Day 2
day 2 : was feeling tired cos never slept at all. jus close eyes prob did fell asleep but was sure that i was awake most of the time jus that i close my eyes. met up at the lift with our luggages. we were eager to leave hink esp Mrs S and me.haha we waited at lift while the guys settle being questioned why we not staying. after leaving our luggages at the new hotel, cos check-in only at 12pm, we left for dunkin donut for breakfast. I bot the donut bag behind gx but mines pink in colour. dap: they dun have the chocolate filling one... but the donuts still nice. i have cinnamon apple and chocolate topped inside filled with cream. this shop had 2nd level where we can sit and eat our breakfast.
then we head off to lungshan temple. when we walked all the way to this spot to take pic the water fountain went completely down! so we waited for it to rise again! still very low! it can actually rise up all the way to gx head... but that will take a long long time!
there was lots of devotees chanting prayers when we were in there. i did bring a sweater! i swear i remember and had it in my bag but totally forgot to cover up cos the weather so hot! and gx didnt know i had sweater and he didnt wana make me feel bad ... if only he asked then i would have covered up!
next stop we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial hall... they changed the name to something like national dun know what. the pic below: the building behind us which is huge is some theatre.
this is the CKS memorial hall and museum. the front of this builing was blocked out. when my sis went in may she was able to go up to the flight of stairs and go into the hall where the HUGE statue of Taiwan's 1st president CKS sat. it face the HUGE garden space. now they shut up the door, no more change of guards, with scarfolding infront of the main door... it was a pity cos it really looked majestic. well its supposed to be the decision of their govt to close it... 
i was almost disappointed thinking that was actually the way into the museum part where CC and others on taiwan tripadvisor forum told me it was still open to public viewing. lucky we decided to walk a huge round to the back of it cos that was the way to get to ding tai fong. and oso i told them the gals had mention the car CKS used was at the back of the building and i tot was in the outdoors. but we didnt see any! then i was curiuos when we hit the bac why there were people walking out from somewhere where i couldnt figure where cos it was deep in... at first i tot it mit be some construction but they dun look like so i walked over and saw that the entrance to museum was right at the bac.
in here the hall had super high ceiling. here they hang huge poster and photographs of the CKS and SYS. we saw the car CKS used. it was a beauty. 7 seater with bullet proof window car. the tables below was outside the museum in the main hall, don't really know the purpose but we sat down on these tiny wooden tables and chairs for phototaking!
this is a taken from a poster. this would be how it looked like at the front hall which was considered on a 2nd level of this museum.
we walked quite a distance to get to DTF. this was their main branch. sis warned me there will be lots of people and may have to wait for very long time esp when there are huge groups of japanese tourist. so we hurried in our footsteps. Mr S went ahead first to get q number. we were there about 11+am and there was oredi a q. we had to wait about 4 numbers before us so i popped into the bookshop next door. we were asked to go to 2nd storey the stairways was small and we prob took up aloads of space cos of our bags. the waiter who served us was good. he went to get something like ikea laundry basket the kind made of clothe and had metal stands, and offered to help us put the bags in. these laundry basket took up less space at the walkway and solved our problem of holding it while eating. he was so service-oriented that he waited for gx bag cos we were taking out the camera b4 loading it in. he waited and helped us put in althou we told him that we will do it ourselves...
we ordered 4 longs of original and of cos my favourite crab XLB, prawn dumplings and shuijiao, porkchop rice and gx tried his 1st bowl of beef noodles here. the waitress was worried we were not able to finish and advise us that we did ordered a little too much... we went ahead cos we wanted to try out the items, we did managed to finish it and i ordered a taiwan kueh kueh to share... it was dun know how to describe. something singapore have oso but usually prepacked in a diamond shape white kinda chinese cake. here we had it fresh and inside got red bean filling and warm. the texture was chewy.
then we head off to lungshan temple. when we walked all the way to this spot to take pic the water fountain went completely down! so we waited for it to rise again! still very low! it can actually rise up all the way to gx head... but that will take a long long time!
there was lots of devotees chanting prayers when we were in there. i did bring a sweater! i swear i remember and had it in my bag but totally forgot to cover up cos the weather so hot! and gx didnt know i had sweater and he didnt wana make me feel bad ... if only he asked then i would have covered up!
next stop we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial hall... they changed the name to something like national dun know what. the pic below: the building behind us which is huge is some theatre.
this is the CKS memorial hall and museum. the front of this builing was blocked out. when my sis went in may she was able to go up to the flight of stairs and go into the hall where the HUGE statue of Taiwan's 1st president CKS sat. it face the HUGE garden space. now they shut up the door, no more change of guards, with scarfolding infront of the main door... it was a pity cos it really looked majestic. well its supposed to be the decision of their govt to close it... i was almost disappointed thinking that was actually the way into the museum part where CC and others on taiwan tripadvisor forum told me it was still open to public viewing. lucky we decided to walk a huge round to the back of it cos that was the way to get to ding tai fong. and oso i told them the gals had mention the car CKS used was at the back of the building and i tot was in the outdoors. but we didnt see any! then i was curiuos when we hit the bac why there were people walking out from somewhere where i couldnt figure where cos it was deep in... at first i tot it mit be some construction but they dun look like so i walked over and saw that the entrance to museum was right at the bac.
in here the hall had super high ceiling. here they hang huge poster and photographs of the CKS and SYS. we saw the car CKS used. it was a beauty. 7 seater with bullet proof window car. the tables below was outside the museum in the main hall, don't really know the purpose but we sat down on these tiny wooden tables and chairs for phototaking!this is a taken from a poster. this would be how it looked like at the front hall which was considered on a 2nd level of this museum. we walked quite a distance to get to DTF. this was their main branch. sis warned me there will be lots of people and may have to wait for very long time esp when there are huge groups of japanese tourist. so we hurried in our footsteps. Mr S went ahead first to get q number. we were there about 11+am and there was oredi a q. we had to wait about 4 numbers before us so i popped into the bookshop next door. we were asked to go to 2nd storey the stairways was small and we prob took up aloads of space cos of our bags. the waiter who served us was good. he went to get something like ikea laundry basket the kind made of clothe and had metal stands, and offered to help us put the bags in. these laundry basket took up less space at the walkway and solved our problem of holding it while eating. he was so service-oriented that he waited for gx bag cos we were taking out the camera b4 loading it in. he waited and helped us put in althou we told him that we will do it ourselves...
we ordered 4 longs of original and of cos my favourite crab XLB, prawn dumplings and shuijiao, porkchop rice and gx tried his 1st bowl of beef noodles here. the waitress was worried we were not able to finish and advise us that we did ordered a little too much... we went ahead cos we wanted to try out the items, we did managed to finish it and i ordered a taiwan kueh kueh to share... it was dun know how to describe. something singapore have oso but usually prepacked in a diamond shape white kinda chinese cake. here we had it fresh and inside got red bean filling and warm. the texture was chewy.next stop we headed to danshui by mrt, slept on the way cos it was the last stop of the red line. we headed to a market area and walked up hill and we were looking for this store that sell nice presrved fruits. her products was not too dry and were consider big and very nice to nibble. here is where the load started! then we walked on and i smelt a very buttery scent and i had to go into a bakery with think 30yrs or so. the piah here very soft crust unlike HK, penang or singapore. then the interesting thing is ... in the filling layer there is another special thing in it... they added mochi. i bot minimum jus 5 pcs each for each of our family. cos this was our 1st shop and that means it would not last that long once home this was to be finished asap! i bot our only pineapple tart here. one huge piece inside has got salted egg yoke!
here my 1st personnel buy was a brown hat! loved it not really cheap think about $15 but i loved it and thank goodness with the hat my hair did not mess up during the boat ride later. then we walked past a taiwan tuchan shop, here famous for tiedan, black preserved eggs. i am not a fan cos i can't eat quails eggs. but i didnt know they have chicken eggs too. the one i holding is a fresh one out of the pot! here we oso got fish and prawn crackers and mini trays of some kind of heng tang mochi. we left our buy there are too much to carry on.
we headed to danshui matou, it was an island away and we had to sit ferry over. gx speculated if stand outside sure wet so we sat down inside which was stuffy. but thank goodness we sat down cos the tide was high and the boat was moving up and down madly! at one point when we almost was reaching as we did a turn towards the breakwater, the boat followed the wave the front tip down so much we could see the wave splashing right back at us but we were sheltered but it was scary! my feet and bum was oso lifted off the seat and ground at some point. haha water roller coaster. we landed fine and looked for famous fishball, meat dumpling to try.
its like our yong dou fu its doupok, had dongfen it it and meat paste. the fishball here same as hk more starch then fish paste. it was alrite only.
this place have not many shops, a diao bridge, a long wooden plank bridge a few food store and thats it. here we were waiting for sunset. so with all the time we settled in their convenience store and here i tried they yogurt. i read on info given by sis that it had big fruit chunks in it and yes indeed it had a few piece in it and its not so thick as western yogurt or sour it was nice. had all by myself and fed gx a few spoons cos no one takes yogurt. the grape drink was a little too light.
with nothing to do we walked the wooden bridge from the end towards the sunset area. here was jus walk, stop , pose and take photo. we did that for quite a while!
then gx decided to get off to the ground level to q for fried chicken chop! glad he did that cos the sun was unlikely to set as we were told early evening at 5.30pm... we eat and walked on slowly to the end of the bridge. at about 6.30pm i think it almost reach the horizon but was blocked by clouds.
when we got back, sky was dark and we ordered ice-cream green tea and strawberry flavoured! the one we got is not the super long one! there is one that is even taller! here is a colour combi foto.
after finishing the cone, we went to shoot some balloons. i was lousy at this! gx saved the day and got me a plastic air-filled bottle.
we walked along the street and while they were all in another shop, i followed the buttery scent again bot butterish crossiants! they were not the soft type we eat at delifrance! these were like bread and i liked it! taste like butter cookies and smell so good! they were still warm when i got them!
from danshui we head back to hotel to check in and was glad the place was bigger, cleaner and felt safer. we then left for another nitemarket. here we were looking for cuttlefish. it was a good recommendation from the couple. the preserved cuttlefish was good. as it was heavy i only dabao one container and it was to be split bewteen 2 families.
we settled down for chow doufu this came with a burner in it. and went down further we sat down as we ordered haha each a chicken pipi as i will call it. the meat dumpling was not as nice cos the skin is so think and starchy but the meat taste good. after this meal we went bac to rest
here my 1st personnel buy was a brown hat! loved it not really cheap think about $15 but i loved it and thank goodness with the hat my hair did not mess up during the boat ride later. then we walked past a taiwan tuchan shop, here famous for tiedan, black preserved eggs. i am not a fan cos i can't eat quails eggs. but i didnt know they have chicken eggs too. the one i holding is a fresh one out of the pot! here we oso got fish and prawn crackers and mini trays of some kind of heng tang mochi. we left our buy there are too much to carry on.we headed to danshui matou, it was an island away and we had to sit ferry over. gx speculated if stand outside sure wet so we sat down inside which was stuffy. but thank goodness we sat down cos the tide was high and the boat was moving up and down madly! at one point when we almost was reaching as we did a turn towards the breakwater, the boat followed the wave the front tip down so much we could see the wave splashing right back at us but we were sheltered but it was scary! my feet and bum was oso lifted off the seat and ground at some point. haha water roller coaster. we landed fine and looked for famous fishball, meat dumpling to try.
its like our yong dou fu its doupok, had dongfen it it and meat paste. the fishball here same as hk more starch then fish paste. it was alrite only.
this place have not many shops, a diao bridge, a long wooden plank bridge a few food store and thats it. here we were waiting for sunset. so with all the time we settled in their convenience store and here i tried they yogurt. i read on info given by sis that it had big fruit chunks in it and yes indeed it had a few piece in it and its not so thick as western yogurt or sour it was nice. had all by myself and fed gx a few spoons cos no one takes yogurt. the grape drink was a little too light.
with nothing to do we walked the wooden bridge from the end towards the sunset area. here was jus walk, stop , pose and take photo. we did that for quite a while!
then gx decided to get off to the ground level to q for fried chicken chop! glad he did that cos the sun was unlikely to set as we were told early evening at 5.30pm... we eat and walked on slowly to the end of the bridge. at about 6.30pm i think it almost reach the horizon but was blocked by clouds.
when we got back, sky was dark and we ordered ice-cream green tea and strawberry flavoured! the one we got is not the super long one! there is one that is even taller! here is a colour combi foto.
after finishing the cone, we went to shoot some balloons. i was lousy at this! gx saved the day and got me a plastic air-filled bottle.
we walked along the street and while they were all in another shop, i followed the buttery scent again bot butterish crossiants! they were not the soft type we eat at delifrance! these were like bread and i liked it! taste like butter cookies and smell so good! they were still warm when i got them!
from danshui we head back to hotel to check in and was glad the place was bigger, cleaner and felt safer. we then left for another nitemarket. here we were looking for cuttlefish. it was a good recommendation from the couple. the preserved cuttlefish was good. as it was heavy i only dabao one container and it was to be split bewteen 2 families.
we settled down for chow doufu this came with a burner in it. and went down further we sat down as we ordered haha each a chicken pipi as i will call it. the meat dumpling was not as nice cos the skin is so think and starchy but the meat taste good. after this meal we went bac to rest
but guess what.... didnt get to sleep ... eyes again awake but closed all the time... and when i couldnt take it anymore i wake gx and told him there are people talking, running and slamming doors. he ignore me and asked me to sleep! the next morning found out from the couple that (they stayed right at the other end nearer the lift) some hk people came bac at about 2+am and made a lot of noise, ran around and slamming doors. they complained to the recep but they continued for awhile. this hotel had quite a number of hk and japs staying.
we then walked down into the small town. i saw this japanese ice-cream signage in quite a few shops and decided to try it out. comes in many flavours and a very nice shape! the ice-cream was shaped in a FLOWER shape very pretty.
then we took the train to the next station. we skipped pingsi and head straight to shifen. when we got off the train, there was no platform. jus step down and take another step we stepped onto to the town walkway! and to get across to the other side to the shophouses we cut across walking onto the traintrack.
had to had ice to cool down. we had black sugar ice kachang. we get to choose 4 things top it.
right after the ice we went to buy souveniers, little lanterns. after that we went to get out huge lanterns. we each got one and we wrote on it with a chinese brush and ink. i will post fotos later cos my camera was low batt and i took video more than fotos when we let the lanterns into the sky. it was great! i enjoyed the whole process especially looking at the lanterns fly high and far! too bad we had to rush for the train and could not wait for sunset... but it was great feeling. we were the only ones at that moment to put the lanterns into the sky.
right after that we rushed to get onto the train and sat a long way to badu and got off to change train to keelung. we walked a long way to find our hotel. we were staying next to the miaokou food street. our hotel was small but nice. it was actually quite nicely decorated almost like a boutique.
the shiny thing was a hot and cold water dispenser but we didnt try it out. and nice bath room.
after unloading we head for the street. there was a nite street and the street wth yellow lanterns is a 24hr food street! here there were more seafood choices. we had the starchy crab soup and grilled octopus, taiwan saugages and of cos gx favourite chicken bumbums! i had bbq bacon wrapped spring onion it was good. the pushcart we ordered from suddenly off lites and moved away and we saw 2 policeman getting out. but the stalls didnt go far. they were jus at the side of the streets and they can be seen one. but nothing happen. the police left and they were back. we had fresh grape juice.
the thing to try here is the peanut and "flower bean" (direct translation) ice! there was 2 stores side by side. a must try is the peanut one too. when we ate the fried small prawns and lailiu prawns. the guy who cooked for us talked alot! guessed he drank too much! then we went back and i slept well! so fast cos the bed and comforter was the most comfortable!
