Day 7 : 11th Oct 2006

Making our way back to Singapore. Stopped by our last stop to make last minute purchases. Bought some 太阳饼 (Sun Biscuits) at a rather high price. Lesson learnt, don't make last minute purchases.
Its certainly an enjoyable trip for me and my family, and Taiwan, we shall visit you again in future. Hope you stay as interesting and beautiful! Ciao!

Day 6 : 10th Oct 2006

This day, we travel all the way back to 台北淡水 (Taipei - Dan Shui). Our first stop is the famous 渔人码头 (Fisherman's wharf, now a tourist attraction). Why famous you may ask? Because the now defunct "F4" had one of scenes of "Meteour Gardens" shot here. Our next stop is 淡水老街 (Old Dan Shui Street) where we again shopped for the goodies around the area. I think 铁蛋 (Iron egg - kind of soy sauced steam egg) is their specialty here, but we gave it a missed. 鱼酥 (Fish cracker) is also famous here, if you like fishy smelling biscuits. I got me almond powder here for SGD$5 and 面茶 for SGD$7 (for my mum, supposedly a kind of health food). My dad particularly enjoyed the 臭豆腐 (Smelly Beancurd) around this area though. As today is 双十国庆(Taiwan's National Day) and 天下围攻(Civil Demonstration by 倒扁红衫军 "Dao Bian Hong Shan Jun") , we were advised by our tour guide to skip CKS Memorial Hall as it is next to the Government Parliament, an area that has been cordoned off by the authorities for fear of riots. Instead, we were brought to the Majestic Hotel, 园山大饭店 (Yuan Shan Hotel, a 6-star hotel) for photo taking session. Afterwhich, we proceeded to the Martyr's Shrine to view the guard changing ceremony. These young men serving their National Service (like us!) have to stand like a rock (not like us, we men chiong mountains) under the hot sun for an hour before shift changes. They sure rock!
Next, we were brought to the famous mall, Taipei 101. It costs NT$300 to go to the top to view the skyline of Taipei. There we did not go but instead, we took our time to go around the mall. We were checked into our hotel next so that we can spend the rest of the night at 士林夜市 (ShiLin Night Market). I just gotto show you the lobby of this hotel, it was like an art gallery, simply amazing! Some of our lucky tour members actually got rooms with 2 floors. Did I also mention that all rooms are equipped with a bathtub with Jacuzzi? Envious? At ShiLin, there are 2 main areas, one selling food and the other, well selling miscellaneous stuffs. Food worth trying is 毫大达鸡排 (Big Fried Chicken Cutlet - The original one), 大饼包小饼 (Big biscuit wrapped around small one) and last but not least, the 刨冰 from 三兄弟 (Shaved Ice stall from "3 Brothers" stall, must try is their Mango Shaved ice and Soya Bean Curd. Oh boy, the thought of it makes my mouth waters.). We finally call it a day at 00:15 hrs, making our way back via cab. ZZzzzzzzz.

Day 5 : 9th Oct 2006

This is a day of temple visitations. We left for our first destination of the day, 佛光山 (Fo Kuan Shan Monastery - Buddhist temple). This is a holy place for faithful Buddhists and has become an attraction venue due to the beautiful landscape carved out and the majestic temples built on this mountain. This place attracts thousands of pilgrimages in a year and is also a well respected area as the monastery also houses a free university for the poorer folks. There is also this great Amitabha Buddha statue that stands at 120ft tall and and is surrounded by 480 smaller statues. A word of warning though, the top of this monastery requires a pair of trained legs to reach as there are countless flights of stairs to climb. You have been warned (8-)). The next place of visit in the afternoon is the 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake) in 台中 (Tai Chung). The bus ferrying us have to go about winding mountain roads to reach this place. The name is called as such because there indeed exists 2 lakes, which is shaped like a sun and a crescent moon. There is this famous Taoist temple situated in this region, called the 文武庙 (Wen Wu Temple), which also attracts a bountiful of holiday makers and pious believers. It was told by our guide that all Taoist temples, if built according to the blueprint guideline stated by the ancestors, should provide an emergency water catchment tank hidden in the ceiling, which can be easily released in case of fire emergency. This temple has such mechanism built in. So engineers, marvel at the safety technology put in place by our fore fathers. On the right is a picture of 9 dragons chasing after the celestial pearl (I am the first to get it here on this day!). On the left is a view of the foggy lake. Our last destination for the day is 逢甲(Feng Jia ) night market. This night market is also crowded with people, mostly younsters as the market sits right in front of their university, Feng Jia University. Difference between this night market from the one before is that it sells more young and trendy necessities, and last but not least, FOOD! We had 大肠包小肠 (Translates as Big Intestines wrapping Small Intestines - Glutinous rice wrapped around Taiwan Sausages with Si Chuan vegetables as fillings). Not too bad, taste a bit like dumplings. There is also this duck meat wrapped in poh-piah skin, which is also quite tasty but I have no chance of taking pictures of (I've got my hands full of food and bags). Btw, trendy bags and shoes range around SGD$5.00 to $20.00 around this area, so ladies, prepare to offload some NT$ in this vicinity.

Day 4 : 8th Oct 2006

Our first destination for the day is the National Marine Museum and Biological Aquarium at 墾丁(KenTing). This also means that we have reached the southest most part of our journey of Taiwan. The park is splitted into 3 major areas, namely the "Waters of Taiwan", "Coral Kingdom Pavilion" and "Waters of the World". As the names suggest, each area consists of tunnels enclosed by glass, for you to walk through and to view the marine exhibits co-existing in the man-made habitat. The only thing that really captures my attention is that this aquarium actually houses the smaller spieces whales. Our next destination is 高雄 (KaoHsiung), the second largest city and commercial seaport of Taiwan. Upon reaching our destination, we were treated to a river cruise down 爱河 (Ai He - translates to Love River), with narrations to depict how the magnificent bridges were built and how beautiful get at night as lights will be turned on at 1900hrs. Time now is 1745 hrs. Sheesh. After the cruise, we were sent to the 六合(Leo Ho) night market. As we come to know later, this night market is considered to be one of the smaller scale. I strongly recommend that one come this market with an empty stomach as this night market sells mostly local delights. Famous food include 棺材板 (Literally translated to Coffin planks - A type of shepard pie wrapped by thick baked bread), Fried Ice cream (Smooth and delicious and not oily at all, heard the man patent and franchises his business overseas, anyone interested?) and 胡椒饼 (Pepper Biscuits - Biscuits with a lot of pepper. What else to say?). Left the market feeling 1 kg heavier. Seriously.

Day 3 : 7th Oct 2006

We were on our way to 大鲁谷 (Taroko Gorge) on this morning. This is a weathered mountain of marble. As the content of dust is very high in the lake, you cannot find any fisherman in the vicinity. On our way up, we were caught in a very bad jam as there are many holiday makers like us. Took an hour to reach our destination, the Tunnel of Nine Turns Trail, the most scenic section of Taroko Gorge. It was certainly worth the wait. The trail is very beautiful and the refreshing wind from the mountain keeps blowing onto you. Our guide was telling us that the mountain pass was slowly carved out with help from Japanese engineers. One cannot afford to have heavy piling machines to carve the marble for fear of landslide. In fact, this area is very prone to rock falls and one certainly do not need any more man-made ones. Next place to go is to view their A-mei natives perform a 1 hour sing and dance show for us. We were entertained as they sang a Japanese song and got a japanese tourist to sing along with them. Sporty is the tone-death chap. On the left is my sister, who is enjoying herself though. We were brought to a Lingzhi sales centre next. For those of you who are experienced in such talks, you know the curtain falls on you once the door closes. One of our smart tour member quickly, as soon as the talk is over, led the entire group out of the room. The whole view is so hilarious as the entire sales team tried so hard to keep us. Thanks for their Lingzhi tea though, it was really refreshing. Our final destination is a spa resort in Jhihben Hot Sprint area in 台东 (TaiTung). Along the way we can hear people letting off fire-crakers, something long lost in Singapore. Also located along the area was a street lined up with shops and street hawkers. This area is famous for 释迦 (Shi Jia) fruit, shaped like Buddha's hair, so remember to pick up some! Not too be missed are also shops that sell those choose and pick sweets-stalls. The 释迦饼 (Shi Jia biscuit) is very special and imho, tasty. After the street trip , its time to head back to the resort and dipped into the therapathic hot spring. The hot spring in the resort allows the use of swimwears, but swimming headgear is compulsory as well, for hygiene purposes. It was the next day when we were checking out that we realized that the bathtub in the resort also provide water from the hot spring, so there is no need to go to the public one.

Day 2 : 6th Oct 2006

This morning, our first destination was the 野柳 (Ye Liu) Stone park. The stones in this area were exposed to the weathering by the waves of the Pacific Ocean, and natural formations were created through the years. It was a facinating sight and the air is very refreshing. One of the famous rock structure "sculped" by nature over here is of course the "Queen's head" and the "Fairy's shoe"
The tour guide mentioned that it was estimated by the expertise that the neck of the queen will reach a collapsing point in around 10 years time. So lucky of us to have this rare opporunity to have an audience with the queen before she retires. As for the fairy's shoe, seems like someone left in a hurry.... did anyone hear the clock strike 12? I just couldn't resist to have this shot posted to show how big some of these rocks are.
After an hour in this area, we proceeded to the famous 九份 (Jiu Fen) street, where rows of shops/eateries on a mountain awaits us. Famous must-try dishes from this place includes their 鲁肉饭 (Minced meat rice), 芋泥汤圆 (Yam ball soup - dessert) and 鱼圆汤(Home made fish balls served in soup). We also find the 李毅风梨酥 (Li Yi Pineapple tarts) in this area particularly tasteful. Time is rather short when you are shopping around and very soon, we have to head for our next destination. We were supposed to take their train down to 花莲 (Hua Lian) but there seems to be some miscommunication with the train timings between the tour agency and the train station. It turns out our train was of a later timing and to kill time, our guide brought us to some other places, like a stop over point to view the pacific ocean crashing into the shoreline and a 3 stage waterfall, which were not included in our original itinery. Lucky! Soon it was time for our train ride and we have to leave this beautiful place. Our train ride to Hua Lian took us 2 hours. Our guide explained to us that it will take the vehicle 4 hours to reach our train station though. Our poor driver thus have to put on his Project-D gloves to catch up with us. He managed to reach our destination at about the same time. After dinner, it was check-in time. An interesting scene was that this day happens to be the 15th Aug (Lunar Date, also known as mooncake festival) and many families were out barbequing food. This seems to be their tradition, i.e. to BBQ out in the open to view the big round moon. We did try and walk the street, but most of the shops was closed, so we decide to hit the sack after a futile walk on an empty street. 晚安 (Goodnight) !

Day 1 : 5th Oct 2006

This trip is very memorable trip for me as this is the first time that our 2 families gets to travel together on a vacation. After 4 hours or so, we finally arrived at Taipei 1915 pm. We were picked up by our tour guide and led to our first destination of the whatever-that-is-left day, 西门丁 (Xi-Men-Ding Night market). We were treated to our first Taiwan meal, 阿宗面线 (Flour rice noodle served with pig intestines). The rest of the time was given to conquering the rest of the street with our greatest Singaporean spirit, shopping!

Facts of this trip

Facts on this trip to Taiwan, Tour around the country with ASA (Singapore Tour Group) Oct 05-11, 2006.
1) Exchange rate is SGD$ 1 = NT$ 20.68 at a currency exchanger at People's park.
2) Travelled with ASA, having 11 members on board (6 of which are family 8-P ). Price of package range from $768 to $818 (joined later, so missed their promotional rates in August 2006) . Airport surcharge is $121 on top of the price.
3) Stayed in various hotels, from YAWARD HOTEL(Taoyuan), GOLD COAST UNION HOTEL, HOYA HOT SPRINGS RESORT & SPA (TAITUNG), TOP PLAZA HOTEL (KAOHIUNG), DEBAO HOTEL (TAICHUNG) and KING OF FRANCE PALACE HOTEL (NANGANG DISTRICT).
4) Average temperature in the city : 32.0 degree celsius (Sunny days). Night temperature is around 28.0 degrees celsius. This is supposedly their Autumn Season, so climate is very similar to Singapore.
5) Street food is fantastic! Remember to taste their local Feng-li-Shu (Li yi one at Jiu Fen and Wei Ge Brand (forgot where I tried these)), Yu-ni-tang-yuan (at Jiu Fen), Tai-yang-bing (almost anywhere), Da-bing-bao-xiao-bing (Shi Lin night market), Da-chang-Bao-xiao-chang (feng jiao night market), Hao-Da-Ji-Pa, Duck's tongue, Fried ice cream (at liu he night market), Mo-chi at various night market, seasonal fruits, etc.
6) Travelling flight time on the plane is 4hrs 20mins
7) Taiwan's time is the same as Singapore's time, so no Jet lag.
8) Plane leaves Singapore-time: 14:55pm and arrives at Taipei 19:15pm Taiwan time.
9) Returning plane leaves Taipei, Taiwan-time 09:30am and arrives at Singapore-time 13:50pm.
10) Being a Chinese dominated country, Taiwanese are very facinated with Fengshui / Geomancy stuffs. So many are their temples and monasteries. TV Channels is over 100++ !
11) For those with Google Earth, you can see Taiwan's satelite picture to the right.
12) October 10th is their national holiday, so expect crowd/traffic jams near places of interests. You will find that there will be a lot of china tourists as well as the 1st week of Oct is one of their golden week holidays.
13) Tipping per day to their local tour guide is NT$100.
14) Always bargain unless in a mega-established mall/restaurants like Taipei 101 etc. Bargain is an art and do not be afraid of losing face while executing this art!
15) Taiwan is famous for 3 宝 (treasures). As I quote from our guide, they are namely, Typhoon, Earthquake and Landslide.

Prologue:
We were rather worried for our tour initially as the "倒扁" demonstrations were getting rowdier by the day, as reported from local news. However, we were reassured by our tour agency that we will not be affected as the places which we were visiting does not clash with their movement. Their words were true till the last day though, as the "天下围攻" were planned on their "双十国庆" National Holiday and the area near to the Gvernment Office was blockade off, thus spoiling one of our intended visit to the C.K.S Memorial Hall. Nonetheless, the entire trip is very interesting for first-timers like my family.