27 April 2010
My second time to Taiwan 2010...
It's fairly different this time round as i was there with my parents to experience the culture, weather & FOOD!
7days 6nights are spent solely in Taipei and my goal is to visit places which i have not visited the last time ^-^ Really feel rather proud of myself for planning the whole trip and leading my parents around all on my own .. hoho...
My first time on a Cathay Pacific flight!!
食物好吃！
However, their entertainment system is not what i expected to be..
I thought it will be like SIA flight..
but it's not.. movies & drama start once the air plane takes flight & you can't stop it, replay, rewind whatsoever..
Upon arrival at Taoyuan airport, my mum & I had to take the airport tram from T1 to T2 to meet my Dad who is flying from HK.
Wait...wait...wait...
Dad finally appeared!
We then proceeded to the bus ticket area with many bus companies booth..
I approached Freego as the internet states that freego goes to our Royal Castle hotel but to my dismay, the counter lady told me the bus service direct to Royal Castle ended at 3+ pm!!! She advised me to take their bus to somewhere in Taipei and then take a cab to our hotel -_-"
Super sian when i heard what she said..
what to do？？but to buy their tik & do what she said (since no other bus company travel to our hotel)..
BUT i was lucky!! Or rather the bus stand guy is so nice!! When i told him where we wanted to go, he said:" Ok, the bus will take you directly to your hotel.." HOHOHOHOoooooooo..........save me a sum of ($$$_$$$)
[However, it makes me wonder why the counter lady told me a different story??]
华西街夜市 & 万华街(did not managed to visit 龙山诗)
This is the street where 《艋舺》 was filmed..
How do i know?
Most of the stalls were hanging photos of the movie..
It's time to fill up my parent's stomach with delicious Taiwan food:
两喜好鱿鱼羹 + 鲁肉饭！
This is a machine that delivers food from the first floor to the 2nd floor.. amazing..
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!! somehow i regretted why i have only ate it once!!
台湾版的蚝煎。。quite different from Singapore version.. there's veggie, oysters are bigger with a pool of sauce on top~ i ate this during my first Taiwan trip..
but it's my parent's first time.
A Stall selling cheap breads~
There are animal stalls too..
Aww... so cute and innocent-looking..
I find that Taiwanese really love pets. You could see owners taking their pets for a walk in Xi Men Ding street... dog running along with owner riding on a motorbike (i didnt see it but my Mum said so..)Most of them look so nicely groomed, clean & sweet!
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28 April 2010
My god.. heavy downpour in the morning!!
I was worried..because i planned an outdoor trip on this day. Yah, i could change schedule but it sucks to do so cos some activities are best done on weekdays while some on weekends.
I went to the reception..
"请问今天的天气是会一直下雨吗？"
Checked weather forecast from the computer..
"今天60%会下雨，明天是20%" He then advised me not to go uphill as rainy weather will be worse uphill..
After some struggle and seeing that the weather has changed from downpour to drizzle (although the sky is still grey), we decided to continue our plan and head to. . . .
阳明山
To get to YMS, you simply have to take bus 260/Red 5 from Jiantan station. It will be a ride uphill till 阳明山总车站
We were so damn lucky!! It was only a small drizzle at YMS!! and after our first stop, the rain completely stopped..Hohohoho! I realised i have luck with the weather whenever i'm overseas :) Yes, whoever wishes to go overseas and hopes to have good weather can consider to bring me along...i welcome all sponsorship! keke..
Basically to get ard YMS, bus 108 is the choice.
Sigh, i knew in order to get unlimited rides, you can purchase a tik for NT60. Thinking that we can only get it from the bus driver, i did not bother to explore the small house besides bus 108 queue (can't even see where the front door is..). Well... the small house is the correct place. By the time the bus arrives and we realised it from the bus driver, it's too late for us to alight, get the tik and wait for the next bus... but in the end, we did not really visit all the places so the price is about the same as each ride costs NT 20.
Our first stop is 竹子湖
Erm.........
erm.......
Actually i'm quite confused on what i can see in YMS because there are different stops and there were no detailed guide book on what i can see or look out for in each stop. As we cannot afford the time to go to all stops, i picked some stops based on my gut feeling
I expect to see 竹子 + 湖 at this stop but.... nothing....except for an observation platform and some plantations
Where is my 竹子 ???
Although we did see some 竹子 but it's not what i hope to see.. where is the whole land of 竹子?
I suspect it's somewhere which we don't know how to go..
Since there's nothing, we moved on to the next stop: 小油坑
Strong winds were blowing... i was shivering..
but it was worth it! My first view of Fumaroles!!
Have to try to block the strong smell of sulfurous gases from my nose though..
Spectacular view from 小油坑
福要自己去造，不要去求？？哈哈哈哈啊。。。这个巴士牌真可爱！
我的妈妈已经快受不了吹来的冷风。。。
3rd Stop: 冷水坑
The milk lake (bed of precipitated yellow & white sulphur)
Yup.. it's the only thing i seen at 冷水坑. A milk lake you will love to soak in but you can't!
淡水老街
The last time i went to 淡水 was to view the lovers bridge, to eat 阿给 and to buy 铁蛋！
Don't think my parents will be interested to see a bridge soi brought them to 淡水老街 (which i missed out visiting the last time)
My dad was really hungry so we stepped into a shop and order ah gei, fishballs and mi fen. To my surprise, the mifen is so delicious!
Long strip of potato chips! sprinkled with cheese, seaweed and XX (cant rem what)
I tot it's exclusively sold in Taiwan but i found a pasar malam stall selling this back in Singapore~ BUT the price is a difference! definitely cheaper in taiwan
(in case u are wondering what's with my look.. hmm.... i'm also not sure, hee..)
I had fried durian here too! To be precise, fried durian covered with yam strips and some other kind...
I wanted to try the fried sotong balls which was recommended in the guidebook so i went to a stall that sells sticks of sotong balls. The sotong ball is what i wanted and the auntie started to recommend the fish-cake lookalike sotong-cake besides the sotong ball.. since she strongly recommended them, i asked her for the price. Wa, expensive sia and hence i rejected her. The next moment, she was mad and started to malign me for wasting her time! "我其实是要买花枝串" i explained to her. She then threw the sotong ball to the tray in front of me!!!!!!!!! Don't know why at that pt of time i was not mad enough to reject the sotong ball.. but when i think back, i was mad at myself for not rejecting it!
Nonetheless, i got my 铁蛋！
西门町
After a long day out, hanging out near our hotel is rather a good choice.
Dinner was 阿宗面线 and 鸭肉扁. The 2 famous eatery that u die die have to eat if u go to XMD..
mobile seats are available outside 阿宗面线 already! No more standing outside the shop holding on to the hot bowl to eat!
Fyi, 鸭肉扁 sells 鹅肉 not 鸭肉.. saw it in a tour book that it did sell 鸭肉 in the beginning but business was not good thus the owner changed to selling goose meat instead.. and somehow, its business picked up and yah, i would say it's famous now. Tourists from all places flood to this place to try their 鹅肉..
My opinion? hmm..the meat is nice and tender.. it's good and worth a try :) On the other hand, my parent finds it normal and would prefers 阿宗面线 than this..
Shopping time after dinner! and... 我扫了很多双鞋子！i'm so happy to find soft covered shoes which i am able to wear without causing blisters & peeling of skin from my feet~
Sophisca 果风小铺 is an interesting shop one should visit too.. it sells interesting candies and choco.. have u ever seen marshmallows packed like a woman's pad? choco looking exactly like a condom? nurses' syringe containing malt candy? or even viagra candy?? hehe.. this is the place you should go then~ (it's located at 武昌街)
-- to be continued --
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