I ♥ Taiwan - Part 2

Shall continue with my Taiwan Trip post. HAHA. This is like so outdated already but whatever. still wanna blog abt it. :)

Day 4

Again.... 4 of us headed out first... 国父纪念馆 was our first stop. It's free to enter so we just head there ard 10am. Very big place... and we just missed their changing shift timing when we got there.But guards there are luckier... they are standing indoor instead. at least they are spared from direct sun.

Looked ard the museum inside... and took a few pictures with his statue. And collect some chops too. haha! like keep collecting chops.. later still got. =P

Then walked to Taipei 101. It's really like damn high class. Filled with branded goods only. Walked ard for a while... went to find the Page-one bookstore. Very big! but didn't get what dad wanted cos turned out to be not what we expected. So anyway we bought some keychains as gifts from there. nice but a bit more ex. haha!

Took their shuttle bus to the City Hall station to wait for the other 2. Very cold day. and i was wearing sleeveless top. wah. i nearly freeze in the wind. Finally they reached and we proceed to lunch! :) At Mr. J Restaurant. One of the meals we spent more money. But ok ba... I think we enjoyed ourselves taking photos here and there. I'm not a big fan of Mr. J.. so i already didn't take a lot. haha. Food is not bad and not very expensive for most of the dishes. If u are fan of Mr. J, go crazy over his posters, the ancient piano in The Secret and his merchandise. They say sometimes he does go there.

After that we went to 五分埔. It's really big. But becos it's really big, we got a bit confused after too many turns. And i was already very alert and direction wise. I think qin they all just lost their way and anyhow walk until they got to the meeting place lor. haha! Anyway selling mostly clothes.. but not all are cheap as well. Da-jie and i bought quite a few pieces of clothing.. must grab those sale item... sometimes will get very good bargain. :) And depending on the owner also lor. Some like super black face, so rude. I think we like shopped there for at least 2hours and still didn't cover the whole place lor.

So anyway next we proceeded to 饶河夜市. Shopped again! And find food to eat also lah... tried some different food and had 芒果冰 again! :) Nice nice nice. haha. and i forgot what else we ate le... Shopped till quite late cos we came across this wired gifts pushcart and all of them want to buy... so we waited there for the keychains to be done. (Ya.. that's the 饶河帅哥. haha!) By the time they are all done.. most of the other stalls closed liao.. and it was like past 1am. haha! So we took a photo with him before we left. He so nice lah... still help us call cab and ask the uncle give us 20% discount on cab fare. Good right!

Ya.. and that's the end of Day 4. We all decided to go out a bit later the next day.. since shops at 西门町 don't open so early anyway. :)

Day 5
Still... we went out first... To have our breakfast at 西門町. Breakfast at the Swing Cafe. Cool concept. Only thing each person has a minimum spending to fulfill. We shared this super BIG red tea. Like WOW! After that, we actually shopped at 西門町 for the whole day!! Bought a lot of things wor. Even though things are more expensive than the night markets, we still bought a lot. haha!

Lunch at the Toilet Restaurant. Wah! A bit hard to find, we have to ask a few ppl before we get to the right place. Concept was cool. Food was quite good actually and not really expensive. Only the dessert was so-so. A lot of Singaporeans go there, could see notes left behind by fellow Singaporeans in the bathtub (table). Took quite a lot of photos there too. (actually the only place at 西門町 which we took photos mainly). haha!

Then was shopping the whole day!!! Bought like a lot of things again. Necklaces as gifts and some for myself as well. The only cheaper things there actually.

When we finally decided to return to our hotel to put down all our things, it was already like late evening. We saw a 黑輪 stall and decided to buy some to try cos we have nv had it before! The stall owner is really nice too! We asked for recommendations and she said everything nice. -.- But in the end she got us the more popular ones. And even separated the soup from the food so that we can bring back to hotel to eat. :) And it turned out to be really nice food even though it's really like 路邊攤! Surprise surprise. haha.

Then we were still not so tired yet, so we went to 五分埔 again. Wanted to go 饒河夜市 again but there wasn't enough time. So we only shopped the first. Eventually everyone still got something from there even though we have been there already. haha!

Then returned to hotel to rest already!

Day 6
It's a day out again. One day tour to some further places.

野柳公園 was the first stop. Actually there wasn't really much inside. hahaha! lotsa sand and weathered stones/land ard. But the famous 女王頭 is still worth cos it's still under weathering conditions and it might be gone soon. the 'neck' of the figure is getting thinner and thinner. They are thinking that we visit next year, it wouldn't be there any more. Wow! Power of nature.

Then we were brought to 平溪 to 放天燈. Shared 2 天燈s, wrote our wishes according to the category and release it to the sky one by one. Like COOL! (To think of it now, the wishes on work didn't really come true within the year - edited on 1 Jan 2010). It was a fun process. We ran into another group of Singaporeans there as well. And a couple actually wanted to take photo with us and our 天燈! haha. Coincidentally, we came across the real steam train head there. The ppl there told us that the train head only operate twice per year! We are really lucky. So there were A LOT of photographers there, waiting for the train to come by. It's really quite an exciting moment. Really cool. :)

Too bad they have closed 十分瀑布 cos of some court case on the ownership of the waterfall. I would really like to see it!

So we proceeded to 九份老街. I like the place. Though it rained halfway, the whole walk-through was good! We had the famous fishball soup for lunch. Cheap and good! Shopped all the way to the top. The rain caused the mountain area to fog after the rain. So cooling. :) Again. Bought some things here and there. Mostly food. 花生酥 was really good! First recommendation if u are going there! Another good food is 賴阿婆芋圓. Even i dun really like 紅豆湯. The whole dessert is just great!

Our walk took so long that we missed the opening hours of 金瓜石. But our guide didn't tell us as well. So anyway he brought us ard the mountain area to take pictures. Nice scenery really. The sky, sea and greens. I love. :)

Then to 基隆夜市. We didn't stay there for long cos mostly were seafood and we didn't want to eat. We only got some stuff from there and decided that we should return to 士林夜市 on our last night. Haha. So the guide drove us back and dropped us at 士林. Time to eat and shop again! Last min shopping!

Cabbed back to hotel. Not very late cos need to pack bag anyway. Xuyin and Yuyan only slept for a while cos they had to leave so early for their flight.

Day 7
Our last half day there! Actually didn't do much. Can't rmb what we had in the morning, i think it was some bread. haha! Then shopped at the 台北站 cos that's where we stayed and the nearest of all. And there's actually quite a bit to shop at the underground street. Bought more shoes. lol! And nothing much lah cos our luggage also full liao lor. lol!

Had our last 青蛙下蛋 before we return to hotel to checkout and go to the airport. Turned out we were quite early... And i got another 2 gifts for my girls. Haha! Somemore i no money liao have to borrow from da-jie. LOL! =x

Touched down ard midnight and er-jie came to fetch us. Qin so drama lah, her family didn't know she coming back sia... So i accompany her and help her carry her stuff up to her house since her brother didn't response and didn't come down. Turned out they all went to sleep liao! LOL! her brother still say he thought qin coming back the next day. haha! Damn funny. But luckily we sent her home if not i think she cham. Haha!