Archive for January 2014

Home Archive for January 2014

Before I left to study Mandarin, my ex-colleague told me that she's definitely going to Taiwan to visit me. I asked her where does she want to visit. The first place that she wanted to go is Cingjing Farm (清境農場/ Qīng jìng nóngchǎng). And my first reaction to her is "Eh?? What? Where is that?".

I totally had not idea where and what to see in Cingjing Farm. So we google it and guess what, there's a website to promote the farm tourism (in English too!) -> http://www.cingjing.gov.tw/en/about/

Cingjing Farm is also widely known as the Alps of Taiwan. Really? Suddenly I feel so outdated. Hahaha.

First question popped to mind though -> How to go to Cingjing Farm?

There are a number of ways to go to Cingjing Farm. But since we didn't want to fork out money for HSR, we decided to go by bus from Taipei. The bus is called E-go Bus and the bus trip will be started from Taipei Railway Station. One way ticket to Cingjing will cost you NTD 750 per pax. Hm? You don't know which building is the Taipei Railway Station? Okay to make it easier, the building looks like this.

If you take the MRT to Taipei Main Station, go to Exit M4 and take the escalator opposite Starbucks up (to outside) and you will see the exact picture above. Why do I ask you to go to this station? It's simply because the meeting point before boarding the E-go bus is located at East Exit 3 of this building (there are a lot of exits at Taipei Main Station, I don't even want to start). So to help you saving the time of roaming blindly inside Taipei Main Station MRT area, you can just go directly to this building and look for East Exit 3.

For your information, our bus departed at 6.50 AM in the morning. O_O! This is the best timing because the journey to Cingjing Farm will take around 4 hours. So far.

The bus looks like this.

The inside of the bus looks like this. The bus is quite comfortable and there is a guide telling us about the surrounding sceneries (something about a dried up lake) and what to do around Cingjing. Quite helpful I suppose. The guide can speak a bit of English but she shared the whole thing in Mandarin. I guess she only speaks English in term of...emergency?? Hahaha.

How to book a trip with E-go Bus? We asked the help of the minsu owner (fyi, minsu is the other name for guest house located in Cingjing Farm. Visitors usually spend at least one night at minsu because of the long journey time to Cingjing.) For your information, we stayed at Misty Villa. Since we are booking a room there, they are willing to arrange for transportation from Taipei all the way to the guest house. My friend received a confirmation email (complete with the instruction of the meeting point and contact details in English) after she requested for the arrangement.

Find great hotel deals in Taipei here!

Winter days...all I wanna do is eating. Oh my goodness. Howwwww???

Since there's no other way to fight my appetite, all I can do is..eat right? (If you can't fight your enemy, join him? *twisted reason I know*) Okay, today's post is not definitely not going to help you on your diet in Taipei (anyway the food in Taipei is awesome, going on a diet here is definitely a sin! =P).

If you are studying in Shida and you walk to school from Taipower Building MRT Station, you will go via Shida Road i.e. a road full of good food. If you happen to be in an emergency situation of starvation and you feel like having comfort food, you can try out the restaurant selling dumpling/ potstickers. If you see the sign plastered on my soya milk's cup, you'll know which restaurant I'm referring to. (fyi, soya milk is called 豆漿 (Dòujiāng) in Mandarin).

Ahh, you know the place right? Haha. Or maybe you spot the same restaurant somewhere else? You are not wrong. 鮮天下 (Xiān tiānxià) is a franchise of dumpling restaurant in Taipei.

Whenever you have the chance to eat here, make sure to order their specialities. The first one is the steamed dumpling (水餃/ Shuǐjiǎo). 水餃 is a character that you can find on every corner of Taipei's street. I guess it makes it easier for us to memorize the character. If you are not careful with the tones, you may say it wrong as 睡覺 (Shuìjiào) instead and it means to sleep. Totally different meaning. LOL.

Xian Xia Tian Dumpling Shida Road Taipei

The 2nd speciality is potstickers (鍋貼/ Guōtiē). It looks kinda burned because like what the name says, it sticks to the pan (or pot?) when it's cooked. The price for the 10 pieces of potstickers/ dumplings is less than 100 NTD. It's 65 NTD if I remember correctly. Crazy cheap. And yummy too. My Canadian classmate can eat these everyday. She's addicted I guess. Haha.

You can make it a set of 80 NTD if you ordered a soup. I ordered sweetcorn soup (玉米湯/ Yùmǐ tāng). Other than this, they also sell sweet and sour soup (酸甜湯/ Suān tián tāng). Both taste quite comforting especially on a cold day.

Xian Tian Xia is located at Shida Road right opposite the Shida Road Rou Bao. So if you happen to be around Shida road, you can eat both of them in one visit. If you want to stay near Shida Road, you can check out Li Yuan Hotel's rates and offer at Tripadvisor or Expedia.

Raining. Free time. Alone. Perfect activity? Take a stroll at Taipei Main Station. Why? Simply because there are a lot of things to see there.

When I just arrived in Taipei for few days, I did a mistake which is visiting the mall at Taipei Main Station too early (by early, I mean around 11ish in the morning). If you want to see all the stores opened, I suggest you don't come too early. Come after lunchtime. Really.

I feel like taking a stroll in the underground mall today especially since it's pouring cats and dogs outside. To spare you the agony of turning around in circles (I have lost my way quite a number of times in Taipei Main Station. U_U), you can directly go to exit M4 (the one beside Starbucks) and you will see the sign of Eslite (a famous bookstore chain in Taiwan).

Go to the level below and you'll arrive at K Underground Mall.

You can find restaurant, fast food stalls (KFC, McD), shoes store, clothes store, accessories store, etc here. Quite fun to go in and go out from each stores to find out what they are selling.

K Underground Mall Shops Taipei Main Station

I love this shop called 86shop. This is a heaven for ladies looking for skincare and makeup. Similar shop has opened in Shida Night Market but you have to leave your bag in the locker outside. So troublesome. You don't have to do that here.

86Shop Make Up Store Taipei Main Station

Bought a few eye masks from My Beauty Diary here. I love wearing these eye masks. So comforting although I'm a bit skeptical of whether it works for my dark circles/ puffy eyes. In addition, I bought 咖啡麵包 (Kāfēi miànbāo) or coffee bun from the small bakery stall just outside K Underground Mall (at the Taipei Main Station Z Area). The smell of the buns lured me in

successfully.

Best Roti Coffee Bun Taipei Main Station

Other than the original coffee bun, the one I ordered have sausage inside. Meat + coffee at one go. Nom nom nom. Yummy! Think it costs around 30 NTD if I'm not wrong.

If you are not tired yet, you can go to another section of Taipei Main Station, which is also full of stores. Awesome station, right? ^^

Find great hotel deals in Taipei here!

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Wandering Fel

Jakarta Eats: Reunion dinner at Paradise Dynasty at Central Park

Cingjing Farm Eats: Having lunch at CartonKing 紙箱王

Hotel Review: Misty Villa, Cingjing Farm

Taiwan Travel: How to go to Cingjing Farm from Taipei?

Taipei Eats: Comfort food at Xian Tian Xia, Shida Road

Taiwan Travel: National Palace Museum, Taipei

Taipei Eats: Oma's German Bakery, Gongguan

Taiwan Travel: K Underground Mall at Taipei Main Station