Depart HK at 11.30 and got to Taipei at 1.30. The flight was about one hour and twenty minutes. The tour consisted of approximately 30 people and we took up 14 of the 30 people. The first stop was to "9 fun" - about one and a half hours drive by coach. It consists of a market laneway, with lots of little food and snacks shops. They also had little gift shops. We had afternoon there where we ordered some cuttlefish balls, fook kin fish balls dry mix noodles, tofu with preserved egg with a special sweet sauce. There we bought back some peanuts & wasabi peanuts.
Then we went to dinner and had a traditional taiwanese dinner. It seemed abit plain because it was just veges, fish, tofu - but their deep fried tofu was very yummy with sweet sauce to dip. Crunchy on the outside and mega soft and smooth on the inside.
After dinner, we went to 101 shopping centre. This is a tall building in Taiwan - where they set off the fireworks on New Years. We went to the supermarket on the lowest level to buy taiwanese fruit. Apparently, taiwanese people are smart growers and they mix their fruits. Eg. Apple banana, strawberry orange. I tried to apple banana, it was very different. Pink on the inside - nice~
Saturday 26th January - cold, cloudy & raining
Morning call was at 7am. We went to Taiwan Memorial Hall to look at old statues and famous chinese ancestors. We were then taken to our usual pearl selling places. You can imagine the ones that the tour guides HAVE to take you to, and whatever you buy, they receive some sort of commission. They were telling us how eating pearl powder will make your skin better, cure diseases, get rid of acne, make your bones stronger, make your eyes look more radiant..the list goes on. After sitting there for 2 hours listening to the power of this powder, we finally got to go to lunch. We went to Miramar shopping centre where there was a huge ferris wheel. All the kids went on it and it was fun.
We had lunch there too - I had a tomato noodle with chicken & egg on a hot plate and mum ordered xiao long bao. Yummm!
After that, we went to a spa spring resort at Burgary Hotel. It was so nice. The water coming down strongly with pressure felt so good on the shoulders. We went to the outdoor hot spring which was 40 degrees!!
After being there for 2 hours, we got dropped off at "Sai moon ding" where it's like a shopping market and food stalls. We didn't go home with the tour guide and made our way eating through the streets and shopped till 11pm.
Sunday 28th January - cold, cloudy & raining
Wake up call at 7am again. This morning we struggled because it was super COLD!! Breakfast was crappy at the hotel. All they gave us was congee and fried noodles and toast with jam. It was all you can eat, but how much of that can you eat?
We went to the National Palace Museu. It is famous for its finest collection of Chinese art and culture in the world. They old over 650,000 pieces.
Our next stop was a famous tea hotel, where we tried some really nice green and oolong tea. After spending some time there and washing our hands with oolong tea leaves (believe it or not, it made my hand super ULTRA soft!! hehe), we got dropped off at "Si Lum" night market where we had lots of yummy goods. I had a deep fried chicken with cheese and bacon inside, mum had a kebab stick full of chicken bums. It was GROSSS!!
Monday 29th January - cold, cloudy & raining
Today was our "free" day. We woke up around 10am, checked out at 12pm. We went to the famous "Din Tai Fung" - for it's famous xiao long bau, vege bau, meat bau, dry mix & soupy noodles, sticky rice - sweet and salty, fried rice with deep fried pork and yummy dumplings. It was the best meal!!
