Taipei Trip Day 3

I was woken up by a phone call at around 0230 hours. Minghao and gang were all like below my hotel (so qiao!) so they called me to come down. Ha, it is quite amazing man since I off my phone the whole day, but they called me when my phone is actually on. Well, I met up with them for a while (actually we stayed together until 4). Hmm, its like 1 whole month since I last met up with them so we had a good talk cock session together.

Ok, I got back into bed and again, I was woken up by a phone call from the hotel’s receptionist at 0715. They called to inform us that our tour bus is coming at 0815 to pick us up, and I was shocked to hear that, since I clearly remembered telling the agency that we wanted our tour on Day 4 and not Day 3.

Anyway, I had to spend quite a bit of time sorting out with all the travel agencies, confirming that I had indeed stated Day 4 for the tour right from the time of booking, etc. Essentially, it caused quite a lot of headache for me, and it wasn’t exactly a good start to a brand new day. Ok, it was pouring as well, so you can say that the day got off to a bad start.

We made our way to the National Palace Museum. Ok, I guess we were all impressed with the artifacts on display, but I’m not sure whether the others enjoyed it. Ha, I admit I wanted to go back there simply because I thought the last time I was there I failed to appreciate the amazing Chinese civilization, so I did make sure that this time I was back there, I really look carefully at the exhibits and pictured it in all its grandeur. I guess I will post pictures of some of the more beautiful exhibits soon.

After the museum tour, we went to 淡水. The place never changed much since I was there, and it is still full of youngsters and tourists. The淡水老街 was nice, and we had a interesting meal there, including eating the 阿给and the 鱼圆. Hmm, but I thought that I ate at a better stall the last time I was there, because this time round I didn’t really enjoyed the food.

Oh, we also went to 八里 which is just across the river. We had a great time eating plenty of fresh 孔雀蛤. It was really good and succulent, and I think we ate on average at least 15 mussels each. We also made our way to 渔人码头 to take a look at their Lover’s bridge, which was beautiful, although it was reminiscent of our SAFTI bridge. Hehe. But as 淡水faces the sea, it was freezing cold, and it doesn’t help when it was raining the whole day too. Well, after we were satisfied with the trip, we quickly made our way back to downtown Taipei.

On the way back, Jinmao met us. Yup, he just came back from Gaoxiong, and he even brought us the Taizhong original 太阳饼. We made our way to the Miramar Ferris wheel, and we had a good view of the night scenery of Taipei. On the whole, the ride wasn’t that bad. After which, we went to 士林夜市.

Oh, and I met up with Sheila too! Yup, it is like how rare it is for me to meet up with them after 4 years. What a waste that I never saw David, Hen Hao, Sandra and Julie. Its ok, I guess I can still meet up with them next year!

Anyway, we started on our crazy adventure in 士林. First, we ate the oyster mee sua. Hmm, their mee sua is different from ours as they actually used pork intestines to cook as well. I guess that’s because in Singapore, it is so much harder to find pork innards. It was not bad, and after walking around the food centre, we eventually walked to the original 豪大大鸡排 store to buy the 鸡排. It was simply marvelous! Let’s start from the appearance. It is about 1 and a half time the size of a human palm, and it comes whole so as to ensure that the juice does not escape. When you bite in, you can literally feel the chicken juice overflowing out. It is just amazingly tasty. A pity that they all never tried the spicy one, which I think is way more fragrant, and it literally gives you a top of the world feeling! Oh yes, I still remembered clearly the taste I experienced 4 years ago! Ha, and of course, after eating that, I totally have no incentive to eat Singapore’s士林鸡排.

Next we went to try their 药膳排骨. The taste is indeed different from Singapore’s. Its like, you don’t feel the herbal feeling overwhelming your taste buds, which can be the case sometimes in Singapore. Hmm, to be honest, I had no qualms on the taste of the soup, but I thought the 排骨 was a little bit too hard to my liking. If the meat was softer, it would be perfect.

After that, we walked around 士林 trying to find the comic shop that I went to the last time. Amazingly, 士林 like never changed much over 4 years. In fact, I will say most of the shops that were around last time were still there. Ha, well I bought some comics, but I decided against starting a new collection due to space constraints.

Oh, and then the highlight of the day (at least for me) is to eat the 雪片 or 牛奶冰. Waha, the 2 shops are still there, but if you ever happen to go 士林, go to 辛发亭 to eat. Instead, you should try the one opposite it. It is totally ultra fantastic! I have really no idea why no one has tried to bring it over to Singapore since Singapore is such a hot place. The smooth, silky milk ice literally just melts in your mouth. Ok, the fruit jam are just there to either give it a sweet/sour feeling, but you cannot deny the wonderful taste of the ice itself. It is like ice cream, but not too creamy! Oh, the peanut milk ice is a must try too! It really stretches your senses and imagination! To view photos of it, please visit http://www.wretch.cc/blog/lemonadellen&article_id=1172572.

Ok, after that, we slowly made our way back. Oh, I forgot to add that it has been raining for the whole day, but while we were at Miramar and 士林, the rain stopped. Hmm, we were really lucky!

Ooh, we got donuts from JinMao and Sheila. Hehe, apparently they were disgusted with us for eating cup noodles as supper, so they bought donuts for us. The donuts were indeed nice and special. Ha, we all knocked out super early as we were all totally tired after the past few days traveling.