Can't you see I am sleeping?

Came across this cat dozing on a motorcycle while we were at Jiufen, Taiwan. I was drily commenting to Alex that I see lesser two wheeled vehicles nowadays as compared to our trip five years ago.

Also realized that this is the second time Mr B has been to Taiwan. Cheers~!

野柳海洋世界 Yehliu Geological Park (Part 1) - The Village itself

Taipei to Yehliu 野柳海洋世界:

From Taipei Intercity Bus Terminal (on Chongqing N. Rd., just west of Taipei Railway Station and Guoguang Bus Terminal West), take a Kuokang Bus headed for "Jinshan" and alight at "Yehliu"; after alighting, walk through the village and across the parking lot to the entrance of Yehliu Geological Park. What you don't know is that the place is really deep inside and when you reach the geological park you are rewarded with more walking and...CLIMBING. Bring an umbrella, wear sunblock and drink lots of water!

The bus to Yehliu is at counter 19, run by Kuokang Bus Co. from Taipei Main Bus Station which is outside Taipei Railway Station.

The Bus tickets. It's been so long, I can't remember how much they cost. Oopz

We walked to the Intercity Bus Terminal from Taipei Railway Station. On hindsight, we could have stayed in the area because there was so much shopping to be done in the area. Luckily I am not the shopping kind of girl. We had already "topo"ed the night before to make sure we would find the place, as we were going to cover a lot of areas the next day. From Taipei, it was one long bus ride to Yehliu, then Jiufen, Jingusashi before Keelung (we did not see much of Keelung because we were exhausted at the end of day).

Mr B still smirking despite the usual crouch pinching. He was the only one still smiling

We sat a long and winding bus ride to Yehliu where me and my fats were disgusted to realize that we would have to walk all the way into the the Geological Park *cue here for screaming*  in a sweaty morning where the sun is but a dollop of yellow on an azure sky.

Even though it was a LONG distance in (I was even more "delighted" that there was even more walking and CLIMBING to be done upon reaching the park), we enjoyed checking out the sights in the sleepy town.

The buildings cut sharp angles against the road as everyone hid from the sun. Tour buses with curious tourists streamed past us as we choked on their exhaust along the waterfront.

Typical fishing boats

Yehliu village appears to be a little fishing port, with many boats parked by the side of waterfront. The day's catch laid out in the sun, emitting salty sea odors as we passed. We saw baby squid and these tiny little fish, which seemed to make bad eating, but was apparently used in some condiment which you can buy as omiyage for unsuspecting relatives.

Bad eating drying in the hot sun, emitting Bad smells

As is typical of a fishing port, there is an imposing temple where fishermen and their families can pray for safety at sea.

貓空纜車 Maokong Gondola

Initially we wanted to go to Taipei zoo. In the end, we took the Maokong Gondola which was impressively high... and didn't get off at the zoo, instead we went to enjoy chinese tea (where I disgraced myself because I did not know how to write tomato in Mandarin. I panicked when trying to write it on the order form). Anyway when we went there, the place was SUPER CROWDED, it being a Sunday, so we had to take queue numbers and queue up obediently when they called out our number range.

Pussy cats guarding nearby Maokong station

Not for the faint-hearted

Panda Boyfriend and Girlfrend

Common sight at Maokong

The total length of the line is 4,030 meters.15 min ride @ 50 Taiwan dollars each.

Yummy Yummy @ RaoHe Street Night Market 饶河街夜市

Note: I am housekeeping all my drafts in this blog account. Found this one and decided to finish writing it and post.

The Fantastic Pepper Bun "胡椒饼" stall is right next to this gate. Don't miss it!

RaoHe Street Night Market ( 饶河街夜市) is the most inaccessible of all the night markets by MRT 捷运. We ended up walking from WuFenPu (Clothes district) over to the place, because it was on the way. This place is very hard to find. I asked four Family Mart cashiers before we managed to find this place. Typical of a man, B1 absolutely refuses to ask for directions (even in Japan, when he is the only one who can speak and understand Japanese). We love Family Mart cashiers, they are always so polite and helpful, which saved our lives at Xin Beitou when we were trying to find our secluded inn).

It was our last night in Taipei so we covered a lot of areas, like Shilin again (which I finally got to eat the absolutely delish 原上海生煎包). By the time we reached this place, I think it was 2230hrs so I was pretty exhausted since we were backpacking (everytime I say I will reduce the stuff I bring, and yet I still carry tons of stuff in my backpack! *annoyed* How just like a girl!) and I have been walking A LOT.

I think I was in a super bitchy mood by then. Hahah. Strange, this I recall?! We had been arguing over something trivial (I think I was mad because he always make me do all the asking for directions) because we were both exhausted (this is something typical whenever we backpack, wait till you see how we entertained a Japanese Salaryman when we gesticulated but whispered angrily at each other on the JR Rail last year. His eyes were agog and he was actually smiling... Creepy) and hungry (note: B1 , adorable as he is usually, cannot stand being hungry. His bitch/nag factor can go up by 10x, so I always carry food in my backpack => always heavy)

 

Luckily there was an extremely delicious Pepper bun sold just near the gate that you see in the pic above.  This baked bun contains meat, diced onion and cilantro (I think, cannot remember so well) restored our faith in the world and we continued on, where we also bought Koi Bubble tea, which you can find in Singapore.

Because there wasn't much time, we still have to run back to catch the very last MRT 捷运, so we just quickly bought some more buns (this is the steamed and then lightly fried kind, same as 原上海生煎包), and some ultra smelly tofu, which comes with Chinesisch Sauerkraut *hahah* 

Then it was a mad dash to the train station, past Wufenpu and then to Houshanpi station (台北捷運藍線後山埤站)... I must say here that I have a pretty excellent sense of direction. Once I go a certain route I know how to return and sometimes take a shortcut as well. Which is a good thing to have when you backpack...

竹子湖 ZhuZhiHu @ 阳明山 YangMingShan - No 竹子 Bamboo, No 湖 Lake

I swear that YangMingShan was the most frustrating point of the trip (the second most would be Jiufen- Jinguashi where we were conned by this very "sincere" taxi driver). I walked at least 10KM up, down and around this mountain.

To get to YangMingShan, we took bus 200 at the bus stop opp the Xin Beitou MRT station (we were staying at Lotus Spa at Xin Beitou at the time) and went up the mountain. Then switch to that local little bus 180 that hugs the curves of YangMingshan at a precarious speed.

First of all, let's talk about that YangMingShuWu 阳明书屋, that house that CKS had to host foreign diginitaries in YangMingshan. I thought that I would be able to see the physical house and contents. Note: if you are travelling on foot, don't waste your time, we discovered later in the afternoon, after going one more round around the mountain that you cannot visit the actual building, you get a lovely ~1km walk and a stupid building with display boards explaining what is the 阳明书屋. We boarded the bus 180 that goes an entire route around the mountain (there are other buses) and alighted at YangMingShuWu stop.


The red path depicts our walk of stupidity

This is where it becomes fuzzy. We could not see the house in the distance... then we saw this group of old people who were going to trek through the woody path near the bus stop (1.5km later, we realised we were walking alongside the road). In the morning, we did not realise that the bus travels in only one direction, and felt sure that we could always walk back to that house. Of course, 1.5 hours trek up the mountainside and into the mistakenly named 竹子湖 ZhuZhiHu, I was too exhausted to even think of walking back... I could only think of continuing upwards with the bus.

So along the slippery woody path covered with lichen, we lost the old people who were dressed in trekking gear... and upon finally reaching the top of the 1.5km 竹子湖 ZhuZhiHu point as promised by the signboards along the way, we were horrified to discover that we were at its entrance. Still, determined to see 竹子 bamboo and 湖 lake, which is something we would not see in Singapore in a natural state, we preserved on where we walked past the primary school and reached a fork in the road with a signboard that said we could go to the head of the lake, or the end of the lake... so we chose head and walk rightwards. So we walked to the right, where we encountered the awesome sight of the mountains fringed by lots of beautiful calla lilies.



Hmmm.... We continued walking, until we reached a dead end, where there were only calla lily farms. I was like, you got to fucking kidding me. Surrounded by cars (yes, most sane people drive in), I was infuriated and walked into a nearby farm and demanded of the old lady farmer, where was the fucking lake? She was incredulous.

"There is no lake here."

Win. Truth be told, when I researched on YangMingshan, I saw one or two detailed blogs, one of which was a honeymooning couple who said that YangMingshan has a lot of stops with long walks ahead and given the time before nightfall, one can only take one or two stops. Nobody said anything about 竹子湖 ZhuZhiHu, which should have been a clue.


One of the bizarre paths leading to nowhere from the ZhuZhiHu route

We stood there, reasoning on the next course of action. I swore against the voice of reason, i.e. B1, and was determined to buy some calla lilies despite the fact that we were on foot, on day 3 of our 9-day backpacking trip and we had a jolly long journey for the rest of the day. They were NT10 for each stalk.

We went in and plucked a few.



They were certainly a bitch to carry. All the way to Jiantan where the Shilin Night Market was. Haha. Good thing was, the B team never got lost. While waiting for the bus at the small bus interchange, we encountered the senior citizen mountain trekking team (turned out there were alot of them that day) again. While chatting and waiting for the bus, the pehpeh was very kind to explain that some of the sights in YangMingShan were given their names based on what used to be there A VERY LONG TIME AGO. He even wondered aloud when was Taipei was going to be swallowed, since it was on a fault line (I think?).

Mr B on his way to Taiwan

I wanted to post this picture while I was at Changi Airport waiting to board my flight. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my phone the night before, so here's a belated shot of Mr B getting ready to go Taiwan. Now and then my shitty G1 can capture a nice, sharp pic.

Remember to read the rest of the Taiwanese entries! I'm still posting like mad!

原上海生煎包 - Shilin Night Market Eats

We chanced upon this shop the first time we went to Shilin Night Market. We did not have a good experience there, because it was so crowded. Shop contents spilled into the narrow streets, which were further encamped by illegal hawker stalls. The market was stifling, stuffy and hot. I noticed that this shop had a super long queue. I was eager to get away instead of waiting patiently to buy some potentially delicious buns.

Fortunately I had to run an errand that necessitated us to return to Shilin. This time the ground was still wet from the heavy rain in the afternoon, and the hawkers were slowly returning to set up their wares, and the crowds were thin. We were happily walking along the street when we came upon 原上海生煎包 again.

Miraculously, there was no queue. I rushed to buy a bun, just to try the flavour. There were two flavours, cabbage and meat, at the wonderful price of NT10 (~S$0.50) each. The lady was friendly even though I took my time deciding. The bun was terribly hot, but the skin broke away easily, releasing heat and earthly meat scents at the tear. It tasted even better, the skin was not tough, but QQ with the right amount of chew and moist. The meat was flavoursome and sweet.

I ran back to the shop to buy 8 more buns (for two persons)...

You can read about the shop and other interesting articles at 原上海生煎包's website

Going Jinguashi 金瓜石 and/or Jiufen 九份? Don't take a cab

It's a total con-job. Cabbies gather at the Keelung bus stop where tourists wait for the bus that goes to Jinguashi and Jiufen, tempting you with stupid short trips around that area, to see the Jinguashi, a really lame castle (which looks like an abandoned fort) and some dirty seawater. Do not fall for their courtesy and kindness. They will dupe you into sharing their cab with some locals to reduce your cost, and then trap you into taking their tours once you are on board. It's not like you can just get off in the middle of nowhere.

Instead, like what -Ade- said in his blog, take the 1013 "Jinguashih" bus just in front of Zen Shyang Clinic, just about below the pedestrian bridge. If you are coming from Yehliu like I was, it is the first stop after you see the Keelung waterfront. This is the bus schedule for bus 1013, which also goes to Jiufen.

Personally, I think you can skip Jinguashi, and all that crap, if you want to just see the old tourist trap, Jiufen.

Mr B's expression describes what I feel about Jinguashi



At Jiufen, there are three things you must do:

1. the confectionery shop just next to the bus stop. They make Sun Cookies 太阳饼 with a light buttery flavour, totally delicious. Never buy the ready made crap (made with shortening) when you can buy them freshly baked with butter. However they only take pre-orders for 太阳饼, though you can buy the local Pineapple cakes 凤梨酥 instead (this is popular with Hongkong tourists). Don't worry, you don't have to travel to Jiufen to order from them, you can order from their shop at Taipei Main Station. To get them at their freshest （they last 2 weeks) order them to be delivered at the Main Station shop the day you are leaving (as they deliver around 10am from the Jiufen shop). Here is the shop's signboard if you are looking for it at Taipei Main Station (it's one of the tiny shops in the middle block of the arcade).

2. Try Lai Ah Poh's Dumplings 阿婆粉圆. How do I describe it? They sell flour dumplings of pumpkin, yam, green tea, or sweet potato flavour, served cold or hot in a sweet soup containing red, green and haricot beans. Unique flavours in every bite. They use cute recycled school chairs for seats and a giant marble slab for a table.

3. Admire the old street and the surrounding countryside.

What to do with your Outputs - A Poem in the Toilet

Now this is what I call, toilet humour. [Click on image to read]

小便向前靠, 水滴不外落
蹲坐正对位， 厕间保芬芳
便后随手冲，春泥了无痕
粪物不入池， 槟榔不乱 吐
勤练弹指功， 健康又干净

雪糕比小熊大

Singapore has "龙虾比小女孩大" (lobster bigger than a little girl, yeah right, try removing the feelers, and we see how long the lobster is again), Taipei has 雪糕比小熊大 (ice-cream bigger than Mr B).

Great for taking photos, Bad eating.

新站虱目鱼專賣店 New Stop Milkfish Specialty Shop

When you go to Hua Lien 花蓮 by train, there is only one place you must eat at. It's 新站虱目鱼專賣店. They specialise in milkfish 虱目鱼. We were advised by the very friendly girl at the 暮署 shop nearest the train station, that it was the best food thereabouts.

The shop is located beside the brightly lit 阿美暮署 shop, and is rather dingy in comparison, but it has tons of celebrity signatures (and photos) scrawled on the white tiled walls. It also had a giant proclaimation that it was the only shop and had no franchises. It was intriguing that people, even celebrities would travel to Hualien to eat milkfish, which are indigenous to Southern Taiwan, thus proving how excellent the dishes at this restaurant are.

Anyway, we ordered milkfish soup, milkfish fishball soup, and two bowls of the ubiquitous braised meat rice. The dishes came with a delightful dipping sauce of oyster sauce (I think) and minced garlic (very sharp and fresh). The fishballs were interestingly QQ, while the fish (same fish yet different texture) was tender and cooked with lots of julienned young ginger. The fish soup was great, settling my uneasy stomach with its gentle flavour. The braised meat was QQ as well, and had a nice slice of preserved radish on it. Interesting, I should make that my new flavour of rice dumpling this time.

By the way, here's a photo of the actual 虱目鱼 if you are interested in knowing how it actually looks like.

Taiwanese Oyster Omelette

Taiwanese version of Oyster Omelette is way different from Singapore's. Yes, both versions have gooey flour mixture, but Taiwanese version has uncut oysters (though smaller) and fried with lettuce and drowned in a sweet peanut gunk (which I disliked).

Ah Gei ... It's edible not doable

After we got off the boat (that brought us to Damshui Fisherman's Wharf), we saw this stall 正宗阿给老店. 阿给 is rice vermicelli wrapped in a tofu skin and drenched in a sweet yet salty sauce.

Btw skip this shop. For all they claim that they serve traditional Ah Gei, their fishballs, containing meat, are tough, not QQ, and the soup contains so much MSG, I was so thirsty after that. The noodles were decent.

Directions to Damshui: Alight at the last station on the Xindian-Damshui (red line). Walk along the ZhongZheng 中正 road (also known as Old Damshui Street). It seems that there are alot of Zhongzheng roads in different parts of Taiwan, e.g. Hualien, Damshui, Taipei etc.

Beitou Thermal Valley 地热谷

One may assume that Beitou would be on the outskirts of the city, given its large number of hot springs. The Japanese used to soak themselves there, even building a communal hot spring bath there, which has now been turned into a museum. If you still want to soak, don't worry the Japanese haven't used up all the hot water. There are plenty of hot spring water left. For the thick-skinned and brave-hearted, there is the pH1-pH2 water at Millennium hot spring, the public hot spring there.

Directions to the Thermal Valley (if you double click on the map, you can see the other areas of interest as well):
Beitou Hot Spots in a larger map

Mr B soaks in Hot Spring Bath

This is why you should get your own Hot Spring Bath in the room!!!

Where the Leaves are more Valued than the Root

(Note: I am in a dreadful hurry to finish blogging about the Taiwanese trip so that I can make room for my upcoming trip this long weekend)

I admit I can be fussy about my food. Don't really care about the price, but the taste and the service.

So we ended up wandering around Ximending looking for food one afternoon, before leaving for Beitou. I was determined not to eat Ah Chung Mian Xian AGAIN. So we circled the streets a few times. The day was wet, and since I wanted dumplings, B1 suggested the restaurant next to Ah Chung, which also serves a very cute golden steamboat hotpot with a tall funnel.

I was strangely not in the mood (I usually love hotpot so much I once threatened B1 that if we do not buy a big enough kitchen for me next time, he should be mentally prepared to eat hotpot forever). So I dragged him into our second choice, a dumpling shop with a cute radish avatar (I cannot remember clearly now). It serves dumplings with several fillings, namely piggie, chives (I think, chinese name: 韭菜）, kimchi, curry (??) etc.

We belatedly realised that the shop is famous for its radish leaf noodles, hmm, i.e. they grind the radish leaves into the noodle mixture, so that the end result is green noodles. Not exactly sure how to order that though, as it did not appear in the menu the lady gave us, while everyone around us (mostly female clientele) was eating the same green noodle dish, and there were posters featuring radishes on the wall.

I wasn't really hungry, just fussy. So I ordered the local favorite Braised meat on rice (卤肉饭）. I notice that everyone serves this dish a little differently. I have had it as one giant fatty slice drenched with sauce, resting on little bits of fat and rice, fatty meat diced with preserved vegetables soaking the rice, etc. I cannot remember the version the restaurant served. Too much fat in the brain now, think it was the latter version.

I also ordered a corn soup (love corn, as you can see it appears frequently in my breakfast bentos as well) cooked Chinese style. B1 had braised beef slices with noodles. It came accompanied with slices of radish, carrots and 菜心.

But the pièce de résistance has to be the dumplings. Crispy on the bottom, juicy on the inside. The skin was QQ and springy, while very light and thin. I especially like the ones with the chive filling.

Best of all, they were quite affordable @ NT5 a piece. That's about S$0.22 each. Singapore serves them about 5-6 pieces for S$3 (cheapest rate), and sometimes they are not even nice. B1 almost had to restrain my gluttonous self from ordering more.