Taipei Trip Day 4
Ok, day 4 is our 1-day tour organized by the travel agency. Well, I was looking forward to it as we are going to a hot spring! Yup, it’s my first time going to a hot spring, so I was really eager. Furthermore, that day was raining heavily again, so having a hot spring bath is the ideal thing to warm the body up.
Our first stop is Chiang Kai Shek (C.K.S.) Memorial hall. As it was raining super big, it was really difficult to take some lovely photos. Furthermore, it was a challenge walking to the main hall which is like so, so, so far away from the main road. Well, we still made our way there to take
pictures of Mr Chiang’s statue, and because of that, we really found out first hand for ourselves how big the place is. I finally understood why they used to have New Year Countdown held there. It is just plain huge…
Next we went to is Chiufen, an old mining town. I shan’t go into the history of the place as you can google for it yourself. As we were all tired from our previous 3 days, most of us dozed off on the bus ride to Chiufen, which is like 2 hours from the heart of Taipei.
Chiufen is really a small place, and it looks lovely. It is set far up on the hills, so its cooler, and the bus ride up was like something from Initial D. Hmm, the only bad thing about the place is that it is built specially for tourists. To me, I found the place a bit fake – I couldn’t feel any Taiwanese homeliness. It seemed to me to be so artificial. But nevertheless, the place does display an old town feeling, one which people seemed to have abandoned.
We made our way back to downtown Taipei. Now, I got pissed off on the way because the driver was saying that he will bring us to the National Palace Museum, which when I double checked with the itinery I brought along, was not supposed to be so! Ok, they did write something about an Arts Exhibition Centre, but how can that be the same as the National Palace Museum? And going back to Taipei meant that we are not going to Yehliu, which was written in the itinery! Ok, I admit, under the heavy rain, I wouldn’t want to go Yehliu too since I will most probably freeze to death. Ha, but still, why the change in itinery without informing us? If they had stated earlier, I wouldn’t have gone to the museum the day before.
The next stop was Martyr’s Shrine to view the change of guards’ ceremony. It was indeed impressive, as the guards performed their drills with precision and perfect synchronization. A pity that it was raining, cause we heard that on clear weather days, there is actually an elaborate ceremony involving a squadron of guards. Looks like the rain did spoil part of my visit. 
Oh, then we got brought to this commercial place called Princess Mao’s Local Aboriginal Products I think. Oh well, it was essentially a place aim at pitching sales to tourists. Ok, it did introduce some interesting new things to us (like a deer fetus!), but on the whole, I will say that it was reminiscent of MLM marketing.
Lunch was at this shop called 周胖子饺子馆. We ate beef noodles and 饺子, and I thought that the beef noodles were not very special. Its like the soup is blander than the Lai Lai Beef Noodles in Singapore, but I admit the beef was tender. But the饺子 was BIG and nice too. You could feel the freshness of the filling, and the soup it came in was nice as well.
After lunch, we went to the National Palace Museum. Thank god we don’t have to pay for the admission again. Anyway, since we had toured the main hall the day before, we went over to the side gallery which happened to have an exhibition on ancient Chinese drawings as well as religion in ancient China. The paintings which we viewed were indeed beautiful, and it is indeed amazing when you realized that some of them are actually 1000 years old, and yet they are still in good conditions. The Buddhist sculptures were grand as well, and some of them have intricate designs. It is indeed amazing to see that Buddhism also largely influenced ancient Japan and Korea.
Up next was the 2nd commercial sales place called 天禧. Essentially, it was a shop introducing and selling 辟貅 (a Chinese mythical beast said to bring in wealth and luck). I must admit that they do have some really HUGE 辟貅 sculptures fronting their shop, but whether it is indeed jade I can’t tell.
Anyway, the person gave us a brief introduction on Bazi (for those who have an interest in this field, it is essentially the 4 Pillars Calculation). Then she also talked a bit on the study of names (hmm, that is interesting too, shall google to find out more). At the end of it, she asked for our birth dates and helped us all to see what element is like missing in our life. Hmm, you can say that I was skeptical about her reading for me, cause its not particularly accurate, and a little bit generic too. Ahha. Next they tried selling some ‘jade’ amulet to each of us (it costs like $150) saying about how useful it will be, but of course we refused.
Ok, fine, I admit I was being stupid. I actually bought a ‘jade’ pendent from them. ARGH! That’s like one of the biggest mistakes I made so far I think. Its like when I reached home, my parents told me that it is rare to find real jade in Taiwan (which makes a lot of sense), and the piece which I bought was actually carved, which is even more illogical since real jade is actually super hard and you don’t expect them to put in so much effort for something small and sell it to you at such a low price also. So I admit I was conned. ARGH! So see, next time when you are traveling and they attempt to sell something that you like/want, please call back and check with some experts or someone more senior than you to seek their opinions on whether it is worth it.
Now, here comes the part, which literally made the trip a total screwed up one.
As we were leaving the place, the driver suggested visiting some teashop since Jiahao wanted to buy tea. Furthermore, he claimed that it was too early to go to the hot spring and that we actually have plenty of time. Now, I looked at the clock and it says 1700 hours. Based on my knowledge of Yangmingshan, you usually need an hour to an hour and a half to reach there from downtown Taipei. And yet, here he was claiming that it was too early to go to the hot spring! So, we naturally rejected his offer and told him that we prefer to go to the hot spring.
Then, as we were exiting the car park (it was underground so we had to overcome a slope), the minibus miraculously slid down, just like what you expect when there’s a dead engine. Initially, I dismissed it as a case of poor driver’s technique. Then it happened again. Finally, only on our 3rd try then we actually finally made it to the main road. Hmm, we did get suspicious, and then we smelled a burnt smell. One of the other passengers (also a Singaporean) suggested to the driver that the clutch rubber was burning (I don’t know what’s causing it), and for some weird reason, the driver got off to check his engine. Now, as if the clutch has anything to do with the engine…
Next, he climbed back into the vehicle and told us that he might need to switch vehicles since the Gear 1 and 2 of the minibus wasn’t working, so he had zero confidence of us reaching Yangmingshan with a vehicle like that. So, he called his boss to explain the scenario. To us, this was a major waste of time so we decided to cancel the trip to the hot spring and instead go to士林, which the driver happily obliged.
When we reached士林, we had a mini discussion of the situation. Well, we all agreed that there is a high chance that the driver could have faked the whole situation – apparently he wound down part of the front window right from the start even though it was drizzling. So could he have purposely caused the burning smell and hence allow it to enter the vehicle? I mean, the driver could have easily manipulated the part about the clutch having problems, as none of us would have known how he placed his foot. On the whole, we were quite skeptical of the whole incident.
Well, nevertheless, we decided not to let the incident spoil our mood. So, we carried on with our food tour of士林. We had Taiwan sausage (it wasn’t exactly that special from Singapore’s), their Teppanki (hmmm, the taste is different from Singapore’s one possibly due to the difference in sauces, as well as the freshness of the seafood), 豪大大鸡排, 上海生煎包 (the ingredients are really simple, just the normal meat dumpling and flour, but they combined to produce a wonderful fragrant taste) and 辛发亭雪片. Yes, we had a really good dinner. At the end of it all, it was raining, so we didn’t really shop much (but I bought my Keroro!), so we made our way back to the hotel.
Oh, since it was our last night, we decided to go to this nearby café to chill out. The place was nice and cosy, and they even provide poker cards for us to play. The drinks were disappointing though (we ordered cocktails but it ended up tasting more like gassy drinks then alcoholic concotions), but the 太阳饼 that Jinmao gave was brillant. They were so lovely that we decided that we must buy back some 太阳饼.
Ok, we chilled out until 12 before heading back to the hotel. Ha, I think we all collapsed by 0130 (well, we were half entertained by the lame old movies played by their TV station).
Our first stop is Chiang Kai Shek (C.K.S.) Memorial hall. As it was raining super big, it was really difficult to take some lovely photos. Furthermore, it was a challenge walking to the main hall which is like so, so, so far away from the main road. Well, we still made our way there to take
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pictures of Mr Chiang’s statue, and because of that, we really found out first hand for ourselves how big the place is. I finally understood why they used to have New Year Countdown held there. It is just plain huge…
Next we went to is Chiufen, an old mining town. I shan’t go into the history of the place as you can google for it yourself. As we were all tired from our previous 3 days, most of us dozed off on the bus ride to Chiufen, which is like 2 hours from the heart of Taipei.Chiufen is really a small place, and it looks lovely. It is set far up on the hills, so its cooler, and the bus ride up was like something from Initial D. Hmm, the only bad thing about the place is that it is built specially for tourists. To me, I found the place a bit fake – I couldn’t feel any Taiwanese homeliness. It seemed to me to be so artificial. But nevertheless, the place does display an old town feeling, one which people seemed to have abandoned.
We made our way back to downtown Taipei. Now, I got pissed off on the way because the driver was saying that he will bring us to the National Palace Museum, which when I double checked with the itinery I brought along, was not supposed to be so! Ok, they did write something about an Arts Exhibition Centre, but how can that be the same as the National Palace Museum? And going back to Taipei meant that we are not going to Yehliu, which was written in the itinery! Ok, I admit, under the heavy rain, I wouldn’t want to go Yehliu too since I will most probably freeze to death. Ha, but still, why the change in itinery without informing us? If they had stated earlier, I wouldn’t have gone to the museum the day before.
The next stop was Martyr’s Shrine to view the change of guards’ ceremony. It was indeed impressive, as the guards performed their drills with precision and perfect synchronization. A pity that it was raining, cause we heard that on clear weather days, there is actually an elaborate ceremony involving a squadron of guards. Looks like the rain did spoil part of my visit. 
Oh, then we got brought to this commercial place called Princess Mao’s Local Aboriginal Products I think. Oh well, it was essentially a place aim at pitching sales to tourists. Ok, it did introduce some interesting new things to us (like a deer fetus!), but on the whole, I will say that it was reminiscent of MLM marketing.
Lunch was at this shop called 周胖子饺子馆. We ate beef noodles and 饺子, and I thought that the beef noodles were not very special. Its like the soup is blander than the Lai Lai Beef Noodles in Singapore, but I admit the beef was tender. But the饺子 was BIG and nice too. You could feel the freshness of the filling, and the soup it came in was nice as well.
After lunch, we went to the National Palace Museum. Thank god we don’t have to pay for the admission again. Anyway, since we had toured the main hall the day before, we went over to the side gallery which happened to have an exhibition on ancient Chinese drawings as well as religion in ancient China. The paintings which we viewed were indeed beautiful, and it is indeed amazing when you realized that some of them are actually 1000 years old, and yet they are still in good conditions. The Buddhist sculptures were grand as well, and some of them have intricate designs. It is indeed amazing to see that Buddhism also largely influenced ancient Japan and Korea.
Up next was the 2nd commercial sales place called 天禧. Essentially, it was a shop introducing and selling 辟貅 (a Chinese mythical beast said to bring in wealth and luck). I must admit that they do have some really HUGE 辟貅 sculptures fronting their shop, but whether it is indeed jade I can’t tell.
Anyway, the person gave us a brief introduction on Bazi (for those who have an interest in this field, it is essentially the 4 Pillars Calculation). Then she also talked a bit on the study of names (hmm, that is interesting too, shall google to find out more). At the end of it, she asked for our birth dates and helped us all to see what element is like missing in our life. Hmm, you can say that I was skeptical about her reading for me, cause its not particularly accurate, and a little bit generic too. Ahha. Next they tried selling some ‘jade’ amulet to each of us (it costs like $150) saying about how useful it will be, but of course we refused.
Ok, fine, I admit I was being stupid. I actually bought a ‘jade’ pendent from them. ARGH! That’s like one of the biggest mistakes I made so far I think. Its like when I reached home, my parents told me that it is rare to find real jade in Taiwan (which makes a lot of sense), and the piece which I bought was actually carved, which is even more illogical since real jade is actually super hard and you don’t expect them to put in so much effort for something small and sell it to you at such a low price also. So I admit I was conned. ARGH! So see, next time when you are traveling and they attempt to sell something that you like/want, please call back and check with some experts or someone more senior than you to seek their opinions on whether it is worth it.
Now, here comes the part, which literally made the trip a total screwed up one.
As we were leaving the place, the driver suggested visiting some teashop since Jiahao wanted to buy tea. Furthermore, he claimed that it was too early to go to the hot spring and that we actually have plenty of time. Now, I looked at the clock and it says 1700 hours. Based on my knowledge of Yangmingshan, you usually need an hour to an hour and a half to reach there from downtown Taipei. And yet, here he was claiming that it was too early to go to the hot spring! So, we naturally rejected his offer and told him that we prefer to go to the hot spring.
Then, as we were exiting the car park (it was underground so we had to overcome a slope), the minibus miraculously slid down, just like what you expect when there’s a dead engine. Initially, I dismissed it as a case of poor driver’s technique. Then it happened again. Finally, only on our 3rd try then we actually finally made it to the main road. Hmm, we did get suspicious, and then we smelled a burnt smell. One of the other passengers (also a Singaporean) suggested to the driver that the clutch rubber was burning (I don’t know what’s causing it), and for some weird reason, the driver got off to check his engine. Now, as if the clutch has anything to do with the engine…
Next, he climbed back into the vehicle and told us that he might need to switch vehicles since the Gear 1 and 2 of the minibus wasn’t working, so he had zero confidence of us reaching Yangmingshan with a vehicle like that. So, he called his boss to explain the scenario. To us, this was a major waste of time so we decided to cancel the trip to the hot spring and instead go to士林, which the driver happily obliged.
When we reached士林, we had a mini discussion of the situation. Well, we all agreed that there is a high chance that the driver could have faked the whole situation – apparently he wound down part of the front window right from the start even though it was drizzling. So could he have purposely caused the burning smell and hence allow it to enter the vehicle? I mean, the driver could have easily manipulated the part about the clutch having problems, as none of us would have known how he placed his foot. On the whole, we were quite skeptical of the whole incident.
Well, nevertheless, we decided not to let the incident spoil our mood. So, we carried on with our food tour of士林. We had Taiwan sausage (it wasn’t exactly that special from Singapore’s), their Teppanki (hmmm, the taste is different from Singapore’s one possibly due to the difference in sauces, as well as the freshness of the seafood), 豪大大鸡排, 上海生煎包 (the ingredients are really simple, just the normal meat dumpling and flour, but they combined to produce a wonderful fragrant taste) and 辛发亭雪片. Yes, we had a really good dinner. At the end of it all, it was raining, so we didn’t really shop much (but I bought my Keroro!), so we made our way back to the hotel.Oh, since it was our last night, we decided to go to this nearby café to chill out. The place was nice and cosy, and they even provide poker cards for us to play. The drinks were disappointing though (we ordered cocktails but it ended up tasting more like gassy drinks then alcoholic concotions), but the 太阳饼 that Jinmao gave was brillant. They were so lovely that we decided that we must buy back some 太阳饼.
Ok, we chilled out until 12 before heading back to the hotel. Ha, I think we all collapsed by 0130 (well, we were half entertained by the lame old movies played by their TV station).
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