.Friday, May 11, 2007 ' 12:59 AM Y
TAIWAN TRIPDay 1 [2/5/07]
Our flight departs from singapore at ard 1+pm. Reached Taiwan tao yuan international airport at ard 6pm.
We bought airport coach tickets from the airport to taipei main stn, and its almost 8pm when we reached there. From the map, the hotel is just opposite the taipei main stn, but we just can't find it...and somemore its already dark and we were pulling our luggage..so we tried to ask some passer-by and finally managed to find our our, which was kind of hidden along an ulu street.
After settling down, we went out to shilin night market, where all the bargains and gd food are!!
Day 2: 3rd May 2007
Woke up at ard 6am, cos our train to hualian departs at 7:25am. Don’t have time for breakfast, and we were hoping that the train will sell some food, but din see any. In the train, we were the most hyper batch of people, as the other passengers were getting some sleep in the train.
We were fascinated by the scenery, and kept taking photos. Reached Hualian after 3 hrs, at ard 10:20am.
Went to look for some food and we settled down at a small eatery near the train stn. The shop owners were nice people. The lady boss recommended popular places we can go, and the popular local food in Hualian. She also teach us how to make calls in Hualian. After the breakfast cum lunch, we head back to the train stn to look for our coach to Taroko Gorge. [We booked this half day Taroko Gorge tour in Singapore] The coach was not a big one, and we were the last group to arrive and the whole bus was Americans, and there were just 4 scattered seats left for us…so we had to split up. The tour guide can only speak Chinese, and luckily, one of the Americans can understand and speak Chinese, so he acts as the translator. The scenery of the Taroko Gorge was magnificent!!
The weather was cool, and refreshing. Really like this place!! The people in the tour were very nice too =) After the Taroko Gorge tour, the tour guide also brought us to a store selling expensive Chinese jade and monuments [We rid on a scooter parked outside the store and took photos]
, the we went to “Qi Xin Tan” [A beautiful beach], then we went to a mua chee store also.
After all these, we dropped off at the Hualian train stn, and check out the train timing for the next day as we will be departing Hualian for jiu fen. Then we called the Ming Su owner to pick us up at the stn. It is nice of them to provide transport for us to their Ming Su….but I got some huge mosquito bites in the car =( When we were approaching the Ming Su [Tulip Garden Castle], we were so fascinated, the castle is just like what we saw online!! So grand and beautiful!! When we drive into the car porch, there was smoothing music playing somewhere alone the way…gosh…so fairytale. The Lobby was nice, and the owner brought us up to choose our rooms…and we chose the “space room”. Then we started to explore the room, even the toilet was special, and I took a photo inside the toilet..haha..
Then we went down to the lobby to make payment and the owner and his wife and daughter was at the lobby too…and they asked where we wanna go later at night, they can help us call a cab at a discounted price of NT100 [S$5] per trip. We hopped onto the cab when it arrived and head to “nan bing night market” When we reached the night market, we saw some police cars and TV stn ppl at the entrance of the night market, but we din think much of it, and continued to take photos…then suddenly, less than 3 mins since we stepped into the night market, there was an announcement made by the police…and all the stores started to packed up and switched off their lights…we were stunned…then one auntie told us to quickly go and hid, if we got shot by the camera, we will be fined…we were even more puzzled now…we asked a family sitting ard a table what’s happening, they told us there’s an emergency drill, and that actually happens once a year!! We were so “Lucky”. We quickly got out of the night market, and called the cab uncle to bring us out of the emergency drill. The cab uncle came after 5 mins, but told us the whole Hualian city is having emergency drill, and at 8pm sharp, no car and people can travel out le…everybody must hide. So we asked the uncle to bring us to a place to hide. When we were “hiding” we saw 2 Caucasian ladies wandering on the street, not understanding what the policemen were telling them. We shouted out to them and told them the city was having emergency drill, and they have to pretend to hide. At 8pm sharp, the whole city was in darkness, and the siren sounded. That was really an experience. And the Hualian ppl really took their emergency drills seriously. At 8:30pm sharp, lights were on again and shops opened their door again. What a huge difference!! We went to eat some noodles and dim sum dumplings at a roadside stall, very nice and cheap. One dumpling less than 20 cents. Then we went shopping ard and asked the cab uncle to drive us back to the Tulip Garden at ard 1045pm
Day 3: 4th May 2007
Woke up at ard 10am, and then we went down to the lobby to have our breakfast [sandwich + soyabean drink] which is included in our stay over package. After breakfast, we went to explore the beautiful garden.
The weather is very very hot, but it’s not humid. I made a mistake by not applying sun block…We took many photos with the beautiful flowers, and we also took photos with the local students of Hualian.
These students actually majored in gardening, food and beverages, and they came to work in the garden as interns. The students were shocked that Singaporeans can speak Chinese…hmm…The students there were warm and friendly…and that further increase my good impression of Hualian!! In the garden, there’s a fish pond, and a small farm with 2 goats [named “Yang Mei Mei”]
and both the fishes and the goats seemed very hungry…haha…they practically snatched up any food we gave them. We spent quite sometime in the garden, more than what we expected…and the result…I’m burned…After the garden tour,
we went back to our room, packed up and went down to the lobby to have our lunch…The lunch is just superb!! The look, the taste, the atmosphere, and the friendly people…
The tulip garden people helped us call the cab uncle to pick us up to bring us to the hualian train stn, after lunch.
We told the cab uncle to droped us at the mua chee shop near the train stn…There’s 2 most popular mua chee shop there [“Ah Mei” and “Zeng Ji”] and we chose the latter. We bought some mua chee to share and some to bring back to S’pore. There was also this counter selling hualian local wine…gosh…so many favors and all taste so nice, and they are quite cheap…[1 bottle less than S$15]…we actually test drink so many cups that we thought we might be drunk… I bought 2 bottles one “rice wine” and one “honey wine” and we quickly rush to the train stn, with all the heavy wines, to board our train.
Day 4: 5th May 2007
We checked out at ard 10+am, but let our barrangs at the hse, and proceed to explore Jiu Fen Old Street. The weather is very misty and drizzling…The owner told us because Jiu fen is located on highland, this kind of weather is quite usual. Cos it’s a Sunday morning, Jiu fen old street was very crowded…besides buying souvenirs and postcards, we also tried lots of food along the old street…The atmosphere of the street is just like our China town during CNY eve, and the street is longer than what we expected. After that, we went back to the “ming su” to collect our barrangs, and went to the bus stop to take bus back to Taipei. The bus journey took ard 45mins ba…before we arrived at “Zhong xiao fu xing” stn, then we took MRT back to Taipei main stn…Actually we intended to go to Yang Ming Shan de…but its raining…we decided to postpone YMS trip to the next day…we went back to Huai ning hotel and asked if there are any available room for the day…and luckily they got 1…but we had to wait till ard 7pm then can check in…but its ok..so we put our stuffs at the lobby, and went to “Hou huo che zhan”” which is said to be like a warehse selling cosmetics, and accessories at warehse price…but we were actually very very ex….maybe need to buy in bulk or need to bargain ba…but we din buy anything…Then we went to Xi Men Ding, to eat “Ma la steamboat buffet” at NT300 per head. We asked for “yuan yang guo” cos I cannot take spicy la… “my side” of the pot is a mushroom pot..haha…I just pour in as much mushroom as I can take…haha…love mushroom!! There was also free flow of drinks, ice-cream, and fruits…
Then XT and YY went to cheng ping bookshop, while me and LL went shop ard XMD. We actually spotted a nice set of sports bra but cos we did not manage to bargain for a lower price, we dun wanna buy…but we like it very much…
After that met up with the girls and we took MRT back to Taipei main stn…and back to hotel.
Day 5: 6th May 2007
Checked out of Huai ning hotel again…cos we will be staying over at Yang Ming Shan for 1 night.
Breakfast was sandwich with pig floss+egg+ham, and a cup of coffee from 7-11. Went to post officer to post our postcard.
Took MRT to “gu ting” station and walked to CKS Memorial Hall. Heard that it was renamed a week or so after we were back from Taiwan and the CKS status is not open to public anymore…so we were quite lucky oh. The weather that day was hot, can bearly open my eyes when taking photos.
After that, we took a cab to have lunch at “ding tai feng”, its just 5-10 mins away. But at ding tai feng, there was a queue.. so we just took a queue no. and went to the 3 stories Watsons to shop. LL and I bought a big bottle of Aloe Vera lotion to share cos we were both badly burned from the Hualian trip. Then we went back to “ding tai feng” and I think all of us were very hungry, ordered quite a lot of food…and we can’t finish in the end, and had to ask the staff to pack for us. This lunch cost S$70+
From “ding tai feng” we could actually saw the Taipei 101 tower, so we thought since we were so near to Taipei 101, might as well check it out on that day…initially we thought we can actually walk there de…luckily we didn’t!! Its 10 mins distance by cab…
The weather that day was nice; we had a relatively clear view of the whole Taipei city from Taipei 101 observatory. We found a corner with lots of ink stamps. They are for ppl to stamp on there postcards. So we also went to buy a postcard to send back to Singapore, and our postcards were full of those stamps…Then we paid another NT100 to go up to the outdoor observatory at the 91st floor, but to our dismay, it looks like a cage…with the whole boundary surrounded with tall metal bars…
Then we took a shuttle bus outside Taipei 101 to ShiZhengFu stn..the bus is packed, but since its free…nvm la….haha…We took MRT from ShiZhengFu stn to JianTan Stn, And took bus [Red5] to proceed to YangMingShan. The journey is quite long, ard 45 mins I think. When we alighted at international hotel, its already evening le…After checking into the hotel, we began to slacked, watch TV, and started to plan where to go later at night which our YMS map. Initially we wanna go Qi Xin Shan to watch the stars at night de, but from the map, its quite far, so as a back up plan, we will go to the YMS garden which is the nearest attraction from our hotel. We went to the reception to ask how to go to Qi Xin Shan, but the recept told us that its quite impossible to go there cos although there is bus to go there, there isn’t any bus to come back, as the last bus from Qi Xin Shan to the hotel is at abt 6pm. Then the recept told us that to go to the YMS garden by foot will take 20-30 mins. Since we were all hungry then, we ask the recept to recommend some eating places for us to have dinner, but she told us there isn’t any near by, and recommend us to have our dinner at the hotel. And we did…I ate a plate of fried noodles at S$7-8 bucks…ex…but the taste was not bad and the serving was quite big. After dinner, when we stepped out of the hotel, we were stunned!! Cos there’s a 7-11 and starbucks just opposite the hotel!! We were cursing there recept..cos we could have bought dinner from 7-11 at much reasonable price…but nvm…nothing we can do. We started to walk to the YMS garden…the weather at night was COLD!! We all agreed that the temperature must be ard 12 deg cel at that time…Freezing cold wind…But after walking for abt 5 mins, we sensed that we’ve walked in the wrong direction….So we U-turn back and asked the ppl at starbucks the direction. But they told us that there’s nothing to c at the garden at this hr of time, and say we could go to the garden just behind our hotel…so we went back to the hotel, but the recept told us at night besides sitting at the garden, there’s nothing we can do also…and suggested we take a bus to Shilin and shop at the night mkt…that was an idea…and we followed that.
So we went back to shilin for the 2nd time, to continue our unfinished shopping last time.This time we went to eat snow ice, and fried oyster. Then we went to shop shop again. At 11+ pm we took the Red 5 bus back to YMS again…Think we reached the hotel at 12 +am ba…and shocked to find that the hotel main door was locked!! Luckily there’s a small hole at the door, and managed to peep in, and was relieved to see ppl at the reception counter, so we knocked on the door to ask them to open the door…haha…
Back to our room, we decided to make use of the “wenquan” in our room, but when YY went to turn on the tap, after a few seconds, we all could smell something weird coming out of the bathroom…smell of rotten egg…and soon, the whole room was filled with unbearable smell!!! And we were complaining, holding our noses, hiding under the blankets, trying to keep the smell away…But after 10-15 mins, we were used to the smell le…and the 4 of us went to the bath tub and put our poor legs into the “wenquan”…and we took some photos of our legs too…haha…but when taking photos, we were wary abt the cameras and our clothes…cos once it touches the water, its gg to stink like rotten egg.
Day 6: 7th May 2007
Breakfast was included in the room package, and was brought to our room at abt 10am. It’s the very homemade style kind of breakfast…with sweet potato porridge, eggs, vegetables…After that we checked out of our room, but left our barangs at the reception counter, and went to explore YMS!! Took a bus 108 which tours round YMS, but without must idea where we are gg. But luckily, in the bus, we meet a nice auntie who is very pro abt YMS, and recommend us to go Qing Tian Gang, cos it’s a large area and if we dun venture deep into some trails, its quite safe and won’t take too long a time. [Some trails need 4-5 hrs to complete] At QTG, the weather is good, and cool. Got to experience the refreshing cool air again!! So happy. The scenery is gorgeous too. At ard 3pm, we started to head back to take the bus back to our hotel to collect our stuffs. Lunch at 7-11, and it is when we all started to love the food at taiwan’s convenient stores. I love the Hotdog bun, the huge variety of packet drinks available. Took bus 260 back to Taipei main stn, and back to our huai ning hotel. After resting for a while at the hotel, we went to dan shui to catch the sunset…its quite well known that dan shui’s sunset is very nice…and it’s indeed very nice!! Overthere, we met a group of S’porean guys.. can easily recognize that they are S’poreans....haha…asked them to help us take a group photo. When the sun fully sets, we went to the night market there and tried their snacks…We tried their “chou dou fu” [I really wanna c whether there’s any difference between TW’s and HK’s chou dou fu] we also tried the “da chang bao xiao chang”[ translate into: small sausage wrapped by a big sausage], super high ice-cream on a cone [we asked the auntie to split into 2 cones], “Ah Gei fishballs”, and bought “Ah po iron eggs”. On the way back, we bought Dunkin Doughnuts.
Took train from Dan Shui to Gu ting. And we went to Shi da night market [Its near their Shi da university..so I guess that’s how the night market got its name] We ate finger “tian bu la’ and drink Pudding milktea.
Then YY and XT went to cheng ping bookstore again..me and LL went back to shilin night market to try our luck in finding that sports bar we saw at xi men ding…But we din find it…so think its exclusive to XMD.
Me and LL went back to hotel before YY and XT, so we bath and watch tv 1st and waited for the girls to be back before we all enjoy the delicious Dunkin Doughnuts!! And we had to “queue up” to use the only power socket in the room to charge our hps and cameras…
Day 7: 8th May 2007
Breakfast is again the sandwich with pig floss+egg+ham and a drink from 7-11. We really love the sandwich!!
Then we took MRT to shilin stn and from there took bus 255 to National palace museum [Gu Gong]. This is a place that shows some Chinese ancient artifacts and the Chinese history. Again I’m more fascinated by the ink stamps at various stations of the museum…haha…my broacher is full of those stamps.
Then YY wanted to go to the cheng ping bookshop at city hall, while me, LL and XT wanted to visit “Bei Yi Nü” at Xi Men Ding…so we agreed to meet at XMD after a few hrs. Actually we intended to go Bei Yi Nü to buy their sch bag de…but went we finally reached there, the security guard said we were not allowed to go into the sch, but we can take a photo of the sch’s oldest building “Guang Fu Lou”…Then a few Bei Yi Nü students was gg out of the sch and we wanted them to help us buy the bags…but they say at that pt of time sch dun sell bags…so disappointing… but at least we took a photo of the sch.
Since Bei Yi Nü is just situated beside the president residence, we also took some photos there. The security was very tight there…with lots of soldiers surrounding the whole building. And just opposite the president residence was some military HQ…So every few steps we walked we will pass by some soldiers.
Then we went to XMD to do some shopping, and YY joined us shortly. Me and LL wanna go back to the shop that we saw selling that sports bra…however, we were lost in XMD, just can’t find that shop…We hunt for that shop for very very long…until our legs cannot take it le…and finally we found that shop., and bought what we wanted.
Then we took MRT to “Hou Shan Pi” stn, and walked to “wu fen pu” which is said to sell clothes and accessories at warehse price. Then we walked to “Rao He” night market. We queue up to buy “Hu Jiao Bing”…cos it seems to be the most popular food there. Well its quite nice, and just 1 piece will make u very full.
We bought some accessories there cos one of the accessory shop there is just so tempting…lots and lots of hair clips, earrings, necklaces…..
This night market is quite big also…walked till our legs cannot tahan le…I think my legs’condition were the worst…cos Iam wearing my slippers, and some parts of my feet became “blue-black”…How can someone walked till feet become “blue-black” de…But the worst is yet to come….cos as we were walking back to the MRT stn…we realized that after walking for so long, we still can’t find the MRT stn…and we didn’t take such a long time to walk to the night mkt, how come we are taking much more time walking back to the stn…then we suspect we walked the wrong direction….and we asked a passer-by…he pointed to us the direction of the MRT stn…but when we reached the stn…we found that its not the one we alighted just now…we actually walked 1 MRT stn…and came to the next stn le…When we finally board the train and sit down…I realized that my “blue-black” became worse le…and the girls were laughing at my poor legs…sob sob…Back to hotel room, I immediately threw myself to the sofa…
That was our last night at Taiwan…so we all started to pack our luggages…that really need quite a lot of brain juice man….cos we all need to protect the wine we bought from Hualian…XT’s luggage was really heavy…cos she really bought lots of books from the cheng ping book store…we kept saying whoever at the airport took her luggage is so suay…haha…
Day 8: 9th May 2007
Not much plan for the day, except that we need to go to buy some pastry back to S’pore. Today’s breakfast is also the sandwich…and the shop owner already recognized us le…but dunno why he thought we were from Japan…haha…weird…anyway, he and his wife are nice ppl.
Took MRT to Yuan shan stn, and walked to “wei ge” Pastry shop…along the wat, we passed by the Confucian temple, and we went in to take a look.
At Wei ge pastry, I bought 2 boxes of “green bean cake with red bean paste”
Then we went back to Taipei main stn…and went to “xin guang san yue” shopping mall to buy “sun cake”…Then we just rot at the Mc Donald’s…
At ard 2pm we went back to the hotel to collect our luggages, and also bought instant noodles at “Quan Jia” convenient store so that we can make use of the hot water at the airport and have our lunch/dinner before we board the plane…and we packed our stuffs at the lobby…haha…and then took a last moment photo outside the hotel. After that, we went to the coach company “Guo Guang” which is just opposite our hotel, and bought tickets to take us to CKS airport. After 1.5 hrs, we finally arrived at airport, and find a place to eat our delicious instant noodles…After that, we decided that we wanna buy some instant noodles back to S’pore..haha…so went to airport’s convenient store to buy…Taiwan’s instant noodles really very nice!!
Board the plane at 5+pm, and head back to S’pore!!
