Departing...

Waiting for the gate to open...
It's no difference compared to another previous trip... Madness & rush the morning. Took advantage of the departure time of the flight, only have to report at 8.30 am. Only started packing the luggage last night, and was still busily sending emails out, creating new documents, etc.

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20111211 Arriving at Taipei, heading 宜兰Yilan

Arrived at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport 桃园国际机场at around 3.30 pm. The group got into a double-decker bus. It's a 20-people group, made up largely by "families" :) Oh yes, a wheelchair-bounded granny in the 8-member family. It's the first time traveling with a senior in a group.

It was about a 2-hour drive from the airport to Yilan 宜兰. We drove through the 12.9km 雪山隧道 before arriving Yilan 宜兰for a night of stay in the resort. As our local guide 徐大同highlighted, 竹风兰雨that says 新竹is known for its wind, it's also where the famous 新竹米粉is made. Well, back in 宜兰it's known for its rain, and duck!!!

Before arriving at the resort, we stopped by the 7-eleven. Guess what interesting finds I have?



The dinner was really a simple one... With no surprises as a simple home-cooked family meal. The climax was more of the 2 other activities after dinner. The making of the麻薯, which we usually buy as a end-product. The original is make of 小米. However, we use 糯米instead. It's first steamed, then poured into a boulder made from a tree trunk, then pounded over and over again to become a thick sticky paste. Then it's rolled over a mix of sugar and black sesame. Tasty :) the next highlight was lightening of the traditional lantern. Wow... Exciting! The lantern simply took off so quickly and sent our hopes and wishes far far up there!


Pound, pound, pound...一份努力,一份收成


Mixing the product with the sugar & black sesame mix





Penning down wishes on the lantern... I wish...


Before it takes off...



Ready to fly...






PS: BlogPress played me out. Apps can't be activated after I entered the day's account.

20111212 from Yilan宜兰to Jiufen九分to Keelung基隆


The morning started slooooooow. 7.30 am. It was raining since last night. Though it was still drizzling in the morning, the droplets of 雨粉were light... Kind of refreshing.


We were surrounded by fruit trees! Ok, orange trees were not new to me! Star fruits hanging from the trees were exciting! They grew in clusters! Would be nice if we could pluck a couple of the to taste... I could imagine how crunchy it could be!




The morning breakfast is a typical Taiwanese breakfast I think, porridge with pork floss, peanuts and prickles. There are other dishes like what we had last night, fried cabbage and fried egg.



A visit to the crab museum in the resort was a good eye opener to me. What? Museum about crab? "Like that also can?" that was my first reaction! Interesting, it's a collection of specimens by the owner's son for many years. She's a nice, at least from two aspects - she acknowledged the effort of the experts who contributed to the classification of the collection, and the passion she exhibited as she spoke about these shelled creatures! The museum was not what we normally associate with (as a museum). It's right above a cafe, and wasn't quite had the professional packaging.



Next stop is Jiufen... which was originally a gold mine. It became famous and tourist attraction after the shooting of the movie 悲情城市. Well, the place had not changed since the last time I came (think it was more than 5 years ago). The narrow alley with small shops lined up on both sides. The smell of the 臭豆腐, the shops that sell a variety of fish balls, those seemingly like bobo-chacha yam-sweet potato desserts. Had 干冬粉and assorted fish balls. We also had the big 麻薯as dessert.

My lunch...



The area was especially crowded when all tried to take shelter at the corridors of the shophouses. Both rain and wind had added to the 'excitement' of the wait of the bus...


The rain "followed" us to Yeliu野柳, which the guide jokingly gave it the name雨港because of the rain! Of course, the highlight at Yeliu was the limestone formation, in particular, the famous queen's head. Well, the rain was much more heavier when we arrived.




We checked in the hotel at around 5pm, pretty early... And we set off to the first night market since arrived. 基隆庙口夜市 is a pretty small night market, that made up of 2 streets. Almost all were food stalls. Interestingly, a number of stalls sold seafood, mostly grilled.



This was also the first night that we have access to the wifi :)
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20111213 from Keelung基隆 to Xinzhu 新竹 to Neiwan内弯

The breakfast was a big contrast when compared to previous day's; at least, the range :)

We set off to Xinzhu 新竹 on the 'super highway' early but we were caught in the morning traffic jam, as many were heading the same direction, towards Taipei; for our case, thru' Taipei.

The first activity was to plunk tomatoes at the 金勇DIY蕃茄休闲农产品! However, most of the tomatoes were unripe - green ones came in different shapes and sizes though all were green; hence ending up photographing them only. On the other hand, the complimentary fresh tomato juice was really very fresh and tasty!

Tomato flowers!
 School children on the learning journey and they were tasked to pick up 12 ripe tomatoes!



The main attraction of the day was an old Hakka town in 内弯,where the内弯戏院was a well known landmark in that area.


It was an old cinema that was converted to into a restaurant that served the local food.

Once again, we found stalls and shops selling local produce lined up along the old street. Two 'new' items stood out from the rest - the ginger-related stuff like raw ginger and honey-ginger drink and the dried fruits and vegetables that we didn't see in the previous days.

There, the end of the old street was a suspension bridge, which reminded me of the one I came across in Bhutan (Paro & Thimphu); however, the latter was definitely much more well maintained.

The day's itinerary ended with the visit to another night market 逢甲夜市, located right in front of a university. Indeed, the guide shared that, night markets were common sights near higher institutions. If we looked at what was sold at this night market, we could not agree more!

This night, we checked in to a pretty good hotel, that didn't look like one that I assumed a hot spring hotel would look like... Though it was far from the bustling city, quoting what the guide had said, 好山好水,好无聊. Hahaha... Actually not really... This one was a more luxurious one, with a nicely built-in bath tub and a nice view. That reminded me of the hotel I stayed in Hongkong last year :)

20111214 Taichung台中 to Lukang 鹿港(Zhanghua彰化)

Headed for Sun Moon Lake 日月潭. The early occupants in that area was the 孝族(山地原著名). It's also the place that the Japanese initiated the idea of tapping on the lake water to generate electricity水力发电厂. How it got its name? It's the elevated view in the past (before the earthquake). Within the lake, there was an island in the middle. On one side, it looked like a moon and the other, a sun. Before the earthquake in the 90s, the island was a highlight where tourist could visit.
Since the earthquake, the island sunk and left with a tip. Hm... Left two trees that were seemingly unique, one which one of them had two branches that stuck out from the top that looked like the horns of the deer.

Along the river side were some historical buildings, for instance, a pagoda that was built was the first president Chiang Kai-Shek in memory of his mother. The pagoda tipped at the 1000th metre height above sea level.

The next visit to the 毛皇爷shop, we 'attended' a lesson on lingzhi灵芝 and 鹿胎 (deer fetus) where the shop owner spoke about how the tribal formula had done miracle to the sick, for example, how 鹿胎had cured the asthma problem faced by the then-first lady 宋美龄. Actually, I visited another branch in Taipei in my first visit many many years ago, but it's the first time that I learnt how this 毛皇爷got the 皇爷title... which was given by President Chiang because of the close consultation relationship he had with the president, according to the guide.

We visited the Wenwu temple文武庙 where 关公and孔子were worshipped, before heading to Lukang鹿港. This was a port which was known to export deer skins to Japan during the Japanese occupation period. It seemed to be a pretty quiet town as we drove passed the street.
 
The day actually concluded with a visit to the Lukang Tianhou temple鹿港天后(妈祖)庙 which was more than 300 years old. Of course, another 'expected' sight and activity was the night market. Hm... Not quite, but it was an old street, kind of like the one at Neiwan内弯. One item that stood out from the other old streets or night market was the traditional biscuits or pastries that it had here! The biscuits were all so freshly made and came with a nice smell. There, I bought the 'cow tongue biscuits', both crispy and soft types :)


It happened that the evening we arrived coincided with the President's visit to the place, and what a surprise, the 'target' location was the Tianhou Temple! Guess that's the local culture, where places of worship was the most crowded, and probably also where he hoped to pray for the goddess to hear his wish of success in the upcoming presidential election? Hm... What made it more colourful was the 'organiser' actually made announcement to the supporters lined up outside the temple, to urge them to be in an orderly manner and also to applause to welcome the president when he arrived. What made it colourful was she reminded them that they need to show the goddess that they were good and orderly and well-behaved!!! Hm... The goddess was overlooking at what's happening... so, don't play play!!!

This night, we put up in Leader House, which was a big contrast to the Two we had two nights ago. The first impression? It was like those ryokan hot spring hotels in Japan! The hall er... The main lobby was round and spacious, with stalls of the open concept where goods were displayed. However, these stalls were closed. The biggest 'surprise' was we seemed to be the only people checked in. Well, all in all, apart from being old and didn't seemed to be well maintained, the room was adequately equipped and comfortable for the night.

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20111215 from Lukang鹿港 to Wulai乌来 to Taipei台北

The day started with the longest bus journey of the trip. It took us more than 3 hours before arriving at the Wulai waterfall. It sat at about 700 metres above sea level. It's considered a beautiful scene at the countryside.


Then we took the mini (really mini) train for a distance that brought us to another old street before boarding the bus to continue the journey to Taipei. The touhuay we had was pretty nice; similarly, the grilled chicken meat :)




Lunch was at the 五角船板at Taipei, a restaurant built with an interesting concept. I think we spent almost equal amount of time taking photos and eating in this restaurant.

We proceeded to the Pixiu 貔貅shop where we learnt a little bit of the fengshui stuff. Learnt that 貔貅, which was supposedly the youngest child of the dragon king didn't come with a tail, and the male one (i.e. 貔貅) came with a horn and was meant for human residence whereas the female 辟邪was meant for the tombs.

We had dinner at Ximending西门町. There was not much change since I last visited the place, a busy place largely made up of youngsters and tourists.

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20111216 Taipei台北

A places that are significant to the Taiwanese were lined up for the day.

The National Palace Museum was one of the top three museums in the world, according to the guide. Two others were the Lourve and the British Museum, which I already visited! :) Had a better understanding of some of the precious pieces such as the "jade cabbage" and the "fatty meat". So, there were three pieces of jade cabbage in the world. I saw the one in the Palace Museum in Beijing. This one, according to the guide, it was the 嫁妆 of 谨妃. 1.5 hour visit definitely had not done justice to the place; however, the huge crowd would be one factor that put people off (for a longer stay).

The changing of guards was the reason to go to the Martyr's Shrine. It was a good one, hm.... more to see compared to the one at the castle in London.

For lunch, we thought there would be a pleasant surprise when we saw the restaurant served frogs. Anyway, no luck  :(

A fair amount of time was set aside for the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which we thought a third of it would do. Anyway, we were saved by the exhibition put up by the education authority. Though the large part of it spoke about the Education Journey since its early days (e.g. the establishment of the first school, etc), there were things that we could associate with... For instance,
(i) Thinking of Sun Yat-Sun about education... his philosophy and beliefs...
I like the point: 饮水思源... it's a value and it's powerful!

(ii) The old chinese primary school textbook. Though the ones I used were different, but I could see the similarity in the drawings! The style of drawing, too... the "Asian" flavour :) Of course, we had more, like the Malays and Indians. Some of the most commonly used name were 阿里 Ali, 美方and 小华.