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.