Day 06 - Hualien to Taipei

Good Morning to all my readers and it's Christmas today!!!!
Merry Christmas to everyone from Taiwan!!!!

last night we checked into Lakeshore hotel in Hualien and this morning we are heading off to Taipei city!!! This morning's breakfast was very sumptous too but after eating continential breakfast for 5 days straight, i can only stomach a cup of hot coffee and a bowl of plain porridge. hah!

This hotel has a sea theme to all its interiors. Above is the All Day Dining Restaurant where the pendant lampshades are made of fishes.

 here's a zoom in on the lampshade. Very cute right?

 For the hotel rooms, the room plate either has a fish or starfish or seashells.

 At the welcome lobby, there's a big seagull installation hanging from the ceiling.

today's first thing to do on the itinerary is to get from hualien to Su Ao Xing. So here are our tickets which our tour guide has handed over to us.

While waiting for the train to come, i took a picture of the stewpot at 7-eleven. This is the spicy fishball, tofu, glutinous rice on a stick, fishcake thingy which i always tabao for supper back to the hotel. Currently it's buy 4 get 1 free promo.

 If you like sweet potato cakes, 阿美麻薯 is the place to get them in Hualien. I've tried them and they taste quite nice but I'm just getting my hands on the pineapple tarts and ginger candy for my parents.

花莲 Hualien wasn't originally named as such but it was called 花脸. This part of taiwan was largely dominated by the aboriginals who, for the males who have beheaded someone(long time ago was the Japanese who overtook Taiwan) is recognised as a hero hence he will be gifted with a tattoo on this forehead. For the female who are married, their faces will be tattooed across from one cheek to the other. Hence the name of this area is called 花脸 because their faces are all 花花.

it was not until later when the Taiwan's government officer who came to visit this place and changed the name to  花莲 and banned the tattoo on the faces. Hence now in modern times, you can't differentiate between taiwanese and the aboriginals which i think it's a good thing too. At least there's no discrimination.

 our train is here!!!

playing candy crush. currently we are on level 751 and playing for the longest time and still cannot pass!!!

We have reached Su Ao Xin now. The reason why we are taking the train instead of the coach is because the roads back to Taipei city is quite treacherous and bendy. 2 coaches have dropped over the roads and into the cliffs and perished. Therefore we are taking the train back while our coach has left Hualien about 5am this morning and the driver is travelling back slowly.

anyway after we reached, our coach driver is already waiting there for us to pick up and continue the journey back to Taipei.

Reaching Shifen now. It's an old street where the railway train still passes by and on the tracks is where we are going to fly our lanterns today!! how exciting!!

The lanterns come in many colours and you can choose them. For one coloured (on 4 sides) lantern is $150NT, for 4 coloured lanterns is $200NT. We bought the 4 coloured number 1 lantern for good luck.

 people on the active railway track, flying their lanterns before the next train arrives. it's crazy man!!!

But i think it's also the thrill to make way for the train to come that makes this place a tourist spot.

after you have paid and chose your lantern, you will be given a rack and brush to write your wishes on by the side of the railway track.

 That's hubs paying the guy now while i'm snapping photos away. Yup he is the money guy.

 hubs drawing Jules face onto the lantern.

obviously hubs is having lots of fun here. Flying lantern is quite a fun activity for the whole family and children. Shifen old street also sell many souvenirs and snacks along the railway track if you are not into flying lanterns.

lanterns in the sky

my turn at the calligraphy brush

 and that's the train choo choo-ing away and everyone has to vacate the tracks!!!

Don't forget to give yourself a good clap after letting go of your lantern!

Long time ago, it's a way to send wishes to the gods via the flying lantern, so after the lantern is being let go, the villagers will set off fire crackers to make a loud sound to let the gods know. So nowadays, we can't set fire crackers off, so you have to shout "HUAT AH!!!" and clap real hard like fire crackers!!! hahaha...so funny.

 it's back to the coach now. we are moving onwards to Jiufen old street.

Jiufen old street is a very popular tourist spot and it's selling food products and local snacks. The Must try items are the beef noodles, yam ball dessert and the Fishball cum Braised pork rice.

 that's me jostling amongst the crowd.

That's our tour guide telling us which beef noodle stall to go too. it's not hard to find, cos it's actually the first stall once you enter the mouth of the Jiufen street and beside it is the famous Yam ball dessert!! So you can order your bowl of beef noodles and dessert together.

famous fish ball stall

ok. For the braised pork rice cum fishball soup (Jiang Ji Jiu Fen Chuan Tong Yu Wan) is further down the street. It's very very packed here because people are queuing to get in here. opposite this fishball stall is the store where I usually buy my almond milk powder. I bought my Jiang Mu Cha (ginger candy) too.

 Pricing are all written on the board mounted onto the wall of the stall.

We ordered a plate of chicken (highly recommended by our tour guide), mixed fishball soup and a small bowl of braised pork rice which hubs devoured very quickly. He likes this the most.

hubs chom chom item

interesting finds - charcoal chocolate

Tour guide says today is Pasar Malam day - after Shifen old street, we went Jiufen old street, now we are at Tamshui Old street. And later tonight, we will be visiting Shihlin Night market!

For Tamshui Old street, the famous thing is the Ah Po Tie Dan, I don't have the address, but if you ask the stalls there, they can easily give you the directions to the stall.

 we bought this fried corn before hopping back to our bus. It was salty on the outside and cruchy on the insides.

 Shilin Night Market.

So much has changed since the last time when we were here!!!

The Famous Shilin Market

 posting really large photos here for everyone to see and not squint their eyes...heehee

We tried the traditional pork soup - tour guide says that in Taiwan, the Rou Gu Cha is different taste for all 4 seasons to match the temperatures. So in summer, the soup is cooling for the body, while in winter, the soup herbs are changed to have the "heaty" elements.

The outdoor Hao Da Da Ji Pai is $5NT cheaper than the basement indoor stall. So if you want to save $5NT you have to queue, the basement one is literally don't have to queue at all.

7 years ago, i bought the bittergourd drink and now I'm drinking it again. I think it's lovely!!! but hubs says it's bitter.

 me and my bittergourd drink. try it if you dare!! I think it's very refreshing and not bitter at all!!!

we ate- stinky tofu, plate of vegetables and oyster omelette.

Back at the hotel. These are the little things which we have bought today. Boots and shoes for Jules, bag tags for Jules too since he is starting school in the next few days and there are so many kids with this owl looking bag. And 2 packets of Ah Po Tie Dan. It's $100NT per packet, big or small eggs also the same price. 7-eleven is selling theirs at $34NT and they taste not bad either.

And hubs bought these flying lantern with auspicious writings to give to his colleagues. I just bought one for my cousin.

More snacks tonight. 2nd last night in Taiwan. counting down already. Bought my currently favourite beer from 7-eleven, strawberries from MiaoKou Night Market. it was fate really. We wanted to walk around the hotel corner to search for a mini-mart and bumped into our tour leader at the hotel lobby who was going to take a cab to the Night market and offered to gave us a ride.

And we had nothing better to do, and it's Christmas night so we decided to go out and have some fun and sight see. Our hotel was in Keelung and the MiaoKou Night Market was dwindling with people, probably due to the drizzle. We bought takoyaki balls and the strawberries and called it a night.

Read from some blogs that the Tong Yi Milk Pudding was worth the try so I bought one small cup to try. I'm not into pudding so you can try if you want to.

nights!

xoxo
velle