Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Taiwan Trip Day 2

Day 2--- 5 March 06 (Sun)

(sorry to keep you waiting. Hahah, I decided to compensate u all by doing some e-scrapbooking with Powerpoint. No imaging software on this laptop, so what I can do are limited. Some of the pics can be clicked on for a larger view)

We classified it as “Shopping Day”. Woke up feeling terribly cold. The air-con was super cold man. Our accommodation include free breakfast, so we were actually anticipating what type of breakfast we will going to have – American style buffet or Chinese Dim Sum.

The answer is :

Non of the above.


Breakfast was rather pathetic, if you are expecting a huge feast. The Café (if you call it) was manned by 2 middle-aged aunties, So it really seems like yr grannies making you breakfast. What’s available were 稀饭，pork floss and peanuts and other 配料 for the porridge, and u gotta toast yr own bread if you wanna one. Aunties will cook an egg for each guest.

(Not much variety of food available for the 3 days we’d been there. Frankly speaking, I am not used to having an egg for breakfast every day).

This is the nicest pic of our breakfast we can present you.



I am rather fine with the breakfast, as I dun have much appetite in the mornings. Having less to eat for breakfast means that my stomach has more room for local snacks. Yeah!.


Our itinerary for the day was as follows:

Morning : 淡水
Afternoon: 五分埔
Evening: 士林

JQ had instructed us to visit五分埔 on Sunday ( a must!) as Monday to Fridays are their 批發時間. As for士林 , there are more things to see on weekends than on weekdays. So that leaves us having to go to淡水 in the morning, missing the chance to catch it’s famous sunset.

Thee first thing we did at 西门（Ximen ） mrt station was to purchase their Easycard , or what they call 悠遊卡. I guess if not for JQ’s help, we would be like what Fannie and her friends did when they were in Taiwan – buying Single trip tickets, which is more expensive. According to JQ, Easycard can be use on MRT trains and on buses (except airport shuttle services). Furthermore there is rebate when you transfer from MRT to buses, and vice-versa. You can say it is similar to our Ezlink Card.
This is the map of Taipei MRT lines.



To get to淡水, we have to change train at 台北车站(Taipei Main Station)。It’s wasn’t too difficult to navigate our ways at the interchange as the signs were all displayed prominently (and it’s an advantage if you know Chinese). We managed to transfer to 淡水 line without getting lost or asking anyone for directions. It’s our first Free and Easy trip, so you can imagine how proud we were able to accomplish the task successfully!

We were impress by how discipline the taiwan passengers are, for they all patiently wait behind the white line, letting the passengers getting out of the trains first and keep to their right side when taking the escalators (really leaving a clear passageway for other passengers to walk on the left).


淡水station looks different from other MRT station along the line, perhaps it's because it's the terminal station. Took a few pics before we proceed to take Bus 26 to 淡水. (that's the only bus service we took throughout our whole trip).As for the bus fare, seems like it's a flat rate no matter where we alight at, cos we only need to tap the Easycard once on the cardreader when we board the bus.


This is the interior of the bus,the front few rows are single seaters while those rows after the exit are 2 seaters. See big black screen behind the driver's seat? It seems to be preparing the passengers for the direction the bus's travelling. Eg, when the bus is abt to turn LEFT, the “转左” signal will light up. And dun think the bus seems more lok-kok than Singapore buses, in fact , it is more advanced than ours. See the screen in front? It will display the name of next stop (in Chinese).

The bus driver must had figured out we were tourists, as he pointed us to alight upon reaching 渔人码头, the last stop . We were greeted by the cool breeze . Guess where we headed for first-- it's none other than the famous 情人桥!

Yeah yeah, i wanna say something.
fo those who do not know,李圣杰 (Li Sheng Jie) 的《你们要快乐》MV 就是在这里取景的。

See!



(THANKS JQ for helping me to do the screen capture, dunno why my comp's unable to do it".)
And if u all still dun believe, next time dedicate this song when u go to KTV.

Anyway, here are some pics we took.




Went to explore their "鱼市". That's what it was stated on the building, but it din seems liked one, as there 's a pub and an arcade within the building. Bought their famous 土产--铁蛋and Prawn and Fish crakers, before we went to explore the arcade.

Saw this big Winnie the Pooh and took "kee siao" pics again!




Oh yah, for more information ab 渔人码头, u may wish to visit this website: http://www.fisherman.com.tw/


Took the bus back, but alighted a few stops before the MRT station as we were intending to explore 淡水老街。Think we got off at the wrong bus stop, and explored into a wet market instead. Asked ppl for direction and along the way, we ate 鱼圆and 阿给 (tang-hoon wrapped in bean curd skin)-- these are what the lady whom we met at the airpot recommended. They were simply delicious, especially the fishballs. Unlike Sg's fastballs which taste more like"flour balls", theirs contained real fish meat . 当你咬下去时，可以感觉到有汤汁流出来。口感十足！Slurps!

Stumbled into 沪尾饼铺and bought their famous 花粉酥。Then we passed by Sophisca 糖果屋. It is really like those candy house you'd imagined appearing from fairytales. The deco is so nice! The candies packaging are sooooo nice, cute and creative. I almost wanna buy the whole shop! Too bad we are not allowed to take photographs. The salesgal -- a typical Taiwanese who spoke in a gentle way, initially thought we are from Hong Kong ( heh heh, seems like our plan to converse in English works). She offered us this "sinfully mouth-watering" chocolate.


Damn nice lor. (pardon my language, but they were really good.Even me, who's supposed to be on diet, can't resist popping a few after i'd bought a box). It is similar to the "melty kiss" chocolates which Ximei had gotten for us last Xmas, but even better! Each individually wrapped chocolate was covered in a layer of cocoa powder, and when u popped one into the mouth, the smooth texture really make u goes "Oooooooooooohhh!".

Haha, how glad am I to have devoured a few when I was in Taiwan. Cos when I unpacked my bag, to my dismay, they had melted. Even if I re-freeze them, the layer of cocoa powder had been mixed with the melted chocolate. That's y I din give any to my friends. (partly because I wanna finish them myself, hahaha, they still taste great even when in "liquid form").

Check with the salesgal and relieved to find that we were not far from the Hello Kitty Restaurant (which Flutterby had stated "MUST GO" in her itinerary). Though I'm not a fan of Hello Kitty, but still I thought it’s interesting to take a look.


The prices were rather reasonable, we ordered a cup of coffee each and shared a plate of Hello Kitty Pancake (that comes with tasty tuna and apples slices) and each of us paid abtS$10. Of cos I ordered Ice Latte (u know why! :p) and took pics with my drinks. Little did I realised that when I was busy taking pics of my Latte , or me& my Latte, Flutterby was secretly taking pics of me.



We both got a cup and toothpick to take home as souvenirs.


For Yr Info: Hello Kitty Cafe
淡水鎮中正路159號1∼3樓(淡水老街走到底.好樂迪斜對面)
電話：02-26297648

( digress here: I am feeling so tired , still stuck with writing this piece at 1am , still got lots more to go).

Went to explore the bustling street opposite 淡水 mrt. That's where we bought the flavoured Muah Chee (麻薯）and the recommended 黑糖麻薯. Like what the lady whom we meet at the airport said, once u tried the 黑糖麻薯, you won't think abt trying those flavoured, full of preservatives Muah Chee.



These are the pics I took with my mobile phone. Really got the “古早” feel ,especially after I set it to Sepia mode.

Armed with bags of stuff, we decided to drop them at our hotel before continuing our journey.


Next stop: 五分埔
( a fashion wholesale area)


According to the directions given, we have to take the train to 后山埤. It’s quite a distance from the station. Though we were on the right track after alight at the station, we were kinds confused by the lack of road signs on displayed. Fortunately, a kind lady walking passed saw us holding maps and figured out where we are going to. According to her, she lived nearby and often encountered tourists getting lost ard the area. And you know what, we were actually just a corner away from the area!. hahaha.



五分埔 was bigger than we expected. Initially we tried to remember the street we had passed. Then as we explored further, we simply decided to "purposely lost our way" and at most ask ppl for directions when we want to go back to the MRT station. Lots of cheap bargains available. As they were clearing winter wear, you can get jackets, long sleeve tees at S$5 each. Yah, I'm not kidding. If I din't control myself, I'd have bought more than 10 pcs of clothing home. There's spring wear available. Victorian-style blouses can be priced almost $20 lesser than what's sold in Singapore. But too bad you can't tried them on. I am rather particular in getting a fitting Shirt/blouse, so in the end, I resisted the temptation to buy one.

But I am very proud of my purchases:
1) a white velvet long puffed sleeved t shirt that comes with a mock necklace
2) a purple skirt with a sash at the waist
3) a black spaghetti top

all for S$5 each!!




Next Stop: 士林夜市

Dun be confuse with士林夜市 and 士林mrt station. To get to 士林夜市 , you'd have to alight at 剑潭station.


aA we alight from the train, immediately spotted 士林 across the station.

Such a crowded place!

Bought bubble tea as we were thirsty. They gave so many “珍珠” . Ever since tasted the "authentic Taiwan bubble tea", I kinda wish that I can get my hands on another cup when I was back in Singapore, and had to make deal with drinking some weird tasting bubble tea.

Couldn't find the "authentic XXL Chicken Cutlet stall" but we ordered 虾仁煎 and 臭豆腐. 虾仁煎 turned out to be 蚝煎 -- guess the uncle took the wrong order.

Despited having heat commented from friends and Mum that are so smelly that you can smelt them yards away, I dun find them so. Perhaps they exageratted or perhaps Taiwan's version isn't that smelly. We walked past some stall selling 臭豆腐, but din feel taht they were smelly to that extent. And I had purposely bought the most foul-smelling 臭豆腐 . hahha.

The smell was bearable, and of cos they taste as good as what ppl claimed.



See, they were so nicely packed!




Proceed to 士林夜市 , Tried their chicken cutlet. Woah , see , the meat was soo THICK.

Walked ard the 夜市 . It really put our Pasar Malams to shame....

We were prepared to walk until we were lost and then ask for directions but turned out we walked one whole round managed to find our way back to the MRT Station on our own! 厉害吧！

Even though we were so exhausted by the end of the day, we still stayed up till midnite , watching the Taiwan variety shows and Korean TV serials shown on the TV...

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