Taiwan
DAY 1we got to the airport around 10 to take the noon flight up to taiwan. it was my first time going inside terminal 3 and must say, it's a very pretty terminal. had some good brunch before boarding the plane - smoke salmon croissant! (:
after we landed we headed straight to Beitou to check into spring city hot spring resort. its a nice quiet hotel on a hill with a hot spring facility and hot spring baths in the en suite bathroom. the funny thing is, only my mom ended up using the hotspring while we were there. think all of us were too disgusted by the sulphur smell.
we had an awesome jap dinner that night. satisfied my craving for good sashimi. (: (: (: all the dishes were pretty good and very nicely presented.
and we had shabu shabu. that below is the amount of beef we had. well, this is only a preview to the amount of beef we would take in for the next few days in taiwan. they love their beef.
went around to look at the hot spring, even though we didnt soak. we could see taiwan all lit up from up here!
DAY 2
we tried to walk down and tour the hill cos there were supposed to be some nice sights around, like a water fall, some old ruins, bridges and the sort. but! us being my family, we got lost, and gave up after 20 mins (the tour was supposed to take an hour) and took a cab back up. we never saw those sights heh. pictures from the walk:
i did see a super cute car though!
after the almost tour, we took a cab down to Taipei to check in to our hotel. our hotel is in the Zhongxiao Fuxing area, which is pretty nice with lots of shops and departmental stores and the subway station within easy reach.
after checking in, we went straight to Zhongxiao Dunhua to begin my toy hunting! managed to find 3 bearbricks: a tokidoki LA robber, series 14 jelly bean, and 70% A.I. keychain. (: (: (:
then we headed over to Ximending. a very busy place with lots of youngsters and school kids. its definitely one of the hippest places in Taipei.
this is us waiting for my mom at the departmental store. i am bad at the take-picture-in-the-mirror-thing i know.
we went to eat xue hua! which is like the cooler version of ice kachang, cos i have no idea how they do it but the ice is seriously soft like snow. really good stuff. plus they had super nice mango ice cream too!
me being me, i stalked this super cute girl. but hey, she wanted me to take a photo of her too!
and this poor dog was tied to a pillar while his owner was manning his store.
we then went this restaurant called kanpai, which is a grill restaurant. but we had to wait cos of the horribly long queue, so we walked around the area for a bit first.
the restaurant had quite a good atmosphere. very lively with lots of chatter. some people were pretty drunk though, like the bunch of girls sitted behind us. the restaurant takes polaroids for kissing couples (guy-guy, guy-girl, girl-girl) and so the walls of the restaurant are plastered with them. we took a hell lot of meat, but it was a good meal!
our very own instant picture (:
and i found a police station! maybe its a police post instead - its really tiny and seems non-functional o.0
DAY 3we went to the Miniature Museum of Taiwan, which is to me the best musuem ever. the miniatures were so intricate and an absolute delight to see. i think this is where i took the most photos.
they have some cool vintage toys like these:
clockwise from top left: a horse-drawn carriage, a very angry father, an overcrowded kitchen, a lemonade stand
a room for a baby girl.
miniature within a miniature, how cool is that!
a grand piano. notice the miniature photo frame with a picture inside. see how detailed they are?
one of my favourite sets - an old-fashioned toy workshop. i wish i were inside heh. and they have a miniature train that actually runs!
another miniature within a miniature.
and you can see the scenery outside the window. new york, no less!
another one of my favourite sets - a bakery with the prettiest treats.
they even have a broken egg on the floor. its really tiny so you may wanna enlarge the picture to see it.
santa taking a nap, with frosty outside his window.
this scene reminds me of night at the musuem.
some other nice scenes: a classroom, an egyptian bedroom, a fruit vendor and a mannequin on a shopfront.
and this is the ceiling of one of the sets. the carvings are amazing aren't they.
little japanese town.
after that, we were dragged by my dad to the National Palace Musuem, which was horribly boring after MMOT. and i couldnt even take pictures inside.
they have cute dustbins though!
and then we headed to Miramar, this shopping mall with a ferris wheel. while there we watched Taking of Pelham 123, which was very good. and i went up the ferris wheel!
its just too bad it rained, hence the glass was all blurry and i couldnt take any nice pictures of the skyline.
after which, we went to Shihlin night market. i didnt take out my camera cos i was scared that i will lose it. i think we didn't do it any justice cos it was raining while we were there and thus i think we probably didn't experience it the way it should be experienced (crowded, stuffy and all). and i must say, i'm not really a fan of the food at Shihlin, even the ji pa. i like my ji pa cut up and those there come in one huge piece. but! the taiwanese sausages were gooood. and we found a clothing store where we bought quite a bit of clothes for ourselves. so yay!
DAY 4today my family woke up nice and late, cos we were all very tired from the night before. after breakfast we headed to a shopping mall, where my mom was in her fantasy land of beauty products, and the rest of us were boreddd.
then we went to Tamshui. it is a town situated beside the tamshui river.
i'm a stalker i know. but don't you find their matching outfits too cute? (:
they were selling fish by the river.
and then we headed for the fishermen's wharf. hmm apart from the bridge, there was really nothing much and i think because the sky wasn't blue, and the sun wasn't setting, it really isn't exactly as spectacular as it should be.
some pretty flowers i saw.
and there was this super cute dog! tiny little thing, and the cutest part about it is that when it moves off from stationary position it has to run on the spot for a while before it actually moves forward.
the Tamshui old street (or at least i think it is. it was the first and only street we walked and we kinda assumed it to be the old street cos it seemed 'old' enough. hmmmm) was more interesting.
we went into this cafe called 'Consulate', where we sat upstairs and had a marvelous view of the Bali Left Bank and enjoyed the sea breeze.
the street was pretty long and there was basically lots of shops and food.
this poor doggy was tied to the scooter ):
DAY 5we headed to Jiufen, which was this really small town atop a mountain.
there were a lot of stall selling snacks.
we had lunch at a cafe that gave us an amazing view from the top!
we then entered this shop selling meat balls that had an awfully zi lian owner. she had photos of herself plastered all over the walls. i gotta admit though, she's travelled to a hell lot of places.
she has a cute dog!
we then took the railway back down to taipei. the journey was enjoyable, with nice scenery right out the window. but i fell asleep not long after (as usual).
we went to the Taipei City Hall, where there were a few malls, and the Taipei 101.
we didnt buy anything though. and our sole reason for entering 101 was to go sit and chill at a coffee joint. we didnt even go up the observatory haha what a lazy family i have.
when we came out, it was dark already and we could see the 101 all lit up! much prettier this way (:
next stop: Raohe night market. hmm much smaller than Shihlin, but still enjoyable i would say.
and i bought the cutest pair of painted sneakers! (: (: (:
DAY 6our family woke up nice and late (again) headed for lunch at this jap restaurant where they keep a pig outside the shop.
i think the pig is quite miserable in his small cage ):
an insight into their subway station: they have recycling bins! sg should totally do this!
they also have lines for people to queue up to get into the train. taiwanese are all very orderly people. they follow these lines, and even during peak hours we didn't see any scuffles to get into the train.
my family being law-abiding and queueing up too.
we went back to Taipei City Hall. went into Eslite, this huge bookstore cum departmental store. regrettably most books were in chinese. they had an amazing record store with lots of imported cds too.
bicycle galore. in taiwan i think the most vehicles i see are scooters, bicycles, and taxis (yellow!)
after the bookstore we went to Wufenpu, this wholesale clothing district. it.is.HUGE. like seriously. we walked for a few hours and probably covered 20% i think. and by cover i mean walking into every 10th store or something. you don't know shopping until you've gone to Wufenpu.
for dinner we went to a nice bar-restaurant called China Bar (i think). it had some really good live music which made for an enjoyable meal. although i drank this super strong cocktail that had at least 3 types of alcohol in it and was helluva high and tipsy at the end of it. not to mention i looked like i ran 10 miles.
DAY 7last day at Taiwan. we had breakfast, did some last minute shopping and packing and headed to the airport.
we took the airport bus there, which was cheap and comfortable. so yay. at the airport i think there was a korean band flying off and so there were groupies gathering to send them off. amusing stuff. ah well, at least i got to see taiwan's strong entertainment culture in action before i left! (:
BYE TAIWAN. HELLO SINGAPORE.
*phew* its done! this was a long post and i took at least 5 separate attempts to complete it. i hope you enjoyed it! (:
Labels: happy stuff, holiday
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