Sunday, April 11, 2010
7:12 AM: Taipei Free&Easy Day 2
hey! it's me again crapping and spamming on what we have done during our trip. I must say, this trip has been pretty interesting. Without a guide to lead us around Taipei, we had all the freedom we wanted to explore and discover our side to Taiwan, and especially Taipei. Yet there're already some downsides to this, of which i'll leave it to you guys out there to determine for yourselves, heh.Went to Taipei's National Palace Museum, or 故宫, for those who know about it.
And omg was the place crowded! Well I suppose it's sunday today, so many people were free to visit the historical landmark. Many tour groups, such as those from china and japan, swarmed the admission area as well when we arrived.
The National Palace Museum, from my perspective, is a place which showcases many of the ancient artifacts that originated from mainland China, most of these were brought over to Taiwan in the past. (i'm not exactly sure when, so i shall leave it at that XD)Some of the more popular ones among visitors are the jade cabbage and the meat-like rock, both of which originated from stones that were rejected by most people due to their "low grades".
As a whole the exhibition proved to be a fruitful one, for I've learnt quite abit from observing the artifacts. However, all the looking and reading got us all tired and suffering from terrible headaches. oh well, i guess you can say that we're just being unappreciative towards the artifacts, even though i argue that it's just the volume of artifacts that were waiting for us to look at.
Oh ya! went out today with Aunt Violeta! We met her at our hotel lobby before beginning our tour for the day, and oh my did she change! (i'll post a photo of her soon, but not now! need to sleep!) From what i can remember, she was quite skinny as compared to her right now at the moment. i'll leave the comparisons to those who know her when they can.
anyway back to day 2. by the time we were done with the exhibitions, we immediately decided to go over to 士林夜市, since it was just a 10minutes' taxi ride from the museum. although it was lunchtime, we realised that there were still several food shops already ready for business, so we walked around searching for something good to eat. after a while we just decided to walk into one of the restaurants, and it turned out to be....Yoshinoya! Dad ordered the famous beef bowl, aunt violeta the teriyaki chicken one, while i ordered a pork bowl set. Yes you didn't see wrong or anything. Pork bowl. Wow. That was my reaction when i saw it, especially when it was on offer. Not sure if i took a pic of it, i'll check again. taste was a bit bland, but it was okay for me since i prefer blander food. beef bowl was actually better than that in singapore, more taste, less salty.
After which we decided to explore more of the night market. Walked around for about an hour plus, before dad complained having sore feet and wanted to find a cafe of some sort to rest his legs. Haha his usual self. So we went into Starbucks, had a coffee for each. There, as we sipped our coffee, we began to chat with aunt violeta, someone whom we haven't spoken to personally for a decade or so. We talked about many things, from life back in singapore to her life in taipei to even politics in malaysia(not sure why). By the time we left Starbucks, it was time for aunt violeta to return back to her employer's house. oh wells. at least we got to see her once more despite the many years when we could only contact each other once every few months. sometimes i wondered how long we would maintain contact with her. perhaps a few more months, a few more years, maybe a few more decades even. whatever the case, I probably would never forget her in this lifetime.
After she left, dad and I went on to explore the main part of the night market. At this time the sky began to turn dark and most of the stalls began to emerge. and so we walked around, searching for stuff to eat. In the end we decided to try some tat were common in most stalls. funny though, most stalls sold these and charged the same price. How would these stalls (or monopolistically competitive firms in econs terms, pardon me, trying to revise) survive? haha oh well lets move on.
here's two examples of food we tried there at 士林夜市, 蚝煎and生炒花枝. First one was not bad, a novel taste. btw the brown sauce's a type of peanut sauce, something that is unique only to taiwanese style 蚝煎. dad didn't really like it though, because it had too much of the "flour" in the dish. the squid was really not bad, with the flesh not being tough.
After having our dinner we walked awhile and shopped around the area of the night market. Finally found a belt I liked! Though it costs $300NT I went ahead with buying it, only to find it sold at another shop for a mere $190NT ): though in my mind i was like grah! but oh wells one can't always get what he wants can he? can't remember where I heard it, but there was a quote from a movie: if one could always do what he wished, he would be a god not a human. As a human one could only do what he could. I suppose it's true, after all life's full of surprises huh? sorry if i sound philosophical, but it's basically what i'm thinking about as i'm typing this post, or rather what I have been thinking about for a long long time, especially when things dun go along my way. Not sure if anyone knew about this. perhaps i have never told anyone about this. heh.
well by the time we wanted to return to our hotel, we were already exhausted both mentally and physically, had pretty sore feets, and ready to get a nice good sleep in our comfortable beds. And that's what i'm gonna do right after this lol. SEE YA!
Labels: food, realisations, reconciliation
Saturday, April 10, 2010
8:12 AM: Taipei, Taiwan (Free&Easy) Day 1
hi its my second post for this blog. nvr blogged before, so its kinda new for me (though blogs have lasted for eons already).Anyway, just began a Free & Easy trip to Taipei, Taiwan! To me such a trip has been a new experience, after all it is my first time being overseas without a tour guide.
Today, we excitedly arrived at the airport, ready to begin our journey to Taipei, only to find out when we were in the plane that our departure had to be delayed for a short while due to heavy air traffic. In my heart i was thinking wow even planes have traffic jams! lol...
When we finally reached Taipei, yet another unfortunate incident took place. Our limousine, something that we have been anticipating for a long time, did not arrive! Apparently the driver from the local agent wasn't present, making us wait close to an hour before we finally gave up waiting and just went on to book another car. -_-"
But the time spent afterwards was pretty impressive. We went to Ximending, a hip and modern place popular among many youngsters in Taiwan, especially Taipei. I must say, most of the people who went to shop and hang out were really teenagers, otherwise young adults, either having a date or just hanging out with their friends.
Anyway, Ximending's layout hasn't changed much, with all the shops and buildings still strewn all over the place and (illegal! all running away at "certain" times!) hawkers selling various foods like 臭豆腐 and 卤味. There are still changes in Ximending, mostly the types of food sold there. It seems that recently the trend of food in Taiwan has shifted away from the traditional forms of food towards others cultures like Japanese and Western. As such we could see many ramen shops and sushi shops and western food stores selling fried chicken and stuff, pretty much so. It can be said that globalisation has definitely taken place here in ximending.
After exploring for a while, we decided to try out this food court that we stumbled upon in the basement of a building which sold various types of food.(duh its a food court!) In the end we ordered a chicken thigh set and a black pepper steak set. Portion was great, and so was the taste, except for one part, how well-cooked the meat was. Afterwards we decided to explore the deeper parts of Ximending, from boutiques selling clothes to grand and magnificent salons which had chandeliers installed to more food shops to watching street performances before going back to our hotel.
Alright tat's all for now, got to go sleep and regenerate. Stay tuned!
PS: Pls pardon my language, I'm already tired when I'm back in my hotel doing up this post.
Friday, April 9, 2010
8:08 AM: Welcome to my blog!
Hi! This is a family travel blog where I share my experiences in different countries here ^^ Sit back and enjoy my memories together! ><Have fun in your everyday life!
