Welcome to Taiwan

1st day

We took the FreeGo coach bus frm airport to hotel but need to change to another mini bus on the way.. The mini bus driver was too "gan ho" man! drove like he's rushing for duno wat..fast n violent man..n when we first saw him, he was sitting on his chair with his legs up on the table, smoking away, like an old "ah beng". Felt so lucky tat we survived the journey to hotel.

me showing the coach bus

weide on the "crazy uncle" mini bus

Checked into our hotel at ard 8pm...TS Hotel..wow, turned out to be quite nice (chosen by our nelson which had done quite abit of research)only a few mins walk from ximending mrt..Big room, comfy bed, flat screen tv (with more than 100 channels), not to mention the wonderful bathtub n big shower head

xi men ding...5mins or less walk from our TS hotel

tao yuan beef~ noodles...our 1st meal in TAIPEI, not so bad but abit too oily though..we had a hard time looking for this famous stall. cos its night time, everywhere was quite dark den u couldnt really see the road signs unless you are right in front of it. ironically, the road signs all face the traffic & not the pedestrians

my dear enjoying his noodles..he loves it

after our noodles, we headed down to hua xi night market with many restaurants serving snake & turtle soup, well-known to be very good 4 health. Crowded even though its a wednesday

MOji..big & way too sticky, think s'pore version is nicer

soya pudding with agar agar..this is better than the moji

wow, this game is so popular in taipei, you can see them at almost every night market..they call it "dan zhu", it means bullet. It is like our pinball game that we always play on computer or psp, etc. But they acutally have the machines there. All the gamers there are experts, they can win hundreds & hundreds of pinballs..to exchange for soft toys. We were almost addicted too, had fun!

nel trying to catch 1 of those UFO catcher toys

wow, in the end he caught 2 in one night

Day 2

Had our simple breakfast at the hotel. You can choose between American breakfast such as toast bread with egg & sausages or Chinese porridge with vege, eggs & chicken etc.

sleepy me having breakfast @ TS hotel

Our first stop for the day was National Palace Museum where they kept all the ancient chinese dynasty treasures. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed so not much pictures to show except those we took outside the museum. Later on, we took mrt to danshui old st --> bali --> fisherman's wharf. Then rushed to hot spring & finally Shilin night market for dinner. whole day we were rushing here & there, asking for directions..luckily the locals were quite helpful & friendly so we managed to get around.

taking the mrt..interesting way of seating

the entrance of National Palace Museum

It's a HOT HOT MORNING!!!

ya, 8000 yrs of history (dun play play)

of cos tickets required

geared up! chiong ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

went to danshui st & had the sour plum drink, refreshing

must try the agei if u visit taiwan, simply love it. it's actually fried tofu skin stuffed with spiced vermicelli noodles with fish paste. another dish to try is their fish balls, simple yet delicious

2 two dishes- agei & fish balls

very expensive strawberries

Tall ice-cream..wasn't creamy enough..haha, nel's shirt was stained by the strawberries. It was so hot that the syrup from the strawberries melted while he was eating them. We bought some iron eggs too.

along the danshui old street, we found this museum with all the strange & weird things on earth. zoom in to see what they are

super big frog

turtle or crocodile?

trying to act pathetic..punishment for making cindy angry :) heehee

snap a pic before taking the boat to Bali

sorry ah, really hot (at least 35 0C) & i had to use an umbrella there. Not sure if you notice that singapore gals seldom use umbrella even when it's super sunny. But in taiwan it is quite a common sight..I kanna sun burnt when i don't carry one.

on the boat

view from the boat

finally Bali.. you can rent bicycles & cycle around the place, like our east coast..but it is very quiet & peaceful

view of bali from a treetop

oh no i think i look horrible

wow can you see the 2 hearts joining together?

shops at the bali

hmm...wat is this? not sure

fisherman's wharf - lover's bridge

isn't it relaxing? sip a cup of coffee, admiring the beautiful sunset

we were waiting for the sunset, but sad to say it started to rain at ard 6+..there goes our sunset..so our nel decided to try his luck again at the UFO catcher

beautiful

nicey...

scary rite.. our hot spring..the water was hot! 40 0c.felt dizzy when soaked in for too long.. but a great way to relax ur tired body from the walking. the rest of the pics were censored, sorry!

after hot spring, makan time! heading to shilin night market!!!!!

outside shilin mrt

food..food..food...everywhere

shilin 303 congee, had their cantonese congee.. 4 out of 5 stars

famous oyster omelet...i find it ok but nel only ate the vege..their version is sweet but singapore's is salty. I prefer taiwan's version, hee~

this is also another famous delicacy - big chicken cutlet.. so big that many couldn't finish them & decided to feed the wild dogs. BUT the dogs just sniffed abit & walked away. Haha think the dogs there were sick of it already!!!! hahahahah!

infirm?

Day 3

1. Half day tour to Northern Coast, Kee Lung & Yehliu

It's a mistake to engage a tour agency for this half day tour.. Just brought us to a temple, short visit to yehliu & tats it. Then brought us to some souvenir shop (expensive stuff there as usual). The tour guide was quite chatty but kept yawning on the way. 50 SGD for this kind of less than 4 hours tour is definitely not worth it.

view from the temple

under renovation

nothing to do, so take pic lor

in the mini van looking out

yehliu, finally something interesting... stone formations..It is famous for the curious shapes carved by sea erosion.

Cinderella's slippers...can see? behind us

tour guide said this was king kong...?

the most famous Queen's head

others

strong wind there

2. KTV at PartyWorld

me singing (focusing, really into the song)

big room sia with attached toilet, shiok!

chinese chinese chinese panel

near our hotel.. common sight, so squeezed still can park

had a hard time figuring how to buy their train tickets.. den everyone was rushing here & there, trying to catch the earliest possible train, frightens me..1 uncle even got angry & yelled at the staff there becos the ticket machine kept rejecting his coins & caused him to miss the train




train platform..looks peaceful but everyone was so fierce when boarding the train



in the train



3. on our way to the warehouse shopping area - Wufenpu..the clothings, bags & shoes were quite cheap (must bargain of cos) but ppl were hostile..one even said their jeans were designed by designers so if we are looking for cheap stuff, pls look elsewhere.. !!!!!! show attitude sia.. (so pissed off!) no pics from that place



4. den we crossed over to other side of songshan station to Raohe night market

Day 4

Longshan temple (too bright so eyes couldn't open, not my eyes small hor). we went ard searching for the sunmoonlake shop to buy the sun biscuits, think we spent at least an hr. den we got to know the branch has moved. so suay right

feeling very hungry, we head down to modern toilet theme restaurant..

all toilet facilities

toilet set meal...nice & hot from the .......

smelly

shit?!

shitier?! sigh, i ordered the wrong size & nel helped me to finish it, well at least he tried

handsome couple...hahahahaha

snake in the toilet

SOGO deparmental store... at least 15 storey high..another SOGO at another side of mrt ..they shopped like it's free, its 50% off SALE but after discount, it is still about the same price as in singapore

Taipei 101

of cos must buy ticket den can go up to 89th floor indoor observatory & see see

outside - FOC

buy tickets again if you wan go to the 91th floor outdoor observatory

This is the famous hotpot in taiwan & i can tell you that this is my FAVOURITE! The beef with the spicy hot soup combination is awesome!!!! 4.5 out of 5 stars

I wished we had ordered 4 plates of beef instead of the fish cake platter

ad at mrt stations telling ppl not to commit suicide..

taking their LRT

shack

back to hotel sweet hotel

last day we just shopped around ximending...its huge man and many many things to buy, but of cos not as cheap as those from underground malls

ah zhong mee sua..nice nice



forever with messy hair



wow their bubble tea is far better than ours

on the coach bus to CKS airport

last glimpse of taipei city

Last but not least frens, please pardon me for the poor alignment & different font size, etc cause you know la I'm lazy when it comes to blogging... haha~