My first blog entry!!
I was contemplating whether I should blog in Chinese or English, since I am blogging about a Mandarin-speaking country, and we mainly conversed in Chinese while in Taiwan, but I've decided to do so in English instead, since my written Chinese is not that great! (typical Singaporean I guess). This blog would be solely dedicated to my travels and so it wouldn't be regularly updated as other blogs are. But do stay tuned for any updates!
My decision to join in this trip was rather impromptu. I had initially wanted to travel to the Land of the Rising Sun, but due to shrinking budget constraint, I decided that I could only travel cheaply, and that Taiwan came into my mind as a possible travel destination. At this time, my secondary school friend, HM, told me about her up-coming grad trip with her NUS ME friends to Taiwan, and that someone in her group had backed out last minute, so when she heard I was interested in going Taiwan, she asked me along. Being a rather typical Geminian, I decided to go along without much hesitation as I believe I would get along fine with her good friends.
Due to some unforeseen circumstances (i.e. my unexpected laziness and lack of enthusiasm), I somehow decide to prepare for the trip on the day before, like packing my luggage on the night before the trip, and realizing I need a bigger luggage/backpack at the very last min. In the end, I had to borrow from my friend, HY, her luggage, which proved to be a slight mistake as I later realize a backpack would be a better choice for travelling in Taiwan.
Our flight is at 1pm on 15th May 2007. It is my first time on a budget airline (Jetstar Asia), and I wasn't without any fears/doubts when I board the plane. It turned out to be a turbulent start as the plane suddenly took off without much warning (after cruising on the tracks awhile) and I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline as I would have taken a roller-coaster ride that had taken off without me being prepared. Other than that, I thought the flight was quite ok, and the air-stewardesses were pretty friendly and not that ugly Haha. The flight was about 4 hr 40 min, and it passed rather uneventfully, with most time spent napping and playing mahjong cards and watching (boring) magic tricks.
We reached 桃源机场 in 台北 at about 5:45pm, and the airport reminds me somewhat of the airport in Bangkok. Signs in 繁体中文 greeted us, such as 盥洗室, which we had a hard time making out the pronunciation (for the first word), and to my pleasant surprise, a (presumably) Taiwanese lady stopped and informed us it's pronounced as guan4. Throughout our trip, we had a rather bo liao time looking at signs and making out the words Haha.
After exiting the airport, we made our way to Hostelling International, Taipei in K Mall, located right opposite the Taipei Railway Station. Surprisingly, if you mention K Mall to the Taiwanese, not many of them actually know the place, or they have not hear it by this name before, and these include the cab drivers. And many of us who have gone Taipei would know K Mall. Our hostel is located on the 13th floor of K Mall, and after checking in and depositing our luggage/backpacks in our room, we made our way to the MRT station to take train to 忠孝敦化 station, where LW's taiwan friends are waiting for us at. They promptly brought us to a very nice restaurant called 台湾世纪回味 人文餐厅 for dinner, and by then we were famished as we had no lunch provided on the Jetstar plane, and it was 8 plus at night by the time we reached 忠孝敦化. It was definitely one of the best meals/food we had in Taiwan. Below are some pictures taken at the place:
Apologies for the rather dark photos taken as my camera is not well-suited for taking night shots. And also, for the lack of photos of the food we ate as we were too hungry and gobbled down most of the food pretty fast! We had 醉鸡 (which was a hot favourite as most of us had not tried it before, and somehow, the Taiwan rendition was good!), 酥炸 oyster mushroom (another favourite, as most of us love mushrooms!!), 三杯中卷 (中卷's actually octopus or sotong), 炒山菜，炒牛肉 and 猪油拌饭 (an instant favourite as well. even though it was just 猪油淋在白饭上, it was v flavoursome and appetite-stimulating). We also tried 弹珠汽水 out of curiousity, and had a bo-liao time trying to figure out how to remove the 弹珠 from the bottle. In the end, the boss came over and showed us it is possible to do so. It was also the first out of many nights (or days) of beer drinking for LW and the guys haha.
HM drinking 弹珠汽水:
See what I mean by beer-drinking days?:
After dinner, we went off for some 粉圆甜品 nearby and it was certainly one of the best desserts I ever had! The main ingredient is 粉圆 (which is actually pearls that we have in our bubble tea), and you get to add 4 different ingredients chosen from a wide variety, one bowl for only NT50 (about S$2.50), and it can be easily shared by 3-4 people. We had 3 bowls, and chose ingredients such as 芋圆, 地瓜，红豆, 芋头 (different from 芋圆, which is a combination of 芋头 and flour) 苣箬 (similar to the jelly we have in our local 甜品) etc. I was really stuffed after eating all the good food, and we took a slow stroll down to a 24-hr bookstore nearby and I bought a 小王子 picture book to read. Also, outside the bookstore, there were some 地摊 selling all sorts of goods, and I bought a nice dress there as well. I regret not bargaining further even tho I paid a not bad price, cos DC remind me that I could have gotten a better price with these 地摊. Nvm, in the days ahead, we shall rely on our bargain king, DC to help us get good prices with his 三寸不烂之舌 Haha..
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