Taiwan Trip Day 11 - Taipei

Day 11 was the end of our Hualien trip. 刘阿姨 was very nice to send us to the train station. To celebrate the return back to the city, PX and me donned dresses and put on makeup. Haha!


On the train, I spotted this stuck to my leg.

Quality Check passed! Haha!


We decided not to hire any guide in Taipei as the transportation systems are quite good. This was the part of the trip where the two of us had the freedom to decide where to go and what to do and relied on ourselves to get to the right places.

Ended up, we had a very mediocre 关东煮 for lunch. This was the start of many bad or mediocre meals.



It was planning time for us. Basically, we took out the MRT map and circled places that sound interesting.








Due to our blurness, we arrived in Taipei one day earlier! We were supposed to spend another day in Hualien. We had to ask our Taipei Hotel, Wonstar, whether they had an extra room for us. Luckily, after some searching, they managed to secure a room for us, thought it was slightly more expensive.

Our room number was 606. When I heard that, a peculiar feeling crept into me. The mention of that room made me uncomfortable. When we entered the room, my first thought was, "Oh no. This room is not 'clean'." It was the next day that I got to know that PX was having the same thoughts at that time.







This is the room. Although most of the lights were on, the brightness of the room was only this much.

We dropped our luaggage and then it was off to do the first thing on our mind! Karaoke!!


We didn't know that the KTVs in Taipei offer food as well! Although we went after our lunch, we still managed to squeeze in some food from the buffet line. Yup, buffet! Really worth the money!


For just the two of us, we got this huge room!




And to top it off, there is a toilet in every room! And our toilet was huge! It was bigger than some of the KTV rooms we have in Singapore.

After satisfying our "KTV crave", it was time to satisfy another crave - nightmarket street food!



We walked to the nightmarket nearest to our hotel, the 绕河夜市 (Raohe Night Market).

Most of the night markets in Taiwan are situated in front of temples. So it is rather easy to find one.

Looked around a bit and bought these back to the hotel for TV and dinner. This night market really pales in comparison to the 瑞峰夜市 (Rui Feng Night Market) in Kaohsiung. Ahh... I love 瑞峰夜市.

Food laden with MSG that still didn't taste good. Bleagh.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that my hotel room was rather creepy? Something strange happened that night. While we were eating dinner, at around 11pm, something suddenly banged against our window, making a loud "clang"! We nearly jumped out of our skins. The clanging continued but it sounded like someone was strucking a gong downstairs continuously. Really freaky. I decided against drawing back the curtains to check out what was going on. And so it remains a mystery.

Also, our room was freaking cold. We had to don long sleeves and trackpants to keep ourselves warm. Even Alishan didn't feel so cold. Moreover, whenever I sat on my side of the bed, goosebumps would pop out all over my body and remained there until I left the bed! It was really uncomfortable.

The night ended with me wishing that the day would come quickly.


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What Not to Put In Facebook Profiles

I finally met up with Anita and Deanies after two long years. Nothing has changed much except Anita's voice, which has mysteriously deepened. Our conversation topics, though, have veered off what we normally talk about when we were in our early twenties.


After dinner, we started scrolling through Anita's facebook, looking for potential boyfriends. (The wonders of an iPhone and cheap data charges) Through such an "exercise", once again, I realised the importance of the screening of profile pictures. I have hereby come up with 3 golden rules.


1) Do not put up pictures of you in weird poses or funny faces. This rule doesn't apply when you are one of the fortunate good-looking ones. Just make sure you put plenty of good-looking pictures of yourself so that this will be a one-off incident.

You better make sure that people can spot a difference between your "funny face" and your face, otherwise DELETE THAT PHOTO!


2) Do not put pictures of yourself in your better years when you were youthful, fit and slim, especially when you have changed alot since. This will only make the surfers wonder what had happened to you. I think I know the mindsets of these people. They are trying to tell the surfers that, "Hey! I used to be that good looking!" But that was history and let's face it, we can't turn back time.



3) Do not put only pictures of your baby days, pets, vehicles or cartoon characters. Nobody would want to get together with babies, pets, vehicles or cartoon characters. And by the way, heard of photoshop? There is no such thing as an ugly picture anymore!



Girls, do you agree with me? Haha!

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Taiwan Trip Day 10 - Hualien

(Birdie, your favourite pose!)



We planned two activities for day 9, whale watching and a visit to the Taroko Gorge. We woke up late again and 刘阿姨 was nice enough to pack breakfast for us. One of the drivers, 陈先生, bought freshly made Muah Chees (soft rice cake) for our breakfast and that was the best Muah Chee I have ever eaten! We couldn't buy it back to Singapore because it would have gone bad by the time we come back. Boo..




Aboard the whale-watching boat!



All suited up! Had down several motion sickness pills too!





The assistant skipper provided commentary along the way. He said that it would be very difficult to spot a whale and explained how to recognise a whale from the waves. He added that if we saw some white above the water and it flew off, that would be a bird. Haha!



About 15-20 minutes later, with all us eagerly searching the water, we found these:







Bottle-nosed dolphins!! We saw them danced, hopped and twirled in the water. That was the first time I saw animals that we are familiar with in the wild.


The original plan was to venture into deeper waters to search for the elusive whales. But one of the passengers suffered from motion sickness. So we had to turn back for shore. Seriously, I wasn't feeling too well at that time too. So I didn't complain about going back. =P



Another of the Minsu driver met us after we alighted from the boat. He brought us to the port to buy Salmon sashimi! It tasted better than the ones in Kenting and attached to a higher price. But still, cheaper than in Singapore. =)





We ate them together with our lunch, Wantons!


One thing I love about Taiwan is that there is no "outside-drinks-and-food-is-not-allowed" rule. Cheers!

鲁肉饭. Basically, it consists of chunks of fatty meat cooked in dark soya sauce served over a big bowl of rice. Sinful.



He brought us to our next destination - Taroko Gorge.


Plenty of photos taken again! =P










Unlike 张大哥, the driver dropped us at different scenic spots and let us explored the places on our own. There were pros and cons, I guess. But we managed pretty well on our own. =)





I have never seen water the colour of jade before. So pretty.







Very nice view!




I wish someone would explain why there are different layers in the rock.







Along the way, we spotted a stream with the clearest water and decided to venture down to dip our feet. Hee!

It wasn't easy to reach the stream. The slope was filled with tiny slippery pebbles. We had to slide and stumble all the way down to the rocky stream. But it was worth it! The cold cold water soothe our tired feet. Ahhh....





My posture is pretty weird in this picture. I think I was trying to balance on the uneven rock. Haha!

It wasn't easy to take the following picture. I had to set my camera on timer, scrambled past wet rocks, balanced my camera, stepped on a few fishes (kidding!) and scrambled quickly back again.

That woman behind spoiled the picture. Damn.





Take nothing except pictures,
Leave nothing except footsteps.

I left mine. =)

I love my camera! The intricate design of the web can be seen clearly. Woot!




As I said before, in Taiwan, everything is big. The packet drink in my hand was easily twice the size of our normal packet drink.

We gamely crossed a rickety old hanging bridge.




While crossing, another couple joined us. We were so tickled by what happened next. The girl was so afraid of heights that she squatted down in the middle of the bridge, unable to move on. Her boyfriend just walked right across the bridge without knowing that his girlfriend was left behind until we told him. Should dump him. Haha!





What animal does this cliff look like? =P


We reached a part of the Taroko gorge where we needed to put on safety helmets due to the danger of dropping stones. The helmets didn't smell that good. Bleagh.





We walked and walked and reached a place where we could see swallows flying in and out of the tunnels. But the place was cordoned off! So disappointing...






There were loads and loads of China tourists. The guys were always in suits whereas the women were easily distinguishable with their umbrellas and sometimes, high heels. PX and me were super irritated by them. Most of them had no manners nor common courtesy. In the end, I was so pissed off that I decided to let them have a taste of their own medicine. Whenever I saw someone taking pictures, I would purposely walked in front of the camera. Neh neh neh neh neh... Haha!



They looked like the foremen in construction areas. Haha!





According to our driver, many men died while building the roads in Taroko Gorge. When the place was finally made accessible, the Taiwanese built a temple to commemorate these people.


The names of the workers who died.



After the visit to Taroko Gorge, our driver took us to a beach. He didn't know but we have been to so many beaches that we were not that excited about beaches anymore. So we just sat on the steps leading down to the beach and talked.

Finally it was time for dinner! I was famished after all the walking and climbing. Our driver suggested we try the 葱油饼 in Hualien and drove us to a small alley where we could spot a queue a long distance away. Luckily he had called and reserved two for us. And they were yummy!









We told him we wanted to try the 小笼包 too and he dropped us at a shop famous for its 小笼包. I told PX that I could see 5 because I was so hungry. So we ordered 10. When they arrived, we were shocked....



These are not 小笼包 lor!! They were so big! Should be named 大笼包! I was expecting the Crystal Jade type. In the end, I could only stuff in 2.


刘阿姨 told us that there was a free Aboriginal dance performance every evening in this place so we walked there after our dinner. During the long walk, we were stalked by a man and subsequently, a dog. Luckily we didn't let our guards down and realised that a man was stalking us. We just popped into a shop and chitchatted with the shopkeeper and that scared the stalker off. Phew...


And then, I was stalked by a big black stray dog. Maybe he could smell the 小笼包 in my bag. Haha! PX yelled at the dog and managed to scare it off. I was getting rather nervous by that time. =P


Finally, we reached the performance area only to reached in time to hear an announcement that the performance was cancelled for that night! Damn! We missed the one in Alishan and now we missed this too.

An empty stage. *Sigh*



So we went to check out the only shopping centre in Hualien.




There was nothing much to look at and so we decided to go back to the Minsu. Called our driver and he came and picked us up. A very nice man. =)



As were leaving the next day, 刘阿姨 gave us a necklace each as a farewell gift. We were very touched with her generousity.





A stone to remind us of Hualien and 刘阿姨. =)
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