#AnnoyingTravelBoy6 - Day 1 in Taipei

To fulfill my promise (to myself) of writing at least two blog posts per month, so here we go....

My friends and I woke up early to catch a bus to go to Taipei from Taichung. While waiting for my friends who seemed to have late habit, I was sulkily (not that serious la, may be coolly) eating this bread I bought from FengYuan Night Market. 

Bread with cheese filled and ham/bacon. This was one of the most delicious bread I had in Taiwan!! It goes into my list of stuff that is worth every NTD i spent! 45NTD for this yummilicious bread. 

As we arrived quite early to the Taichung station, I had decided to try the local McD. I had this simple cheese + bacon/ham (i seem to have problem differentiating these two meats) burger. 

 For your information, Taiwan has a high speed rail （臺灣高鐵）system that travels around the country at fast speed but also with a relatively higher price than bus or normal train. Since we intended to cut down the travel budget, we chose to go to Taipei with bus. The journey is around 2 hours, similar to that of travel between Penang and Ipoh. I was impressed by how spacious and comfortable the bus we took. Not only did every seat come with individual visual audio system (like the one in air plane) there was even a toilet at the back of the bus. And the ticket for the bus was only 170NTD.

Taipei MRT.

Freaking 33degree that felt like 40 degree (according to the weather apps in my phone)!!

I decided to leave my friends and rest alone in the backpacker hostel (at XiMenDing) just to stay out of the scorching heat. 

And finally, I  狠下心腸  and bought this cute Line sticker. I had been mulling over for weeks before I came to decision to buy this sticker....

After an hour or two of rest, when I came outside, the city had turned dark with imminent downpour. Of course, I got very excited with this weather and the rain that came afterwards. It was like an instant mood boost when the weather turned cool and I became active and lively again to explore whatever that was about to unfold in my lone journey.

As it was raining cats and dogs, I went into a Japanese Restaurant to try out their Japanese food/sushi. I had done a lot of comparison in this trip by trying lots of stuff that I frequently do in Malaysia but this time in a complete new place and setting. 

However, the food didnt turn out to be nicer or fresher as I had expected. I always thought that as Taiwan is so heavily influenced by Japan and located nearer to it, the Japanese food there would be a lot nicer than those in Malaysia. I was proofed wrong! The set of sushi cost me around 280NTD. With the same money, I could have satisfied my hanker for Japanese food by dining at Sushi Zanmai!

Thanks to the God of rain. 

While my friends were enjoying their time watching sun setting at TamSui （淡水), I tried to explore the vicinity of XiMenDing by myself. Grabbing a MRT system map in hand, I had gone to quite many places in Taipei, alone....To be frank, I was quite moody for that whole week. I was trying to adapt myself to the hot weather and when my friends started to bother me with this and that, I became so agitated. Not wanting to lost control of myself or being harsh to my friends, I chose to travel alone most of the time. Though I had missed out a few attractions that they went to, I had my freedom to try, see, visit and experience the local stuff that they never got to enjoy because of focusing so heavily to travel to every destinations that were recommended online.

This dessert was just so so.

I love Taiwan fruits, though. Most of the fruits there are sweeter than their counterparts in Malaysia. But I also realized that the fruit prices are a bit higher too. 

The famous "Ah Zhong Mian Xian" which was also SO-so only. May be i didn't like the ingredients ( pig liver  & etc). I would prefer it if it came with dried shredded squids and dried scallop... 

This is how the outlet/branch of Ah Zhong Mian Xian looks like in ShihLin Night Market. They only have stools for their diners.

If you ever want to try the Mian Xian, please do not come to this branch. Many people recommend the one in XiMenDing.

Very alkaline lemon juice! Always make me feel good after heavy meals, especially after I had eaten myriads of street food in the ShihLin Night Market. 

I was to meet my friends in the night market, but girls like to shop, so I went back to the hostel early to rest earlier and recharge for the coming days of trip.

#AnnoyingTravelBoy 5 - A Day in HouLi （后裏一日游）

 Sorry for lack of updates...I'm gonna try to blog my whole trip in Taiwan as best as I can =X



This specific day (I forget when was the exact date, let's call it as "today") started with a 3 hours English lesson with a Taiwanese teacher. I was very excited to be in the class as English is always my favourite subject and language. I feel that the Taiwanese teacher is so cute. It was fun listening to her American accent and I strongly felt that she resembled closely to Mrs Bree Vam De Camp from Desperate Housewives....LOL..She introduced us a few famous poems...

I wandered lonely as a cloud or also commonly known as 'Daffodils'
Before she started to explain this poem to us, i flipped through the notes and  I was instantly gripped by the familiarity of these beautiful words and sentences, which seemingly blossoming sprightly in front of my eyes, luring my mind into retrieving the memory of how I had first known this poem.

The reason I couldn't instantly recognize this poem was because I was fooled by the title itself. Previously when I was introduced to this poem, it was titled as Daffodils. It is so nostalgic as I still can remember the friend who read and explained this beautiful poem to me.

"N, remember those times when we used to chat a lot through Skype?? How's life in Melbourne?? I miss you so much!!"

After the interesting class (most of my friends thought it was boring and ironic to learn English from a Taiwanese, they couldnt wait to end the class immediately...=X), I joined my friends to go to HouLi.

We went there by train (like KTM in Malaysia), departing from TaiChung Train Station 臺中火車站. It was my first time to take train from here. This place is always bustling with the locals, travelers and also foreign workers!!

While waiting at the platform for the train to come.

太神奇了，怎麽platform華語會是‘月台’，’陽臺‘的反義詞嗎？？？

Picturesque scenery zooming past us. 

This is how the train looks like. My friends and I had our lunch here as we were eager to try the 'train lunchbox' 鐵路便當, as it is stated online as one of the must-do things when you visit Taiwan.

View from the exit of HouLi station. The sun was hung high, dissipating its harmful scorching UV mercilessly through the summer sky of Taiwan.when we reached the destination around 3pm. We came here to cycle around the countryside but I was quickly chickened out by the hot weather. 

Instead of cycling around the beautiful countryside, I went to 7-11 and had this cool refreshing plum juice......'What a waste to travel so far yet unwilling to walk under the sun to experience Taiwan!' This is how people will think if they travel, but honestly, I couldnt stand the heat at all..I felt like dying to go outside, let alone cycling under the hot sun!!!

But, i did go to explore the place a bit after the sun started to make its way down the horizon.

This cycling path is lined with greenery, and the buzzing sound of cicada.

This is the girl that had accompanied throughout my afternoon who was also unwilling to be exposed to the sun. We chatted a lot in the 7-11 about music and singers we listen to. It was fun for me to guess the English names of the English/American singers whom the Taiwanese always translate them into Chinese!

Sunset-ting.
HouLi is a very quaint place where you can find a lot of old-fashioned houses, which come in all sizes, heights and shapes, and line along the main road leading to the train station.

Chiwawa reared by the shop owner beside the bicycle rental shop.

Cute chiwawa rolling on the floor. 

Another picture before saying good bye to this place!

After that, I accompanied the girl to another Night Market again.....

沒錯的話，這裡應該是逢源.

The ubiquitous local food, minced pork rice.滷肉飯
It is so simple yet delicious. Always would go for this local food when I hankered  for simple lunches or dinners.

Found a triplet chopstick while we had our dinner...
I didnt think it was a lucky sign as later on I was pricked by the sawdust of the chopstick i used!

How another had ended....