwan instant noodle.

Instant noodles.. it nv nv crossed my mind though i have heard ppl said Taiwan instant noodle is nice with real meat in it.

Instead of being influenced to buy instant noodles, i bought more books. I tink i spent more $ on books than on clothes,hahaha..
I bought a cookbook, 3 chinese novels (佐贺的超级阿ma）& 4 comics...

I am a bookworm. @_@

Danshui here i come~~


A Singaporean was sitting beside me on the bus to Danshui. Originally I tot he was Taiwanese.. though his dad is from Taiwan. He turned ard and asked me:" Are you going to Danshui too?" He thought I was a Taiwanese too.
Both of us tried to figure out the right busstop to alight and naturally chatted a bit.
He kindly suggested:"Maybe we can join u all to tour Danshui tog (in chinese)"
Me did not really reply..
He suggested again after some time..
"We havent eat lunch yet so we need to go find a place to eat first. *smile* (In chinese)
After alighting the bus, we met them again & intro them to hualien minshu tt we stayed in earlier.

White lover bridge..We arrived there at almost the right timing (Everyone said shld be thr at evening time to witness sunset) so the scenery was chio.






Our lunch is called 阿给：


Our after-lunch drink & dessert is called 阿妈的酸梅水 和 大肠包小肠：




We then proceeded to 淡水老街 to find my 阿婆铁蛋。

Sigh... I regretted buying the 最正中的阿婆铁蛋。。as.....
It is more expensive than other shops that sell 铁蛋。正中的阿婆铁蛋 costs NT100 for a packet of many small 铁蛋 but other shops only sell NT80!
Secondly, 阿婆铁蛋 is 古早味 wheras other shops have diff kind of flavors like bbq flavor, spicy flavor etc etc..

No choice.. I bumped into 阿婆铁蛋 first and tot that no more shops are selling 铁蛋 anymore.

Wat is 古早味?
This is wat i found:
古早味就是古味啦。
大部分台湾古早味就是早期在战争及战后时，台湾人穷困的生活，其饮食也很简单，食物都是腌渍过的，常见的有菜脯、竹笋乾、咸菜、猪油拌饭等。尤其是菜脯蛋真是下饭。


End of danshui~

Finally to a place we all been looking forward to go to...
士林夜市！！！！！！！


Basically I will say 士林夜市 is divided into 2 areas. This area is the food area whereby all types of Taiwanese local food can be found here. Another area is the shopping area which is a bit of distance away from here.

I hope I have another night to venture this place becoz I didnt managed to try a lot of food at all!!!! Most of us were not really tt hungry wen we reached here.

The first food tt I tried is.. 炸鸡排（超大）& my conclusion is...
DISAPPOINTED.

As compared to Singapore's pasar malam 炸鸡排（超大), its meat is more tender but it is def not as nice as wat i expected. In fact, Ah Cheng tried the 炸鸡排 in Hualien & it's much much nicer..

Ah Yi bought this : some kinda of peanut ice..Another disappointment too.. super CMI


NExt we tried their 蚝煎：

Well.. not bad for me but I tink some of them dun like it. Spore version has more eggs than the nua nua 糕（not sure wat is tt called) but this is the opposite version. Nevertheless, u can see the whole 蚝煎 covered wif sauce which is quite special too..

雪花冰：


Sigh.. sigh.. I prefer Singapore one.. sobz.
First 雪花冰 is ok but.. 2nd one kns cos the ingredients are chosen by u which I must say is quite a disaster,hahaha..

Yah, it's all wat i ate.. super pathetic right? That's why i said i need another night.

The shopping area:

Hehe.. I love this shopping place! Although clothes are not as pretty as Wu Fen pu but u can really find cheap bargain here. Furthermore, ppl here are easier to 杀价。

Shops not only line up on both side, illegal stalls occupy the middle.. I said illegal cos I witnessed 2 times how those stalls quickly pack pack pack and push push push and hide hide hide into small alleys.. POOF! Suddenly the middle coast is clear. Few mins later, all came back again. So efficient sia...hahhaa

It is here that I realised the beauty and fun of 杀价。Ah Xin & I 双剑合璧。。

Incident 1:
Ah Xin spotted a beautiful dress tt she wanted. Lady boss dun wan to cut till the price tt we wan so we 一唱一和.. She still dun wan to cut price & only willing to cut a bit. When we were abt to walk off.. Lady boss said ok la, give u tt price..

I believe Ah Xin 暗爽。

Incident 2:
I have to confess.. I lied to an ah pek. I lied to him that im a poor student cos i wanted him to cut the price of a belt i wanted. Before I lied to him that I am a poor student, he was quite unhappy to cut the price for me. Ah Xin helped me to persuade persuade persuade also no use.. 就这样，我做了一件内疚的事情。
First I opened my eyes big big, looked at ah pek and said..:"...我们还是学生，没有什么钱leh."
I can see Ah pek facial expression starts to become "a dun know how face"
Before this, we already persuaded him to sell us cheaper since we were his first few customers of the night den we like his belt a lot.. ask him if can be cheaper if we buy 2 blah blah blah..

In the end, we won the war. It occurred wen we were abt to leave. Even though Ah pek agreed to sell us at our preferred price but I can see that his face is black black. So to cheer him up, I put on my biggest smile and thanked him. I guessed it was the effect of the smile, he reduced his black face and started to ask us which uni we were from and why we as Singaporean came to Taiwan to study (he misunderstood us to be Taiwanese students..). This ah pek is so cute & somemore his son opened another belt stall just few feets away from him..Ah pek, paisei to lie to u.. im realli quite poor...

You know hor.. our hotel room tv has over 90plus channels but we didnt discovered any RA channel at all until tonight.

Ah Xin & I was sitting on the bed 'surfing' thru the channels..
"eh, RA channel!" (we have pressed to channel 14)
"wa..那个女的胸很大leh!"
"Argh, 要脱下面了，快点换channel!"

We laugh & laugh & laugh.. The only porn channel amongst 90 plus channels & we found it.

We decided to play a prank on Ah Lan & Ah Cheng who are in another room.

*phone ringing...*
Ah Lan picked up.
"Eh, channel 14 show very nice leh~" (rough conversation, supposedly in chinese"
Ah Lan believes us and presses to channel 14.
"Wa liew, 你们很变态LEH!!!!!!"
Ah Lan hung up the phone.

:: Hari Tujuh (29.05.2007 Tues)


Rise and shine..
After BF near TP main station, we travelled 2 plus hrs to 宜兰。



It is a nice place with beautiful architect like the above....

Sad to say, WE WENT TO THE WRONG PLACE!!!!!!!!

Our destination for today is 九份&基隆！Why the hell did we land into Yilan??? Which is nowhere near 九份 or 基隆...

Again, wrong direction given by a local. By the counter staff od our own hotel.

-_____-"

The direction she gave us is salah until cannot salah liao! I could still clearly remember that she told us to buy train ticket to Yilan which is near Jiufen & we shld be able to take a but from Yilan to Jiufen.

5 happy souls bought tiks to Yilan and was horrified to learn from the tik auntie at Yilan train station tt Yilan is far from Jiufen!!!!!!

Train $ wasted.
2 plus hrs of travelling wasted.

I seriously warn all who are going to Taiwan on a free & easy trip to die die ask at least 2 persons and above if u are unsure of whr the place is. IT IS DEF NECESSARY! We have enuf proof to prove it.

After checking and asking the person at Yilan train tik counter, (He was shocked wen we told him our stories cos Yilan is already out of Taipei 县）we bought tiks to RueiFang.

So we u-turn to Rueifang, travelling for another 1hr journey.

RueiFang...and we took a bus up the hill to JIufen


Jiufen:


Hmm.. I like Jiufen a lot too. It's a plce to get souvenirs and local food for ur frens & family. Here, they sell Muachee, diff kind of 酥，太阳饼 etc.. Many nice & cute ornaments are sold here as well.

Needless to say, after walking thru the whole street, our hands were completely 'occupied' by bags of goodies. =D


This is absolutely delicious! I still can remember the taste of the suasage.. wow.. gosh... drool...


This is good too~


Cute right? He/she is actualli shivering.. dun know whr his/her owner is..

Views from Jiufen (top of a hill)



Afterwhich, we shared a cab down to Keelung Miaokou.
Cab uncle was really nice and gave us a discounted price when we arrived at Miaokou.. must be the mei li of Ah Cheng..


Miaokou street.. food stalls at both side.

Competition is really stiff here. We wanted to eat at a dessert stall and the neighbour of this dessert stall (also selling almost the same ting) started to approach us. Both of them started to talk loudly and agressively to us.. All of us was @_@ by this scene so we decided to abandon the idea of eating dessert. When we were leaving, i saw the neighbour happily smiling. (must be cos she managed to chase away her competitor customers..sigh)


鲁肉饭。。排骨蛤蜊汤
(Not a very happy meal cos stall owner super attitude)


The temple..


The famous 三兄弟 甜品店。。

Although i ordered the one with strawberries.. still, i prefer the one wif choco fudge. Im going to find one day to go Joo Chiat street to eat choco 雪花冰 after work!

Late at night, (again) we went to Carreflour for last shopping.. cos erm.. erm.. i know it will sound ridiculous but it is true.. COS ah Xin's dad asked her to buy Taiwan rice.

Yes, rice.. no kidding.. Ah Xin bought it and ya, it really increased her luggage weight. But we all agree Taiwan rice is indeed nice to eat. hahaha..
I bought more books and also instant noodles..hahaha

Packing oour bags was the ma fan ting... Ah Xin, Lan & me bought a 大陆 big bag and threw in our light shopping barang barang inside. The appearance of the bag looked like the cherry LV bag,keke..

:: Hari Lima (27.05.2007 Sunday)
Last day in Taiwan.. Ah Cheng wanted to try this:


Price of the food is not tt cheap but since it's the last day...


We did some last min shopping at XMD.. and I almost spent all my Taiwan $$, leaving Taiwan with only 200NT which is ~$10.

We planned to settle our dinner at Taipei Taoyuan Airport but the food is so so expensive thus we decided to settle dinner on board Jetstar. $8... for this:

Sigh.. not cheap but not nice.. the fried rice sucks..

Bye Bye Taiwan.. See you hopefully... maybe.. i also dun know... XXX yrs later~

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