It was the much anticipated holiday break… quite an irony because we have been working hard so far but now we are taking a break overseas again. But for me and thams, it was something that we were looking forward to, cos both of us haven been to Taipei before. The initial plan was to go to Barcelona to rest and relax but the rest were not very cooperative, they either backed out or they only wanna go to Asian countries only. This is how Taipei was chosen as the final destination. Not that me and Thams mind anyway.
In the build up to this, there was quite a few misunderstandings and quarrels, threatening to derail the trip but I am glad that all was resolved before the trip and the people involved were in the best of terms again. In order to go easy on our pockets and to have a comfortable trip there, we decided on Cathay Pacific to transit in Hong Kong first before going on to Taipei. It wasn’t all too bad an idea when we were on our way up because everyone was enthusiastic and looking forward towards our destination that the long transit hours, and tiring flight doesn’t seem to bother us. Reaching Taoyuan Airport, we still had to take our own transport to the hotel and we resided at Neijiang Hotel, a 3 star hotel which is less than 5 mins away from the ever popular Ximending. What surprised me was that the hotel staff was friendly and helpful and their service was excellent. I guess it’s the famous Taiwan friendliness and hospitality. And daily breakfast was provided right at our doorstep, with fruit juice and yummy sandwiches.
Reaching Ximending in the evening on the first day, we wasted little time to changing up and heading out to shop around Ximen. Thams and me were fascinated by the place, its liveliness and the amount of pretty girls in the streets that made Singapore pale in comparison. No wonder so many guys like to come to Taipei, the riddle has been unfounded. Food was on top of our mind as we were hungry after the long day, finally we decided on a roadside restaurant with authentic Taiwanese food. We ordered fried rice, fried oyster, veg, noodles and “lu rou fan”. Then came the first of me and tham’s “adventure”, we spotted a very pretty girl dressed in a blue top sitting in the corner of the shop and throughout dinner, we couldn’t stop staring at her. She is indeed pretty and has a fantastic figure to compliment it and we decided to call her our blue angel. But she soon left after that and after dinner we decided to shop around Ximen as it was already pretty late and too late to travel out to anywhere else. We came across quite a few nice and interesting restaurants with different themes and begin to think that it was good business ideas that we can bring back to Singapore. We ventured into a secluded alley which seemed to sell interesting clothes and items and there, we met our blue angel again, stopping by and looking through the same shops as we do. Such coincidence!!! That was not the end of the story as we were walking along the main street and deciding if our stomach can hold another bowl of the famous “Ah Zong Mian Xian” when she walked past again. Really fated I guess but that’s all to it. After all the shopping, we were to decide if its time to go back and rest for the next day’s sightseeing or to go somewhere to enjoy the nightlife. But how can anyone come to Taiwan and not sing KTV?? So the crazy 4some set out towards Partyworld to sing KTV. I think the KTV in Taipei can really put Singapore’s KTV to shame, the room for the 4 of us has a stage in the room, a bar corner and a chill-out couch and to top it up, it has its own toilet. We sang for 4 hours till 3am and had beers to go along with, at not more than 20 Sin dollars. How cheap can that be compared to Singapore. That marks the end of the first day.
The next day’s itinerary was decided during the KTV session when Wulai was the destination chosen to go to for our hot spring bath. It was a bit far out and the traveling involves taking the local mrt and bus services spanning 2 hours plus to reach there. It was supposedly a very popular tourist spot but at the same time, it didn’t lose its kampong, simple life identity. We navigated the streets before finding the place which Casey has been to before for her previous visit. It was pretty fun to sit in the communal pool where the hot spring water was pumped in for us to soak. There was also Jacuzzi style pool and a pool which was filled with cold water. We literary freezed inside that pool but not before camwhoring and having fun taking photos with the nice kampong scenary all around first. We were there for 2-3 hours before we decided to move on and explore the rest of the area a bit. There were plenty of street food like “Taiwanese sausage” and “Rou Chuan” which we bought and gobbled down quickly. Casey then suggested going to a waterfall which we must trek a distance, but before we embark on the trek, we were distracted by the hoards of people who were swimming and soaking in the river below us that we made our way down and joined them. Playing with water, trying to take photos, simply because there is no river in Singapore and we were pretty much mountain tortoises. Haha.. that distracted us for quite a while before we continued on the trek up to find the waterfall. I must say that it’s a rather long trek and there is hardly anyone around, we were almost on the verge of giving up until we saw the waterfall. It was DISAPPOINTING, its merely a few squirts of water from the top of the mountain, hardly the kind of majestic waterfall that I pictured it to be. Never mind, at least we been there and done that and begin our way down in the dark, at the same time, provided a feasty dinner for the local mosquitoes. Back to the more populated area, we saw villagers grabbing benches and stools, sitting outside their house and shophouses, chit-chatting, patting their dogs, with little oil lamps or electrical lamps emitting light in the dark streets. Authentic kampong style life, something which I never experienced eversince, my auntie moved out of her kampong house when I was in primary school. The simple life that I would like to live. After Wulai, we headed towards the famous Shihling night market. We had our dinner there at the food market, as usual local food and snacks greeted us and we couldn’t resist and stocked up quite a lot for our folks back home, before moving on to the shopping area. Clothes, toys, gadgets, our pasar malam games that we used to play in our younger days greeted us. We were fascinated and unwittingly spent quite a huge amount of money playing those games. Most of the stalls were selling girls stuff, in the end me and tham separated from Casey and Serene because they were taking too long and we wanted to move on and at least finish walking through the night market, because its our first time there. We ended the night eating “Ah Zong Mian Xian” and the famous “tou huay” there before heading back to rest for the long day ahead tmr.
Day 3 – we had to wake up early as we were traveling out to Yehliu to see the famous structures formed by erosion caused by the sea. It was a really hot day and we were all burnt, a total contrast to the predicted weather of a typhoon. Shades, caps, umbrellas were all utilized as we were all sweating like pigs under the weather. But I must say that the dunes provided a wonderful background for our pictures, we (minus Casey) decided to climb up to the top of the mountain to see whats there since we were there already and possibly might not be back to Yehliu for a long time to come. It was a long and ardous journey, the hot sun, the rough path and thousands of steps to make made us regret our decision midway and we were stuck between deciding to continue or to go back and join Casey in the shade. In the end, curiosity got the better of us and we continued and it was “jian fei” climb as our shirts were soaked and burnt. At the very least, some nice pictures came out of it, so it wasn’t too bad but still we complained. After Yehliu, we went to Jiu Fen, a temple in the middle of mountain and plenty of old streets and nice food which we didn’t see in our journey so far. Fried mushrooms, peanuts-icecream-popiah, wasabi kong teng, just to name a few. It set us mouth watering. After more pictures, we went down and decide to go to wufenpu and raohe night market. Raohe was pretty similar to shihling except its smaller scale. We had our dinner there – bak kuk rice and a certain 3-se dessert which only Taiwan has. It was super yummy!!! And isn’t too difficult to make, I think it will be a hit in Singapore and there is fruit sorbet ice-cream, super fine and nice too. Then we went on to wufenpu for more shopping, mostly girls stuff again, but me and thams didn’t mind, we went on our own and spotted a very pretty girl, tried to approach her to take photo but was declined by her. Oh well, pity pity…
4th day, we went to Danshui, and the pretty popular Yu Ren Ma Tou (fisherman’s wharf), as we got up pretty late, we reach there in the late afternoon, and there wasn’t much to see as many of the things were largely available in the places we visited so far. Except that there were a lot of stalls selling almond tea, and the smell of almonds filled the air and “tie dan” was the cheapest there compared to other places. The girls went on to Shihling again to complete their shopping while me and thams went back to Ximending area to explore more and to visit the toilet themed restaurant. Which was very interesting as everything there was themed toilet from utensils to bowls and cups and decorations and furnishing. Very innovative. We had ah zong mian xian again, I guess its fast becoming our staple food and there was more shopping for us as well before heading back to the hotel to wait for the girls cos we decided to go clubbing. We went to Lava and it’s a highly happening place as youngsters congregated there. There was a dance competition as well, where girls nominated to go on stage to compete and winner gets a prize of 2000 NT. There was plenty to see as the girls were really good and dancing and in order to win, some of them stripped to their bikinis and 2 of them even went topless but covering their vital parts of course. It’s an eye opener seriously, I managed to take a photo with one of the contestant, who is my fave and I labeled her as my pink angel. It was a good night to go because its free flow whole night through and we couldn’t stop drinking. (Thursday night free flow). I have to say it’s the best clubbing night that I ever had and nothing in Singapore can compare to that. There were plenty of eye candies as well for guys and girls as well.
The next day was just random shopping, and we headed back to shihling again for more games, for ah zong mian xian, for tou huay, for more eye candies. At night, we couldn’t resist and decided to go clubbing again, wanted to go to Luxy, a place recommended by Casey’s friend but there were too many foreigners there, we switched to Club 18, but seemed like a more atas place so we went back to our favourite Lava again and partied the night away. Before waking up late the next morning for our flight back to Singapore. It was kinda sad to leave the place which was so happening, so fun and so many pretty girls. I think I could live in a place like that, will be good if I can come back again soon. Yes! I think I should, it’s a place to come with friends, with guys or gf… I shall be back again soon Taipei for more sightseeing, for more fun and there are other places which I wanna go see like the famous Alishan and other parts of Taiwan.
Oh yes!! To buy my magnet which I forgot as well…
