TW Day 7: Goodbye Taiwan!

Time always past very fast when you are enjoying yourself... today has come to the last day of our trip. Upon checking out of Kingshi Hotel, we enquired on how to get to the airport & were surprised that the hotel could help us to arrange a shuttle bus service. The charges were about the same if we booked ourselves & this certainly helped us to save the hassle & lugging our heavy bags!

We returned to the same street at Ximending where we had the rice roll the previous day.  We popped by the neigbouring Yong He (永和豆漿) Soya stall for breakfast. I had a Pork Floss Egg Roll (肉鬆蛋餅) & soya milk. Followed by, we went to pick up our pre-ordered pineapple tarts.

Next, we went in search of 羅志祥 (小豬) STAGE Shop at Ximending... The facade was decorated like a Gift box wif Care Bears!  The shop's entrance has a x'mas tree made up of Care Bears too!  The building is made up of 3 storeys, wif 2 storeys selling merchandise & the 3rd storey is their office.  A handsome lad served ruby when she helped her colleague purchase a tee...

As we still have a morning to roam the streets, we decided to venture to Yong Kang Street (永康街). We boarded the MRT to Gu Ting Station (古亭) & after walking some distance, we still couldn't locate the street. Hence, we approached a jap eatery & this helpful guy even showed us a sketch map he did & clearly gave the directions. After turning a few more streets, we finally caught sight of Yong Kang Street...

This street seems rather touristy as it's dotted wif a variety of eateries & shops but some shops were prob resting on a Monday morning! I saw this Rilakkuma shop & this gotta be the most popular toy wif its range of merchandise in Taiwan after its appearance in the idol drama 《小質女孩向前沖》。We saw the Koi Bubble Tea (50 嵐) & got a cup each...it's really refreshing & the mini pearls are chewy!

We casually walked around & decided to stop by Dante Cafe for lunch... I had a BBQ chicken sandwich wif soup which was delicious! I managed to finish the set thou I was not really hungry! On our return journey to the MRT, we chanced upon this La Douceur Patisserie... there's this cute little gal as their motif. We went in to check out... Despite a weekday afternoon, this small patisserie was full-house!  Yummy looking cakes & premium chocolates lined the display. Ruby bought a box of the premium choc & were wrapped in a nice box. We also bought a slice of the cheesecake. It's not cheap thou!

We returned to our hotel juz in time & went across the street to wait for our airport shuttle. Our Freego bus sent us to a particular stop for us to transfer to a bigger coach. At the stop, we had to make payment for our bus tickets. Smoothly, we reached the airport on time & I even had time to browse the airport's bookstore & cd store... Juz before boarding our flight, we savoured our cheescake! Hmm...delicious! This spells the end of our one week adventure in Taizhong & Taipei! 

TW Day 6: Release Sky Lantern @ Pingxi (到平溪放天燈) !

It's Sunday & tomorrow marks the last day of the Chinese New Year Celebration... Yesterday, we had witnessed the snaking Q at the Taipei Zoo Station, where people queued for the bus heading to Pingxi as they held their annual Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival... As 元宵節 is marked by lanterns display in the city, the train's branch line of Pingxi holds an annual celebration by releasing sky lanterns... a tradition started in the 3 Kingdoms Era (三國時代).

Riko waiting at Ruifang Station

In the morning, we bought some sushi from the neighbourhood bakery & headed to Taipei Main Railway Station... we set off early as we needed to take a train to Ruifang Station (瑞芳) before we could change to Pingxi Line (平溪綫). There are a few stops along the Pingxi line and wif a 1-day rail-pass, you can board & alight at any of the stops. We alighted at the first stop Shifen (十分). As the platform is narrow, we had to wait patiently to make our way up... The place is flooding wif visitors from all over, both domestic & international travellers... We went to the souvenir shop to buy the local postcard, which comes in a variety & materials such as paper, wood or metal! We whipped out our notebooks to collect inked stamps...

We strolled along the railway line & saw shops selling souvenirs and sky lanterns lining both sides of the railway... I have always wana play wif sky lanterns & finally the opportunity is here! Ruby suggested to purchase the Orange & Blue lantern as it symbolises Love & Career. We had to squat by the railway & pen our wishes using the traditional ink & brush! Haha! It's so challenging to write in that manner! There's even a card that spells all the chinese idioms shld you at lost of words! Hence, Ruby & I wrote our wishes respectively & when the shop's lady flipped over the lantern, then we realised we shld write according to the symbolic colours!

When we had completed our writing, the shop's lady helped us to open up the lantern & lit it... both of us were to pose wif our lantern! Her young boy of around 9 yrs old took photos for us like a Pro! After numerous shots, at the count of 1,2,3, we released the lantern into the skies! It's a great feeling! Marking the CNY, we hope that 2012 will be a better year for us! Thereafter, we strolled to a suspending bridge & it's really sweltering under the noon sun! Pingxi area is prone to rainfall for 200 days each year & we were really lucky to get a sunny day!

From the bridge, we tried to find our way to the Shifen Waterfall... it's really a long walk. Upon arriving, we had to purchase admission tickets. When we caught sight of the waterfall, its powerful force gave us a free shower! Take it as a cooling respite! Ruby was excited when we saw rainbow too! Subsequently, we even saw double rainbow at the waterfall! We spent some time taking photos here...

We cabbed back to the Shifen Station as it's too hot & tiring... At the station, it's a nightmare as we had to jostle wif the horrendous crowd to board the train... I'm afraid of a stampede too as people were pushing! Due to the overwhelming crowd, trains were delayed & schedule changed... I decided we shld train to the final stop of Jing Tong. When we alighted at Jing Tong Station (菁桐), it's a relief to get off & have some fresh air! We immediately went to grab a late lunch... After lunch, we ventured near the station & took photos at the railway. I was delighted to come here as it's the filming site of the taiwanese movie 《那些年，我們一起追的女孩》!

As nearing sunset, we had to squeeze up the train again to get back to city... we were dead-beat!!! However, it's already the last night in Taipei for us... so ruby suggested we proceed to a night market. We opted for Shida Night Market (師大夜市) as I had never go before...  Dragging my blistered feets, I persisted on. Upon exiting the MRT, I saw a shoes shop & went in to check out the Converse shoes. I had always wanted to buy a pair and the price here is 30% cheaper! Since I didn't shop much previous days, I bought a pair of black basic Converse. Happy wif my purchase, we shopped around the night market which is popular among students & tourists... To round off our night, we kept searching for Arnold's Crepe (阿諾可麗餅) stall! We bought a Strawberry Crepe wif drink & enjoyed the big & yummy crepe on the streets! On our way to the MRT, ruby said gotta try the hand-make buns from this popular Yong Feng Sheng (永豐盛). Since the Q was shorter now, we bought a pork bun & a milk mantou. Thou the buns were cold when we reached hotel, I still like the pork bun ^_^

Taipei's Food Collage

Oh dear, it's packing night as I gotta squeeze all the stuff into my lugguage for tomorrow's check-out! I really dislike packing :(

TW Day 5: Explore Taipei City 。。。

It's going to be a relaxing day as we do not need to follow any train schedule today! We got to sleep in abit late and ruby suggested that we have glutinous rice roll for breakfast. As taipei shops doesn't open early, we plan to visit the 龍山峙 temple after breakfast. In Ximending, there's a small take-away stall “西門町豆漿” which has been around for over 30 years run by an old granny. The stall sells a variety of 飯糰，蛋餅，燒餅 + 豆漿, traditional taiwanese breakfast. We ordered a 燻雞蛋飯糰 (NT45) + 溫豆漿 ~ a tasty rice roll wrapped wif seaweed, fillings consist of egg, meat & dough fritters (油條).

After filling our tummies, we took the MRT one-stop away to 龍山峙 station. It turn out to be 立春, official start of Spring day... hence the temple was flooded wif visitors. Due to the Lantern Festival in 2 days' time, the temple was also decorated wif various designs of lanterns. As Ruby went ahead wif her prayers, I went around shooting & utilised my zoom to capture the intricate dragons on the roof-top. When we were done, we saw a 85 Degrees bakery nearby & decided to buy a slice of the layered cheescake... It's nicely packed in a box wif forks for us too! Finally, I got to try the cheesecake as ruby always rave about it! :p

Moving on, we followed the Monga area map & went Bo-Pi-Liao Historic Street (剝皮寮老街). In recent years, this alley has become famous partly due to a taiwanese movie ~ Monga. Over here, besides perserverance of the movie's filming set, the rest of the street is filled wif a tinge of nostalgic...The alley has some colourful graffiti... It's like a walk down memory lane as different galleries display stuff from the 60s and so on... There's also games set up to educate us about history of our surnames etc...  We continued to roam around Monga area looking at 2 other temples & break for lunch.

After a late lunch at 3+pm, we boarded the MRT toward the Taipei Zoo Station. We headed to the Maokong Gondola (貓空) Station Q... Wow! It's a long Q indeed... If you have the Easycard, then no need to purchase separate tickets as one can tap the card to board the Gondola. It's an exciting ride up the mountain & the view was fantastic! Sharing the cabin wif us were a young couple & an elderly couple from HK. The elderly couple even chatted wif us & we managed to take some shots on the Gondola too... 30mins past & we arrived at the final stop. Abit unsure where to go & randomly boarded a shuttle bus towards 杏花林. We were late as the sun was setting soon... We managed to catch a nice clear view of the taipei's skyline wif Taipei 101!

As it's rather dark to further explore the area, we boarded the shuttle heading back to Maokong Station... Along the way, the bus driver said it's rare to get a clear view & asked if we wanna alight to take some photos... hence, most of the bus' passengers alighted & we tried hard to snap the night-view (without tripod)!  After a few tries, I realised it's impossible to capture sharp shots & upon getting downhill, we decided to go to one of the tea-houses... This whole mountain area is littered wif tea-houses. Wif its refreshing air & cool weather, it's a nice place to sip hot tea while admiring the scenic view! There's also a comprehensive menu if you wish to have dinner there too...

When we were done wif our tea session, we headed back to taipei city for dinner at one of the mall's foodcourt... Upon reaching was past 9.30pm already & I almost didn't get to buy my dinner! Juz aftering ordering my Pork Chop wif Spaghetti, they announced last order for the night! It took a long time for my dinner to arrive but it's really scrumptious! Upon re-charging our energy, we walked to 囯父紀念館台北燈會 ~ Tapei City's Lantern Festival in conjunction wif the Yuan Xiao Festival. We have never seen so many pretty lanterns before! There were a huge crowd thronging the place & this made photography very challenging! One gotta be fast & accurate when shooting! The lanterns were really nice & creative, mostly reflecting the Dragon Year theme... ranging from fairy tales dragons to mystical ones!

At the end of the night, we were really tired as we needed to chase the last train before mid-night!

TW Day 4: First Sight of Snow @ 合歡山!

Rise & Shine! We woke up to a fantastic 雲海 view right at our balcony! Juz manage to snap a few pics as we gotta check-out, go for breakfast & be punctual for our half-day trip up He Huan Mountain (合歡山).  Our breakfast was taiwanese sweet potato porridge and a spread of accompanying dishes. The mini-bus arrived punctually & we were the first passengers on board... along the way, there were other tourists as well.

The route up the mountain was scenic and the bus driver was also enthusiastic in sharing wif us some history... he's from one of the 2 aborigines tribe staying on this mountain. We were told that there was a heavy snow last night, hence the road up the mountain was closed before 7am! We also saw the snow tractor moving in front of us, removing the thick snow on the road... it's not easy to navigate the mountain terrain if one is not familiar or lack the driving skills! From our stay at 1,750metres above sea level, we were progressing to an altitude of 3,070metres.

As we were approaching, the sky started to drizzle! Our bus driver said that this means we would be seeing snow up the mountain! The temperature shld be ard minus 3 - 4 degrees! I started to layer my jackets and used heatpacks to keep myself warm... Finally, when we alighted from the bus, it was freezing! Light snow was smacking onto my face... i started to wonder if our dslr would be able to capture anything since it's so foggy! It's my FIRST sight of snow! I was protective of my dslr too as my cam仔 was totally soaked! Gosh!

Despite the bitter cold, we enjoyed ourselves by posing in the snow... I'm glad that i bought my Superdry windcheater as it really helped to keep me dry in the snow + my winter cap purchased in taichung! I also scribbled my name in the snow & made my first-ever mini-snowman! keke! Ruby even threw a snow-ball at me, Ouch! After an hour of cold till numb, we returned to our waiting bus...  As we bused down the mountain, we continued to admire the scenic view! Mid-way, our bus had a stop-over, in case anyone want to buy some mountain's produce such as cabbages and pears... But Ruby & I immediately went to take photos as we saw a beautiful 雲海, keke!

Very soon, we reach our minsu and had a short break before our arranged transport arrived to send us to Taichung HSR. This arrangement was great as the amount we paid was juz abit more than taking the public transport. In this way, we dun need lug our luggages! The journey was speedy as we reached Taichung HSR earlier & we bought our high-speed rail tickets from the ticketing machine. We got the cheapest non-allocated seats type but were lucky to get seats! Before long we arrived at Taipei Main Rail Station & I purchased the EasyCard for MRT usage.

When we reached Ximending, it was drizzling! Alas, thou weather forecast had warned us of rainy weather in Taipei... we walked in the rain wif our luggages to locate our hotel. We finally sighted Kingshi hotel & it's a relief to check-in! After resting & refreshing ourselves, we headed out to Ximending area... we decided to check-out 河岸留言 as we tot could purchase the concert tix for tomorrow evening. After walking rounds, then we realised the entrance was at a not so obvious part of 西門紅樓！There were a few gals queuing in the rain & we asked them wat time will open? The gal said maybe around 6pm... so we went across the streets to eat some snacks.

It's a wet evening and we ordered a bowl of piping hot fishballs & pork dumpling. Both were nice but i gotta click LIKE for the dumpling! Its glutinous rice was soft and droused in a flavourful dark sauce... definately a taiwanese style of eating dumpling! After filling our tummies, we returned to 河岸留言 & it's still not open! Hence, we juz wander around Ximending & returned to Queue in the rain after some time... but eventually we gave up as we had no idea what time it will open! It's destined we do not have the chance to experience their Live house.

We boarded the MRT to 東區 and juz as we were thinking what to eat for dinner... we spotted 鼎泰丰! Without hesitation, we decided to join the waiting Q... it's pretty fast as we were allocated a table in 15mins. There seems to be many international tourists too! We ordered their 小籠包，蛋炒飯 + 芋頭包.  Thou I knew that it's the restaurant's culture to offer ladies a bag-holder, but it's the first time I saw that they actually have jackets cover! Cos in Sg, you never get the chance to use that, haha! I appreciate the thoughtful staff and the service as they did not forget to re-fill our tea and change our plates, despite a fully-packed restaurant.

The dinner was fulfilling and now we were energetic again! We strolled to Eslite (誠品敦南店), the biggest bookstore in Taipei. This is indeed heaven for book-lovers as the bookstore opens 24-hour! How i wish there's such a culture in Sg... s'poreans prefer to play wif iphones & ipads instead of reading! As we enter Eslite, the air-con dun seems to work well & it was really crowded! The bookstore was huge & i needed to ask the staff for directions to the selection I wanted. Armed wif a book-list, I searched very long till I met this helpful gal who helped me to check the shelves for the titles I wanted... One of it was out-of-stock, but i still got 4 books in the end! 2 of those were 2011 Eslite's best-sellers, all got further discounts! yippee! 4 chinese books cost me less than sg 50 bucks, so worth it! 

As such, we happily lug our heavy books in the rain back to hotel ...

TW Day 3: Enjoy Scenic Cingjing (清境) 。。。

Our alarm was set much earlier today as we gotta leave Taichung for Cingjing mountain. We had racee the Nantou Bus Co's outlet the previous day. There were quite a number of people already waiting at the Bus Co as they operate buses to various destinations... Our hotel's sandwiches helped to fill our tummies!  Upon boarding the spacious coach, we nap for the next 2.5 hours....zzz.

As the coach made its way up the mountain route, we saw the castle-like minsu which would entail a costly stay! Many thematic minsu (民宿) line the route, these are actually family-run inns, which offer you not just a stay, but also home-cooked meals and tours wif additional costs. It had proven to be popular wif both their domestic travellers and foreigners.

As we arrived earlier than the check-in time, our minsu had advised us to deposit our luggages at a restaurant near the customer svc ctr. We stopped by Starbucks for a short break while waiting for the restaurant to open. After depositing our bags, we went to the postal centre at Carton King to purchase wooden postcard to mail home... had fun collecting the stamps! haha! Since there were not really much options for lunch, we decided to lunch at Carton King (紙箱王), a theme restaurant. This innovative Carton King have a few outlets, which specialise in using cardboards to make all kinds of things, ranging from the tables & chairs in their restaurants to decorative pieces like Eiffel Tower etc. They even managed to make the paper waterproof! Their set lunch were worthwhile ~ I got a fried chicken set wif honey flower tea, while Ruby had a seafood set.

After filling our tummies, we ventured to the Swiss Garden next door... it's mid-afternoon by now and sunny! Hence, we were lucky to get blue skies & white clouds for our photoshoot! Juz as we were shooting at one point, the musical fountain suddenly sprouted! It's a wonderful sight as the pathway was lined wif Sakura trees too!  The garden is lined wif different colourful flora and made a nice backdrop together with the mountain's fresh air! As we were snapping, i chanced upon 2 gals also shooting wif dslr, so we shot for each other!  The shots turned out well ^o^

Then, we walked along the sakura lined path and i tried to frame the lake wif the sakura... we also experimented slow shutter wif the 'sunflower' windmills... At the end of the stretch, there's a nursery filled wif red & yellow tulips...these looked different from those we sighted yesterday. Nearing our end of the swiss garden tour, the temperature started to plunge... it got windy & colder! We decided to collect our luggages and phoned the minsu's staff to pick us up.

After a short wait, an uncle met us at the restaurant and helped us wif our luggages & drove us to the minsu. Our stay for tonite is 駿亦景觀民宿. During check-in, we query about the sunrise tour, but was informed that sunrise tour is impossible during winter as the road up the He Huan Mountain is closed till 7am. Hence, we opted for the half-day tour for an additional NT600. Upon check-in to our Princess Room, we fell in love wif our room! It has a king-seize bed, wooden flooring & a balcony! Juz a pity it started to get abit foggy & the lake view was shrouded by fog...

At 5.20pm

At 5.34pm

At 5.36pm

Finale @ 5.43pm

We ventured to the back-end route of our stay and wanted to walk the sunset path. However, we realised we were too late, since it would take half an hour to get up. As such, we juz walked a short distance & decided to enjoy the sunset view from here! Fluffy clouds or we called 'sea of clouds' (雲海) lined the horizon... it's the first time i am seeing this! I also tried to do a couple of panoramic shots wif my small camera. It's not easy! We spent an hour basking in this scenic location...

When we returned to our minsu, it's still early for our dinner so we continued shooting our room's interior... haha! At 7pm when we went down for dinner, we had to walk to the main reception building & felt really cold! Our host prepared a scrumptious dinner for us, consisting of 4 dishes & 1 soup + fruits. I had never seen ruby managed to finish so much food! We had a hearty meal as the home-cooked dishes were really delicious. ^_^