Tai-Oki part 1

Taipei and Okinawa trip

28-4-2016

Singapore changi airport never fail to surprise her guests. Tulipmania is in the airport too! What a beautiful surprise! Although I had been there (gardens by the bay- Tulipmania Rediscovery) 3 times, I was overjoy with the tulips n colourful flowers there. It just feels happy to see these beautiful flowers. They make the whole atmosphere is so light and happy. I love  Singapore Changi Airport!

Tulips

Terminal 1

Singapore Changi Airport

We fly Cathay Pacific to Taipei, transit in Hong Kong. We were informed to go gate 28 which is just outside where we arrived. After settling down, I just feel funny that the gate is too quiet. I double check the gate number, it's correct. Then, I realized it says "arrival pillar" on the pillar. I asked 2 ladies who were there if they are flying to Taipei too. I asked in English, she answer me in Mandarin, so i continue in Mandarin, then she shake her head n say don't know. After a few minutes of confusion, I realized we need to go through another check-in at a different gate to go to the departure hall. Haha, very lousy of me. Hope I don't frighten the two women, who obviously speak Chinese. 

note: CX690, CX470
We were seated 73 , I think, the seats are obviously smaller. The 3 seats in front seem 1/2 a seat wider than ours.
The meal was quite enjoyable and it came with an ice-cream. The clearing of the trays was really late from our past experiences. Some passengers actually bring their trays to the air hostess. We have to pass our tray around in order to go to the wash room.

Arrived in Taipei
Instead of bus 1960(as advised), we took 5102 (NT247) to ZhongXiao Fuxing. We were told it go to the same location and the bus is leaving in 5 minutes times. Infact the ticket counter just closed, the counter guy was nice to reopen to allow us to purchase 2 more tickets. The whole journey took about 50 minutes too.

ToaYuan Internatiomal airport . The free wifi in the airport was easy, but the free i-taiwan was difficult. We didn't managed to connect it though I had registered earlier in Singapore. Hence , we cannot contact the owner ( we book airbnb).It was almost 8+ in the evening, fortunately we met a very friendly Taiwanese girl who share her wifi. My past experiences with them, most of the time very friendly and helpful. Thumbs up.

stay: ZhongXiao Dun Hua area

After checking into our stay, we decided to have our dinner nearby instead of going to Raohe night market as planned.

The street has many options for food and shopping too.

along ZhongXiao Dun Hua station, exit 1, just beside Zara.







Beef wasn't tender enough but the prawn/meat noodles is delicious.( about NT80 each)

direction : 

Zhongxiao Dunhua exit 1, escalator down only
 ( lift is near to exit 1 too)

                            exit 2, escalator up only
staircase are available .

 yummy - the pineapples are sweet (nt50 each set)

Note : get the mrt card at the station, NT100 deposit for the card. Remember to check where to return. Our last stop was at XiZhi train station, we cannot return the card, hence bring it back.
----------------------------------------------------------

29-4-016, Friday

itinery - breakfast at  阜杭豆浆, Yingge old street, Ceramics Museum, Sanxia Old street, Bridal street, Yongle Textile (Biemen stn, 8 mins walk), Ningxia night market (600m from Yongle), Longshan temple (Longshan stn, if time permits)

breakfast at 阜杭豆浆
Shandoa temple station
exit 1, staircase walk up 

exit 2 , escalator up and cross the traffic light (lazy to climb the stairs)

Huashan market


The queue was long though we arrived about 7am. I think a lot are tourists as I noticed the cameras and the clicking.

our verdict : Soya bean drink is good, but we had in many places, they are all very good too. We tried the salty one,(centre bowl) both of us didn't enjoy it. It taste a bite like steam eggs, the very watery type. We tried a few of the breakfast type, not bad. May not make a special trip just for it.

There was a man (Blind) and a woman (both locals) that went for breakfast. The lady behind the counter was very kind to bring their food to them, though it was a busy hour. thumbs up.

Yingge 

We took the train to Yingge station, about NT35. Turn right to go to the Ceramics museum. There were a lot of taxis outside but didn't notice the bus to Sanxia. Anyway the walk to Yingge old street . then to the museum . We took about an hour or more as we did a few stops here and there.

Bonus :
The bus stop is just outside the museum to go Sanxia old street.

Sanxia Old street

left: start/end of the Sanxia old street

Along the way, we ate quite  a lot of snacks and ice-cream.
Quite a number of repeated food.









below : there was a huge celebration in this temple. Everyone is busy with their praying too. There were food  to share, but Choo didn't want to try, so we skip. I should have try it.

This man will ring the bell when someone bows n pray

Sanxia's old street

owl slipper

 

really old streets, where the market place is .....
(along the same street, further down, it's quite a huge market)

 
 

Bus 702 didn't turn up yet, but other buses come and go. So, I decided to try any bus that come so long as it goes to any train station or mrt statiom. We took bus 910, went to Xinpu mrt station . Yeh!!!

Then we go to Zhongsan mrt for the bridal street. We visited 2 bridal shops, price was $$$. As we spent more time in Yingge and Sanxia, we will skip Yongle textile and the Ningxia night market. Anyway , it's about 4pm, Yongle would have closed by then.

on our way to ... we had this

dumpling with mixed ingredients

 

pork with ginger

viggie of the day

Last night while having our dinner, a Taiwanese girl advised us to to  Guting on our way to Shida nite market. We didn't enjoyed much of it but it should be good for the younger ones. Anyway we walk to Shida night market and took mrt to Gong Guan night market.(only one station away). Since it's Choo first time to Taiwan, I tat it would be good to try as many as possible.

 Choo tried these and prefer the brown sugar one.

 I had black sesame one. It will be better if the poa is steam more thoroughly. 

We tried the meat boa (first stall) at the street. The queue wasn't long but we had to wait for the boa to be ready. Choo was keen to try. And it was delicious! (later, we tried at other places too, they were good too) . I waited aside and spoke to a old lady who put a chair outside her house so as to "book" the lot for her son motorcycle. I was sitting on the chair. :)) Later, I helped her to take down something she had it sun tan on top of the wall.  The chair become useful again. As we will leaving, her son came back and has his motorcycle park where the chair is. 

From their news, motorcycle lots seem to be a problem to many of them.

  this is at the end/start  of gong guan night market

Hong Kong style

fish porridge

we should have try their fried rice, it smells really fragrant . Even as he is finishing it, I could really see the smoke still popping out from the rice!( Good fire!) I really wish I have space for the fried rice. hmmmm... the smells still lingers....hee...

The porridge is good too. 

We think the couple may be from Hong Kong. They speak cantonese sometimes.





Time to return to stay and rest.

• Taipei and Okinawa trip, part 2  
• Taipei and Okinawa trip , part 3
• Taipei and Okinawa trip, part 4
• Taipei and Okinawa trip, part 5
• Taipei and Okinawa trip, part 6
• Taipei and Okinawa trip , part 7