Taiwan Travel: Shifen Train Station, Pingxi District

The train has arrived at Shifen. If you are not sure where the train is stopping, makes sure to go out from the train once you see the Chinese characters of Shifen (十分).

Shifen is administratively part of Pingxi District, New Taipei City. The train that we rode is part of the Pinxi Branch Rail Line which extends from Sandiaoling to Jingtong stations. The view from the train can be pretty scenic at some sections. 

The main attraction in Shifen is Shifen Waterfall (十分瀑布/ Shífēn pùbù), which is also known as Taiwan's Niagara Falls. If you do not know where the waterfall is, there is a guide map alongside the rail track. Else, you can just follow other tourists because most of them will definitely go there. =P

There are so many interesting things to see at the stalls located at the right and left side of the rail track. Like the bamboo rolls. Wishes and hopes are written on these bamboo rolls. Apparently these are written by visitors and visitors can just hang these in various places of the town. 

The fried ice cream stall immediately attracts our attention. Hahaha. What a hungry monster, we are.

There are three flavors to choose: vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. Yum!

The fried ice cream looks like a Japanese croquette in a way. 

Mine is filled with strawberry ice cream. Yum, I love this snack. Hehe.

We managed to bargain 4 pieces at the price of NTD120. The seller was so nice. =)

The Beginning of Shifen Trip

It's time for another trip again. I really love traveling but...it does create hole to my wallet. Thanks goodness the price of traveling inside Taiwan is not that cruel compared to other country. =)

As the place we are going today is located outside Taipei, we are back to Taipei Main Station to purchase our train ticket.

Can you read where are we going? Yep, we are going to Shifen (十分).

As you can see above, the one way ticket from Taipei to Shifen costs us 69NTD. 

We still have time before the train come, so we go to the nearest breakfast place we see in our surrounding...

I like McD's breakfast in Singapore but in Taiwan, I LOVE IT. Their milk tea is amazingly good (I guess it's because they are using Dilmah instead of Lipton?). 

The Chicken McMuffin is nice too but it can use a little bit of chili sauce. Haha. Too bad, the Taiwanese don't really eat this with chili sauce. =P

We board our train shortly after we finish our meal. There's no direct train to Shifen. You need to go via Ruifang Station and change the train there. The total trip takes around one hour plus. 

See you soon in Shifen! 

Taipei Eats: Chocolate Ice Cream Pancake at Raohe Night Market

I saw a stall selling something that looks like a sibling of Japanese dorayaki (the thing that Doraemon loves to eat) while I was walking around Raohe Night Market.

When we came closer, we realised that the stall actually sells ice cream which they will put inside the pancake for you. Wah!! I'm getting so excited to get this food. You can choose different flavor of ice cream. I stick with the ol' time favourite, chocolate (巧克力/ Qiǎokèlì).

The portion of the ice cream is very big. If you want to eat more things at the night market, I'd suggest to buy just one ice cream pancake and share. It can get very messy sharing this food though. Taste wise, it taste quite good. Yum!

While you are in Raohe, you should also try the Egg Roll and the Black Pepper Buns. These two stalls have a long queue,which kinda means they are popular and yummy in Taiwanese term.

Crayon Shinchan Exhibition

Have you seen the pandas exhibition at Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall yet? If not, you better hurry before it's over. If you are not into panda(s) but still interested in seeing other type of exhibitions. How about..Crayon Shinchan's?

Huh? You think I'm joking? I'm serious. Ta-daah!

The exhibition has been going on from 15 January 2014 and it will end on 6 April 2014. You still have some time to catch it and you should not miss it because Shinchan wants to...

...kiss you. Chuu~~~

Haha. Cute, eh? I don't want to spoil the fun so I won't upload anymore pictures about the exhibition. I bet you'll definitely enjoy your time with Shinchan and his family at the exhibition. Oh yes, Shiro will be there too! Hehe.

For your information, the exhibition is held at Taipei Songshan Cultural and Creative (yes, the same place where they held the Robot Kitty event). For direction, please see my previous post here. The exhibition opens from everyday from 10am to 7pm (last admission is 6.30pm).

Don't forget to bring your camera!! ^^

Spring in Taipei

I love spring. No wait, I used to love spring because it's not so cold. But spring in the global-warming-era is COLD. Brr~~~

I forgot about the cold whenever I see this kind of view though. =)

I took the above picture near Gongguan MRT station. I love Gongguan area because there are a lot of interesting things to see and to eat. Hehe. 

For example, there's a book store which sells second hand books (二手書/ Èrshǒu shū). The books are in good condition and this place is perfect for students with tight budget. I saw a lot of second hand textbooks inside.

Just opposite the bookstore, there's an artsy-looking house which I guess is a cafe. Did not really see any signage so I kinda make a rough guess here. Hehe. Does anyone know whether it's really a cafe? Or maybe a store selling interesting stuff? 

The next place that I saw is definitely a cafe. It's actually quite famous among the neighbourhood and it's called Second Floor Cafe. I haven't tried it though. I shall give it a try anytime soon. =)

Oh who did I find here? It's the Gingerbread Man from Shrek. Haha he looks so cute and at the same time, random! LOL. 

I have to conclude that my spring walk in Taipei is kinda random. But that what makes it fun. Hehe.

1,600 Pandas Exhibition Taipei

Not sure if you guys already know about this but anyway, if you happen to be currently in Taipei or is visiting Taipei before 30 March 2014....YOU MUST GO TO CHIANG KAI SEK MEMORIAL HALL.

Because...it's currently being invaded by 1,600 panda(s). Aaaaawwww~~~

The display of the paper-made pandas is for the purpose of promoting wildlife conservation. The arts are made in collaboration with French artist, Paulo Grangeon. It was also aimed to remind people that only 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild. The 200 amongst them are Formosan black bears. Like the one in the middle of the picture I guess. Hehehe.

The exhibition will run until 30 March so go there FAST! 

Admission will be free and you can ride the MRT to Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall MRT Station to see the exhibition. =)

Spring in Taiwan: Bamboo Lake at Yangmingshan

After having fun looking at the pretty cherry blossom at Yangmingshan Flower Clock (see here), we continued our trip to next destination in Yangmingshan which was...you know what, we did not really know where to go next because we did not really take a note prior to our trip. So my friend just look at the Chinese characters plastered in front of the bus' window and try to see which destination looks..okay.

We decided to ride the bus which indicated "竹子湖" (Zhúzi hú) which translates into Bamboo Lake.

So..we kinda had the expectation of looking at a nice pretty lake surrounded with bamboo trees. But, when we arrived at the destination, we saw this scenery instead. Errr...okay where's the lake? Haha.

Zhuzihu is located in the midst of Mt Datun, Mt Qixing and Mt Xianguanyin. It was used to be a lava-dammed lake formed by volcanic eruption. After the lake water receded, Zhuzihu was planted with huge number of bamboo. And hence, the name Zhuzihu. 

There's no lake but there's a small river. Hehe. 

There's an amazing thing that you can do in Zhuzihu. You can get the feeling of walking through the lilies of the field. So many lilies. <3

Close up look of the pretty lilies. You can buy the lilies at 100NTD for 5 pieces. Personally, I enjoy looking at the lilies when they are not in my room simply because I'm not such a good taker of plants. It'll be such a pity. 

You can see the pretty combination of green and pink colors from here too. 

We bought colorful steam mantou along the way. We hope they taste different but we could not really taste the difference at all. Oh well.

One thing to take note is the fog came down quite early in this area. This is the view at 4pm. So you better off start queuing for the bus to bring you back to the area near the Flower Clock where you can ride the next bus back to Taipei. 

We queued for approximately 45 minutes before we can ride the bus and guess what, we were stuck in the traffic jam because everybody went down the mountain. Thanks goodness we got seats. Phew!

Spring in Taiwan: Yangmingshan Flower Clock Trail

If you like to walk around the mountain while enjoying the natural surroundings, you will love walking in Yangmingshan Trail. There are a lot of trails in Yangmingshan but since I did not really have a lot of time, I just walked around the Flower Clock area. (To read on how to get to Yangmingshan Flower Clock, click here. )

There is a small waterfall along the way. 

A field of lavender. They are still small though. 

You shall never go hungry in Taiwan. After a few steps into the trail, there's a food market selling tea egg, fried chicken and other stuffs like sausages. Awesome!

We came out from the other side of flower clock. Here is one last shot of another pretty flowers along the way. So pretty!!! I must pay a premium to enjoy this kind of view in Singapore. Hmmph!

We're going to explore another place in Yangmingshan after this. Stay tune! =)

Taiwan travel series: Cingjing Farm

Hello again guys! How's your day? Hope everyone is having a good day. If it's not a good one, do not worry as we are already halfway to the weekend. Yeah!!

Similar to what I did before for Taroko trip, I'm gonna do the same for Cingjing Farm trip. Awesome? Hehe

(1) How to go to Cingjing Farm from Taipei? See here

(2) Where to stay in Cingjing Farm? See here

(3) What to do in Cingjing Farm? 

- To go to Green Green Grassland, see here

- To go to Small Swiss Garden, see here

(4) What to eat in Cingjing Farm? See here and here

Wishing everyone an awesome trip to Cingjing Farm! Be sure to layer up as the weather can be quite chilling up here. =)

Taiwan travel series: How to go to Taroko?

Hi guys, to make it easier for you to read on my trip to Taroko (and to answer your traveling questions too, if there's any), I have summarised my posts for the Taroko trip! Yeay? Nay?

Alternatively, you can just type "Taroko" in the search box. But if you still feel like reading the summary...please continue reading. Hehehe.

1. How to go to Taroko from Cingjing Farm? See this.

2. What to eat around Taroko? See this.

3. What to see in Taroko? 

(a) Yue Fei Pavilion, see this

(b) Taroko Gorge, see this

(c) Eternal Spring Shrine Trail, see this

4. How to book a cab driver to drive you along Taroko trail? 

I asked for help from the accommodation provider at Cingjing Farm, Misty Villa (see post) to arrange for the transport. If you are staying at the same accommodation, you may want to do the same because it's way easier to ask them to help arrange for you. Especially, if you speak little or no Mandarin at all. 

Hope the above summary helps! Happy travel! ^^

Spring in Taiwan: Viewing Sakura at Yangmingshan

If you never ever see sakura in your life, you may have the chance to do so in Taiwan. Yep, you read that correctly, you do not have to buy your ticket to Japan just to see sakura. You can simply go to Yangmingshan National Park.

There are a number of ways to go to Yangmingshan. You can get the detail here . I opted to go to Jiantan MRT station and ride R5 bus all the way to the last stop, Yangmingshan.

From the last stop, you still need to take a smaller bus to visit the scenic spots at Yangmingshan. To be honest with you, I did not really know which bus I should take after I stepped down the R5 bus. I overheard a bus driver shouting 花鐘 (huā zhōng/ Flower Clock) and simply rode that bus because I read that name before somewhere in the internet. Trust your intuition much, eh? Hehe.

I glad I did, I love this place!! I hereby welcome you to Yangmingshan Flower Clock (陽明山花鐘/ Yángmíngshān huā zhōng). =D

The flowers here are oh-so-pretty. ^^

And there are the cherry blossoms trees. Sakura season is rather unpredictable. I was glad to be able to catch it before all the flowers petal drop to the ground. 

Close-up shot of the beautiful flowers. For your information, sakura is called 櫻花 (Yīnghuā) in Chinese. 

There are other flowers in the vicinity too. These flowers are pretty-in-pink. Just like the sakura? Hehe. 

Another type of flowers, this time in red. 

Are you a fan of flowers? If yes, you must go to Yangmingshan in spring. The air is fresh and the flowers are pretty. Make sure you layer up properly though because the weather can be rather cold up here in the mountain. Is sakura your most favourite flower? For me, it surely is. =)

Taipei Eats: Hao Gong Dao's Shop, Yongkang Street

The first restaurant that we are going to try is located just few shops away from Rilakkuma Shop. The restaurant was included in my teacher's lecture about Yongkang Street's to-try-food. It's called Hao Gong Dao's Shop (好公道的店/ Hǎo gōngdào de diàn). Note: You can read on how to get to Yongkang Street here.

Most restaurants in Taiwan let customers drink the hot tea for free. Hot tea is always welcomed by me in a cold winter day. Slurpp~

The menu is in Chinese traditional characters *facepalm*. If you are really really in a pinch, you can request for an English menu or picture menu. And your fingers will do the work (point point). 

If you want to avoid the hassle and order according to what I tried on that day, you can copy this order. Hahaha. Sorry, I did not order much because there were two of us.

The first item is the vegetable + meat dumpling (NTD100 for 8 pieces). 

The next item on the list is the pork fried pastries (NTD 20 each). The Taiwanese like to write "鮮肉" (Xiānròu) or fresh meat in the menu. This always means pork. Well, so far I always get pork..hahaha. Do let me know if you get other type of meat. XD

The last items are the top two round pastries (NTD20 each). There are a lot of spring onion inside and that's why you see the word "蔥" (Cōng) written in the menu. They are fried as well. 

The size of the dumpling is not small. And we felt pretty full even though we only ordered 3 type of dishes. All taste yummy! And the price is so budget friendly. Awww. My favourite kind of place. ^^

The place can get pretty crowded during lunch and dinner time. So if you don't like to wait for tables, make sure to arrive early or eat at odd timings. =P