Taiwan Day 4 and Day 5

Our main destination on day 4 was the Taroko National Park. I had read so much on praises from tourists on this place so I was really looking forward for this road trip.

We departed from Stone House at about 8.30 in the morning after yummy burger breakfast with soy milk prepared by our hostess.

This is the only photo of me with our driver, Jack at the backyard of Stone House.


He first brought us to this sight seeing place in Hualien called Chisingtan Scenic Park.


It is a beach place as well and the wind was so strong that I hardly have a photo with a tidy looking hair in place. Aileng and I jumped for some jumping shots and got a few succesful one.


We tried to make it to Taroko Gorge before 10am because our driver Jack said the road at somewhere will be closed at the time. There are frequent earth quakes in Hualien and the rocks fall so easily from the cliff at the road side so that's why they always close the road to clear or to trim the cliff from time to time. Due to that also, we will later see some roads that they allow tourist to walk along the cliff side for sight seeing have nets that covered the ceiling of cave or cliff to prevent rocks from falling onto tourists. We heard that every year there is one case and coincidently it always hits a Chinese tourist from China.

We reached the entrace that mark our starting of journey into Taroko Gorge. We quickly snap a few beautiful photos and hopped back into the car to catch the time because it was already close to 10.



There we were, before walking to the Eternal Spring Shrine at the back



We were going to that place there, the Eternal Spring Shrine but only Bryan made it up there to a higher pagoda which you can't see from this photo because it was so high and the three of us didn't want to climb up few hundred steps of lengthy staircases.


A closer photo at the shrine.



Cars are advised not to stop along the road and you will have to drive to somewhere further with open space and park your car there to avoid from being hit by rock that might fall down. Jack dropped us at the beginning of this point and told us to walk to the end (and enjoy sight seeing) where he will be meeting us. We saw some tourists were wearing safety helmet, we probably should get the helmet as well. This photo was taken when we strolled along the Swallow Grotto trail.


We have so many photos around this place so it's impossible for me to upload all. Taroko


We drove further higher up, and scenery is getting more beautiful along the way.


We stopped at this Bilyu Sacred Tree point but our main attention was not the tree! We ran down the hill a little further down in the corner and I kissed the spring. Cherries were blossoming!


After another 20 minutes or so, we arrived at the snow place. We were lucky because it snowed 2 days ago so there was still snow the day we came and they just cleared the road that morning! It was a relief to Jack because he was so worried that he has to use snow chain at his tyres. He told us he is going to charge us extra NT$1000 if we are going to use the snow chain.


This place is called Hehuan Shan. Our 2 friends were long gone to do all kind of action with the snow, kick, sit, scoop, throw, whatever. It was their first time seeing snow and it really excites them up.




Later after this mountain, we drove further up to the highest point of Taiwan highways, Wuling.



We took many photos just like other places. Haha.



The view from top was spectacular


It was not easy to reach here. I was having a really bad car sick and motion sickness because of the curvy road, just like this one. Imagine few hours going on this kind of roads. My friends are really good, they were fine along the way. Jack even told us Weeeliem and I are the first Malaysians that he brought for tour that have motion and car sickness.


After another hour drive, we finally reach our homestay in Qingjing. The place where we lived for the night was at a hill so we got a very good view of the small town.

This is us at the balcony of our room. We took the 2 double beds room shared with our friends.


We had our teatime outside at very cold temperature above the cloud. The coffee didn't manage to stay warm after 3 minutes so we rushed into the house to finish the cup.


We even requested to have our steamboat dinner outside where else every other guests sitting warmly indoor. But the warmth from the stove and soup got onto us just a few minutes after we start eating. It was fun and exciting at the same time.


Starry house


We went to bed pretty early because we want to see sun rise the next day. During that period, sun rises very early about 5.30 to 6am and we were so determined to see the beautiful view. But the next morning we waited from 5.30am to 6.30 am, the sun came out without us seeing it. It was hiden in between the thick cloud. We were a little dissapointed but the feeling wasn't stay long because we were above clouds remember!

The next morning after had another yummy English breakfast, toast breads and egg we went to Qingjing farm.


The farm is a goverment sponsored place to breed sheeps and to preserve the green scenery in Qingjing and it is not a profit earning investment. They lost money every year maybe because the entrace fee is not expensive.

We watched a sheep show, an Australian who rides on a horse will conduct the show with a Taiwanese MC.


He kept shaving the white sheeps fur in rough manner. I felt a bit intimidated by this guy. He was so rough to the sheeps.


Baa baa black sheep..





Lambs


We spent quite a long time at the farm because we took hundreds of photos. Haha.


After the farm, we dropped by at the Little Swiss Garden. Entrace fee required. This place covered only a small area but we still spent like an hour or longer in it all because of photography


After this farm, we will be leaving Qingjing. Our next destination was going to Sunmoon Lake. We took the ferry and went to an island on the lake. We didn't like this lake, felt like being cheated because all the reviews were telling like this place is a must visit place. It is just another place like the West Lake in Hangzhou China.


The ferry dropped us at a jetty that when we got down on road, you will go to a street selling all kind of stuff by the aborigines. Not interesting and the ferry fees were so expensive.

The lake was the last destination before we went on the road again, heading back to Taipei. Before reaching Taipei, we stopped in Fengjia market in Taichung for a short shopping. That's all for the day 4 and day 5 of our vacation. Enjoy reading!

Taiwan Day 3

Last night I prepared lion head meatballs and kept in freezer. I took them out this morning from freezer and put at the lower compartment in the fridge to avoid the balls to be too hard when I want to fry them after work. I quickly placed the meatballs back into the freezer when I came home from work so that each ball would be slightly sticked together and can be easily coated with flour before browning. It took me a few minutes before I start cooking everyday, because I have to clean, tidy and do some misc stuff whenever I arrive home from work. So by the time I took the balls out from freezer again, I can hold meatball at my hand and will not break into pieces. Yummy dinner!


OK, I will be writting about day 3 of my Taiwan vacation. We were heading to Hualien!

We booked a taxi for the trip out of Taipei. Jack is a good driver because he really concerned about his passengers car sickness problem. He will try to drive in better condition and make slower turn at those corners.

We first stopped at this waterfall which I can't remember what the name is. Quite nice, and the water was cooling. Aileng and I took off our flats and kicked the water a while for the guys to take photos.



After about some 1-2 hours drive along the coastal road, we reached the famous broken cliff of Qingshui. The wind was quite strong that day but it was a nice feeling when the wind hit at your face.


We wanted to go for hot spring and it took us a very long journey and spent a lot time to look for this beautiful place. We went to a few places and were dissapointed on how the hot spring place looks like public swimming pool or old filthy ,pungent smell room with a dirty tub.

At last we came to this amazing place where we rested in the hot spring facing the mountain or at least green hills.




After the hot spring, we went directly to our homestay, Stone house. This house located very near to a beach area filled with rocks.
We cycled to the beach with our hostess and took hundred of photos with each other. We spent a little time picking up some crystal stones.





I think I should end the post here because I am already feeling very sleepy. I have been working late for many days and having early meetings everyday.

Taiwan Day 1 & 2

This post has been lagging because I have been really busy these days at work. Today I forced Weeliem to go for Korean food with me for lunch but we reached there, pushed and pulled the door and saw the sign that says Seoul Garden closed on Sunday! So we walked over to Gurney Plaza for the BBQ buffet at the other Seoul Garden. Hmmmph..

So now let me bring you along on the journey to Taiwan in spring. I will try to make a comprehensive post.

Oh no, the first day when we arrived in Taoyuan International Airport, it was raining. We took the bus to Ximen directly, got down right in front of the MRT station NT$125. We had to pull our luggages in the rain with just one umbrella to where we stayed, Colormix about 7 minutes walk away.

After dropping our luggages, we went back to the MRT station and purchased Easycard at the price of NT$500 which contains usable value of NT$400 and deposit NT$100. We were supposed to get another Easycard from our friends but they were still at somewhere busy with their errands and could not meet up today. Anyway, we can still take from them on day 3 where we are going to have a trip together. The Easycard was redeemed in Singapore because Taiwan is having some sort of tourism promotion where you show the proof of your coming travel and they will give you a NT$50 Easycard. The best part of this card is that it doesn't have any deposit in it and you can keep the card as souvenir. I have mine with me still and the card is very pretty! Special edition from Taiwan tourism. The MRT station in Taiwan is very well mantained, just like Singapore and Hong Kong. I still don't understand why we can't do the same good job to the Komuter stations in Klang valley.




Anyway, our first stop was Long Shan temple. The route is pretty easy, just got down at Longshan temple MRT station and followed the direction on sign boards. It was raining pretty heavily so you could not see many people outside the temple.




We had this plan earlier that we wanted to eat beef noodle. How can you not eating the famous beef noodle of Taiwan when you came here right? We googled and found this shop called 688 (Niu Papa) at somwhere so we purposely got down at Zong Xiao Dun Gua station and walked around 20 minutes trying to locate the place.



We ordered different bowl of beef noodle, mine was spicy type NT$300 and Weeliem's one was the normal one NT$200. This shop sells some very expensive beef noodle, watch the price list at the menu NT$10000. The beef noodle here was not as good, we found a better one at Shilin market the next day where it was way cheaper ! NT$100.




After dinner, we took the MRT to Taipei City Hall station and boarded a free shuttle to Taipei 101. It was still raining and getting heavier and this makes photo shooting at outdoor really difficult. We walked to some 100 to 200 metres away or more to get some pretty good shoot of the building but the mist was covering much of the top pointy portion.




That's the end of our day 1 journey.

On day 2, we started out journey around 8am , took the MRT to Taipei Main Station and boarded bus from there to Yangming Shan.


The weather was cold that day added up we were going to the high land.



It was so hard to take a photo of us because we did not have tripod and we didn't want to give our camera to the China tourist.


Cherry blossoms


This is the famous flower clock which I think look nothing special. We saw the same clock at Little Swiss Garden in Qingjing.



After Yangming Shan, we took a cab to Beitou. Sight seeing mostly. Here's a quite entertaining fountain. I felt stupid for paying so much attention to it. Haha


This is a pretty unique building, I think a library or something



The next photo is nothing relevant in showcasing the nice places in Beitou but I think I look pretty natural in the photo, so why not?



Beitou Thermal Valley was closed that day, not sure why so we just managed to snatch a photo with the sign outside the place. What a waste to come so far for not a complete trip. :P


Not all of their trains are this pretty. We saw this very artistic painted train and quickly took a photo with it. The train conductor even waited until we finish shooting only he asked the driver to start moving. So kind of them.



Then, we took the train and went to Danshui. We strolled along the Danshui old street, ate some food. A-gei ball is so not nice but we ate a very yummy onion fried biscuit. We didn't want to walk some more so we just took a ferry to Fisherman Wharf instead of taking the bus.


Day 2 was a super long day and a tiring one. We still go shopping at Shilin market after that so you can guess I won't be able to shop much. I was too physically and mentally exhausted.

A photo of some kids wearing and makeup as ghost promoting a new movie or drama.. Not so sure. Never bother to ask, I was too tired. She looked straight into Weeliem's camera so that he could take a good photo of her

Salted fish

I have tons of photos to sort out before start writting on my Taiwan vacation. In one of the previous entry, someone asked me about the salted fish I use. So here it is:

I normally buy this from the morning wet market. It has to be kept in freezer and whenever you need to use, just slice a piece. The fragrance, hmmph, I can't tell you.


If I finished my supply above and if I happen to not go to market that weekend, I will get this from supermarket. It's almost equivalent in smell and taste. This jar doesn't need to be kept in freezer but it must be chilled all the times. I think it is mackerel fish pieces inside a jar filled with salted fluid. I am not very sure of the fluid content, but I am pretty sure it has oil in it. This jar actually has a label but I tore it off when I opened the lid the first time. The plastic label is also wrapping the whole jar, so that's why.

Brief cover page on our Taiwan vacation

We were back from Taiwan yesterday on Singapore Airlines. We flew there with AirAsia. It wasn't a promotion ticket so don't bother to ask us how much is our flight cost. It was a sudden trip that I had managed to convince Weeliem to go with me after months of persuades and bribes. We had a fun and interesting trip double date with my school friend and her fiance. They had their pre wedding photography in Taipei and we joined them for 4 days in Taiwan. The rest of the days we were on our own. It was a 6.5 D 7N trip because we reached Taiwan in the evening and left for the airport at 5 in the morning.




The special thing about our vacation this time is that we experienced an extreme weather change throughout our trip. The first two days was raining. It rained heavy making the Taipei wet, cold and freezing cold. Everyone was with umbrella. From what I heard from our taxi driver,it rains 6 months in a year and this year the winter prolonged. It was not supposed to rain anymore at the time when we had our trip but it still did. It was snowing at "Hehuan shan" and we were there after two days lucky for us that our car can make it up there because they had cleared the road and it stopped snowing. Snow is not melting yet so we stood a chance to see the mountain covered by snow and put our feet on them. There are cherry blossom too. We saw them on the way to " Hehuan Shan" within Taroko Gorge National Park and at "Yang Ming shan" at Taipei, both pink and white. After the 2nd day of rain, the sun came out. However it was misty at all the places we went due to the difference in temperature day and night. It was so cold at night and sunny in the day time. Most of us got really bad sun burn especially for my friend who were supposed to have their photography session the next day. Now both Weeliem and I are really tanned. You count, we see rain, sun, snow, mist, freezing cold and hot sun. Quite worth for a trip except that visiting places in heavy rain is really a torture. Obviously we did not bring jacket that is thick enough to sustain a 7 degree celcius (or lower) temperature because I thought the weather would be similar to Cameron Highland. Who the hell wear winter clothing to Cameron Highland? Luckily I packed 2 pairs of gloves and they kept our hands warm. Another thing that we never prepared for is on the humidity condition. We read from internet that the humidity is somewhat similar to Malaysia and none of use lotion or lip balm back in Malaysia because it's always so humid here. So we had really dried skin and broken lips during the trip until we bought sheep oil lotion and lip balm to save our poor skin and lips.

The food in Taiwan didn't really made an impression to me as I don't really fancy fried stuff. The roadside snacks all are not my favourite because they are fried food! except for grilled mushroom and wild boar chinese sausage. Weeliem and I don't like to eat while walking so we don't like to buy food at the night market. We ate 3 times of beef noodle (read : sit down on a chair in restaurant and eat in order), one of our all time favourite. 688 Beef noodle restaurant, a small restaurant in Shilin market and a restaurant at opposite of Shilin MRT station. The first was the most expensive beef noodle we had cost about RM30+ each bowl. They even sell RMB10000 beef noodle which translate to RM1050. The one at Shilin market was the best , cost about RM13 and the last one is nice as well cost about RM13 too. The thing I love on Taiwan food is their rice. It's very similar to Japanese rice, round and juicy, so yummy. I had beef rice when Weeliem ate beef noodle at the shop opposite Shilin MRT station. We also had rice at a shop operated by aborigines in Taroko Gorge, super yummy hot mexican beef with white rice. The beef in Taiwan are mostly imported from Australia so they taste really yummy. We also bought a packet of "buah pinang" to try. Our taxi driver kept asking us to test.


We tried the outdoor hot spring at Hualien. It was really relaxing to soak in HOT water facing the beautiful nature scenery(mountain). The water is at 41 degree celcius. We also had sauna and jacuzzi at the same place. The outdoor temperature is at around 16-18 degree celcius. Nice?




I am going to write more on the interesting and beautiful places that we had visited in next entry. I don't have any photos of those now. So now let me show you the clothes, shoes and bags that I purchased. I didn't buy any mask at all and not much food as well, there isn't enough time to do shopping because we were out on trip away from Taipei. Two of the bags and a top are for my sisters.