23rd November 2014
Me and CY planned to meet with our friends at one of the MRT stations. We wanted to have the famous Fu Hang Soy Milk 阜杭豆漿. We thought we were early, but instead we were actually later than our friends, we met them right out of the exit of the MRT Station. The queue for this Fu Hang Soy Milk was so long, it formed a L shaped queue on the pavement and a further line along the stairs to the shop. I even had some time to left the queue for a while to buy two pants from a clothes stall next to the queue. Well, that's the benefit of queuing with friends.
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| queue for the Fu Hang Soy Milk |
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| The counter of Fu Hang Soy Milk |
I think I spent around 5 minutes to buy the pants, then around half an hour more before we finally reached the door to the shop. Hahaha, I should have gotten something to eat before I came here, I was so hungry. Luckily, a souvenir shop staffs were distributing biscuits to the people queuing outside. We went to the souvenir shop after that and bought so many biscuits that we were entitled free delivery to our accommodations. This place was like food court, just the Fu Hang Soy Milk occupied the biggest space.
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| Inside of the Fu Hang Soy Milk |
We ordered soy milk, rice milk, the famous Fu Hang Soy Milk and other side dishes. Well, to me, their signature dishes tasted like chawanmushi. I like chawanmushi, hence I like this too.
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| Fu Hang Soy Milk |
After the breakfast, we went to the Lungshan Temple. It's a temple with many devotees, not sure how many was like me, a tourist. There's even a praying procedure chart. Well, I think I prayed at the wrong sequence. Well, I tried to lit a lamp (literal translate of 点灯) for health, and the PIC of the activity said that all sold out already. She even told me to call first to confirm, hahaha, I told her I am not from "Taipei".
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| Lungshan Temple |
In the temple, there's an activity by some artists, one just wrote a word on a piece of paper and they would write or draw something on the paper. Funny, initially I wanted to write the third character of my name on the paper, but somehow I forgot how to write it, so I wrote the second character of my name. Weird!
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| activity in Lungshan Temple |
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| Lungshan Temple |
Except me, all my friends went for the fortune teller. Well, it's not that I didn't trust it, just I was afraid of it.
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| Lungshan Temple |
Anyway, after praying, we walked to a dingy alley to buy a famous pepper biscuit 胡椒饼. Well, my friends had the habit of deciding where to visit after deciding what to eat. They read the travel guide religiously and mapped out the eating trail before the attractions map. Interesting! Well, although the alley was dark, there was a crowd there waiting for the biscuit to come out. It was tasty, but beware, although it didn't look and fell hot, there's fatty meat inside that can store heat very well, so it's piping hot. My tongue was a little bit burned by the hotness.
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| Pepper Biscuit - it was baked inside the wooden barrel |
Then, we walked to another shop to eat porridges. It's more difficult to find. We made a few wrong turns before we finally found the shop. Apparently it's a very famous restaurant. Although the space was not small, we couldn't find a single empty table. So, we shared a table with an elderly couple. It's very competitive, once you find a space, don't think, just sit there. LOL! The elderly couple were very friendly, they even suggested the famous dishes to us, so we ordered according to the suggestions.
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| side dishes for the rice porridges |
Well, the dishes were not something that I will eat normally. So, I had a difficulties to eat all this. However, my friends had no problem finishing this up. Good for them. But I really like the porridge, really good.
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| porridge |
After lunch, we took MRT to go to Tamsui. It was a long ride. Tamsui have an old town. However, I didn't think there is anything special there. Many people were visiting there though. Almost all the souvenir shops were packed to the brim. We walked until the riverside and rested there. Truth is I was so tired with all the walking that few days. Really appreciated the short rest. On the riverside, there's a field, people were jogging, flying a kite. It was calm and very hot.
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| Tamsui |
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| Tamsui Riverside |
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| Tamsui Riverside |
Well, until now I am not sure why we went there in the first place. We just walked passed all the souvenir shops, then stayed at the riverside until sunset. In my opinion, the sunset was ok, but not so spectacular.
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| Tamsui Sunset |
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| Tamsui: after sunset |
Well, I didn't do research first. CY told me actually the main attraction in Tamsui was the Fisherman's Wharf. When we finally saw the sunset and began to walk back to the station, we passed by a long queue, they were all waiting for the entrance to the wharf. It's a little loss for not visiting the wharf, but it's just the compromise when travelling in group.
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| Tamsui: people were queuing up for Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf |
One of things I noticed here was that there were many couples here sitting on the pavement facing the river. Apparently, it's a very famous dating spot.
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| Tamsui Riverside is a famous place for dating |
After Tamsui, we took MRT again to Shilin Station. Our goal was Shilin Night Market. This Shilin Night Market was one of the most commonly featured dating spots in romance novels. Hahaha! However, I think that it's not really a good place for romance, it was crowded, hot, sweaty. But, it's a good place to hunt for food. We had coffin bread, braised meat rice, turkey rice and fried oyster with egg.
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| coffin bread 棺材板 |
Before I came to Taiwan, one of the food I really looking forward to was fried oyster 蚵仔煎. Anyway, it's not bad, just not as good as Malaysian version. Malaysian version is fried oyster omelette style with more egg flavour, but the Taiwanese version put more starch on it. It's just some personal preferences.
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| Iconic food in Taiwan: upper left (braised meat rice), upper right (fried oyster with egg) |
Shilin Night Market had so many things. It was less crowded than the Raohe Night Market though, so it's more comfortable to shop here. One thing I noticed was that the shoes were slightly more expensive in Shilin (Taipei generally) than the southern area (Jia Yi and Taichung). I bought some cute face masks, not the one used in beauty facial mask, but the one used to stave of dust. I gave the face mask as souvenir to my colleagues, the single males and females just stored it in the drawer, and the married ones, father and mother brought them home to let their kids play with it.
Well, sometimes, I wondered whether it's necessary or not to buy souvenirs. Most of the time, we just stored it somewhere until we forgot about it. That's why I like food, however, during that time, Taiwan was having a huge food scandal, so I opted for face masks. Personally, I think the best souvenir I received was a nail clipper. I kept it in office and if I had chipped nail, I just clipped it off. Hahaha!
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