27 Feb 2009 - Frosty in Taipei
Was supposed to go to Hong Kong for 1 March, but since I've never been to Taiwan, I said 'Hey, why not'. I 'm glad I chose Taiwan. I really liked the place and definitely want to go back.
View from the Top
They drive on the Right side of the road. Had to remember to check left before checking right when crossing.
They gave us a really nice room. Hotels in the city area are much like the ones in Hong Kong. Pretty minimal, and the hotel we picked was rated as 3 star. It was a very nice place though, and an excellent location. And we had our own veranda (which was as big as the room). With the lovely weather outside, it was even nicer on the veranda.
See those plants sticking out? Yeap, thats the veranda. HUGE!!! I must remember to request for this room the next time I visit.
We stayed in the Ximen Ding area. Its kind of like Bugis Street meets Far East Plaza. Once we checked in, we went food hunting. First thing I saw was this Braised Duck shop. It was selling Duck, braised in dark sauce. When I say Duck, I mean EVERY part of it. As we were out looking for a specific shop and item, we didn't buy any duck to eat (though we did go back on the last day)
Corndogs? In Taiwan? Yeap. It was even served 'American' style... with Ketchup. EUCKKKK. I had one. It was pretty good, except for the ketchup.
Taiwan is the 'Engrish.com' paradise. Although according to the better half, it was a lot worse 4 years ago when she first went.
Cattle Offal. Sounds delish.
2nd snack of the day was this incredible steamed buns. There were 2 kinds. The big white ones are the 'rou pao' or meat buns, and the translucent ones are the 'shui jing bao' or steamed buns. They were fantastic. In fact, it became a daily tradition to grab a couple of steamed buns for a breakfast snack (pre or post breakfast). I wish I had taken a wider shot of the shop so that I could've gotten the name. It was run by this kindly old couple who make the stuff by hand fresh every day. Loved it.
Hello Kitty KTV... No, I didn't go in
That's the hotel. East Dragon Hotel. It was very nice and not very expensive. About $110 SGD a night, and there's even a bathtub (a major requirement for me). Very good service, but don't bother with breakfast in the hotel, there are plenty of shops along the street that serve good breakfast noodles.
Street vendors in the Ximen central area. Interesting story. We had to pass the central area every day to get to the MRT station, and every day when we were walking by, we'd see the hawkers pack up their wares and make a run for it. It seems they are actually illegal hawkers and the police would 'catch' them. The funny part is, they wouldn't really run very far (just out of sight of the central area, into the street), and wait for the cop to go off. It seemed more for show than anything else.
We finally found the place we were looking for. Ay-Chung Flour-Rice noodle. Or as TBH (The Better Half) calls it, 'Da Chang Mian Xian', Big intestine rice noodle. The stuff was delicious. Perfect for a cold day (did I mention that it was 17degC in Taipei?) They sell a copycat version of this in singapore called 'Oyster Mee Sua'. Having tried the stuff in Taiwan, there is no comparison. The dish is so simple yet so tasty. Needless to say, we went back a couple more times over the next few days (it helps that its 10mins from the hotel)
This was a really interesting building outside Ximen MRT station. Tamago Yo. It's a restaurant entirely unique nestled amoung the other buildings. TBH had seen it when she was there and had been meaning to try the food (which we did on the last day, more to come).
Right across was the Red Playhouse (I put up a better picture on Day 2) It's some old school building that was built in 1908 and survived bombings and whatnot. There was a lovely tea house inside and a mini-museum of sorts with artifacts from the Playhouse's history. Top pict was various stamps used over the years and bottom pict was a analogue calculator.
The Taiwanese are pretty much Yankee mad. This is because one of the starting pitchers for the Yankees is a Taiwanese. Wang Chien-Ming (or as the Americans call him Chien-Ming Wang). He is like their national hero, and since he plays for the Yankees, everyone supports the Yankees. I loved that there were 3 channels of 24/7 baseball. They were even showing MLB spring training games (which you can't even see on American TV)
While we were trying to find the front of the MLB shop, we came across this quaint little coffeeshop run by this old gent. The place looked and smelt lovely. Pity we were full from snacking all day, but we bookmarked the place for a future return to try the coffee (see Day 5. Turns out this shop is also a little bit of a tourist spot in Taipei. They brew coffee the old fashioned way... More on that later)
Wang, 40, NY, shirts and paraphernalia can be found everywhere. Though only this shop had the official MLB sanctioned stuff. As I don't like to buy stuff on the first day (Limited budget means I cannot buy everything I see early), we would return on the last day to get some stuff (which turned out to be the only souvenirs I bought for myself the entire trip)
What's a visit to Taiwan without going to the Shihlin Night Market. You'd never guess, but this was taken while standing in the Gent's urinal inside the MRT station. Which worked out for the best cos we needed to find out way there.
Mostly tourists inside. The locals don't really go into the market itself.
Sausages galore. The big ones are actually XXXL versions of the taiwanese sausages you can get at Pasar Malams over here. Meanwhile, the white ones are not meat. They are actually glutinous rice. This dish is called the 'Da Chang Pao Xiao Chang', big sausage wrapped around a small sausage. The hawker slices open a glutinous rice sausage, stuffs it with mustard and relish, and puts in a taiwanese sausage (the regular sized ones). Yummy!!
Of course the main attraction of Shihlin market. The 'Ji Pa', Chicken Chop. Chicken breast, pounded to a thin flat piece, dipped in batter and deep fried, then powdered in MSG and 5-spice chilli powder. AMAZING. (There were 2 of these stalls in Shihlin market. One would always have a long queue and one would be customerless. Who said only Singaporeans like to queue for good food.)
Fried Oyster Omlette. I didn't really like it. They put this weirdly sweet sauce on it that kinda ruined it for me.
The squid soup was delicious though. Corn-starchy goodness.
Check out the crowd on a Friday night. Considering the lane was already so crowded and narrow, the streetside hawkers even set up stalls in the middle of the walkway, making it even denser and more difficult to move.
I really liked these shirts. Would have loved to have bought one, but I know I'd never wear it.
View of Shihlin Market from the MRT station. Contrary to what I had imagined, Shihlin isn't really a open air pasar malam type place with rows and rows of street food. There's 2 parts to it. The market itself, which is pretty much like any market/hawker center in Singapore, and the street selling clothes/knickknacks, which is exactly like 'Woman's street' in HongKong.
View from the Top
They drive on the Right side of the road. Had to remember to check left before checking right when crossing.
They gave us a really nice room. Hotels in the city area are much like the ones in Hong Kong. Pretty minimal, and the hotel we picked was rated as 3 star. It was a very nice place though, and an excellent location. And we had our own veranda (which was as big as the room). With the lovely weather outside, it was even nicer on the veranda.
See those plants sticking out? Yeap, thats the veranda. HUGE!!! I must remember to request for this room the next time I visit.
We stayed in the Ximen Ding area. Its kind of like Bugis Street meets Far East Plaza. Once we checked in, we went food hunting. First thing I saw was this Braised Duck shop. It was selling Duck, braised in dark sauce. When I say Duck, I mean EVERY part of it. As we were out looking for a specific shop and item, we didn't buy any duck to eat (though we did go back on the last day)
Corndogs? In Taiwan? Yeap. It was even served 'American' style... with Ketchup. EUCKKKK. I had one. It was pretty good, except for the ketchup.
Taiwan is the 'Engrish.com' paradise. Although according to the better half, it was a lot worse 4 years ago when she first went.
Cattle Offal. Sounds delish.
2nd snack of the day was this incredible steamed buns. There were 2 kinds. The big white ones are the 'rou pao' or meat buns, and the translucent ones are the 'shui jing bao' or steamed buns. They were fantastic. In fact, it became a daily tradition to grab a couple of steamed buns for a breakfast snack (pre or post breakfast). I wish I had taken a wider shot of the shop so that I could've gotten the name. It was run by this kindly old couple who make the stuff by hand fresh every day. Loved it.
Hello Kitty KTV... No, I didn't go in
That's the hotel. East Dragon Hotel. It was very nice and not very expensive. About $110 SGD a night, and there's even a bathtub (a major requirement for me). Very good service, but don't bother with breakfast in the hotel, there are plenty of shops along the street that serve good breakfast noodles.
Street vendors in the Ximen central area. Interesting story. We had to pass the central area every day to get to the MRT station, and every day when we were walking by, we'd see the hawkers pack up their wares and make a run for it. It seems they are actually illegal hawkers and the police would 'catch' them. The funny part is, they wouldn't really run very far (just out of sight of the central area, into the street), and wait for the cop to go off. It seemed more for show than anything else.
We finally found the place we were looking for. Ay-Chung Flour-Rice noodle. Or as TBH (The Better Half) calls it, 'Da Chang Mian Xian', Big intestine rice noodle. The stuff was delicious. Perfect for a cold day (did I mention that it was 17degC in Taipei?) They sell a copycat version of this in singapore called 'Oyster Mee Sua'. Having tried the stuff in Taiwan, there is no comparison. The dish is so simple yet so tasty. Needless to say, we went back a couple more times over the next few days (it helps that its 10mins from the hotel)
This was a really interesting building outside Ximen MRT station. Tamago Yo. It's a restaurant entirely unique nestled amoung the other buildings. TBH had seen it when she was there and had been meaning to try the food (which we did on the last day, more to come).
Right across was the Red Playhouse (I put up a better picture on Day 2) It's some old school building that was built in 1908 and survived bombings and whatnot. There was a lovely tea house inside and a mini-museum of sorts with artifacts from the Playhouse's history. Top pict was various stamps used over the years and bottom pict was a analogue calculator.
The Taiwanese are pretty much Yankee mad. This is because one of the starting pitchers for the Yankees is a Taiwanese. Wang Chien-Ming (or as the Americans call him Chien-Ming Wang). He is like their national hero, and since he plays for the Yankees, everyone supports the Yankees. I loved that there were 3 channels of 24/7 baseball. They were even showing MLB spring training games (which you can't even see on American TV)
While we were trying to find the front of the MLB shop, we came across this quaint little coffeeshop run by this old gent. The place looked and smelt lovely. Pity we were full from snacking all day, but we bookmarked the place for a future return to try the coffee (see Day 5. Turns out this shop is also a little bit of a tourist spot in Taipei. They brew coffee the old fashioned way... More on that later)
Wang, 40, NY, shirts and paraphernalia can be found everywhere. Though only this shop had the official MLB sanctioned stuff. As I don't like to buy stuff on the first day (Limited budget means I cannot buy everything I see early), we would return on the last day to get some stuff (which turned out to be the only souvenirs I bought for myself the entire trip)
What's a visit to Taiwan without going to the Shihlin Night Market. You'd never guess, but this was taken while standing in the Gent's urinal inside the MRT station. Which worked out for the best cos we needed to find out way there.
Mostly tourists inside. The locals don't really go into the market itself.
Sausages galore. The big ones are actually XXXL versions of the taiwanese sausages you can get at Pasar Malams over here. Meanwhile, the white ones are not meat. They are actually glutinous rice. This dish is called the 'Da Chang Pao Xiao Chang', big sausage wrapped around a small sausage. The hawker slices open a glutinous rice sausage, stuffs it with mustard and relish, and puts in a taiwanese sausage (the regular sized ones). Yummy!!
Of course the main attraction of Shihlin market. The 'Ji Pa', Chicken Chop. Chicken breast, pounded to a thin flat piece, dipped in batter and deep fried, then powdered in MSG and 5-spice chilli powder. AMAZING. (There were 2 of these stalls in Shihlin market. One would always have a long queue and one would be customerless. Who said only Singaporeans like to queue for good food.)
Fried Oyster Omlette. I didn't really like it. They put this weirdly sweet sauce on it that kinda ruined it for me.
The squid soup was delicious though. Corn-starchy goodness.
Check out the crowd on a Friday night. Considering the lane was already so crowded and narrow, the streetside hawkers even set up stalls in the middle of the walkway, making it even denser and more difficult to move.
I really liked these shirts. Would have loved to have bought one, but I know I'd never wear it.
View of Shihlin Market from the MRT station. Contrary to what I had imagined, Shihlin isn't really a open air pasar malam type place with rows and rows of street food. There's 2 parts to it. The market itself, which is pretty much like any market/hawker center in Singapore, and the street selling clothes/knickknacks, which is exactly like 'Woman's street' in HongKong.28 Feb 2009 - Walking in Taipei
Day 2 was spent touring the Red line on the Taipei MRT. I must say, I love the Taipei MRT. I thought the Hong Kong one was great, but Taipei was even better. As usual, people stay to the right on the escalators (same as Hong Kong), but in Taipei, they queue outside the doors and allow passengers to exit before entering. That's not all. There are 'Priority' seats on the train. These seats are ONLY taken by old folks, adults with young children or disabled (and unknowing tourists, usually singaporeans). Even when the train was full, no one would sit in those seats. You don't see inconsiderate adults falling 'asleep' on those seats. I also liked that at each station, the driver would actually get out of the train, and watch for the signal from the station conductor (the dude with a flag and whistle) that all was boarded before he shut the doors and moved off. You'd think that this would slow down the system? No way. trains came at 1 minute intervals during peak periods and less than 4 minutes during non-peak. Wonderful!!!
That's what Ximen looks like early in the morning (about 8am) before everything opens.
That's the Red Playhouse (see Day 1)
The main Ximen Ding square in front of the MRT. The picture doesn't do justice to how huge the place was.
view from the MRT on the way to Danshui. Danshui is the last stop on the 'Red' MRT line, the northernmost station. Its actually a little town built near the wharf. It came highly recommended as the place with excellent old-style taiwanese street food, though due to a wardrobe malfunction, we didn't get to walk the actual street. We did manage to hit the sights though.
A 20min bus ride from the MRT station led us to the Fisherman's wharf. This beautiful bridge was the first thing we saw. The bridge is actually called 'The Valentine's Bridge' and supposedly, wonderfully romantic at night.
View from the bridge. The dock as you can see is still bustling, with ships coming in fully loaded with the day's catch.
Those massive concrete blocks are break-waters. I really liked their shapes. Reminded me of jacks, if a godzilla were to come to play with them.
We were extremely blessed with wonderful weather. The sun was out, but it wasn't hot and there was a lovely breeze coming in from the sea. I actually got sunburnt from sitting out on the wharf (you really don't feel the sun because of the wind and the temperature)
Ah snacks. Dried shrimp fried with garlic and chilli. Really tasty.
This was my favourite snack. Cuttlefish balls. Not the usual stuff that's found at 'old chang kee'. These were hand-made from freshly minced squid. You could feel the squid chunks when you bit into one. Non of that finely ground processed fish-paste with squid flavouring.
I think that was supposed to say Fisherman's association or something. It was part seafood restaurant, part dry market with locals selling souvenir snacks.
A couple of stops down the road (back towards the MRT station) was this place called the Hong Mao Chen (Red Haired Fortress... there was also a Red Castle, but we didn't go. Why so many 'red' buildings? I guess the Taiwanese like to use brick to build their structures), also known as Fort Santo Domingo which was first built by the Spanish in 1629. Over the years, the Dutch took over the structure, then the Ming, then the Ching, then the British, the Australian, and finally the Americans (You can read a little of the history here). Going up to the fort, you can see why the location had such strategic significance.
Gratuitous Flower photo. Macro shot using a 50mm + 25mm extender
Old school kitchen. Check out the bellows used to blow on the fire to get it hot.
Old school dining room. I can just hear the grinding of the upper class eton accents.
Thats the 'Hong Mao Chen' from the outside.
I wish I had taken notes on this photo. The detailing on the Galleon was amazing.
La Muff? oh come on... I had to take this photo.
Who wants to eat at la muff? I hear it can be quite delicious.
That's Ximen at about 1pm. The difference between the photo taken earlier is astounding.
Mid-day snack. Donut.
Post-Mid-Day Snack. Right across from the hotel, there was this shop selling pork-rib noodles. It was really good. The Pork-ribs were melt-in-your-mouth savoury.
Gong-Fu master. No, he wasn't promoting Ip Man (which coincidentally opened in the cinemas that weekend). I honestly didn't know what this dude was doing. He wasn't begging nor was he performing. He just stood there with his sign (maybe he was protesting the horrible fashion sense of the younger generation).
After heading back to the hotel to correct the wardrobe malfunction, we headed back out again. Our next stop, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Although it was already on the itinerary for the tour (day 3), we figured we spend a little more time exploring (anyway, we had an hour to kill before heading to the National Palace Museum. The entire area was imposing. Two huge structures flanking the main memorial hall, with a massive gate structure in the front. The National Theatre Hall and the National Congcart Hall were absolutely beautiful. If only they had built something like this in Singapore, instead of the damned 'Durian'.
National Congcart Hall. Engrish.com (btw, this sign was at the exit to the MRT station)
National Palace Museum. There's some history here about Chiang Kai Shek rescuing the Chinese treasures out of China during the Japanese war and also from the book burning communists. I'm not going to write about it, but frankly. I think these treasures weren't the only thing CKS rescued from China. He probably also took out all the beautiful Chinese women, courtesy, manners, graciousness and refinement. If you come to Singapore and see the PRC immigrants that are currently streaming out of China, you'd know what I mean.
No photos inside the museum, so this was the last photo of the day.
PS. Dinner was takeaway Ay-Chung Da Chang Mian Xian.
That's what Ximen looks like early in the morning (about 8am) before everything opens.
That's the Red Playhouse (see Day 1)
The main Ximen Ding square in front of the MRT. The picture doesn't do justice to how huge the place was.
view from the MRT on the way to Danshui. Danshui is the last stop on the 'Red' MRT line, the northernmost station. Its actually a little town built near the wharf. It came highly recommended as the place with excellent old-style taiwanese street food, though due to a wardrobe malfunction, we didn't get to walk the actual street. We did manage to hit the sights though.
A 20min bus ride from the MRT station led us to the Fisherman's wharf. This beautiful bridge was the first thing we saw. The bridge is actually called 'The Valentine's Bridge' and supposedly, wonderfully romantic at night.
View from the bridge. The dock as you can see is still bustling, with ships coming in fully loaded with the day's catch.
Those massive concrete blocks are break-waters. I really liked their shapes. Reminded me of jacks, if a godzilla were to come to play with them.
We were extremely blessed with wonderful weather. The sun was out, but it wasn't hot and there was a lovely breeze coming in from the sea. I actually got sunburnt from sitting out on the wharf (you really don't feel the sun because of the wind and the temperature)
Ah snacks. Dried shrimp fried with garlic and chilli. Really tasty.
This was my favourite snack. Cuttlefish balls. Not the usual stuff that's found at 'old chang kee'. These were hand-made from freshly minced squid. You could feel the squid chunks when you bit into one. Non of that finely ground processed fish-paste with squid flavouring.
I think that was supposed to say Fisherman's association or something. It was part seafood restaurant, part dry market with locals selling souvenir snacks.
A couple of stops down the road (back towards the MRT station) was this place called the Hong Mao Chen (Red Haired Fortress... there was also a Red Castle, but we didn't go. Why so many 'red' buildings? I guess the Taiwanese like to use brick to build their structures), also known as Fort Santo Domingo which was first built by the Spanish in 1629. Over the years, the Dutch took over the structure, then the Ming, then the Ching, then the British, the Australian, and finally the Americans (You can read a little of the history here). Going up to the fort, you can see why the location had such strategic significance.
Gratuitous Flower photo. Macro shot using a 50mm + 25mm extender
Old school kitchen. Check out the bellows used to blow on the fire to get it hot.
Old school dining room. I can just hear the grinding of the upper class eton accents.
Thats the 'Hong Mao Chen' from the outside.
I wish I had taken notes on this photo. The detailing on the Galleon was amazing.
La Muff? oh come on... I had to take this photo.Who wants to eat at la muff? I hear it can be quite delicious.
That's Ximen at about 1pm. The difference between the photo taken earlier is astounding.
Mid-day snack. Donut.
Post-Mid-Day Snack. Right across from the hotel, there was this shop selling pork-rib noodles. It was really good. The Pork-ribs were melt-in-your-mouth savoury.
Gong-Fu master. No, he wasn't promoting Ip Man (which coincidentally opened in the cinemas that weekend). I honestly didn't know what this dude was doing. He wasn't begging nor was he performing. He just stood there with his sign (maybe he was protesting the horrible fashion sense of the younger generation).
After heading back to the hotel to correct the wardrobe malfunction, we headed back out again. Our next stop, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Although it was already on the itinerary for the tour (day 3), we figured we spend a little more time exploring (anyway, we had an hour to kill before heading to the National Palace Museum. The entire area was imposing. Two huge structures flanking the main memorial hall, with a massive gate structure in the front. The National Theatre Hall and the National Congcart Hall were absolutely beautiful. If only they had built something like this in Singapore, instead of the damned 'Durian'.
National Congcart Hall. Engrish.com (btw, this sign was at the exit to the MRT station)
National Palace Museum. There's some history here about Chiang Kai Shek rescuing the Chinese treasures out of China during the Japanese war and also from the book burning communists. I'm not going to write about it, but frankly. I think these treasures weren't the only thing CKS rescued from China. He probably also took out all the beautiful Chinese women, courtesy, manners, graciousness and refinement. If you come to Singapore and see the PRC immigrants that are currently streaming out of China, you'd know what I mean.
No photos inside the museum, so this was the last photo of the day.PS. Dinner was takeaway Ay-Chung Da Chang Mian Xian.
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