Taiwan Holiday [Day 7]

Started the day with breakfast with Chai Mama. We had porridge, you tiao with some seasoning, egg crepes and vegs and it was just like having breakfast with your grandma! It felt like we were staying over with relatives! Then she drove us to the bus station while dropping off her granddaughters off at kindergarten. She had a CD of Chen Wei Lian playing in her car and the familiar tune of Tong Hua was playing and her 6-year old granddaughter could sing along! It seems Singaporean singers are quite popular in Taiwan!

We had intended to go a cab tour, ie a cabby will drive us around the sights of Hualien, which includes the famed Taroko Gorge, and double-up as a tour-guide. But Chai Mama felt that it could be costly for us and since we are young and strong, we should do some exploring on our own. She told us to take a public bus up to Tienhsiang and then walk down and explore Taroko Gorge. So it was a long 2-hour bus trip up from Hualien and on the way up to Tienhsiang, we passed the Gorge and it was beautiful. It's like a canyon made of marble and granite and the stone formations were very artistic! Nature is artistic, must learn to appreciate its beauty!

Up at Tienhsiang, we had a simple lunch which wasn't spectacular. I read in Lonely Planet that the food stores up here should come with a warning! Heee! So we walked around and explored the area. There's a hotel up at Tienhsiang called Grand Formosa Hotel and it looks classy. We took pictures at its garden.








To really appreciate the area, you should then take a trek down from Tienhsiang where you will pass various sights and highlights of the Gorge. But we aren't very adventurous so we decided to take the bus down to the Gorge entrance and explore the area. Sadly though once on the bus trip down, it started raining and we decided to just sit out the rest of the journey all the way back to Hualien! The weather hasn't been friendly!

We then walked around Hualien City and discovered a very yummy bian dan. It must be pretty authentic cos there were many locals buying it too. Tasty!


Then it was a long train ride back to Taipei and checked-in to Wonstar Hotel at Ximending. Wonstar Hotel is not bad, newer and more modern than Keyman's, and definitely more classy. But I think it isn't so convenient staying there. We go to a lot of places along the Danshui line of the metro and we gotta transfer at Taipei Main Station to get there. Furthermore, the stores at Ximending dun really close tat late, so you dun stay out late around that area either, unless you go KTV. Btw, there's a really huge PartyWorld building at Ximending!


You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~

Taiwan Holiday [Day 6]

Started the day early as we wanted to see the sunrise. Enjoyed a delicious breakfast of toast, ham and eggs and steamed sweet potato! Yummy! It was quite bright when we made our way to the pier, but apparently the sun was still out of sight. But slowly we saw the sun ascend out of the mountains like a little egg yolk.

We had to catch a 8:20am bus back to Taipei and I was quite reluctant to leave this place. The scenery was gorgeous, the whole atmosphere of the place was very peaceful and the homestay was so cosy! But it was time to say bye to Sun Moon Lake!

We reached Taipei around 12 plus and had lunch at the food court at Breeze Center Taipei Station. The food court has 50 stalls in total, with 5 different sections centred around a common theme per section, for example curry, international fare, Taiwanese food, even one solely on different kinds of beef noodles!

Then it was time to catch our train to Hualien. We didn't take the High Speed Rail as there weren't any that goes to Hualien. Nonetheless, the train we took to Hualien was very modern, clean and comfortable as well! Another 2.5 hrs free to nap and stone!

Once we reached Hualien we took a cab to our homestay, Rosestone Inn. I was quite excited about this homestay as I had read a lot about it online. When we entered by the front door, we could hear the voices of two young girls shouting out to us "Ni Hao! Ni Hao!". It turned out they were the granddaughters of the owner of the homestay, Chai Mama. After we settled down in our room, we went out to have a chat with Chai Mama and she was extremely friendly and chatty. She shared with us about her son-in-law who hails from Malaysia and thus her affinity for visitors from Malaysia and Singapore. Thankfully Joe's spoken Chinese is pretty good and did most of the talking! Chai Mama also brought us around her massive house filled with antiques! There were photos taken of Chai Mama's husband with the past 2 presidents who had paid the homestay a visit! We felt really privileged to be staying there!

When it was time for dinner, Chai Mama's husband drove us out to Nan Bin Night Market as it was quite a distance away. We ate very delicious chicken chop noodles. The chicken chop was very good as its skin was fried crisp! The noodles even came with free flow of corn soup and cold tea. We also tried fried cheese which was very special and tasty too! As the area around was very dark and quiet, we decided not to explore the streets and hailed a cab back.

We spent the rest of the day watching TV. One of the favourite shows we watched while in Taiwan was a Chinese version of "Don't forget the lyrics" hosted by Harlem Yu. One of the episodes we watched had Eason Chan as the contestant and he wasn't very good at remembering other singers' lyrics!!

You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~

Taiwan Holiday [Day 5]

We started the day early as we had a bus to catch to Sun Moon Lake. However, we woke up 40 mins after the time we were supposed to wake up and really rushed to check out the hotel and make our way to the bus station! Thank God it's only across the road from our hotel! Then it was a 4.5 hr bus journey up to Sun Moon Lake.

We managed to check in earlier to our minsu, Laurel Villa, thanks to the very kind Wang Mama. I would strongly recommend to stay at this minsu when you visit Sun Moon Lake. You can't get a view of the lake from your hotel room but the moment you walk out of this B&B, you are at the harbour and the beautiful lake is before you. The place is also very clean and the service impeccable. The home-cooked meals were mouth watering and we felt very well-taken care of here.



We also enjoyed a very delicious lunch at one of the small shops along the streets. The stewed minced pork rice is one of the best I've tasted! And the food was cheap too! Definitely better than the food at the food courts!

We then proceeded to take a walk along Shueishe Wharf and the nearby area.





Plum Lotus Garden aka Mei He Garden

Christian Church aka Ye Shu Tang - supposedly where President Chiang Kai-Shek and his mother will worship when vacationing at Sun Moon Lake

And now we are off to a boat ride around the river!

First stop is Syuanguang Temple. One of the highlights of this stop were the "Granny's tea eggs". The eggs are special as they are cooked in assam tea (which is the specialty tea grown at Sun Moon Lake) and mushrooms. The lady selling the eggs have been selling the eggs there for over 50 years, from a young girl to a granny already!

Next stop was Lalu Island, which is a very small island. We were not actually allowed onto the actual island. We just stopped at the floating dock surrounding it. According to the tour guide, if you wish to be pregnant, you can touch the wooden structure of an owl. You can see from the photo that I am trying NOT to touch the owl!!

Last stop was Ita Thao Village. The aboriginal Thao people are the original inhabitants of Sun Moon Lake and they live mainly at Ita Thao Village. There were some stores selling the specialties of SML like assam tea and rice wine.

After the boat ride, we went back to the minsu for dinner and had an early night. But we did go out for a short walk and the wharf was nicely lighted up!


You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~

Tweets, FB, Blogging

Hey guys, heard about Twitter? Well, I wasn't too keen on it even though I read that Obama himself was a fervent user. But it was only when it was announced in church that our very own Pastor Kong was on Twitter, that it got my attention. I decided to check it out and realised so many people were already on the Twitter bandwagon! Basically Twitter is a so-called "micro-blogging" site where you post tweets to the simple question of "What are you doing now?" Your followers can reply to your tweets both publicly and privately. It's quite similar to what you see in Facebook where you update your status.

I registered an account and sad to say, have only posted the grand figure of only ONE tweet! Cos Twitter is blocked in my office and Twitter is more for "live", up-to-the-minute updates of your life. I can just imagine the kind of tweets I will type when I get home.

What are you doing now?
I am updating my blog.
I am having my daily read of frens' blogs.
I am surfing the net.

You get the idea? So anyways! I think it’s really a feat for Pastor Kong to maintain his Twitter account and he responds to every tweet sent to him!! And not just that, he also faithfully maintains his Facebook account! I shall not start on how long I have not logged onto Facebook! And the latest news is Pastor Kong now has a blog as well!! PK you rock! I shall try to learn from your example and be more faithful in my tweets, Facebook-ing and blog updates!!! =)))

Btw, do pray for SUN who's not feeling too well. You can read the latest update of her condition here.

Taiwan Holiday [Day 4]

We wanted to check out Tianmu as we heard it was not bad... we took a train to Shipai and walked but we somehow couldn't seem to find the shops even after walking for quite a while. In the end, we gave up and took the free shuttle from a Shinkong shopping mall back to the nearest metro.

We decided to head down to our favourite haunt by now - Shilin but the shops were not quite open at that time. So we took bus Red 2 up to Yangmingshan from Jiantan station. Thank goodness it was a rainless day! From the bus station we hiked to the Visitor's Center which was unfortunately closed on Mondays. By the time we made it to the Visitor's Center (0.7km! but it seemed really far!), we could only manage to take some pics around that area! Things doesnt seem too promising on the sightseeing front eh? Still, it was beautiful up there!!

Then once from Jiantan station, we took a free shuttle to Miramar to take the Ferris Wheel. Btw, you can apply for a Youth Pass at the airport that entitles you to discounts at attractions. And youth means up to the age of 30 so I am still considered a youth!! The Ferris Wheel is quite different from our flyer as it fits only 4 passengers per cabin and each cabin is not as 'solid' as ours. I think if you start messing around in your cabin, it would shake according to your movements! So we both kept very still! It was beautiful seeing the night scene of Taipei City and we managed to spy Taipei 101 too!

And unexpectedly, we ended the night with more shopping at Shilin! There's a specific street called Youth Street which has quite nice clothes. Also, there is a Taiwanese brand of street wear called Paper Sample and the T-shirts are quite unique. The make-shift stalls all show up when it is not raining and it was amazing how they can all so quickly disappear when the police make their rounds. And of course set up once again when the coast is clear!

You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~

Taiwan Holiday [Day 3]

We were quite looking forward to this day as we would be visiting New Life Church! We've heard lots about it from Pastor Kong and furthermore, Pastor Kong was going to be preaching at NLC that very day! Hahah! Hopefully we can take a picture with him!

The church is located at a very central location called Zhongxiao Dunhua which has many shopping malls and also a 24-hour flagship Eslite bookshop. Their services are held at a school hall very near to their church office. When we reached there, there were already quite a few people waiting around to go into the hall.

Soon after the doors were opened, the whole hall was filled as well. A male cgl came up to chat with us and even told us he came to Singapore for our Asian Conference last year! The members were all very frenly and also very grateful towards Pastor Kong. We felt very at home there!

We din manage to get up close and personal with Pastor Kong as he left directly after the service, probably to another church. Joe did meet Pastor Abraham Ku at the toilet though! Hee! We also din get to see any celebrities, only Wing. Hee! We headed for their church office and it seemed many of the members flocked there as well. They gathered in their cgs and there was packed food and everyone just ate and fellowshipped together.

We bought a CD from the bookstore and you can check out the MV for the first song below. I'm sure some of you are familiar with it =)


seed of hope new version from swchao on Vimeo.

After lunch, we headed down to Danshui which was super super packed! It seems like a really popular hangout for both locals and tourists on a Sunday. We got all of the popular Taiwanese foodstuffs from here too - iron eggs, pineapple cake, mochi, jelly, sun biscuit. Just a tip, dun buy iron eggs in big packets cos they cant keep for long once opened. Get those packed in 3s per packet and buy from the stalls further in than those near to the MRT station, those cost more. For pineapple cake, the freshly made ones may cost more but cost better than the pre-packed ones. As for the sun biscuit, the pre-packed ones are good enough and they taste great!

There are also lots to eat here in Danshui, we got fried mushrooms which were really tasty. All kinds are fried, even the golden mushrooms. We also ate this potato spiral tower which they will sprinkle flavours like garlic, curry or cheese powder on it. And not forgetting the long ice-cream cone I mentioned before!

It started pouring again! But still we took the ferry over to Fisherman's Wharf and with the cold wind blowing, we had to seek shelter at a coffee house. They have quite pretty cafes there with live music too, very nice for relaxing. We took pictures at the Love Bridge but it was freezing cold!!

Dear was itching to shop again so we headed down to Shilin again (this' the 2nd time!). We topped off our long day with food at the Shilin Food Centre and took a cab back to the hotel around 1am!


You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~

Taiwan Holiday [Day 2]

The weather was really colder than we expected! Joe shall show you how we survived by layering!

It was raining cats and dogs and we really couldn't go up to Yangmingshan as planned. We decided to spend the day engaging in Joe's favourite activity - shopping! Seriously he is not interested in sightseeing at all, only shopping! I teased him by saying that we will have our next holiday at Orchard Road, maybe have a hotel stay there and he thinks it's a great idea! Someone save me!!!

We started the day with a simple breakfast offered free by our hotel. Honestly, Keyman's is nothing to shout about. If you are not too picky, you would be quite content staying here. It's kinda old but the selling point of this hotel is its very convenient location at pretty affordable rates. The entrance to the MRT is just a minute's walk from our hotel and it's across the road from Kuo Kuang Bus Station which can bring you to other parts of Taiwan via bus. If you are doing a lot of travelling around Taipei using the metro, I recommend that you choose a hotel near Taipei Main Station. Since it's a central station like our City Hall, you can get to many places easily and without much hassle.


Proceeded to Taipei City Hall area to check out Taipei 101. This area has many financial buildings and seems like a financial district to me. We din go up to the highest floor of Taipei as it was a really foggy cloudy day and the lady told us we wouldn't be able to see anything at all! So we checked out the mall which was full of branded boutiques - some of which can't even be found in Singapore!

Didya know that the food courts at Taiwan shopping malls can be massive? They have roughly the same kinds of food, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Singaporean (yes the stalls have names like Sentosa Café!). But somehow feel that the variety cannot be compared with Singapore's. I think the main attraction for Taiwan food is the street food and snacks. They are very innovative when it comes to street food! Like a normal ice cream cone, just by piling up the ice cream, it becomes a novelty that customers flock to buy!

Other than food, there are the drinks! There's this drink from Japan that's sold in Taiwan called Calpis and I love it! I used to buy it back in Sg but it is pretty costly, a bottle of it costs close to $3 but here in Taiwan, it's only $1! It tastes like a sweeter and more diluted version of Yakult and I love Yakult too! Anyway, this bubble tea stall sold Calpis with Calpis agar agar and it was totally refreshing! Love it!

I guess Taiwan is quite influenced by Japan.. Taiwanese people love cute cute stuff lots too! There's this Japanese donut chain that's quite widespread in Taiwan called Mister Donut. They dun just have the normal donuts but also a multiple ringed one that is nice and chewy! They have some other yummy varieties as well!

So back to more shopping at Wufenpu. It's supposed to be THE place for shopping since wholesalers are located here and they sure use their so-called "wholesaler" status to reject your bargaining. I din find the place very spectacular, it reminds me of Bugis Village and some of the items tat were sold here cost less at Shilin. If you are really into shopping, check out the shops at Shilin, there should be more than enough there to whet your appetite.

We ended the night at Raohe Night Market which is some distance from Wufenpu. You gotta try the black pepper bun, it's really tasty! It's like a pao with black pepper meat filling but they charboil it by putting it into some pit with charcoal. It becomes very crispy on the outside and with the tasty filling on the inside, it was really satisfying on the cold and wet night. The other stalls selling food like stinky doufu, herbal soup were so-so only but if it meant coming all the way to Raohe for the pepper bun, it would be worth it!

You can read more about the rest of my holiday here~