Taiwan Day 3

Day 3.

Today is our last day in Maple Landis, our beautiful lodging.... with delicious breakfast. Western style.

My mum and Gene came to meet us at our room to use the hot spring bath together. (We really got our money worth.) Afterward, we left for Yang Ming Shan 阳明山 together.

The trip up the mountain was pretty eventful. At first we couldn't find the busstop which has the correct service, my ever resourceful mum went asking, only then we realised we were at the busstop all the while. The bus arrived was small, more like a mini-bus, a van. By Singapore standards, it was fully seated, but we were ferried up the bus all the same, like it is very normal to so. And off we go to the mountain!

Winding, turning and stopping, in 1/2 hour time, we reached the main bus terminal of 阳明山. From here we have to change buses to get to other places of attraction. The driver of Maple Landis gave us some good recommendations. Zhu zi hu 竹子湖 was one of them. He said that we can get local delicacies from locally grown produce at that area. Therefore, we took another mini-bus, a 20min ride, to that place.

When we alighted, we were just stunned by the rows and fields of white lilies 海芋.

We walked through the lily fields, past the many garden shops and fruit stalls, to the restaurants.

Local delicacies 野味. Absolutely delicious. Just local vege, local chicken and buns, we were happy. 就很幸福很幸福的感觉.

Being on the several hundred feet from the ground, we were cooooollddddd. Brrrr.

Head back to the city. On the mini-bus back, we took on a different perspective toward full capacity. A 12 seater mini-bus actually took on 30 people at one go! It was a fun ride down.

To Ximending, our new lodging, Taipei backpacker hostel. A far cry from our previous luxurious resort but it is nice and clean, so yup, time to go budget! 1000NTD per night for 2.

At night, we headed to Shida night market 师大夜市. I prefer shida to shilin anytime. I do think the food here is far superior in terms of variation and quality, the fashion here is more to my taste too. =D There are many quaint little cafes and restaurant along the back alleys of Shida.

For dinner, we ate at one of the famous stall for lu wei 卤味. I do like the concept of this. You pick your choice of ingrediants, yong tau foo style, pile them all in the basket and hand them to the chefs to cut them. Then another chef will cook them in kway chap-like stock for you and lay them all on a large plate. Condiments such as peanut sauce, sweet sauce, chilli sauce and pickles is dumped onto the mess of hot food, then you carry it yourself to the table to tuck in. Easy!

I never had such good, messy, indelicate, in-your-face 卤味 in my life.

End.

Taiwan Day 2

Day 2 in Taipei.

2 choices of breakfast, I chose oriental. As you can see, a scrumptious meal consisting of sweet potato porridge, grilled fish with stir-fry, condiments, steamed egg, red bean soup and buns. Yummm...

Iiiii-tadakimasu!

After breakfast, Yan and I proceeded to walk down the hill on which our resort is situated, to the train station.

Di re valley. On the way down the hill, we came to this mother spring, which all hot spring hotels/resort tap their water from. It stinks like pee, which goes to show that this is a 100 percent authentic hot spring. Locals in the past first discovered this spring and named it hell's valley, 地热谷 , likening the boiling waters to the boiling lava in hell. In the past it is a popular sport to boil eggs in the waters, it is said to produce hard boiled, center-soft eggs. But apparently some tourist fell into the pool and died there, forcing the government to seal up the valley from the public.

On the first day when we were ferried to the resort, we asked the driver what exactly is the function of this beautiful building. He replied, it's a library.

It's unique, practical and eco-friendly. Singapore, learn.

This very cute happy Buddha looks very misplaced to me. haha.

Halfway to the train station, Yan and I kind of side-tracked into the local morning market. Similar to our morning market except that this is more free-form, more village-y. See what we found? A sushi stall!

Most morning shoppers are either on foot, on bicycle or on motorcycle. They are all the same, traveling at the same speed. I love morning markets.

A 25NTD train ride to Danshui. 渔人码头. Behind me, is the famous Yang Ming Shan, 阳明山.

Danshui is pretty boring on a weekday. It's empty enough that schools bring their kids out to play on a day like this.

Even though I've not recovered, I had to, had to, try the famous Taiwan sausage, 台湾香肠. My goodness! It never tastes so good in Singapore! Oozing with fats, the sausage is deliciously sweet and crunchy. Not a daily snack though if you value your life. I felt worse after eating it.

To ease my discomfort, I thought guavas might help. Pink guavas!

Though Danshui is famous for its fish/meat ball, I forgot its name, we didn't try it. I was took sick to eat anything else, and my cousin too full. Thus, we decided to go back to the hotel first to rest, before meeting up with my mum in Shilin.

The classic sculpture of Danshui. Yan with her famous Danshui ice-cream. She commented that her ice-cream was sweet, no other outstanding flavours. Just sweet.

Back at the resort, we took another dip at our personal onsen this time. heehee, pretty cheeky of us...

The evening dessert of the day.

After a short rest, it was down to shilin, the king of all night markets.

Food is said to be one of the best in Taiwan. I beg to differ. Shida is the best. :D

The food didn't have the chance to at least survive until my camera was brought out. These photos were taken during our second round of munching, when we were less voracious.

Clams omelette 蚝煎 and pan-fried bun 生煎包. The omelette is quite different from the Singapore's version. There is alot less egg, more cornstarch, addition of lettuce and instead of chilli, a type of sweet sauce is given.

Dig in! Followed by shopping. The clothes here are cheap. But after a while, it gets kind of repetitive, so we returned back to our respective hotels.

With Ivy, the very sweet and helpful manager who served us. Thanks!

End.