Taipei Feng...
Happy New Year! (Yes, I know it is belated.. I'm Lazy after the trip.. =P)
Taiwan is AWESOME!! I seriously don't mind going back there, more so than Hong Kong.
Early Friday morning (30th Dec), my cousins and I (there were 7 of us) met at Terminal 1 of Singapore Changi Airport, getting ready for our departure to Taipei. We had breakfast before the flight, and had a minor accident - Ah boy managed to spill eggs onto himself. His jeans is hearby known as egg pants. The flight was as smooth as it can be, flying through the clouds. Since we were on a budget flight, there was not much to do except to sleep. However, there were limited leg room and we can't recline our seats, hence it was a semi comfortable flight. We arrived Taipei slightly after 12 noon, and were greeted with a nice cool weather of about 15degrees celcius, provided the wind do not blow. We checked into our backpackers hostel (TBP; Taipei Backpackers)- getting an apartment for our hostel since I requested for an ensuite room for 6. (I'm picky. I refuse to share bathroom with other backpackers...) Of course by the time we settled in and everything, it was close to 2plus 3pm and we were hungry. Just near our apartment was a braised pork rice stall, otherwise known as lor bak peng (LBP) to us. Upon Meiying's suggestion, we went there for our first ever meal in Taiwan. Being hungry greedy vultures, we all ordered the big portion, which we kind of regretted, as we had difficulty finishing the bowl of rice. Nevertheless, this stall is the best ever we had and we soon became regulars. After our lunch, we accompanied Ann Ann and Ming Yee to their Bridal Studio (they needed to settle their wedding photo stuff) and we popped by the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (it was just opposite the studio). Did many jump shots there and enjoyed the park. Night time we explored Ximending as it was where we stayed. Our first taste of Taiwan's Ye Shi.
Day 2, while the couple went to take their wedding photos, the rest of us decided to go explore Tamshui. It was about 45 minutes MRT ride from the city. We were a little lost initially, not knowing where to go. We found a map, decided to follow it, and ended up following the crowd after we left the station. Good thing, we won't get lost. LOL. Tamshui is near the sea, but we did not manage to go to the Fisherman's Wharf. A) We did not want to take the boat B) We wanted to go back to Taipei in time to "chope" place for the countdown. Hence we did not walk further (it was quite a distance). We managed to get to Cityhall (the venue of the countdown concert) around 530pm and find a spot near the stage front. Near enough. We practically watch the show through the screen. Collected some clappers and food, and watched some rehearsals. The show starts at 7pm, with opening act MAYDAY!! *screams and swoons* However we soon moved away as it kind of get suffocating, with all the pushing and cramming.. we need oxygen!! We went to the back to listen to the concert and later, countdown to the new year and catch the fireworks.. with smirnoff by our side... OMG we are so alcoholic! lol. The journey back to our apartment was crazy, with the number of people on the streets. The MRT stations actually controlled the number of people inside the stations. We were waiting for our turns to get into the stations and trains. Quite orderly actually. By the time we went back, we had some lor bak peng for dinner, along with our bottle of Vodka bought from the airport, and Taiwan Beer. We "partied" till like 4am? Madness, I know.
On the 1st day of new year, we actually spend the day (well look at the time we crawled up) at the bridal studio, haggling and choosing photos, and of course deleting them. I guess we did not really see much of Taipei in our trip. We went to Shida nightmarket, had one of the nicest egg tarts there too! Along with our very first foray with Or Luat Mee Suah (we ate the mee suah and not the or luat.. hahaha). We didn't explore much of Shida though, probably due to the fact that we were still tired and we are leaving early to Kaoshiung the next day.
2 Jan 2012, we took the High Speed Train to Kaoshiung (that cost us NT1490 per person). Upon reaching Kaoshiung, we proceeded to Eda Themepark. Some of the rides looked intimidating, such as the inverter and the U-coaster. However, after just visited USS, the rides pales in comparison, especially the first ride we took - the 4D ride. However, we were the noisiest group in the park (in my opinion) as we were screaming at every ride. This is not to say that the rides were boring. Thrill factor may not be up to expectations, but we did have plenty of fun. The top 3 rides (in no particular order) in my opinion are: 1) the log ride. It has only 1 drop which causes a huge splash that guaranteed us to be wet; 2) bumper cars - our childhood favourite, which we took again and again and again; 3) an indoor coaster, which we kind of underestimate the ride. A funny thing happened. The ride started off slow and I commented "Can we go faster?" and the next thing we know, the ride did go faster and we were screaming away. The staff there at Eda were also quite friendly. They allowed ask to take the rides again if we wanted to. My guess was they were also quite bored as there was not many people or anyone queuing for the rides. For the outdoor swing ride, we were singing and fooling about, pretending to be birds. When the ride ended, the staff asked us if we wanted another round, and let us swing till we told him to stop. I think we just brought them entertainment. Haha. Cute guy too.. LOL. After the park, we took the huge ferris wheel, at night (technically evening but the sun had already set) and I realised, there was nothing much to see at Eda, except the themepark, shopping centre and hotel. That was how secluded we were. We proceeded to Liouhe Nightmarket, which gave us a different feel to those in Taipei. This nightmarket is like what I envision, rows of stalls along the road like pasar malam. My camera met an accident there, being dropped and the top cover was coming off. However that was fixed by Ann Ann =D. We also had LBP there, which was quite bland compared to our favourite sontall. After dinner, we made our way to our quaint hostel, where we slept on tatami mats. So fun! Ann Ann wanted to go to some Buddha Mountain (literal translation) and his wife said let's see what time we wake up as we need to journey back to Taipei. In the end, we could not get up and the only sights of Kaoshiung we had seen were the themepark and Liouhe.
We had a mini "amazing race", buying tickets, food and rushing for the train to bring us back to Taipei. How fun. We checked back in into our apartment, lounge around for awhile and set off for Wufenpu, Taipei's garment wholesale area and Raohe nightmarket. What an unfortunate thing for us to visit Taiwan in winter. The clothes were pretty much inappropriate for our weather. Perhaps that is a good thing too, as it prevented us from overspending. A must eat at Raohe Night Market: Hu Jiao Bing (Pepper biscuit)!!
4th Jan is our Hotspring day! It is also one of the 2days where the temperature dropped to about 10degrees Celsius. *brrr..* We found a private indoor hotspring that could accommodate all 7 of us (more like I did the research), Beauty Age Hotel, that cost us NT$1000 per room for 1 hour. After the hotspring, we went to KFC for lunch (hey fast food taste different in different country!) and after that, proceeded to Yangmingshan. Oh boy, with the rain and the lower temperature, going to the mountains don't really seem to be the brightest idea we had. Good thing Ann Ann had a flask of gingseng tea. It was our life saver. WARMTH! Sadly, it was at this mountain where my camera suffered a bad fall due to the strong gusty winds and died. It had served me well. RIP. After Yangmingshan, we went to the all famous Shilin Nightmarket. The food stalls have apparently moved to a permanent place at some concrete place. As usual, we went around looking for food that suits our palate, and guess what we had? We found a stall (more like we were too hungry and just sat down) that sells LBP and other dishes. After the meal, we conclude that our favourite LBP is still the best.
On our second last day in Taipei, we decided to once again venture to a mountainous area in the cold weather. Jiufen is the place where we kept taking the view of the sea/cliff/cape/mountains at different angles. What an blast we had walking along the old streets and shops, taking photos and buying all our goodies. We were supposed to go to another night market but our wary feet protested and we had to pack. So with our loot from Jiufen, we went back to our apartment, and lounged around while Ann Ann and Ming Yee went to collect their wedding package stuff. After that, we had a steamboat dinner! A buffet style that is all inclusive for about NT$365 (if I'm not wrong. I know it is around $300++). Its near our apartment (I so chose a right place to stay. Good food aplenty, all at our doorstep) and it is like Seoul Garden style. I think the Taiwanese have a thing for LBP, as at the steamboat place, there was LBP! When Ann Ann told me, I was like "are you shitting me?" and turned to see.. Lo and behold, beside the rice cooker was the pot of lor bak!! The taste of the LBP is not too bad, can't fight with the LBP stall though.. Our unanimous decision is this: Ximending serves the best LBP.
Our last day before departure was spent walking around Taipei Underground Street, a shopping area. Controlled spending was practiced, if not I will need to repack my luggage. Being our last day, we had our last chance of drinking bubble tea in Taiwan at sweet talk pricing (which was awesome) and our last few taste of LBP. We even takeaway LBP to eat at the airport since our flight was at 745pm. We can officially say that our first and last meal in Taiwan is Lor Bak Peng! The flight back was slightly better than the flight to Taipei. At least the seats could lean back a little. But it was still pretty crammed. Oh well, that is what you get for flying budget. Next time I wanna take a full fledged commercial airline to Taiwan. 5 hours being crammed up is no joke.
Among the stuff I bought for souvenirs, there were some interesting candies that I got from a candy chain shop called Sophisca (or something like that). They are 2 boxes of plasters (plaster shaped chocolates), 2 packets of sanitary pads (marshmallows packed into a pad like packaging), 1 box of what I thought was bra (turned out it was white chocolates in shape of boobs), 1 box of what I thought was underwear (turned out it was banana flavoured chocolate in shape of a dick) and lastly, a pack of strawberry flavoured condom (chocolate that is shape of well... condom). The plasters and pads were relatively tamed, compared to the more crude chocolates. My friends appreciate them though, perverted horny friends of mine. Haha. I like the "condom" pack best as not only it looked like a real packet of of condoms (Huiru was actually fooled - she thought it was the real deal), the chocolates were also individually wrapped, like the real deal! The plasters comes in 2nd except for the colour. The pads too, only the marshmallows were not pad shapes. Haha. I guess they do make good novelty gifts. Something different.
mich..
12:16 am
