Tuesday, May 17, 2005
i am BACK!! i must say taiwan is a shopping paradise and the food was good... i love taiwan!
here are some of the pics taken during my trip... happy viewing!!
in my dad's car setting off to changi airport!!! yipee!!
we were at the departure hall gate D35 waiting to board jetstar...
something embarassing occured to me.. i was detected to have somethings that i am not suppose to bring along... i was quite shocked... the officer pull me aside and requested me to raise my hands high up and she started to search my body... as if i am a criminal!! later it was found out that it was the hairpin in my pocket that triggers the detector... argh!
morale of the story: dont keep anything that is metal in your pocket when boarding plane...
i was amazed when i was told this is the jetstar airplane..
it is just half the size of a normal airplane... it can only take up to 180 passengers... and it really looked just like a toy plane i used to play with... it looked so cute!
the seats and walkway are quite crammed and narrow... i dont think an ang moh can fit into it... when u are in your seat, the seat that is front of u is only one arm length away from you... can you imgaine how crammed it is... oh yah, i manage to get a glimpse of the cockpit... it is miserable small... the space was jus enough for the 2 pilots...
some poniters to take note when u are taking jetstar airline:
1) bring a jacket along, it is cold in there...
2) bring some tibits, cards or mp3 on board... to kill time
3) rem to check in early, orelse ur luagge space in the airplane would have been taken by others... especially when you are leaving taipei for singapore... bear this in mind!
as we were standing at the belt waiting for our luagges.. i saw a man with a dog going around sniffing at people's bag....it was an eye opener for me... haha!
as we exit from the taipei airport we took "fei gou" aka flying dog bus to our hotel...it was a long journey.. it took us 1hr to reach our hotel.. a ticket cost 135 taibi per person for one way trip and it is worth the price... the seats are very comfortable and clean...
on our way to our hotel... taipei highway
by the time we reached our hotel it started to rain.. as we were very hungry and we have no idea where to go... we decided to settle our dinner in hotel... i must say the dinner was good...!
i also realise taiwan foodcoourt serve more jap and korean style of beef, pork, chicken and seafood... you rarely see fish meat there... the one in the picture cost me 128 taibi.. it is a jap scrambled egg rice with cripsy chicken.
we went to sogo shopping mall foodcourt to have our lunch... the price of the food is more expensive compared to ours... this bowl of noodle cost est 138 taibi convert into S$ 6.50... but it is delicious... i must say most taiwan foodcourt serve more soupy stuff and they are all very tasty...
look at my tired face... i must say we really make full use of the 6 days in taiwan... we went to many places and we have tried many many of their taiwan "xiao chi"...
on the 2nd day, it was a sunny day... the weather was damn good. hence we decided to go to "danshui". we travel to "danshui" station and and took a bus 26 to the "danshui" boat quay.
the bridge you see in the pic is situated near the boat quay.
oh have i told you the bridge that you have seen earlier on is also called a "qing ren qiao" aka lover's bridge? as you can see in the background there are many fishing boats and on the left hand side is the deep blue sea...
we took this boat to "danshuilao jie". i told this is the place whereby taiwanese bring their kids / lovers / family for picnic or cycling... it is the so called their east coast park. BUT our ECP is nicer... the park dont look like one.. the park is quite untidy...
the scenery is magnificent look at the hills in the background...
this is the danshui lao jie i am talking about... erm this is not the park i am refering to... these are the shophouses near the park. if you look carefully, you will be able to see the bicycle shop beside the man in black...
the place that we jus visited is "danshui de yu ren ma tou" aka fisherman boat quay. now we going to take a boat ride to the "danshui lao jie" aka old street. This is the place where we can find interesting things...
you ever step into "danshui lao jie" you must try their ice cream... what is so special about their ice cream lei? let me show it you in the next pic...
look at the ice cream i am holding onto... this is considered the smallest size.... the longest one is double the size of this... can you imgaine what will you become after eating it? oh yah, it cost est 20 taibi = S$1... cheap lei?!
another food that you must try in "danshui lao jie" is the fried mushroom.. the mushroom is called "jing zhen chu" i din take a pic of it but it is the thin and long white colour mushroom with a tiny umbrella head. it taste very good, you may find it in shinlin night market but danshui's ones is still the best!! besides, ice cream and mushroom you may find alot of homestyle food like "tie dan" aka chewy egg. you can find stuff like their home made prawn crackers and nogurts...
this palce was built in memory of those soldiers who sacrifice for taiwan in world war 2. inside this orange buidling lies thosands of altar. there are three types: high rank officer would have their individual altar, as for middle rank soldiers, every 10 would share one; and lastly as for low rank soldiers, every 10000 soldiers will share one. we were told not to take any pics as a form of respect to the soldiers.
there will be always a couple of soldiers guarding in front of the gate and they will change shift every hour without fail. the 2 soldiers in uniform are going to change shift with the couple of soldiers guarding the gate. i will show you how does the gate look like in my next picture.
this is the gate i am refering to in my earlier blog. as you can see in the center of the pic, there is a couple of soldier guarding the gate. Visitors are welcome to take photo with them BUT not allow to touch them. hehee
this is a closer version of the orange buidling you have seen earlier on.
another angle of the orange building
next we went to "da zhong zhi zhen", he is none other than li kar hsin. he is one of the well known rebellion in the early days. The place was built to memorial for his bravery. He is the first person who sacrifice for taiwan. The pic you see is the entrance to his palace.
You must try this ultra big crispy chicken in "shinlin". It is very different from the one you eat from far east. This one is much more bigger and it is not as spicy as the one you see in far east. And it is much more tasty and cheaper.
This is the my favourite food spicy dumplings. I myself alone can finish 2 bowls. It is damn good! It serve soup and dry dumplings. Let me show you some more pics of it in my next blog..
The dumplings taste equally good. And if you find the spicy dumplings is too oily for you, you can try this. Strong recommended!! yum yum
