Bright and early, we ate our first breakfast in Taiwan. The resort prepared a good breakfast buffet spread for us, with Western and Asian choices.
>> Our first breakfast...
After breakfast, we took the opportunity to get a picture with our hotel and our tour bus, before returning to our rooms to prepare to check out.
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>> Hot toes and bums...
We boarded the bus for Chuifen 九份 , a former gold mining town located on the northeast coast of Taiwan.
>> Wheels on the bus goes round and round...
Our tour bus could only take us up to the mountain so far, so we had to board a public bus to take us up this steep and winding road, till we finally reached the town of Chuifen.
>> My first Taiwan public bus experience
I love Chuifen and its little winding streets that seemed to go on forever. With food and snack shops located on both sides, walking through Chuifen’s street was an experience that was fun and interesting!
Our first stop was a local snacks shop, where we shopped for endless snacks to bring back to our friends and family in Singapore.
>> Shopaholic strikes!
After that, we broke off from the group in exploration. Our first stop – FISHBALLS! We were told that the fishballs at Chuifen is YUM, so we had to try a bowl of fishball soup and their dry noodles.
>> YUMMMM!
We also spotted malt candy lollipops for NT$20. YUM. Greedy me grabbed a “Xiao Ding Dang” shaped lollipop!
>> Lollipop lollipop oh lolly lolly lolly…
Next, another shop caught our attention. They were selling ice cream topped with peanuts wrapped in popiah skin! It was amazing! We loved it, especially on a hot day walking along the crowded streets of Chuifen, an ice cream was most welcomed.
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>> Noble award to the person who came up with popiah + ice cream!
Along the way, we saw people eating these interesting spiral thingys on a stick, which looked so amazingly delicious, I was determined to find it! We finally did and I bought 1 stick. It was basically a potato sliced in a continuous spiral, deep fried like potato chips, and flavoured with spices of curry, garlic, chicken, chives. IT WAS SOOOOO GOOOD!
>> EK wanted seconds…
We grew thirsty and bought ourselves fresh watermelon juice! Their juices are just so amazing! Juicy and delicious, just like eating the fruit itself! I’ve never tasted anything like that before!
We approached a nice opening and took in the scenery that was around us. We were so high up on a mountain, you’d never imagine a street like this exists in such a place!
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>> Smile for the camera...
Turning around and about to leave the designated look-out, we spotted yummy fried quail eggs on a stick! Being greedy and in need of a cholesterol boost, we bought a stick to share, and balanced the guilt by buying a box of sweet pink guava from the shop beside it!
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>> Cholesterol, bring it on!
Time was running out so we didn’t explore any further, but the street further down looked a little too quiet, so we decided we wouldn’t miss much and turned back. We wanted to take another route back, but the street looked uninteresting to us, basically not much shops, so we decided to go back the same way we came.
>> The street we skipped
Along the way, we met this cute old man (I think he was Japanese). He noticed EK’s big camera, and he seemed like another camera fanatic. With minimum English, he asked us if he could take a photo of us, with his camera, and we agreed. EK then asked if we could take a photo of him with his camera, and he went along as well. I was informed later on that his camera was Leica…apparently another very expensive SLR on the market.
>> I think he should be quite handsome when he's younger...
On our way back, we bought cuttlefish, deep fried mushrooms and another bowl of fishball soup at another seemingly popular shop with pictures of famous Taiwan celebrities visiting this store. However, I felt the fishballs were not as nice as the one we had earlier.
>>Shrooms and balls!
We met up with the already waiting group and when the remaining 4 arrived, we left Chuifen for Ilan 宜蘭.
Heading towards Ilan, we went through Hsueshan Tunnel 雪山隧道.
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>> The longest tunnel in Taiwan
At Ilan, we visited the National Centre for Traditional Arts 国立传统艺术中心. As it was a Sunday and school holidays were around the corner, there were many families (dogs included – Taiwanese are such dog lovers). We watched a wedding performance (the cast were dressed in animal outfits), but soon grew bored and decided to explore the shops.
The shops were interesting, all the stuff were hand crafted, from amazing leather formed animals to handmade Chinese calligraphy brushes. There were also experts on set, demonstrating the crafting of these products. There were also hands on projects, where families could do their own artwork, such as mosaic photo frames, or engraving on leather.
>> The National Centre for Traditional Arts in summary
We left at around 3+pm to the train station to catch a scenic train-ride to Hualien 花蓮. We had to give the bus driver a headstart as he was ferrying our luggages to our next destination, while we took the faster mode of transport – a train.
>> At the station
Given about 45 minutes waiting time before our train departed, we explored the town of Ilan. They didn’t have many shops to browse (a scooter rental shop, mini-marts, Taiwan tourist snacks and souvenir shops, lingerie shop, McDonalds), but EK had a very yummy bubble milk tea at a franchise store by the name Ching Shin Fu Chuan Tea Station 清心福全冷饮站. He said the texture was so much smoother than Singapore’s milk tea as they blended it very well. Also, it was more milky. YUCK!
>> Bubble
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>> Tea
The train ride to Hualien was nice. The sea was on my left, and the sun was setting. We were sitting in a different cabin from the rest of the group. SNAP SNAP SNAP went EK’s camera as we documented our first train ride in Taiwan.
>> Before Boarding...snap snap snap
>> On board...snap snap snap
We arrived in Hualien to find our bus waiting for us at around 6+pm in the evening. It was completely dark! The sun in Taiwan sets really early! We headed back to the hotel for dinner catered by Chan Brothers and we discovered all about tour food and Taiwanese culture.
They love bringing all the plates of food at once, even if the table is full, they will find a place to put the plate (i.e. stack on top), which we found disgusting. The first plate was egg omelet. Goodness, we didn’t come all this way to have an omelet! The food wasn’t great at all. Also, by looks of the hotel restaurant, we were skeptical about the room’s condition.
However, we were pleasantly surprised that the rooms were nice and clean, better than what we had expected. We didn’t stay in the room long as the night was young. With the advice of the concierge, we grabbed a cab and headed into town. The cab driver was very friendly, eager to introduce us to Hualien.
>> Our first sights of Hualien
After alighting, we walked around the lighted streets of shops and food. We browsed through clothes shops. I saw this cool clothes shop called Knight’s Bridge. It’s a Taiwan brand, but the clothes had a very British prep-school style, loads of plaits, and the logo, similar to a school crest was found on most outfits. Though I loved the clothes, but I didn’t think I would wear them and they weren’t cheap!
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>> Shopaholic at work
We also shopped at other stores, where I bought a demin vest and a black mini skirt dungaree.
EK also bought bubble tea again, making friends with the store person after chatting about his camera.
>> Our friend behind the counter
>> Evidence of my work
We continued to walk around, and found the ice shavings shop that the cab driver told us about, but we didn’t feel like queuing so we gave it a miss. We hunted for the xiao long pau shop but couldn’t find it and miraculously found ourselves back at the bubble tea shop. We asked for directions and proceeded to hunt down the xiao long pau store. After asking a couple more people along the way, we spotted the queue. We jumped into the queue and lined up obediently.
>> What Singaporeans do best...queuing
Little did we know that if we were eating there, we didn’t need to queue!!! BAH. After queuing for 10 minutes, we finally had the sense to ask! We bought 10 xiao long paus for only NT$5 each and 1 basket of zhen jiaos (which they said was nice too).
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>> CHEAP!!
The xiao long paus were not what we expected, different from Singapore’s and not that soupy, but it was yum nevertheless. The zhen jiaos were also different! Pau like and huge, but tasty. We struggled to finish it, but of course we did. It was good.
>> Greedy Gluttons!
After a filling supper, the shops were closing (11pm) and we rushed to browse those that were still open. I only ended up buying a belt, but that was good for me. We also heard about another night market in Hualien, which mainly sold food, so on our way back to our hotel, we told the cab driver to take a detour to that night market to take a look at the scene. But we were so full, we decided not to alight and headed back to the hotel for our much needed sleep.
From the anime (left to right): Akira Mimasaka, Rui Hanazawa, Tsukasa Doumyouji, Soujirou Nishikado
From Taiwan (left to right): Soujirou Nishikado, Tsukasa Doumyouji, Akira Mimasaka, Rui Hanazawa
From Japan (left to right): Soujirou Nishikado, Rui Hanazawa, Tsukasa Doumyouji, Akira Mimasaka
From Korea (left to right): Soujirou Nishikado, Akira Mimasaka, Tsukasa Doumyouji, Rui Hanazawa
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