Hurray, we are going for holiday from 06 to 09 Nov 07 and it is TAIPEI! And we are going on Free & Easy though we are all first timers to Taipei! Mommy booked our airtickets thru Renaissance Travel (Ms Joriah) and we paid in total S$2,460.00 for 3 adults and 1 infant tickets. We decided to 'invest' more to fly by Singapore Airlines to enjoy quality air travel.
Mommy's friend - Aunty Seow Wei has recommended a very informative travel forum Trip Advisor to Mommy where she found and hired a great local taxi driver who provides guided tour service. His name is Uncle Meeky Yang and his HP # (886) 9219 15586 (Taxi Licence Plate 589-NT). We paid him S$150.00 per day for full day guided tour service, and it is really worth the money as he really provides very personalised and professional service especially after seeing my Daddy's walking condition.
With great recommendation by Aunty Seow Wei, we have decided to stay at Neijiang Hotel which is within walking distance to the popular tourist spot Ximending as the other popular TS Hotel is fully booked. We have booked their Family Room with 2 Queen sized beds at S$110.00 nett per night inclusive of daily breakfast.
It took nearly a week for Mommy & Kakak Tati to pack my personal luggage & handcarry bag and they got to re-check on the eve of our departure to make sure they never miss out anything for me. Great job!
On the day of departure (06 Nov 07) we left home around 10am to give ourselves ample time to do check-in & window shopping at the Changi International Airport Terminal 2. Wow this is my very 1st time stepping inside the Departure Hall and it is really huge.
At 1125am we walked to Gate E12 to board Singapore Airlines Flight # SQ878 and we are seated at Row 31D, 31E & 31G. This is also my very 1st time onboard a real aeroplane and it is so gigantic. As soon as the plane took off, I have fallen asleep and did not make much noise. I started waking up half-way thru the flight journey and got curious with the surroundings. Kakak Tati brought me for a walk and I stood near a small window and oh boy, all I could see is white clouds all around. Due to the air pressure I started to get cranky when we were about to land at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, a pretty SIA stewardess handed me a cup of Fox sweets to calm me down and without much hesitation, I quickly sucked and bite finish all the sweets.. Hahaa...
Thank God we finally arrived in Taipei and the time was 455pm, but the whole sky was already so dark (like 9pm in Singapore) and drizzling. We went thru quick Customs clearance and managed to find a private car (BMW) taxi driver Mr Jeff Wang who charged us S$60 for a single trip from Taoyuan International Airport to Neijiang Hotel.
We took nearly an hour to reach Neijiang Hotel and the counter staff very helpful and approachable. Our room located on 2nd floor and we took their 'mini' lift to reach our Room # 202 which is just next to the lift lobby. Wow... it was a very spacious room completes with 2 Queen sized beds, a 2-seated black colored sofa, long dressing table with 21" CTV, pantry with a mini bar fridge, Tiger Airpot n water flask, mini wardrobe, a nice toilet/bathroom with bath tub and a full length window to watch the busy traffic downstairs and good for us to reckee for eatery places.
After unpacking some essential items, Mommy, Kakak Tati & I went to opposite street to search for dinner. We managed to find a small humble shop that sells yummy beef noodle, wanton noodle, minced meat rice etc. Shop name is 温州面家 with 30 odd years history and they are just like 7-11, open 24 x 7.
Next day 07 Nov 07, we woke up around 8am to have the breakfast provided by Hotel - sandwich with chicken floss, ham & egg and a packet of juice. We left our room around 10am and met up with Uncle Meeky for our 1st day trip round Taipei.
First stop, we visited Taipei 101 World Building but we did not go in for shopping as we find it too high end for us. Next, we went to 中正纪念堂 and it was a beautiful place. We only managed to take a few snap shots as it was raining heavily and the wind was very strong. Uncle Meeky next brought us to 总列祠 and we were just in time to watch the hourly guard changing ceremony. The whole ceremony very solemn and the tourists all busy snapping photos of the smart looking guards.
And next we proceed to 士林官邸公园 (CKS Shilin Residence Park) located just behind CKS Memorial Hall whereby an impressive monument was built in memory of their former President Chiang Kai-Shek. At the CKS Shilin Residence Park, it is a beautiful garden with lot of flower beds around. Mommy just cant stopped taking photos with the beautiful flower beds.. haha
Uncle Meeky initially thought Daddy will be interested in seeing those antiques from old history. So he brought us to 故宫 where it housed a lot of those antiques from many many decades ago unfortunately all of us don't know how to appreciate. So we just took a few snap outside to tell our family and friends that we have been here...
Finally our last stop before lunch was the famous 杨明山(Yang Ming Shan) and it is really very high. The tallest peak, Qixingshan (Seven Star Mountain), has an elevation of 1120 meters, and its peak is the highest point in Taipei City. But too bad, today rained quite heavily in Yang Ming Shan and was badly fogged so we cant see much of the scenery. The wind is super strong at the top of the peak and we quickly came out from taxi to take a few snap shots and our umbrellas all too weak for the powerful wind!
Because of the bad fog, we cannot proceed to another famous spot in Yang Ming Shan called 小油坑. One thing for sure, Uncle Meeky's driving skills superb! He can drive steadily thru the thick fog. Impressive!
From Yang Ming Shan, we came down to another famous tourist spot 金山(Jing Shan) to visit 金包里老街 and when Uncle Meeky parked his taxi, Mommy bought a bundle of their famous 太阳笋 which happened to be in season while we were there. In this 'old street', they have a lot of shops selling local delights and in the heart of this 'old street' 广安宫庙口 has got a very famous duck meat stall which we tasted and it is really very different from the braised or roasted duck that we get to eat in Singapore.
After filling our stomach with the yummy food that Uncle Meeky has ordered, we hopped on to our next destination - 淡水 (Dan shui) to visit their famous 渔人码头. Again it was strong wind blasting across and it was freezing cold. We quickly took a few shots at the 情人桥 and dont dare to walk up the bridge cos it is too steep. Opposite of the bridge, we can see whole stretch of seafood restaurants with quite a lot of customers too.
On our way down, Uncle Meeky decided to give all of us a treat to something which we never tasted before. He stopped his taxi at a roadside and a quite sexy dressed lady came forward to give him a packet of 槟榔. Wow.. thank God I am still a toddler and got exempted from taking this fruit. Daddy was my hero he finished eating the whole fruit without spitting. Phew!
Though it was about 6pm yet the whole sky turned super dark. So the next best place to visit will be their Night Market - 士林夜市 (Shihlin Night Market). We did not queue up for the famous XL Chicken chop as the Q super duper long but the fragrance of their chicken chop fabulous when we drove pass. Instead we ate their fresh fruit - Strawberry and we were 'surprised' by the sweetness. It turned out that the fruit seller has added syrup to the Strawberry to make it sweet and we got fooled.. Haha.. We got to try another stall selling Chicken Chop and we found it to be yummy to.. (or were we too hungry to differentitate).
After exit from Shihlin Night Market, we passed by Miramar Ferris Wheel and we quickly came out of taxi to take a snapshot with the gigantic Ferris Wheel. We did not go into the Miramar Ferris Wheel itself as my Daddy & Mommy both got height phobia so we dropped the idea of visiting.
Our last stop of the day is 深坑 (Shen Keng) where they are the origin place of 臭豆腐 (Smelly Beancurd) in Taiwan. We went to this restaurant (forget to take note of the name) and ordered a Smelly Beancurd set meal that comprises of braised smelly beancurd, steamed smelly beancurd, 1 kampong chicken, 1 stir fry bamboo shoot, 1 soup with smelly beancurd, artificial crab meat and egg. It was everyone's 1st time to try the smelly beancurd except Uncle Meeky, frankly I supposed I quite enjoyed eating since I finished my bowl of rice with smelly beancurd. Haha.. After dinner, we walked along the street outside the restaurant and Mommy bought 4 tins of 贡糖 (peanut cookies) as gifts for our family & her boss.
We ended our Day 1 full trip at 930pm with Uncle Meeky and cant wait to go lie on the comfortable beds in our Hotel.
Rise & Shine! 08 Nov 07 our Day 2 full trip begun at 930am instead. Uncle Meeky brought us to Wanli （万里） to visit 野柳地质公园 (Yehliu Discovery Geopark) to see unique geological features. Fantastic rock formations here are sculptured by nature, with beautiful names that echo their shapes, i.e Queen's Head and Fairy Shoe. Unfortunately we did not have the chance to witness these 2 beautiful rock formations as it was raining pretty heavily and the wind were very strong thus made us difficult to proceed. We stopped at a resting place and saw from far the performance by the sea lions, dolphins etc at the opposite 野柳海洋世界 (Yehliu Ocean World).
From Wanli, we drove up the 九份 (Chiufen) which is located up in the hills of northern Taiwan and it is also the filimg site of "City of Sadness" (not sure if it was a movie or serial show). It is a very old-fashioned way of living here. Uncle Meeky recommened to eat Dou Kou beef noodles and Chiufen yam ball dessert in 1 shop located at the beginning of the old street. Both dishes were superb recommendations esp the Chiufen yam ball dessert which was hot dessert in soup and it helped to warm our body due to raining.
After our lunch, we continued our explorations in this old street of Chiufen and Mommy has bought many packets of 'muah chee' from this shop call 阿信. And next Daddy and Uncle Meeky were seen busy tasting Chinese tea and Daddy fell in love with their tea leaves, he bought 3 boxes of tea leaves. We came across a shop at Unit 51 that sells hand made indoor slippers and Mommy bought 2 pairs for Por Por to use at home. Next one to make a purchase is not ME but Kakak Tati, she brought a scrapper meant for body massage purpose.
Spending nearly 2 hours in this old street, I started to get hungry and Mommy bought me yummy bread roll with cheese and I love it a lot. On our way coming down from Chiufen, Uncle Meeky stopped by at 黄金瀑布 to let Mommy take photo as Kakak & I were sleeping in the taxi and Daddy lazy to come. This waterfall really amazing and you can see the water flowing very rapidly.
After this amazing waterfall, we came to the famous 阴阳海 (Ying Yang Sea) where 2 colors are mixed near the shore - blue salt water from the ocean and gold run-off from the Keelung River. Mommy did not manage to take a nice shot due to the strong seawaves hence the 2 colors are not so obvious as compared to normal days.
From Ying Yang Sea, we drove over to 鼻头 which was just a few minutes drive away and located near to the fishery port. There we saw lot of natural rock formation and the sea waves were beating so strong. We could hardly stand properly with the strong wind. Daddy & Mommy were having fun posing here and there and they even saw a black color sheep at the hilltop when Uncle Meeky was trying to snap photos for them. Driving out from there, we passed by another natural scenery spot 南雅奇岩 (Nanya Peculair Rocks) to see yet another amazing natural rock formations.
We headed down to 五份铺 (Wu Fen Pu Wholesale Centre) a fashion district where we can shop for low-priced clothes from the wholesalers directly. Mommy managed to buy 2 long pants for me at 1 of wholesalers who does retail business.
Uncle Meeky drove us to where he lives 永和 and he did not invite us to go up to his house as his apartment do not have lift access and he is worry that Daddy will need to climb up all the way to 4th level. After viewing, he drove us to eat 世界豆浆大王 (World Famous Beancurd King) situated at Yong He Road. We have ordered their famous 咸豆浆， 牛肉馅饼， 小笼包， 葱饼 and
what to say but YUMMY!
Final stop of the day 华西观光夜市 (Hua Xi Street Night Market) and we got to eat a lot of live snakes and we even saw 1 of the restaurant performing killing of live snakes which scared us off. On further exploring, we found 1 shop that does creative art painting using water colors to form interesting Chinese characters and English greetings. Daddy decided to ask the lady to draw our surname 饶 and all of us were very impressed by her beautiful yet creative art painting.
We ended our Day 2 trip earlier at 830pm and Uncle Meeky has been a very great tour guide to us for the past 2 days. On parting, we paid him his due fee with tips and a box of Wu Long Tea Leaves bought at Chiufen.
Rinse & Shine! 9 Nov 07 our last day in Taipei and we woke up around 10am. We self roamed around Ximending area and had our final lunch at 温州面家 before heading back to Hotel to wait for Mr Jeff Wang to pick up at 3pm.
In summary, we really enjoyed our 4 days 3 nights stay in Taipei and we surely return to Taiwan in near future to explore other parts which we have not visited. Here are our photos taken during our trip.
