Taiwan - Part 3: Home Sweet Home
I'm home now. Got home on wednesday night. Damn, the cab fare was horrendous, nearly $40 with the new fare adjustments and midnight charges. Luckily, shared with G, if not, I would have puked blood. Yeesh. Okay, as promised, a rundown of my last week in Taiwan.
20/7: In JiaYi, we stayed in this cheap hotel. It seems more like a motel actually, offering hourly charged rates! Now, initially it seemed alright. But later in the evening, when we got back from dinner, there were quite a few old ah peks staying there. They gave these leering looks as you walk by. Also, while flipping through the channels, realised that there were a couple very erotic ones! There was one channel selling male organ enlargement equipment and drugs like viagara. It was a rather scientific ad actually, showing clinical trials with high tech medical equipment validating their claims! Was quite funny actually. One that was rather shocking was a Japanese channel which showed well.. sex. The interesting thing is that the focus was always on the girls, the men were really like cameos (providing the actions if you know what i mean). It's surprising how they can have it on hotels tv network offering. What if some child saw them!? Was an eye-opener for me though. Haa. 
21/7: Headed up to Alishan in the morning. Took the Alishan forest railway. It's an old railway system that was built by the Japanese about 70 years ago or so to transport the lumber down the mountains. Though a very slow ride, it was very scenic and interesting. Can see the changes in the vegetation as the railway climbs up. From tropical to sub-tropical to temperate. Went from like 130m above sea level to 2200m! Alishan is a very nice area. As was mid-summer, the whole place was so green. Can get rather misty too with the clouds floating by.
The main tree species include cypress, which was prized by the Japanese, so a lot of giant trees were cut down back in the 1930s. Now, it's mostly a secondary forest. Did a hike along the main trails in the afternoon. Seeing some ancient trees, heard the oldest
cypress now is 2700 years old! In spring, there will be loads of flowers on the trees like sakuras and peonies and magnolias etc. Would love to visit Alishan in spring time.
22/7: Even though it's summer, it's pretty chilly up in Alishan. Was a low of 15oCw when I woke up early next morning for sunrise. Took the sunrise tour bus, so saw a few other sights including the Taiwan macques. Naughty monkeys they were. Hee. Did another hike before heading down back to JiaYi to catch a train back to Taipei.
Now, I was so blur. In my rush to change the train ticket for an earlier time, I actually boarded the wrong train! Paid for the most expensive rail (ZiQiang) but actually ended up on the 2nd class one (JuGuang)! Apparently, the 2nd class one was at the platform before my intended train. And in my rush to get on, I didn't realise that I should have waited a few more minutes for my actual train to come! Didn't even realise until more than half the journey later, when the ticket master checked my ticket, he mentioned that I was on the wrong train and the ZiQiang one had already gone ahead (it's a faster train with less stops). So there was no way I could catch it up and had to continue on the JuGuang. Lucky thing for me was that the 2 seats we took had no one seating in them. Had any claimed the seats, we would have to give them up since we were not the rightful passengers! Just imagine 4 hours of standing! Haa.. but anyway, we were lucky to own the seats all the way to Taipei. And thankfully the JuGang one arrived only half an hour later than the ZiQiang, so didn't get to Taipei too late. Only wasteful thing was that I paid for a first class ticket but sat on a 2nd class train. Haa. Blur me.
23/7: Heard another typhoon was coming. So decided to make full use of the good weather for now and headed to JiuFen to do some shopping. Think becos it was a Sunday, there were loads of people. Now, JiuFen is a town out of Taipei city. It has a few old streets with old style chinese shophouses. Now, all the shophouses are occupied by food stalls selling local delicacies, tea and tourist trinkets. There are quite a few famous foods there. We tried the famed yu4 yuan2. It's mainly like our tang yuan
but without filling and smaller. The dough is infused with yam, green beans or sweet potato. It's not bad, though I think it can get a bit ni4 after a few mouthfuls. But that's me. The locals seem to love it. There were many snacks stalls. Snacks aren't exactly cheap, but all pretty tasty. Each pack can easily set one back by about NT100-200. Still, I bought a lot back. Brought almost NT2000 there, but almost wasn't enough! 
Headed over to Chiang Kiak Shek memorial hall. There's a whole exhibition about his life and his contributions to Taiwan. The memorial hall is housed on huge grounds together with the national theatre and concert hall. On the grounds, you also see kids learning to blade, locals practising falungong and basically having a leisurely time.
Went to Long Shan Si next, a very traditional chinese temple. think was approaching the 1st of lunar day, so there were many devotees giving offerings. Whole place was bustling with people and incense smoke p
ermeates the air. Though there were many people, everytime I visit a religious site, I naturally would have a sense of calmness filling my heart. Hua Xi Jie was next. It's a huge night market, famous for snake eating and colourful antics. You can see the stalls handling the snakes,while urging you to try out their snake delicacies. Besides the main sheltered street, there are a few other streets selling all sorts of nick-nacks. Daily necessitites, delicious Taiwanese food, handphones, bags, clothes, game stalls etc and 'play' things are openly sold in this night market!! Still, it was very vibrant. I wonder if it's because it was a Sunday night, or every night it is as so. The whole place was so alive! 
24/7: Headed up top YangMingShan. But sadly, the weather was not on our side. It was drizzling and hiking in the rain, under the raincoat ain't a fun thing. It's quite a miserable feeling. Worse thing was that the visitor's centre wasn't open (closes on Monday), along with many other sights. At the suggestion of a lady, we headed to Zhu Zi Hu on the mountain. It's not a lake as the name implies, but actually an area with many flower nurseries. It's quite scenic. We entered one and saw the beautiful flowers. The area many grew Hai3Yu4, a kind of lily. In spring when the flowers bloom, the whole area will be a wash of white. How beautiful that must be. Anyhow, the flowers that were blooming them were very pretty too. Made the day so much more enjoyable. Even got to chit-chat with the boss of the nursery and he gave us a few seeds of the sunflowers! Gonna try and grow them. Just need to be diligent in water, day and night!
Then, decided to go BeiTou for hotspring. There's a public bath which cost only NT40. But I forgot that they open in sessions of about 3 hours each time, closes for cleaning in between. Went in too late into a session. Barely soaked in the bath for 15 minutes when we had to leave. Sigh. The sulphurous water is suppose to be good for the skin... Wish I had soaked longer! The locals sure get it lucky. Can get to soak in the hot spring frequently and so cheap somemore! After that, we hard an ardous climb along the steep roads of BeiTou in search for 2 sites, but alas wsa not to be.
Think the signs along the way got something wrong ah. Shall not say more. Was an utter waste of time.
Lastly, went to DanShui for the sunset. But sadly, there was no sun. Too cloudly. But had a nice relaxing time setting by the riverbank watching the change in sky colour. Saw a filming there too. Turns out that it was for the electorial candidate's campaign video (well at least we guess so). Didn't go over to the famous Fisherman's wharf as since there was no sunset, figure shan't waste the money. Anyway, heard it's quite tourisy there.
As the night was still early, we went to ShiDa night market. Maybe cos it was summer break and it's a monday night, there weren't many people. Didn't impress me much. Can see that the stalls were all targetted at the students in the area. Including some selling stationery and daily requirements.
25/7: Covered quite a few places in a day. Spent a good 4 hours in the National Palace Museum. Can't deny that the collections are supered. Very well kept and the exhibits are explained clearly. Understand that it's undergoing a major renovation (only half the galleries were open, and that took me 4 hours already!!). They are going to infuse high-tech interactive exhibits with the artificats. Would be interesting to visit again when it's all ready.
Next up, was Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. We happen to catch the guards changing ceremony. Was quite funny actually. As there's an attendant who would straighten the guards' unifoms and posture after the ceremony. He even wipes off the sweat on the guards! The memorial hall itself wasn't very nice. Nothing much with explainations only in Chinese. Can't be bothered to read. Seems like Chiang Kiak Shek is more revered than him. Haa.
Wu3 Fen4 Pu3 was our next stop. It's basically like a fashion wholesale area. Youth clothes are cheap here but don't expect to find any good quality stuff. Every other shop sells the same stuff. Now, the fashion trend is the nautical look, or the girly frilly look. So all the stores sell that. After walking down one street, I can't be bothered anymore. Even G who is out to get stuff for a teen sis got sicked of the place, and we scooted after one hour.
Last up, is Taipei 101. It's an expensive entry up to 89th floor, NT350. But the view was pretty nice. Though I still personally prefer Singapore's night sky. Hee. Call me bias! The stores in 101 are all high end fashion. It's so quiet in the mall. There are so few customers despite discounts of 50% or more. In SG, the malls would be swarmed! International brands aren't cheap in Taiwan. Actually, they are more expensive than in SG. Realise that this is so in many countries. Think our taxes here are low, so international brands can offer cheaper prices. Had my most expensive meal in Taiwan there too. A vegetarian set meal costing me NT150! It was vegetarian buddha jump over the wall. Well, luckily the soup was quite good. But damn, the serving is huge. Was so stuff after that.
26/7: Last day in Taiwan. Went to XiMenDing again, in hope to find the cheapo plastic bag to pack in our shopping achievements, but alas most shops dun open till 11. In fact, I even had to wait till 11.30am to try out the vegetarian shui jiao. It's pretty good though. Too bad they dun provide fresh ginger. Think Taiwanese don't eat it that way. Ended up only buying 2 cookbooks for my mom (hee... so she can cook for me to eat!).
Wanted to wait till DFS to get some Taiwanese beer and little rice wine, but oddly, it's not sold in dfs! I was quite surprised! Why won't they sell their own beer or wine for tourists to bring back? It's so odd. So sad to say, I didn't try any of the xiao mi jiu at all. Oh well. Yup.. that's my Taiwan trip. Next up.. Some reflections of my trip.
21/7: Headed up to Alishan in the morning. Took the Alishan forest railway. It's an old railway system that was built by the Japanese about 70 years ago or so to transport the lumber down the mountains. Though a very slow ride, it was very scenic and interesting. Can see the changes in the vegetation as the railway climbs up. From tropical to sub-tropical to temperate. Went from like 130m above sea level to 2200m! Alishan is a very nice area. As was mid-summer, the whole place was so green. Can get rather misty too with the clouds floating by.
The main tree species include cypress, which was prized by the Japanese, so a lot of giant trees were cut down back in the 1930s. Now, it's mostly a secondary forest. Did a hike along the main trails in the afternoon. Seeing some ancient trees, heard the oldest
cypress now is 2700 years old! In spring, there will be loads of flowers on the trees like sakuras and peonies and magnolias etc. Would love to visit Alishan in spring time.22/7: Even though it's summer, it's pretty chilly up in Alishan. Was a low of 15oCw when I woke up early next morning for sunrise. Took the sunrise tour bus, so saw a few other sights including the Taiwan macques. Naughty monkeys they were. Hee. Did another hike before heading down back to JiaYi to catch a train back to Taipei.
Now, I was so blur. In my rush to change the train ticket for an earlier time, I actually boarded the wrong train! Paid for the most expensive rail (ZiQiang) but actually ended up on the 2nd class one (JuGuang)! Apparently, the 2nd class one was at the platform before my intended train. And in my rush to get on, I didn't realise that I should have waited a few more minutes for my actual train to come! Didn't even realise until more than half the journey later, when the ticket master checked my ticket, he mentioned that I was on the wrong train and the ZiQiang one had already gone ahead (it's a faster train with less stops). So there was no way I could catch it up and had to continue on the JuGuang. Lucky thing for me was that the 2 seats we took had no one seating in them. Had any claimed the seats, we would have to give them up since we were not the rightful passengers! Just imagine 4 hours of standing! Haa.. but anyway, we were lucky to own the seats all the way to Taipei. And thankfully the JuGang one arrived only half an hour later than the ZiQiang, so didn't get to Taipei too late. Only wasteful thing was that I paid for a first class ticket but sat on a 2nd class train. Haa. Blur me.
23/7: Heard another typhoon was coming. So decided to make full use of the good weather for now and headed to JiuFen to do some shopping. Think becos it was a Sunday, there were loads of people. Now, JiuFen is a town out of Taipei city. It has a few old streets with old style chinese shophouses. Now, all the shophouses are occupied by food stalls selling local delicacies, tea and tourist trinkets. There are quite a few famous foods there. We tried the famed yu4 yuan2. It's mainly like our tang yuan
but without filling and smaller. The dough is infused with yam, green beans or sweet potato. It's not bad, though I think it can get a bit ni4 after a few mouthfuls. But that's me. The locals seem to love it. There were many snacks stalls. Snacks aren't exactly cheap, but all pretty tasty. Each pack can easily set one back by about NT100-200. Still, I bought a lot back. Brought almost NT2000 there, but almost wasn't enough! 
Headed over to Chiang Kiak Shek memorial hall. There's a whole exhibition about his life and his contributions to Taiwan. The memorial hall is housed on huge grounds together with the national theatre and concert hall. On the grounds, you also see kids learning to blade, locals practising falungong and basically having a leisurely time.
Went to Long Shan Si next, a very traditional chinese temple. think was approaching the 1st of lunar day, so there were many devotees giving offerings. Whole place was bustling with people and incense smoke p
ermeates the air. Though there were many people, everytime I visit a religious site, I naturally would have a sense of calmness filling my heart. Hua Xi Jie was next. It's a huge night market, famous for snake eating and colourful antics. You can see the stalls handling the snakes,while urging you to try out their snake delicacies. Besides the main sheltered street, there are a few other streets selling all sorts of nick-nacks. Daily necessitites, delicious Taiwanese food, handphones, bags, clothes, game stalls etc and 'play' things are openly sold in this night market!! Still, it was very vibrant. I wonder if it's because it was a Sunday night, or every night it is as so. The whole place was so alive! 
24/7: Headed up top YangMingShan. But sadly, the weather was not on our side. It was drizzling and hiking in the rain, under the raincoat ain't a fun thing. It's quite a miserable feeling. Worse thing was that the visitor's centre wasn't open (closes on Monday), along with many other sights. At the suggestion of a lady, we headed to Zhu Zi Hu on the mountain. It's not a lake as the name implies, but actually an area with many flower nurseries. It's quite scenic. We entered one and saw the beautiful flowers. The area many grew Hai3Yu4, a kind of lily. In spring when the flowers bloom, the whole area will be a wash of white. How beautiful that must be. Anyhow, the flowers that were blooming them were very pretty too. Made the day so much more enjoyable. Even got to chit-chat with the boss of the nursery and he gave us a few seeds of the sunflowers! Gonna try and grow them. Just need to be diligent in water, day and night!
Then, decided to go BeiTou for hotspring. There's a public bath which cost only NT40. But I forgot that they open in sessions of about 3 hours each time, closes for cleaning in between. Went in too late into a session. Barely soaked in the bath for 15 minutes when we had to leave. Sigh. The sulphurous water is suppose to be good for the skin... Wish I had soaked longer! The locals sure get it lucky. Can get to soak in the hot spring frequently and so cheap somemore! After that, we hard an ardous climb along the steep roads of BeiTou in search for 2 sites, but alas wsa not to be.
Think the signs along the way got something wrong ah. Shall not say more. Was an utter waste of time. Lastly, went to DanShui for the sunset. But sadly, there was no sun. Too cloudly. But had a nice relaxing time setting by the riverbank watching the change in sky colour. Saw a filming there too. Turns out that it was for the electorial candidate's campaign video (well at least we guess so). Didn't go over to the famous Fisherman's wharf as since there was no sunset, figure shan't waste the money. Anyway, heard it's quite tourisy there.
As the night was still early, we went to ShiDa night market. Maybe cos it was summer break and it's a monday night, there weren't many people. Didn't impress me much. Can see that the stalls were all targetted at the students in the area. Including some selling stationery and daily requirements.
25/7: Covered quite a few places in a day. Spent a good 4 hours in the National Palace Museum. Can't deny that the collections are supered. Very well kept and the exhibits are explained clearly. Understand that it's undergoing a major renovation (only half the galleries were open, and that took me 4 hours already!!). They are going to infuse high-tech interactive exhibits with the artificats. Would be interesting to visit again when it's all ready.
Next up, was Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. We happen to catch the guards changing ceremony. Was quite funny actually. As there's an attendant who would straighten the guards' unifoms and posture after the ceremony. He even wipes off the sweat on the guards! The memorial hall itself wasn't very nice. Nothing much with explainations only in Chinese. Can't be bothered to read. Seems like Chiang Kiak Shek is more revered than him. Haa. Wu3 Fen4 Pu3 was our next stop. It's basically like a fashion wholesale area. Youth clothes are cheap here but don't expect to find any good quality stuff. Every other shop sells the same stuff. Now, the fashion trend is the nautical look, or the girly frilly look. So all the stores sell that. After walking down one street, I can't be bothered anymore. Even G who is out to get stuff for a teen sis got sicked of the place, and we scooted after one hour.
Last up, is Taipei 101. It's an expensive entry up to 89th floor, NT350. But the view was pretty nice. Though I still personally prefer Singapore's night sky. Hee. Call me bias! The stores in 101 are all high end fashion. It's so quiet in the mall. There are so few customers despite discounts of 50% or more. In SG, the malls would be swarmed! International brands aren't cheap in Taiwan. Actually, they are more expensive than in SG. Realise that this is so in many countries. Think our taxes here are low, so international brands can offer cheaper prices. Had my most expensive meal in Taiwan there too. A vegetarian set meal costing me NT150! It was vegetarian buddha jump over the wall. Well, luckily the soup was quite good. But damn, the serving is huge. Was so stuff after that.
26/7: Last day in Taiwan. Went to XiMenDing again, in hope to find the cheapo plastic bag to pack in our shopping achievements, but alas most shops dun open till 11. In fact, I even had to wait till 11.30am to try out the vegetarian shui jiao. It's pretty good though. Too bad they dun provide fresh ginger. Think Taiwanese don't eat it that way. Ended up only buying 2 cookbooks for my mom (hee... so she can cook for me to eat!).
Wanted to wait till DFS to get some Taiwanese beer and little rice wine, but oddly, it's not sold in dfs! I was quite surprised! Why won't they sell their own beer or wine for tourists to bring back? It's so odd. So sad to say, I didn't try any of the xiao mi jiu at all. Oh well. Yup.. that's my Taiwan trip. Next up.. Some reflections of my trip.
posted by Nia at
11:55 AM
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