A simple life: TAIPEI Roadtrip!!

Finally, a four days Free & Easy trip to Taipei with my mum and sista! Kinda looking forward to it as it has been awhile since we went for a holiday together. My brother wasn't interested as he went to Taipei with his friends a few weeks ago. My dad? busying working, cant apply for leave and blah blah blah~

it's moi 2nd trip to Taipei ( the first one for work purpose). Im kinda lost on the sightseeing places and eating joints. Instead of spending S$30plus buying a travel guide to Taiwan, Moi decided to borrow one from the Library!! TATA!!

I would expect to find tons and tons of travel books on Taiwan since it is regularly visited by Singaporeans. HELL No! Instead moi managed to find just one measly book on Taiwan and it was published like 4years back!! Darn~

Armed with my precious "Lonely Planet Travel guide" and my fren's Clarissa advice, moi start to planned the itinerary for the journey ahead

On the day of departure, we just have to check in our luggage since we had selected our desired seats the day before

And this is moi in my seat!! Woo Hoo~
Its so nice to be served instead of serving people..

My lunch: oriential style Pork with Rice. Bleah~ (Actually, i gave mum my whole main course)
Truth is: I kinda bored with airline food! After having the same kind of stuff for 2 and a half years, i'm like "No more!! Enough!!"
Don't they all taste the same? too salty and too dry?? usu. its like the chicken with rice or fish with potatoes or mabbe the chicken with potatoes or the fish with rice etc

Upon landing in Taipei, we boarded a shuttle bus that took us from CKS airport to Taipei Main station in the city. Good luck to you if wanna take a taxi instead! Its gonna cost you a bomb.

My friend, Clarissa advised moi to take the bus to the city and then take a taxi to the hotel which was located in Ximending area. The bus ride was around 125NT and the taxi fare was 100NT

Our first stop:
华细街夜市 snake alley
This place is well lit lined with clothing boutique sweet shops snacks shops, foot massage shops, souvenir shops and restaurants. We pass by a number of snakes shops but the owners didnt allow moi to take a photo. 讨厌
Apparently, these shops sells snake meat. The meat ends up in soup or stir fried veggie while the bloood is miced with chinese liquor, a cocktail said to be good for the vitility and a host of ailments. *ewwww*

We passed by this store which sells 甜不辣 （direct translation: sweet but not spicy). It's probably one of the Taiwanese favourite snack judging from the long quene that was forming outside this stall. I didnt really fancy it though.

Day 2

Public Transport (MRT) Mass Rapid transit- It's advisable to buy an Easy card, similar to our Ezylink card. The price: NT200 for adults and a NT100 deposit. The easycard gives us a20%discout on MRT fares. Whe n you are done with using the Easy care, simply take it to an MRT ticket booth and your deposit plus any stored value will be refunded.

We decided to head up to Northern Taiwan for sightseeing

First stop was to keelung基隆, which is the second largest port in Taiwan

Next, we took an one hour bus ride (cost 60NT) to : Jiufen 九份, which is nestled against the mountains and hemmed in by the sea. This is one of the quaintest stops along the travel routes of Taiwan

In Jiufen, there's this famous street call Jishan street 基山街. It is a really long tiled lane but spending a few hours bere browsing the nick nack, curio and craft shops is a lot of fun

Check out these unique shoes!!! Haha..Nay, they are not meant for walking or the latest fashion in Taiwan. The owner of the shop told us wearing these shoes helps to improve blood circulation and gives us better posture. Yeah Yeah Yeah, we believe you...

We came upon this newly opened Naraya shop in Jishan street! Cool~
I love Naraya stuff!!!!!!
However a price check turns out these baggie are much more expensive than the one sold in Thailand...

One of the most popular activites on the street is snacking. This is moi bitting into Ah Lan 草仔果 herbal cake)...This is nice! taste similar to our Ang Gu Kuei in Singapore

We also came across this interesting snack ==>Arcade - fist sized pouches of fried tofu filled with bean-thread noodles and served in a hot broth

From Jiufen, we decided to make a trip down to Bitou Cape 鼻头角, One of the three Capes along the northern coast known for its stunningly beautiful sea-eroded cliffs
The locals told us there's no direct bus from Jiufen to Bitou Cape and advised us to book a cab instead. The cab ride cost us 300NT.

The view along the way to Bitou Cape

The driver did a pit stop at this two beautiful sea-eroded stones.
Oh man! i wanna take a picture with the stone~

This is the start of the Bitou cape trial The trail includes a walk out to a lighthouse, joins the longer Longdong cape trail to the south to give you an hour or two of walking

With mutual agreement, all of us decided that the trail is kinda long and WE decided to drop the idea!

Time to head back to the city for dinner!!

士林夜市 shilin Night market. This Night market is considerd by many to be the king of Taipei's night markets and is just steps from MRT jiantan station. Its teems with stall sellling snacks footwear and game arcades

Yesh!! This is the famous Silin Fried chicken chop!!!! Let me tell you, the quene gets really long at night but moi still manage to get my hand on one!!! YAAY~~

This "big biscuits wrapped in small biscuits" is a pretty interesting snack. It's actually just a thin po pian skin wrapped in a bisuit ( The biscuit comes in many different flavors as well)

The more common snacks found in Silin are the smelly fried tofu, the oyster omelette, Oyster mee sua, bubble tea drinks etc etc

Day 3

Chiang kai shek memorial hall中正纪念堂, admission is free
up a flight of 89steps, denoting chiang's age when he died, an oversized bronze sculpture of the man himself occupied a cavernous hall and looks out towards the gate. he's flanked by two motionless guards with bqyoneted rifles and behind him, carved into the white marble walls are chinese characters reading eithics, democracy and science, the Three Principles of the People, was opened in 1980, five years after he died

Thats moi climbing up the 89 steps!!

an oversized bronze sculpture of the man himself

Change of guards! Happen every hourly...so get your timing right if you wanna watch the change of guards

Theother view of the memorial! Wow~ this place is huge...

Next stop: Longshan temple 龙山寺
This temple dates back to 1738
the waterfall outside the main hall

After Longshan, we decided to head down to Danshui 淡水. It was once taiwan largest fishing port. Across the river is the mountian Guanyishan and the town of Bali, a quick ferry ride away

It is also here that i found the longest ice-cream!!!! Check this out...
This is the nice lady making my ice-cream

TATA!! omg~ isn't this amazing???
AFter Danshui, we took the MRT to Taipei City hall to visit
the Taipei 101 台北国际金融中心. It is 101 storeys (hence the name), 508m tall and built to resemble a stalk of bamboo's nodes

Each ticket cost NT350 if you wanna go up the observatory deck located on the 89th floor.
I personally dun like the idea of them charging $$$ just to go up the building but Heck!

I cant even take a nice picture. SEE!!! *Grrrr*
(in case you're wondering abt the translucent images on the picture, thats my sista and moi! Not some floating apparition making themselves visible)