As we had slept late the previous night, we woke up around 1pm.
Coincidentally, Taiwan Star Luo Zhi Xiang and other stars were having some performance just directly outside of our hotel. The performance was overwhelmed with people that we had difficulty leaving the hotel as practically there were a large number of people outside the hotel entrance. As I am not one who is fan craze, my parents and I went out to had our lunch while my sis and her friend were busy tooking shots of Luo Zhi Xiang from the hotel inside. We had Ah Zhong Mee Sua (阿宗面线）. The best mee sua I had ever had!!
Up till now, I still missed the taste of it. How I which one day the stall could open a branch in Singapore. However, my parents do not like the taste so they decided to have beef noodles at a nearby cafe. The beef noodles were average compared to the one we had at the Flying Cow Ranch. Beef was much tender and noodles was much springy (Q).
Next, my parents and I went back to the hotel to wait for my sis and her friend to be done with all their photo-shooting of the Taiwan Stars and lunch. As soon as they were back from the hotel, I was kind of lazy to leave the hotel. However, after much delays in packing our necessary stuffs, we decided to go for a dip at any public hot springs at Xin bei Tou. When we arrived there, we were just about to pay the shop owner the money when we took a peak inside the hot spring and were shocked that it was crowded with people (men and women) that we decided not to go for it. Practically, there are no space for us to occupy in the hot spring and make me understood why people go for private hot spring where they can have the private space all to themselves though it was way much expensive.
Therefore, we took a train to Shi Pai Station to try the desserts at the shop
水龟伯古早味, specifically the shop famous ice cream pie (recommended by a tvb food delights program). Surprisingly, when we arrived at the shop, most the Taiwanese people are ordering hot desserts and not cold stuffs and we are the few ordered cold desserts. What a disappointment!! The shop do not sell it during the winter season except during the summer season. Even the mango milk ice which my sis friend wanted to order only available during summer time.
End up, we ordered the stall famous purple rice, strawberry milk ice and beancurd grass jelly.
Beside the dessert stall, there is a mini hotpot stall selling one with a bowl of rice for TWD 99=$4.60 (run by the dessert owner also) and my parents bought two different hot pots and we shared among the 4 of us. The mini hot pot was nice, cai liao feng fu and serving was quite big. Worth the money!!
the dessert shop
Mini Hot pot for 99 TWD!!
What we had for desserts...
My sis and her friend decided to go to Shi Lin Market (at Jian Tan mrt station) while I wanted to go to Tian Mu Road to buy those Nike or Addidas socks as my friend has asked me to get for her. (according to forumers, this is the place where we can get the cheapest nike and addidas sportswear as the factory of Nike and Addidas are located here) Therefore my sis and her friend went on their own way while my parents followed me. However, when I arrived there and walked the whole stretch of Tian Mu Road I could not find any addidas or Nike shop and so we asked around. The passerbys directed us and we were able to locate the shop but was disappointed to find that the pricing was same as Singapore. Not long after, Cherry called me and asked me where am I and so I told her my whereabouts and found out from her that this area is actually where the rich Taiwanese people hangouts. What a wasted trip but a big discovery!! We chanced upon a fusion restaurant (P.S. Bu Bu Fusion Food) having models of car as the theme. (people dine in the cars)
The Counter
Dining table
Many celebrities went
there before
like S.H.E etc
Next, we headed to Shi Lin Market to meet up with my sis and her friend. There are a wide range and variety of food being sold here.
Bbq sugar canes were sold (something unique)
I bought the korean rice cake (being curious to try it as in korean dramas the koreans will always eat it). It tastes horrible as though you are practically eating flour that were dipped in some hot sauce. Luckily, I bought the smallest size as the serving for TWD 30 was quite alot and I did not manage to finish it. Next we went across the road and went to kfc, I ordered the mochi egg tart (QQ and got kou gan). I was very delicious and unique. (something which we can never find it Singapore kfc) We shopped and shopped that we had forgotten the time that we almost missed our last train but we were still able to catch it.
However, we were busily talking on the train that we missed our stop and overshot by one stop so we thought we could wait for the next train but the train officer at the waiting bay told us there is no more train. We got to go down the other line to take back to Xi Men Ding. We were so anxious that we might missed the train from the other line (long way to the other line), we hurriedly ran to the station. The moment we saw a train arrived from the station and everyone were rushing into me, we boarded it without checking whether it is the correct direction. When the train had left the platform we realised that we were taking from the wrong direction but it was too late. (even further away from Xi Men Ding).
Knowing that there are no trains operating, we made the last resort - took a cab back to the hotel.
15 Dec 08
Home Sweet Home
I woke up early, had my breakfast and took a train to Zhi Shan station to buy the famous mango chessecake at the shop called Cheesemate (recommended by 完全娱乐 variety show) and took a back to Taipei Main Station 地下街 to walk around. The place was big but there were not much things to shop. Next, I received a call from my parents that we need to catch our flight so I hurriedly left the place and took a train back to the hotel. We did our last minute shopping at Xi Men Ding ( nearby to the Fei Gou Bus Pick up point to fetch us to the airpost), packeted the Ah Chung Mee Sua, finger food, curry fishballs and bubble tea (to use up our small domination coins as it would be of no value if we converted it to SGD when we are backed in Singapore)
Well, I missed Taiwan very much, the food and everything, hoping to go there on a holiday with my friends someday again. =)
