(Updated : 15 Apr)
i'm back! So glad to get away from the visiting of relatives and after working for the past 4 months. On Friday 1/27, the boss let us off 2 hours earlier and basically by lunchtime, most of us had no mood to work liao, began to talk cock and stuff. But later heard BL's company let her off at 1pm. Argh, my company is so freaking niao. Ok, on to my trip blog.
Day 1 : 士林夜市
On Saturday, went to the airport to catch the 12.15pm plane. Besides our Nam Ho travel, still got Dynasty travel and Chan Brothers on the same flight as us. But our Nam Ho is lousy ah, other agencies got tour leader help them group check in, we have to check in ourselves. Crap. After a 4 hour flight where they served lousy food (no ice-cream) and this super hyper active Taiwanese air stewardess (note : this is a SQ flight), we finally reached Taiwan at 4.30pm. While waiting for our group to gather together, i notice the Chan Brothers group had so many people, like about 50 at least? Which is why my family don't choose Chan Brothers when travelling cos they tend to overprice and have big groups and i hate big groups. Probability of late people is higher. Anyway, my dad is quite excited cos he heard our tour guide will be a lady, but who knows, haha, the "lady" turned out to be an auntie instead. i sort of regret never bring my digicam cos alot of boh liao pictures wasn't taken and then my bro refused to take these boh liao pictures with his SLR. So you can't get to see how my tour guide looks like. So we went off to have dinner first and initially on the iternary, dinner wasn't provided today but becos it's the CNY eve and the tour guide (she asked us to call her 姚姚) figured that we can't get food anywhere anyway, so she arranged dinner for us. Which is good cos i know many shops will be closed early and my family were thinking where to find food. After dinner, we were brought back to the hotel to rest. But we decided to go to the Shi Lin Night Market to see see. i don't trust the Taiwan cabbies, so for most of the trip, we took the MRT unless circumstances forced us to take the taxi which will be revealed later. Our hotel is situated beside the MRT station which makes us very eager to go out to explore places by ourselves at night. Train was very empty cos most had gone home for reunion dinner.
Empty station
Unlike Singapore where Chinatown is cramped with boh liao people after dinner, Shilin market, the biggest market in Taipei is dead. With less than half of the shops open, plus it was raining that night, you can expect nothing special to see. But there's a section selling pets and there you can see puppies, cats, rabbits crammed into little cages. My mum thought that was cruel so they got so little space to move around and hygiene is a problem too. Also i discovered Taipei is full of doll catching machines. i thought this stuff was like passe years ago. Why would you spend so much money to try to catch dolls that are uncatchable when you can buy them at a cheaper price where else? i simply don't understand. After going through the market in less than an hour, we went back to the hotel as we need to set off at 7.30 am the next day.
Day 2 : 六福村主题游乐园；金勇DIY休闲农场；深坑豆腐街；袖珍博物馆；五分埔；城品书店Woke up bright and early to have breakfast in the hotel and man, the breakfast buffet sux for a 4 star hotel. But boh bian lar, breakfast is free. Then we got on the bus and travelled down to 新竹. Before we reached 新竹, let me introduce the members of my tour group. My group has a total of 29 people including my family, if i remembered correctly, and this is the fun part of joining a tour cos you can observe so many different kinds of Singaporeans.
1. Group of 11
This is a big group, comprising of 4 subgroups.
a) Parents and 2 daughters. Father smokes, mother and daughters like to buy branded goods. Eg, bought Tommy Hilfiger at Taipei 101.
b) Parents and daughter. Nothing interesting about them.
c) Old couple. Wife's leg not very good, skipped a day due to leg pain.
d) Another couple. Wife dress like she going to attend wedding dinner like that.
Well, i don't know how they all know one another cos they certainly aren't relatives.
2. Parents and 1 young boy
My mum and I suspected the boy is adopted cos he has big eyes, certainly not found in his parents and his skin is dark, akin to a Cambodian. But he is quite well behaved. But his mum, god, me and my bro were sitting beside her in the coach and whatever the tour guide says, she always got an opinion or she will be agreeing to whatever she says. It's irritating to the ears.
3. Parents and daughter and son
Same surname as us. Daughter is in NUS and doesn't look like 21. Look younger. They have another son but was in Singapore, studying for his exams. Nice people, at least they're not weird like the rest. Sit with us at the same table for all the meals.
4. Two friends
This pair of aunties very cute. Typical Singaporean auntie who is naive and easily cheated. And they dressed more gung ho than my mum. Last day found out they're actually lab technicans working in schools.
5. Parents and daughter
Daughter, 13, looks freaking older than her age. Wears a mini skirt on the day we arrived in Taiwan. Often the group to be late, giving the excuse that daughter has a tummy ache but can spot her eating ice-cream the next moment. Mother never smiles and wears sandals throughout the whole tour. Observed the husband might be henpecked.
6. Couple
Husband is seriously addicted to nicotine. As long he has the chance, he will smoke. Wife dress like a tai tai, carrying her LV bag around. i believed they first met at a nightclub or something.
i believe other people will also talk about us, but who cares? i self proclaimed my family as the ASF (Anti Social Four), so we heck care what people say. But it's fun to observe people and how different families function. Haha...
Ok, we have reached 六福村主题游乐园 (Leo Foo Amusement Park)! It was misty, cold and drizzling. Not many people cos we reached early and it's the first day of CNY. Since most rides start at 9.30am, we walked around first.
And tooked stupid photos.
And played "OK牧场射击场" where me and my mum didn't managed to shoot anything.
Then we heard sounds of wheels against rails and saw a ride was being tested (cos drizzling). So we proceed to "笑傲飞鹰", where me and my bro sat the first pair of seats and my dad sat behind. My mum didn't dare to try. Our legs were suspended while sitting. Char might know this ride. It's a U shaped ride and we basically started at the bottom of the U, and suddenly it will move forward very very fast, paused a while at the top of the U, then go backwards very very fast. Repeat that for 3 times. God, it was super damn fast lor. i wonder if it is faster than a F1 car going at 300km/h. i was screaming all the way. i speechless the moment i got off the ride. Then minutes later, i realised i can't turn my head properly. My neck hurts. Apparently i was too shocked by the speed to remember to keep my head as backwards as possible. Of cos my parents were quite worried but i believed it's just a sprain of the muscles. But damn, it kept me away from some rides that i wanted to try. For the rest of the 3 hours, i also sat "西部疯狂列车", "大海盗", "苏丹王大冒险", "天马行空" and "动物巡礼". My bro sat "大怒神" (freefall thingy) and "风火轮" (roller coaster shape of a circle) which i wasn't allowed to play. i'm not going to explain each ride in detail cos i still have lots to say!
After lunch we proceed to 金勇DIY休闲农场, where this guy, 金勇, managed to cultivate different kinds of tomatoes through hydroponics. And you can pluck the tomatoes you like then pay for it. But cos my family don't really eat them, we just walk around. Too bad, strawberries are not in season, so can't go and pick them. I also managed to spot the boss, quite young, in his 30s. Such entrepreneurs always get my admiration cos they 亲力亲为 and what they achieve today is through sheer hard work.
Capsicum? No, it's a tomato!
Next stop is 深坑豆腐街. It's one whole street whereby smelly tofu is the main lead. My memories of smelly tofu lies in the street hawker in Hong Kong where the deep fried smelly tofu is super good. But last year's trip to Hong Kong left me disappointed cos street hawkers are all gone, along with the smelly tofu. We could put our hopes on 深坑豆腐街. But one thing about the smelly tofu nowadays is that, they're not smelly anymore! Imagine a street with at least 70% of the shops selling smelly tofu and yet no smelly smell? Believe it or not, i actually found it to be quite fragrant. Anyway, we picked a shop and ate the deep fried kind. Becos it's not smelly like olden day smelly, it actually just taste like normal deep fried tofu with sauce. But i like the sauce. Then we went shopping, buying the 麻糟, basically food lar. Oh, i personally don't like the packaged ready 麻糟, but the fresh made ones. Those are way much better. When it was nearing time and waiting for tour members to gather, we grab time to buy the grilled tofu from a famous stall. Actually i was quite skeptical cos i don't believe other than deep fry, smelly tofu can be better cooked in other ways. But the grilled one was woah, it's so damn good. Even my mum who lost her appetite due to car sickness, found the grilled tofu tasty.
With full stomachs, we head on to 袖珍博物馆, a museum whereby boh liao people had too much time on their hands and decide, hey, shall i shrink things i see in my daily life to 12 times smaller than original size? Put many of such boh liao people together, and you get a miniature museum.
Tiny teddy bear...
Wasn't very interesting so our group came out punctually. They then head to Shilin Market. But cos we've been there yesterday, we left the group and took MRT back to hotel to put our stuff first. Off to 五分埔 we went. As it was near dinner time, we went to look for food once we got out of the MRT. Walk walk and we saw 胡须张. It's a famous shop for its 卤肉饭. We decide to try cos we heard so much about it on TW telly. It's damn cheap. One small bowl of 卤肉饭 cost S$1, and trust me, you could get full eating that small bowl. Even though that bowl is full of pig fats rather than meat, i gobbled everything down. i don't whether becos i was too hungry or becos the weather is cold and that hot steamy rice is too damn good to resist. Now got energy to shop 五分埔. Speaking of which, a trip to 五分埔 will make you realise Bugis Village or 襄阳市场 in Shanghai is crap. There're so many shops, and no repetition of goods. i think becos there're no imitation goods, so the stuff looks more interesting and local. If not for the fact that they're selling winter wear now, i'll spend a bomb there. Just trying the clothes will take me a day! Finishing 五分埔, we continued to 饶河夜市. According to map and people, it's walkable and behind a certain train station. So, we found the station after much walking. But damn, we couldn't find a way to get behind the station. And Taipei roads being Taipei roads, they're not friendly at all. We gave up cos we were tired and we don't want to get lost. We then decide to take a cab. But 2 cabs rejected us. We thought it might be becos it's too near, that's why they don't want to take us. So we changed destination to the 24 hour 城品书店 outlet. And picked the 3rd cab after the first 2 rejected us. i don't like taking cabs overseas cos it's like putting your fate into the hands of that driver. You don't know if he'll take a long road or even bring you to the destination. And especially Taiwan, where i have bad impression of the cabbies. True enough, our first cabbie chews betel nuts, and makes funny sucking sounds. We were so glad to get out of the taxi once we reached 城品书店. i was hopeful about my trip to 城品 cos Chinese books in Taiwan are cheap. But alas, what we see are all translated books. Feel so cheated. i don't read no translated books, and 70% of the store is full of them? Where are all the Chinese authors? Without buying a single book, we went back to the hotel to sleep.
Day 3 : 中正纪念堂；忠烈祠；北头温泉；美丽华百乐园；台北101；饶河夜市Again, we woke up early cos we have to catch the changing of guards at 忠烈祠 at 9am. But before that we went to the 中正纪念堂 first. This is the place where i have often heard of singers holding their concerts there. It's akin to our VCH. Then there we also took a tour photo with the damn morning sun in our eyes. i forgot how much the photo costs. But almost everyone look like this : -_-
Sun gets in your eyes
Then off we go to see changing of guards. As with all guards across the world, none of them is shuai. (Argh, just included my JC classmate too, oops.) Ok, i have only seen the guards in China, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan, but the conclusion is conclusive. Haha. And many people also waked up early to change the ceremony. i had to squeeze my way to the front to film the thing.
Continue to 北头温泉, which really has nothing much to see cos main attraction is to try the onsen. But i was felt too lazy to change into my swimsuit and then later change back, so in the end only my dad went to try. And the rest of my family sat outside and wait. During this time i happily observe all the people around me, which i really like to do when i'm stoning. i can look like i'm stoning but in reality, i'm watching people. Haha. There's alot of HK tours and i spotted this really good looking young HK tour guide. Shuai.
More sleeping on the coach and we reached 美丽华百乐园, Miramar something. Basically it's a shopping centre plus a big Carrefour beside it. And also plus a ferris wheel. The ferris wheel is situated on the 4th floor of the mall and we went up to take a look. Woah, long queue. If i remember correctly, the wheel takes 17 minutes for 1 rotation. Plus the queue, we won't have time to shop the mall. But a few of our tour mates did went up the wheel. i remember it wasn't cheap too. So we happily slowly shopped the mall which is really nothing to shop cos stuff inside are expensive. So we made our way to the Carrefour! Huge huge Carrefour! Think Ikea as Carrefour. And we were grabbing whatever edible stuff there is, haha. And i was so happy to see my Ritz crackers with peanut butter filing! Yummy... Cold Storage used to have them for a while, but now all i see is boring cheese filing. Yucks. Peanut butter is the best! They even have vanilla filing and blueberry cheese?! But i only got 2 boxes of my peanut butter.
Feeling happy with my purchases, we moved on to Taipei 101. We wanted to take the fastest elevator in the world (not sure about this) up to the ?th floor (sorry, i forgot which floor), but usual, queue was damn long lar. So we gave up and walked around. i wanted to shop Page One, but my mum and bro not into bookstores. Then we discovered a long queue for Haagen Dazs
and we thought, wah must be cheap. After checking the prices, we conclude the Taiwanese are weird. One scoop cost $5 Sing, more expensive than here and there are people queueing for it? The rest of the shops don't interest us cos they're all branded so we went to the bread shop to buy food again. Haha.
Pretty cloud reflections
After dinner, we were sent back to the hotel, but my family took a cab to 饶河夜市 after the failed trip yesterday night. This time, the cabbie was better and took shortcuts that led us to the destination faster. Becos 饶河夜市 is essentially one long street, we started from one end of cos. There was this temple, so we went in to pray. Now normally, temples here only have a single storey. But that temple had 5 floors. And we were allowed to bring the incense up to all the floors to pray.
That temple is huge, and the deco is really pretty. 饶河夜市 works in a funny, disclipined kind of way. It's a street with shops on both sides and a row of stalls in the middle acting as a divider. Now normally in Singapore, you see people walking up and down on 2 sides. But down there, one side has all the people walking 1 direction and the other side is the other direction. So we started walking in 1 direction right to the end and then U-turn. So basically we walked 饶河夜市 twice. And this is the place where i bought many stuff, and again, saw a really good looking salesperson. He has a really glib tongue anyway. He sells bags and i was looking with my mum and he asked what kind of bag i wanted. i just said i'm just looking around. He then asked what purpose is it for, school, or something else. Then my mum replied for work. Then he looked shocked and asked i graduated from university already? i nodded and he said that he thought i was still in high school (junior college). Muahaha, sweet mouth sia. See his face and his glib tongue, really want to buy something from him, but his stuff don't attract me. My mum later say, aiyoh, why never give him face? Maybe buy also can take photo with him leh. Haha. Finally we were tired and we bought a 大鸡排 and sat inside KFC to eat. Haha... Very bad i know, but hey, we were tired. And KFC have nobody inside lor. In fact, i think only the fast food restaurants here are always that full. Tired, tired, went back hotel sleep.
