this thankful week
8 months ago
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Bali, I am coming in less than a month!
That's all I want to scream about. I hope the weather will be fine for us.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
"Japin" pork belly
If you follow my blog, you should know that I am a big fan of pork, especially pork belly. I bought thin pork belly slices from Jusco last weekend and temped to make my imagination pork belly dish. Weeliem and I both loves the pork belly menu from Japin. I can't remember whether it's called BBQ pork or another name in the menu but it's about RM17-rm19 per set. I was so happy last night because I made the almost similar dish! I even harvested spring onion from my own garden (read: a pot with soil and spring onion plant) for garnishing.
I don't remember how much pork belly I purchased in term of the weight , but the price is about RM7 for around 10 slices of thin pork belly.
Marinate the pork night before with:
1 tbs of sesame oil
1 tbs of soy sauce
2 tbs ginger juice (I squeezed from old ginger after I crushed the ginger with mortal and pestler)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
To cook:
Add a little oil in wok
Add the pork belly with the leftover marinate juice and stir-fry for about 4 minutes
Add 1 tbs oyster sauce and 1 tbs soy sauce, stir for another 2 minutes
The pork belly is very thin, you do not need long time to cook it.
Serve hot with white rice and garnish with spring onions !
Confession: I am still thinking about the dish until now :) I want to eat again!
I don't remember how much pork belly I purchased in term of the weight , but the price is about RM7 for around 10 slices of thin pork belly.
Marinate the pork night before with:
1 tbs of sesame oil
1 tbs of soy sauce
2 tbs ginger juice (I squeezed from old ginger after I crushed the ginger with mortal and pestler)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
To cook:
Add a little oil in wok
Add the pork belly with the leftover marinate juice and stir-fry for about 4 minutes
Add 1 tbs oyster sauce and 1 tbs soy sauce, stir for another 2 minutes
The pork belly is very thin, you do not need long time to cook it.
Serve hot with white rice and garnish with spring onions !
Confession: I am still thinking about the dish until now :) I want to eat again!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Easy chicken tomyam
I just feel lazy to update blog lately and I know it's a bad practise. I am thinking of eating tomyam but I don't want to eat seafood. So I made my own chicken tomyam. Weeliem was telling me that this time he doesn't want to eat tomyam with meehun (rice vermicelli) because we just made meehun soup last weekend. So we had tomyam with white rice today.
It's a rather easy way of making tomyam, my mom's way which is by using the tomyam cubes available in few brands, like knorr and ayam brand. Don't be fool by tomyam cubes, because it doesn't contain much taste that represent the real tomyam unless we add the main tomyam ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and lime juice. At first I squeezed only 1 lime into the soup but I felt the soup is like missing something important. I feel guilty to eat tomyam which is not sour! So I squeeze one more lime. If you like to eat spicy tomyam, you can add some bird eye chillies but not for weeliem, he can't stand even a hint of spiciness and will sweat like he just ran 200 metres
Easy ingredients:
2 tomyam cubes
2 chicken legs cut into small pieces
2 lemon grass, cleaned, and cut vertical lines on each stem
6-8 kaffir lime leaves
2 limes juice
2 crab sticks, halved
2 baby carrots, sliced
100g grey oyster mushroom, tore into edible pieces
1 red onion, wedged
Recipe:
Boil 5 bowls of water in pot.
When water is boiling, put in all ingredients except grey oyster mushroom and lime juice.
Let simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Add grey oyster mushroom and lime juice, simmer for another 10 minutes.
Add salt to taste
Serves 4
It's a rather easy way of making tomyam, my mom's way which is by using the tomyam cubes available in few brands, like knorr and ayam brand. Don't be fool by tomyam cubes, because it doesn't contain much taste that represent the real tomyam unless we add the main tomyam ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and lime juice. At first I squeezed only 1 lime into the soup but I felt the soup is like missing something important. I feel guilty to eat tomyam which is not sour! So I squeeze one more lime. If you like to eat spicy tomyam, you can add some bird eye chillies but not for weeliem, he can't stand even a hint of spiciness and will sweat like he just ran 200 metres
Easy ingredients:
2 tomyam cubes
2 chicken legs cut into small pieces
2 lemon grass, cleaned, and cut vertical lines on each stem
6-8 kaffir lime leaves
2 limes juice
2 crab sticks, halved
2 baby carrots, sliced
100g grey oyster mushroom, tore into edible pieces
1 red onion, wedged
Recipe:
Boil 5 bowls of water in pot.
When water is boiling, put in all ingredients except grey oyster mushroom and lime juice.
Let simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Add grey oyster mushroom and lime juice, simmer for another 10 minutes.
Add salt to taste
Serves 4
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Rice dumpling for Dragon Boat Festival 2011
It's a month since I last updated my blog. My life is so busy. I am either with work or busy with work, nothing else. I almost want to skip making rice dumpling this year for Dragon Boat festival but at last I moved my butt to go to the market and bought ingredients for the dumpling on Saturday morning. However I dozed off again at 12-2pm , total unconscious. After that I did all the preparation needed like soaking the leaves and string in water to soften them, place the chesnuts and chinese mushrooms in separate bowls of sugared water and keep them inside the fridge.
Today I woke up, cut the ingredients, marinate, and cook them in wok before starting the wrapping work. I did not prepare a lot of ingredients, just the chinese mushrooms, chesnuts, pork and salted egg yolk.
It took me around 2 hours to complete wrapping all the dumplings, finishing the ingredients I had. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Weeliem woke up in the middle when I was wrapping the dumplings and he started taking photos.
I found a spot at my sink area to hang the strings so I can tie the dumpling easily.
Put all the dumplings into boiling salt water carefully
The dumplings are relatively small compared to what people sell out there, merely because I just can't wrap them big. The ingredients keep pouring out when I was tying the dumpling. I ate 6 since afternoon. The end product was not salty at all, that's why I did not plan to bring any to office this year. It didn't taste as nice when it's so plain in flavor. I had the add some soy sauce to it before eating.
Today I woke up, cut the ingredients, marinate, and cook them in wok before starting the wrapping work. I did not prepare a lot of ingredients, just the chinese mushrooms, chesnuts, pork and salted egg yolk.
It took me around 2 hours to complete wrapping all the dumplings, finishing the ingredients I had. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Weeliem woke up in the middle when I was wrapping the dumplings and he started taking photos.
I found a spot at my sink area to hang the strings so I can tie the dumpling easily.
Put all the dumplings into boiling salt water carefully
The dumplings are relatively small compared to what people sell out there, merely because I just can't wrap them big. The ingredients keep pouring out when I was tying the dumpling. I ate 6 since afternoon. The end product was not salty at all, that's why I did not plan to bring any to office this year. It didn't taste as nice when it's so plain in flavor. I had the add some soy sauce to it before eating.
Friday, May 06, 2011
Home, childhood home.
Some good photos taken by my husband which I view once in a while to remind me of the childhood home I used to grow up in. Too many memories in this place, I always miss the sweet one.
I like particular one where my mom always waits in front of the door at 1.15pm for me to get home from school so that she can take an umbrella out and shade me from the hot sun from 2 metres outside of gate until the car porch. It was a short distance but the act matters. Many times, I was lazy to take out and use my own umbrella kept in school bag. She is a good mother.
I like particular one where my mom always waits in front of the door at 1.15pm for me to get home from school so that she can take an umbrella out and shade me from the hot sun from 2 metres outside of gate until the car porch. It was a short distance but the act matters. Many times, I was lazy to take out and use my own umbrella kept in school bag. She is a good mother.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Tapioca starch noodle aka zhi hoon ken
I know I have not been writting about food for quite some time now. It is not because I don't cook but the lack of new food to be introduced or bragged about. Yesterday I saw in Suet Yin facebook she posted photos on KL hokkien mee and loh mee. Both are in my favourite food list and most importantly you can't get any of them in Penang. Penang as people recognise, is the little food heaven but this tiny heaven lost in comparison to some delicacies from other places. One day I will talk about bah kut teh. This frangrant herbs stewed pork originates from Klang and is served as breakfast which most people didn't know about this and it is still sold in the morning until these days, and people ! we bring our own tea leaves to make tea.
But today, I cooked "zhi hoon ken" or tapioca starch noodle. It is a popular noodle dish in any "zhu chao" restaurant in Klang. I remember when I first went to Johore to study, I ordered this noodle in restaurant and the owner looked at me in disbelief asking me what language am I using. It's Hokkien okay uncle? Then I came to Penang I tried ordering this noodle in one of the occasion when we ate in the kind of place, and no, no one understands me. I almost forgotten about this food until recently my dad always buy a packet or two for me to bring back here.
This time round, he even got me 3 stalks of green onions. Superb! This is the best combination one ever can have with starch noodle.
For people that never seen tapioca starch noodle before, this is it. The texture after being cooked will be chewvy just like gummy bears but a lot softer. I used a pack for 2 person. You definately need to rinse the noodles with water to get rid of excessive starch so the noodle won't be too sticky later on when cooking. 2 times are just nice.
Slice that 3 stalks of beautiful green onions diagonally into small pieces. Soak some dried shrimp in water to soften the orange boys. If you have fresh shrimps, please use them instead of the dried ones. Prepare 2 shitake mushroom by soaking them in water mix with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Slice the mushrooms.
It is my family tradition that we always marinate pork before cooking. So this time, it is not excluded.
This is the stir fried starch noodle in dark soy sauce with lots of ingredients making me salivate again while writting. It is not too dry, with that just right amount of gravy, I bet no one can love other food while savouring this.
Ingredients
1 packet starch noodle
about 50 gram of pork in small chunks
3 stalks of green onions, sliced
2 shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
dried shrimp - as much as you like, you can't cook this without shrimp
1 chopped shallot
5 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
bird eye chillies -depends on how spicy you can take
salt and pepper to taste
1 bowl water
Saute shallots and dried shrimp in heated oil. Add in mushroom and pork and stir. Mix all the sauces and bird eye chillies. Pour in 1 bowl of water and let boil. Add starch noodle and green onions and let simmer for 10 minutes to soften the noodle. Add more water it the mixture dries up. Add pepper and salt to taste. Serve hot, must serve hot!
But today, I cooked "zhi hoon ken" or tapioca starch noodle. It is a popular noodle dish in any "zhu chao" restaurant in Klang. I remember when I first went to Johore to study, I ordered this noodle in restaurant and the owner looked at me in disbelief asking me what language am I using. It's Hokkien okay uncle? Then I came to Penang I tried ordering this noodle in one of the occasion when we ate in the kind of place, and no, no one understands me. I almost forgotten about this food until recently my dad always buy a packet or two for me to bring back here.
This time round, he even got me 3 stalks of green onions. Superb! This is the best combination one ever can have with starch noodle.
For people that never seen tapioca starch noodle before, this is it. The texture after being cooked will be chewvy just like gummy bears but a lot softer. I used a pack for 2 person. You definately need to rinse the noodles with water to get rid of excessive starch so the noodle won't be too sticky later on when cooking. 2 times are just nice.
Slice that 3 stalks of beautiful green onions diagonally into small pieces. Soak some dried shrimp in water to soften the orange boys. If you have fresh shrimps, please use them instead of the dried ones. Prepare 2 shitake mushroom by soaking them in water mix with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Slice the mushrooms.
It is my family tradition that we always marinate pork before cooking. So this time, it is not excluded.
This is the stir fried starch noodle in dark soy sauce with lots of ingredients making me salivate again while writting. It is not too dry, with that just right amount of gravy, I bet no one can love other food while savouring this.
Ingredients
1 packet starch noodle
about 50 gram of pork in small chunks
3 stalks of green onions, sliced
2 shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
dried shrimp - as much as you like, you can't cook this without shrimp
1 chopped shallot
5 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
bird eye chillies -depends on how spicy you can take
salt and pepper to taste
1 bowl water
Saute shallots and dried shrimp in heated oil. Add in mushroom and pork and stir. Mix all the sauces and bird eye chillies. Pour in 1 bowl of water and let boil. Add starch noodle and green onions and let simmer for 10 minutes to soften the noodle. Add more water it the mixture dries up. Add pepper and salt to taste. Serve hot, must serve hot!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Taiwan Day 7
Today marked the final day of our trip in Taiwan. Tomorrow we were going to leave for Malaysia very early in the morning, 7am flight. We engaged Jack's brother, Jackie to send us to Taoyuan airport. He gave us a discounted price NTD900, I hope it's not a fake deal.
4 of us made a road trip again, this time to some further away places in Taipei county to the north and northeast coast side. We had a comfy ride in Toyota Wish with Jack but today Andy was not driving a taxi and he is not a taxi driver either. He is like a tour guide driving own car and bring tourists to places that not easily reach by public transport.
Our first destination was Yehliu Geopark. It has some rock formations and the famous one is in the shapes of Queen's Head
The rocks are formed by earth movement, sea and wave action wearing away the rocks structure.
This place is a nice place for potrait shooting
This is a waterfall nearby Jinguasi at northeast coast where the deposit of mineral caused the rocks to look golden yellowish in colour
As you travel along the coastal road you will see a strange scene - a bay where the sea is a mix of yellow and blue
A little further up, we reached Jiufen which used to be the center of gold mining. The popularity soon faded away when the supply of gold ended. Jiufen name came from the fact where in earlier time, there were only nine families staying at this area. Ships that sent goods to the people always send in a set of nine, one for each family. After the town strucked gold, people flowing in from everywhere.
There is a little street called JiuFen old street packed with people, selling all kind of food . I love this grilled mushroom very much
We wanted to go Shifen waterfall afterward but our driver insisted that by the time we reach there, the sky will be already dark. But with our persistance we made it there and caught a little sunlight before the sun went down. Magnificent waterfall. Photo credit to my husband.
It seems to be a long day for us but the end hasn't end!
Jingtong train station is the oldest train station from Japanese era. The station is still operating for tourist only.
We lit our lantern for NT$100, writting all our wishes on it. I hope whoever that read our wishes know how to read English.
END? Not yet, we were back to Ximending and we went for another round of "Ah Chung flour rice noodle". Yum,yum.
4 of us made a road trip again, this time to some further away places in Taipei county to the north and northeast coast side. We had a comfy ride in Toyota Wish with Jack but today Andy was not driving a taxi and he is not a taxi driver either. He is like a tour guide driving own car and bring tourists to places that not easily reach by public transport.
Our first destination was Yehliu Geopark. It has some rock formations and the famous one is in the shapes of Queen's Head
The rocks are formed by earth movement, sea and wave action wearing away the rocks structure.
This place is a nice place for potrait shooting
This is a waterfall nearby Jinguasi at northeast coast where the deposit of mineral caused the rocks to look golden yellowish in colour
As you travel along the coastal road you will see a strange scene - a bay where the sea is a mix of yellow and blue
A little further up, we reached Jiufen which used to be the center of gold mining. The popularity soon faded away when the supply of gold ended. Jiufen name came from the fact where in earlier time, there were only nine families staying at this area. Ships that sent goods to the people always send in a set of nine, one for each family. After the town strucked gold, people flowing in from everywhere.
There is a little street called JiuFen old street packed with people, selling all kind of food . I love this grilled mushroom very much
We wanted to go Shifen waterfall afterward but our driver insisted that by the time we reach there, the sky will be already dark. But with our persistance we made it there and caught a little sunlight before the sun went down. Magnificent waterfall. Photo credit to my husband.
It seems to be a long day for us but the end hasn't end!
Jingtong train station is the oldest train station from Japanese era. The station is still operating for tourist only.
We lit our lantern for NT$100, writting all our wishes on it. I hope whoever that read our wishes know how to read English.
END? Not yet, we were back to Ximending and we went for another round of "Ah Chung flour rice noodle". Yum,yum.
Taiwan Day 6
I have too many posts on Taiwan vacation and I feel a bit sorry to people that don't want to read them, spoiler maybe. We did not use any tour driver service whenever the places that we want to go are reachable within MRT, bus route and short walk. On day 6, our route was pretty simple; National Palace Museum, CKS Memorial Hall and SYS Memorial Hall. So we took the public transport on that day. We were not going to use any MRT again on the next day so we will refund the amount of money we still have in Easycard at the end of the day today.
To reach National Palace Museum, it was not as simple as the other two. We had to board a bus to the museum after getting down from MRT at Shilin station. We spent very long time in the museum because we were interested in historical stuff. We looked at everything on the first floor for almost 2 hours and I told Weeliem that we had to move a little faster or else we would not able to go out of this place for lunch. My stomach already started grumbling , making noises as we went on. Luckily we made it out from the place at 1 plus. No photography is allowed in the museum and they really own a lot of artifacts and historical documents in there.
We did not know what to eat for lunch so we simply walked into a restaurant to try. It was so weird, there weren't any restaurant at all around Shilin station except for this little shop that sells beef noodle and rice. So that's it! We went in and ordered the beef rice and noodle. I always love their rice, the fat and round shape rice very similar to Japanese's.
After that we took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It was a very hot day and I used umbrella all the times at outdoor.
At CKS Memorial Hall, they have 2 frozen guards at each side of the door. They barely move at all even the eyes. This guard on the left was a little unluckly compared to the one on the right. He received this fiery sun light directly on him. He even put on lib balm for protection!
The guard at the shaded side
I mentioned before today was very hot but we saw these pity children having some sort of activity like "merentas desa" at the Liberty Square just outside of the memorial hall.
Next destination was Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.
One of the few rememberance statue of Sun Yat Sen, the people called him kuo fu. I don't know what that supposed to means, probably something like father of the country.
We got a pretty good view of the full Taipei 101 building from here compared to the raining and freezing day on the first night.
After all the memorial halls, we went to Wufenpu for the last shopping spree before heading back to Malaysia.
We stayed in Ximen so we always got down at Ximending at the last stop.
Today we tried the famous "Ah Chung flour rice noodle". We love the bowl of goodies so much.
The last photo of today is on the girl who played drum at the side way illegally to save money to make her own album. Some people might had seen her in videos that someone posted in youtube.
One more last post on Taiwan soon!
To reach National Palace Museum, it was not as simple as the other two. We had to board a bus to the museum after getting down from MRT at Shilin station. We spent very long time in the museum because we were interested in historical stuff. We looked at everything on the first floor for almost 2 hours and I told Weeliem that we had to move a little faster or else we would not able to go out of this place for lunch. My stomach already started grumbling , making noises as we went on. Luckily we made it out from the place at 1 plus. No photography is allowed in the museum and they really own a lot of artifacts and historical documents in there.
We did not know what to eat for lunch so we simply walked into a restaurant to try. It was so weird, there weren't any restaurant at all around Shilin station except for this little shop that sells beef noodle and rice. So that's it! We went in and ordered the beef rice and noodle. I always love their rice, the fat and round shape rice very similar to Japanese's.
After that we took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It was a very hot day and I used umbrella all the times at outdoor.
At CKS Memorial Hall, they have 2 frozen guards at each side of the door. They barely move at all even the eyes. This guard on the left was a little unluckly compared to the one on the right. He received this fiery sun light directly on him. He even put on lib balm for protection!
The guard at the shaded side
I mentioned before today was very hot but we saw these pity children having some sort of activity like "merentas desa" at the Liberty Square just outside of the memorial hall.
Next destination was Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.
One of the few rememberance statue of Sun Yat Sen, the people called him kuo fu. I don't know what that supposed to means, probably something like father of the country.
We got a pretty good view of the full Taipei 101 building from here compared to the raining and freezing day on the first night.
After all the memorial halls, we went to Wufenpu for the last shopping spree before heading back to Malaysia.
We stayed in Ximen so we always got down at Ximending at the last stop.
Today we tried the famous "Ah Chung flour rice noodle". We love the bowl of goodies so much.
The last photo of today is on the girl who played drum at the side way illegally to save money to make her own album. Some people might had seen her in videos that someone posted in youtube.
One more last post on Taiwan soon!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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!
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!
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