taipei, day 4 (part 1)

day 4 of taiwan entails an unexpected trail of events. what was supposed to be a relaxing day turned out to be the most packed and rushed day. the day started slow and we headed to taipei main station for some underground shopping. i spotted the first quickly bubble tea shop here! reminds me of the bubble craze in singapore many years back. we quickly moved on to 新光三越百货 for more shopping (13 levels)! BUT..BUT.. i didnt buy anything. der bought a porter bag and although i was really tempted to grab one too, i didnt think there were enough occasions to warrant a casual porter bag into my life!

i thought this was such a colorful sight, the cabs and buildings were so brightly painted!

so, it was then that i got a phone call from cheng chieh. an old sec school classmate who was a taiwanese. he picked us up 30mins later and we were off for a lot of sight-seeing! i would have missed a huge chunk of taiwan if not for his hospitality!

first stop was a place near the university on top of the hill. from there, a clear view of taipei city beholds. WOW. it was beauuuutiful and breezy. we were pretty lucky that there weren’t much fog either!

here’s a complete view of the scenery, stitched together from 6 pictures.

we then moved on to 金山 & 阳明山, but i couldn’t recall which came first. i think 金山 was first. we stopped at one of the rest stops and tried the local “mountain fare”. pair that with 2 bottles of the light taiwan beer, it literally felt like heaven! here’s the pictures of the dishes that we took…

food/pictures description from left to right…
1. some tender ferns leaves kinda stuff, only to be found on the mountains? tasted really good!
2. fried baby shrimps? crispy and it’s fantabulous to go along with beer
3. hot bamboo shoot soup. my saving grace cos i was suffering from motion sickness with all those turning and curving around the mountain top
4. childhood favourites – deep fried sweet potato
5. taiwan’s famous 三杯鸡. not really my cup of tea..
6. the meal
7. der and cheng chieh eating
8. the mesmerizing view

check out the toilet in the mountains. all the guys had was this urinal behind this low wall! it’s like they are peeing into the OPEN and seriously, i could have seen everything if i wanted to. took pictures, but think it was too censored to be put here!

this bridge is kinda cool. like the rugged color and the beautiful pictures it makes.

through the mountains, we passed many holiday mansions belonging to the rich. people like 吴宗宪 also own one of the mansions there. on our way down, we headed to this quaint little area called the 北石门. it has a nice little arch of stone that formed a balcony sort of area, looking over the vast ocean. i liked this very much, with the fine sand at my feet and the laughter of children in the air. smells very much like freedom.

here’s a 270 view from the top of the bridge, forming the other side other than the ocean… (click on it for a bigger visual)

uh huh. i didn’t realise i spent that much time blogging about this entry. it’s kinda late and i better be snuggling under the blankets else i’ll be a cranky baby tomorrow again. the rest of day 4 is spent in the Tamshui Fisherman’s Wharf (淡水鱼人码头), 淡水老街 and we also took a ferry to 八里 to act touristy. not like we weren’t already tourists!

ok. snuggle time. stay tuned ya? night.