Flowerspot

Got back from Taiwan on 12th May... The day when the earthquake took place at China SiChuan. Consequently, our trip to China Jiu Zhai Gou was cancelled... Pple always tell me Jiu Zhai Gou is very beautiful... Although it is a pity that I could not get to see its beauty, I am glad that I am safe and sound in Singapore. Hopefully, they will find the survivors soon...

Here are some photos from my Taiwan Trip (we took over 1000 photos, i am already quite selective le...) :

Day 01 - 29th April 2008, Tuesday
On the MRT to Changi Airport T1
While waiting to board the plane, we did our last minute revision on Taiwan
Should have brought something onto the plane, the 4.5hrs journey felt so long...

Taipei Day 1
We reached Tao Yuan International Airport (Previously Chiang Kai-Shek Airport) at about 6.25pm...

We took "Free Go" that provide transport to the hotel doorstep. If you take other bus, e.g. "Guo Guang", they will only drop you at "Taipei Main Station" so you have to walk or take MRT to get to your hotel.

For Kilin Hotel, we had to transfer bus. They dropped those ppl staying at Ximending area 1st. It took about 1.5hr to get to our hotel since we were the last to alight. Personally, we felt that kilin hotel is not worth its price, although it was one of the most common hotel employed by the tour agencies. The facilities were normal and their service was not very good. Their receptionist were not very willing to answer our questions, they enjoy talking among themselves rather to bother about the customers.

Here are some pics of my parents and brother which took SQ and had reached Taipei in the afternoon...

They went to Lungshan Temple and shopped around the area near there, where my brother claimed that it was not suitable for the younger generation. He hardly see any youngster on the street that afternoon.

By the time Dear Dear and I reached the hotel, my dad was sleeping like a log, and my mum is too tired to come out and shop with us. Therefore, only the 3 of us went to Ximending.

On the way, we bought "Da4 Chang2 Bao1 Xiao3 Chang2". It is pork sausage stuffed inside a glutinous rice sausage.

I don't know why my brother like the smelly beancurd so much... It just smell like sewage...

I tried it and it indeed... taste like sewage, just that it is not that strong. I am not going to eat that again.

Ximending closes quite early at about 12am...

We saw this cute little fat doggie who loves to play the basketball arcade machine. It was standing there, getting ready for its owner to play the game with him. Too bad, its owner was not in a mood to play. He left the machine reluctantly when its owner walked away.

Long long Ice Cream! Less than S$1!
The wind was so strong at night that it blew the ice cream onto my brother's T-shirt. wahaha!

Day 2 - 30th April 2008, Wednesday

Taipei Day 2
Having breakfast at a small noodle shop. I don't like their noodles, it is tasteless...
My brother and father always like to do the same thing at the same time... My brother went to buy tea for us because the eating shops in Taiwan usually don't sell drinks. Before my brother is back, my dad went out of the shop too. 15minutes later, both of them came back with 2 cups of tea... Like father like son...

We stopped by a fruit stall near the hotel.

Dear Dear, me and my brother were busy eating mango, my dad washing his hands using the waterhose provided by the shop and my mum choosing her tomatoes...

We went back to the hotel to get ourselves ready for the day's outing...

Magnetic bracelets from my mum to my dad and brother... It was supposed to improve your health. You believe? I don't really believe it. My brother wanted it coz he thought that the bracelet looked nice, that's all... waste my mum's money... think i can get bracelet that look like this much cheaper at other places! But my mum was happy to spend money because we are on tour! Haha...

Taking train at Lungshan Station to Taipei City Hall

Free shuttle bus to Taipei 101.

But we decided to walk there since it was not too far away from the MRT Station...

We had reached Taipei 101, where all the branded stores are located at...

Going up to the top of Taipei 101 is definitely not cheap, it was about S$19 per head. Since we came all the way from Singapore, my brother thought we should go up and take a look, so he bought the tickets for the whole family :)

Here's how Taipei city looks like from the top of Taipei 101.

Each of us was given a device which looks like a cordless phone. This device will be our "tour guide" which will tell us more about Taipei City.

We went up to the outdoor observatory, but there was nothing much to see and it started raining.

So we went into the shelter to avoid the rain. Over here, we were able to see some snapshots of the construction of the Taipei 101 through a short film.

After that, we went to see the Wind Damper, which act as a stablizer for the Taipei 101.

The floor which is like a television...

Dear Dear and me sitting at the Priority seats... trying to act old so we don't feel bad occupying the seats.

We left Taipei 101 for Houshanpi where Wufenpu commercial zone is located.
We had our lunch at a shop name "Meng4 Huan4" or something like that... The food there was good. However, my brother loves the seafood soup that my mum ordered.

After the meal, we went to shop at Wufenpu. However, as my dad was feeling tired and he forgot to bring his medicine along, he went back the hotel with my mum and Dear Dear first. Whereas my brother and I stayed there to shop for a while more.

We meet up again at Taipei Main Station platform and went to Danshui together.
My dad and mum who deserve to occupy the priority seats...Danshui is a relaxing place with night markets operating along the coast.
This is Danshui Lao3 Jie1. I prefer here to the other side of Danshui which is similar to Shilin.

This is Bing1 Tang2 Hu2 Lu2. It is cherry coated with melted sugar, so it is very sweet..

Look at my brother, his hands are never free... haha!

My brother buying "MRT chips" to JianTan Station where the Shilin Night Market is located at.

This is the Shilin Food Centre, it looks at the Singapore Hawker Centre but there are designated tables and chairs for each stall.

Our 1st stall at Shilin Food Centre: Kuan1 Cai2 Ban3 (The Coffin Slabs)

2nd Stall: Mian2 Mian2 Bing1

3rd stall: Hao2 Jian1 (Don't be misled by the stall sign that reads wok-fried squids)

4th Stall: Qing1 Wa1 Xia4 Dan4 (It is like bubble tea, but i think we bought the winter melon tea)

Getting ready to go to Room 18, a club near the Taipei Convention Halls and Taipei 101.

I just went there to take a look at their clubbing scene. I am not into clubbing nowadays, so Dear Dear and I went in for a while and left for a cafe, leaving my brother alone in the club. The girls there are prettier than Singapore girls on average. Most of them are tall, e.g. 1.7m is quite common, slim and have good complexion. Their guys are okay, taller than Singapore guys on the average. And one thing, you won't see army guys in the club. Maybe they all need to stay in camp...

Day 3 - 01st May 2008, Thursday (Labor Day)

Taipei Day 3

Since my parents did not get to walk around Ximending the last few days, Dear Dear and I brought them there to take a look and to have breakfast at the same time.

McDonald's burger that is not available in Singapore... pork burger.

This is Hong2 Lou2 (Red House) at Ximending. I still haven't find out what is this building. Since it looks quite nice, my parents wanted to take photo with this building as the backdrop.

It was time to leave Taipei for Taichung... My parents would love to stay a few more days at Taipei, however due to time restriction, that's all for taipei at the moment. Hopefully, there will be a chance to bring them to taipei again....

Eating on the bus. Dear Dear is eating the pork jerky i bought from Shilin last night, haha... It is chewy and delicious, very similar to our Bagua (Chinese BBQ pork). My brother eating Da4 Bin3 Bao1 Xiao3 Bin4 which was also bought from Shilin last night...

Taichung Day 1

When we reached Taichung bus terminal, we took a cab to our hotel. There was this taxi driver who said that he knew where our hotel is and ask us to board his cab. As there were 5 of us, we splitted into 3:2 and took 2 different cabs. This 2 cabs were from this group of taxi drivers eating "Bing1 Lang2", be wary of them....

Perhaps, he felt that the distance from the bus terminal to the hotel was too short and he could only earn NT$100, he tried to charge us more by requesting to charge per trip instead of following the meter when my parents and brother were on his cab as he claimed that it would take 40min to reach the hotel. The brother thought that he might be up to something as I had told him beforehand that the hotel is about 10min walk away from the bus terminal only. So he asked the taxi driver to pull over at the road side and he came over to the cab that Dear Dear and me were taking to ask our cab driver to lead the way instead.

Since our cab driver already said that he did't know where is "Guang Fu Road", we looked at the map and helped him locate the place. The place was actually just around the corner! I think the 1st driver was just trying to con our money. Anyway I am glad that we reached Good Ground Hotel, Ming3 Shuai4, safe and sound. We left our baggages in the hotel room and went out for lunch.

Here's a sports stadium that we passed by while we were on our way "hunting" for food.

We had steamboat at this shop. The serving per person is quite large, so i advise 2 girls can order 1 set and share. We couldn't finish all our food as we didn't expect the portion to be so big since it was relatively cheap.

At night, we went to the Yi1 Zhong1 Yi1 Jie1 Night Market.

My dad sitting on someone's scooter eating fruits with Dear Dear and my mum.

While my brother joined the long queue to see what is so attractive about the ah yue hong cha bing.

Here is the yi zhong super big Chicken Chop, you can get shilin's and ximen's at Singapore, but not yi zhong's ;p

I don't understand why taiwanese like Ru3 Wei4, eating it once in a while is still okay but not everyday. I got sick of the taste.

Since we were in Taiwan, Dear Dear and my brother tried bing1 lang2. It is like chewing gum, something that we always hear but never get to try, so it's time for them to try... I chicken out after looking at their face when they were chewing the bing lang

This picture is too dark, try taking a closer look at my brother's face... it was really funny!

Dear Dear's shirt was stained by the bing lang so he went back to the hotel to change his t-shirt. The stain stays there forever, you can't get rid of it... So imagine it staining your teeth or your internal organs... They never regret trying it, but this is something that they will likely not put them into their mouth again....

My parents were too tired to follow us to the famous goose meat stall. Anyway, it was nothing fantastic, the goose meat tastes like duck meat but is slightly more chewy.

After eating the goose meat, we combed the area around our hotel to look for other night markets. We found one at Gong1 Yuan2 Road. There is this stall at Gong Yuan Road that sells really cheap boots! Price range from NT$190-390 (Which is about S$9-19). If you wanna get yourself a pair of boots, you have got to take a look at that stall.

The other night market situated at the road parallel to Gong Yuan Road sells mainly food.

We bought some Tian2 Bu4 La4 there.

Saw this large teapot which we thought that it looked interesting... Look at Dear Dear's expression! So convincing, keke...

DAY 04 - 02nd May 2008, Friday

Taichung Day 2

Good Ground Hotel only provides 2 different "menu" for breakfast. It is either Chinese or Western Breakfast, content is fixed, like it or not. However, both suited my taste, so i was fine with it. In fact, i think that their breakfast was quite nice.

Off we go to the The Aboriginal Theme Park, Jiu3 Zhu2 Wen2 Hua4 Chun1.

We bought the bus tickets from Ren You Bus Services, the normal tickets to the Aboriginal Theme Park was sold out. Dear Dear and I managed to get the primary/secondary student tickets at NT$550 by chance(we didn't realise that in the beginning because we showed them our university card) from this counter. The rest of them need to buy tickets at a booth located 100m away from the main entrance to the Theme Park.

At the ticketing booth, my brother tried using his SIA pass and managed to get the university student ticket at NT$600. I think normal ticket costs about NT$700. So do bring any pass that you have and try to look like a student when purchasing the tickets.

The main entrance to the Theme Park, Dear Dear holding the map, trying to navigate the way.

I love this background... The house look like the one that Dao4 Ming2 Si4 lives in the "Meteor Garden" show! haha... See my dad acting cute.

Nice background, isn't it?

The peacock that my mum insisted to take photo with...

Here is the entrance to the main activities area

Playing the drums. My mum and dad was very happy, giggling away like little kids...

I requested my brother to strike that pose ;p

Dear Dear, my brother and I went to take the roller coaster.

This is my 1st time taking roller coaster that turns 360 degree! I screamed like hell... haha!

The aborigine, Philip, is back.

My brother played another ride while Dear Dear and I gave it a miss as we did not want to get wet. Nice pose, bro.

The team of the father and the son... I think they didn't manage to get to the second round, or maybe the third round... this is a result of lacking practice.

This is the Space Race, suitable for people who are middle age and above... It just keep on jerking... not fun at all

This is the place for younger kids in primary school and maybe lower secondary school...

My brother wanted to try the UFO (Vertical Fall) but it was under daily maintenance, so we thought that we can give it a try later. However, we never get the chance to as it was raining cats and dogs at the later part of our journey...

It started to drizzle...

We took the cable car the the top of the mountain

We went up to this building and take a look... No lift, only stairs.

It was actually a place for ppl to offer their prayers...

My mum took this picture, quite artistic right?

The payphone that the aborigines use... oops don't take that seriously, i was just kidding :)

Hmm... palm prints left behind by the highly skilled person...

Yin2 Shui3 Si1 Yuan2...

My mum and brother taking pictures with the lady in the aboriginal costumes.

Since this Theme Park is named Jiu3 Zhu2, there are nine villages built in this theme park.

People were shorter in the olden days... The ceiling of this hut is so low.

Cooking food, warming our hands...

No more pictures of the Theme Park as it rained so heavily that we had to rush our way down to search for shelter. We were all drenched. I was shivering in cold all the way till we got back to our hotel.

After changing to our dry clothes, we went out to the 2 night markets at gong yong road.

There are a few CDs stall at the Zhong Hua Night Market which my mum would love to visit.

DAY 05 (Part 1/2) - 03rd May 2008, Saturday

Taichung Day 3
Dear Dear and I having our Western Breakfast. Their 2 style of breakfast just kept on rotating, so you may get bored of their breakfast if you stay there for too many days.

Since we woke up early, we decided to walk to the bus terminal to buy our tickets to Kaohsiung. On our way there, we passed by a few pets shop and we saw a bird which looked like my "Amigo" in my house! My friends who have seen "Amigo" would definitely agree with us :)

Checking the prices of taiyang bin, the famous local foodstuff @ Taichung. The receptionist told us that we should have gone to the "Ah Ming Shi Tai Yang Tang" Shop to buy the taiyang bin as that shop was the creator of the biscuits. All the other brands learned the recipe from this shop owner!

This is the Taichung Railway station, the major bus services providers are located around here too!

My parents and brother who were leaving for Taoyuan International Airport.

They are enjoying their meal at the airport without Dear Dear and I.

Bring your parents overseas while they are still healthy and are able to travel. People always find excuses not to do something, and usually take their love ones for granted. Sometimes, I am guilty of that too. I hope that I am still in time to make it up to them.