These are the highlights of my Taiwan trip. It took me nearly 2 months to finish this post. By the time I came back from Taiwan, I was greeted with crazy weekend classes, exams and assignments. I’m glad to have a self-declare intermittent break after my mid-semester exam.
My Entourage, with ♥
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Thank you boys & girl for sending me off 🙂
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Dinner with papa, mama & sis
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Anyway, it was my first time flying on my own *jitters*
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Day 1
I had to dragged my tired body around for 7 hours before I could check-in. I was overly excited about Taiwan that I couldn’t sleep during the flight.
Main Inn Taipei
No.1-1, Ln. 29, Zhengzhou Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103, Taiwan.
http://www.maininn.tw/
TEL：+886-2-25552587
Email：maininntaipei@gmail.com 10mins Walk from Taipei Main Station
Underground Shopping malls linked from Taipei Main Station to my hostel.
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I was walking aimless exploring the area around my hostel and I found this, 饭团 (rice ball).
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Too yummy! Soft on the outside and crunchy on the inside. Love the overall texture.
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Fell asleep in the theater
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The famous 阿宗麵線 (Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle) at Xinmending. I was glad that I went there slightly before noon. The crowd came in at noon and thereafter the streets was flooded with people holding this.
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I’m proud of this timer shot.
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After 7 hours of roaming the streets, I finally get to check in. I knock out for a good 3hours before heading out to Shilin Night Market.
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Compare with the other night markets, the things/food sell in Shilin Night Market is the most expensive. Oh well, in tourist area, you will get tourist price.
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Shilin Night Market is known for their crazy crowd. I nearly died squeezing through the crowd.
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I had sushi almost every night! SGD0.40 per piece (regardless of choice of sushi). It’s dirt cheap and it’s pretty fresh.
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Day 2
I’ve planned to meet up with the frogmen to spend the day in the Zoo. Mingyun told me that I should go to their Zoo because it’s huge (more animals) and it’s only SGD2.60. Instead of going straight to the Zoo, we were distracted by this…
貓空纜車 (Mao Kong Gondola)
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Impromptu gondola ride
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Crystal Cabin
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Reached the peak.
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Their eyes
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We realised that one of the gondola station will bring us to Taipei Zoo (Back entrance)
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From the Gondola Zoo Station, we still had to take the tram to the exhibits.
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Off to….
五分埔 (wufenpu)
Bought some cheap, comfortable and pretty jeggings, and bags. Somehow, I don’t really like the fashion here – too flowery & lacy. We spent an hour here and decided to move on to the next itinerary. And off we go to the next night market….
Raohe Night Market. Lesser crowd and the stuff here is slightly cheaper
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The scallops, too delicious, I nearly bought all the different flavours!
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I had at least 1 cup of winter melon tea a day. I’m in love with their 1000cc cup.
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滷肉飯 (Braised pork on rice) I’m drooling as I type.
I prefer Raohe Night Market to Shilin Night Market (probably because it’s lesser crowd). We finished walking the night market earlier than expected and decided to move on to xinmending.
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Muah Chee in a stick @ Xinmending
Pretty efficient with our shopping & touring. We managed to cover a lot of places in just 1 day, 13 hours of walking. The things in xinmending is pretty pricey and they selling similar things.
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Loots for day 2
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Day 3
The rest of the frogmen had already visited Taipei 101 a few days before I arrived Taipei. So, in the morning I grabbed him away from the rest to accompany me to Taipei 101!
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Observatory Tickets bought. They closed the outdoor observatory due to some private event. We could only go to the indoor observatory – what a shame!
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If we weren’t rushing to meet the rest, I would have finish the auditory tour. 😦
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View from 89th Floor Taipei 101 Indoor Observatory
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I’m glad to be able to travel with this bunch of free-spirit-adventurous travellers. I like their spontaneity. Travelling with them makes this trip even more exciting. So, in the afternoon we booked a cab to travel to the outskirt of Taipei. The boys decided on the places of attraction. I have no idea what to expect until we reach the destination.
McLovers. Stocking up food for the journey. They eat McDonald’s almost everyday! Crazy cravings.
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First Stop, Yehliu Geopark
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Pacific Ocean as backdrop
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Unknowingly, we spent 2 hours walking and exploring.
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2nd quick stop at 黑金刚大山
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3rd stop, 黄金瀑布
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Captured a really hilarious conversation (listen closely):
Eugene: Where does the water come from huh? The water never ending. Is there a system to this?
Nat: System… what system?
Eugene: A Tap?
Bolin: Ya! Like can switch it off?
Nat: Maybe? Like waste water hor
Eugene: Where does the water come from?
Bolin: Pipe
I nearly died while listening to their discussion about “Where does the water come from?”
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4th stop, 九份
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LOOK AT THOSE YAM BALLS & SWEET POTATO BALLS!!!
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Their specialty – Yam balls, Sweet potato ball & bean curd in ginger soup
I love the old, rustic streets. I enjoyed the shopping here. The souvenirs here is cheaper than all the night markets! Bought a lot of useless stuff here. We only manage to cover half of 九份 and we had to move on to our last stop.
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Last stop, 十分 平溪. Releasing Sky Lantern along the railway track is pretty cool.
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As we were writing our sky lantern halfway, here comes the train!
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Drawing our Zodiac – Bolin, the bulletproof bunny. Eugene, the flying snake. Nat, the snake with wheels. Me, the muscular snake
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I mean, It’s illegal to play fireworks in Singapore (neither have we play it before) so we’ve made friend with the Sky Lantern’s staff and he wouldn’t mind joining us.
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With our driver & partner in crime.
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The studious us went to pay the 24-hour bookstore a visit. Bookstore was smaller than expected.
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Our night ends with a Boomz!
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Day 4
Just the both of us 🙂 The temperature fell from 20 to 14 degrees. It was really windy.
Prawn fishing!
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Before this, Nat was pretty confident that he is able to catch minimum 20 prawns in 2 hours. He kept claiming he is the expert in prawn fishing. Righttttttt
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So much cleaner than Singapore’s!
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After only catching only 1 prawn (I’m the one who caught it) for the first 30mins, 明哥 came to our rescue. He couldn’t stand seeing us being so hopeless. How nice.
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I, caught the first prawn.
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I can’t tell you how… but 17 prawns were caught, seasoned with sea salt and barbequed.
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My love for prawns, yum yum!
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Next on the list,
32 Villa
No. 32, Zhongshan Rd, Taiwan 112
+886 2 6611 8888
http://www.villa32.com/
Hotspring @ Xinbeitou. It was highly recommended by Rachel.
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I have zero regrets choosing the private hot spring suite. I booked it through emails. Prompt replies.
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Feeling FRESH!
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That day was so windy and cold. It dropped from 22 degrees to 14 degrees.
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Visited Beitou Thermal Valley
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Zen
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How can you NOT eat at Taiwan’s Ding Tai Feng?
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Braving through the chill wind to shin kong mitsukoshi for Nat’s toy cars.
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Last Night Market in Taipei – Shida Night Market. Most of the patrons there are Uni students It is also my favourite night market in Taipei!
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Day 5
Bye bye, Taipei! Hello Koahsiung!
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Shihzuwan Hotel Kaohsiung Station
No.241, Jianguo 2nd Rd., Sanmin Dist., Kaohsiung City
http://www.westbay888.com.tw/station-e/default.htm
Thank you Papa Huang & Jeff for settling our accommodation in Kaohsiung! The bathtub came with Jacuzzi & teevee! This hotel uses foam mattress & pillow!!!! The hotel is only 5 minutes walk away from Kaohsiung Railway staion & MRT station. I love it.
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Ruifeng Night Market. I miss all the food here. FYI, the night markets in KHH is way cheaper than those in taipei (especially the game stalls).
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Food in Ruifeng Night Market
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Kaohsiung Arena (高雄巨蛋) – This is where I burned a hole in my wallet.
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Day 6
Went to Shinkuchan Shopping Area a little too early. All the shops only around 11ish.
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Went to Taroko Sports Plaze to do some batting and throwing
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Warmed up with slow ball. Anything over 70km/h, we hit NO BALL. It was fun!
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According to the boys, there is this Volkswagen outside the sports plaza selling really yummy Spongebob Squarepants pancakes and…..
WE FOUND IT!
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Yay!!
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Dream Mall – hunt down Nat’s remaining toy cars!
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While waiting for Nat, we bought some figurine. We sniffed, shake and even prayed. Chun Hong & I got what we wanted! 😀
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The Ferries wheel at Dream Mall. Nothing much, oh well!
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Kai Xuan Night Market. The largest night market in Kaohsiung. We spent 6 hours and the remaining of our money here. My favourite night market thus far!
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Nat is the master of claw machine. *salute* The amount of claw machines we played in this night market is enough to last a lifetime.
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After 24 attempts, he finally got his PRIZE!
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We tried a lot of different games but this is my favourite.
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After nearly 40 attempts, we only caught 6 shrimps. The little boy who mend the stall is kind enough to give us 4 free shrimps. *ha ha ha*
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Liouhe Night Market. One thing I love about the night markets in Taiwan, THEY OPEN UNTIL THE WEE HOURS! By the time we reach Liouhe night market, it was around 1am.
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Chun Hong insist on eating this bean curd on our last night in Taiwan. Best bean curd EVER. It literally melts in your mouth.
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My macho man. He faithfully carried my shopping bags during our time in Taiwan. He even sponsored my air tickets, accommodations and 50% of my shopping knowing that I am too poor after paying my school fees. The entire time he keep telling me to “buy, buy, buy!”
THANK YOU, Love!
I had lots of fun with all the frogmen and their plus one. Made a lot of new friends and fostering deeper bonds with some old friends. Wouldn’t mind doing this again! 🙂
Nat: system… what system?
Eugene: A tap.
Bolin: Ya! Like… can switch it off?
Nat: maybe? Like waste water hor
Eugene: water come from where?
Bolin: pipes?
Read more at http://web.stagram.com/n/awesomesunshine/#JwMlvwRMz8rMFGJX.99
Nat: system… what system?
Eugene: A tap.
Bolin: Ya! Like… can switch it off?
Nat: maybe? Like waste water hor
Eugene: water come from where?
Bolin: pipes?
Read more at http://web.stagram.com/n/awesomesunshine/#JwMlvwRMz8rMFGJX.99
Nat: system… what system?
Eugene: A tap.
Bolin: Ya! Like… can switch it off?
Nat: maybe? Like waste water hor
Eugene: water come from where?
Bolin: pipes?
Read more at http://web.stagram.com/n/awesomesunshine/#JwMlvwRMz8rMFGJX.99
Nat: system… what system?
Eugene: A tap.
Bolin: Ya! Like… can switch it off?
Nat: maybe? Like waste water hor
Eugene: water come from where?
Bolin: pipes?
Read more at http://web.stagram.com/n/awesomesunshine/#JwMlvwRMz8rMFGJX.99
awesomesunshine 