Day 2: Temples, Lim's Garden, High Speed Rail, Dan Shui

We had our breakfast at the hotel every morning. The breakfast consisted of western and chinese-style dishes.

Western dishes included bread, sandwiches, ham and butter. Chinese dishes were some humble home-cooked dishes to go with porridge.

The small and cosy cafeteria

Chinese dishes

Coffee maker, with the porridge cauldron at the other end

Tian Hou Temple

Taipei has many temples. This temple is a stone's throw away from our hotel, so naturally, it was the first temple my mother offered joss sticks at.

Long Shan Temple

Subsequently, we went to the famous Long Shan Temple. It was very big and there were many believers offering prayers, incense and joss sticks there. A beautiful building too!

Lim's Garden

Given a choice, I wouldn't take my family there. We needed to wait for our sister before we explored more interesting places so I thought we could visit this place to look at the architecture built during the Qing Dynasty as well as to while our time away. After that, we could hop on the high speed rail just for the experience. However, we spent too much time there, the whole afternoon actually. It's basically a very big garden with different buildings such as the study and pavilions.

High Speed Rail

We took the high speed rail at Ban Qiao station on our return. A short trip nonetheless just to experience the train. The other stations were too far away ie. in eastern or southern part of Taiwan and we had nothing to do at those parts of Taiwan.

Dan Shui

Just before the sun set

The Wharf

Night scene on the waters

Lovers' bridge

The mango ice shaving that the whole world loves

We were kinda disappointed by the Ah Gei Fishballs. They were basically fishballs, just bigger, and with meat inside. Not much different from our Fu Zhou fishballs.

The ferry that took us to and from Dan Shui Wharf

I was amazed and amused by the boss of this stall. Behind the make-shift stall is the actual shop that prepares the assortment of fishballs on a stick. The boss was reciting his lines like his messages were pre-recorded,"We are shui dan qing nong (loosely meaning 'our water is tasteless
but our sentiments are strong'). Come and taste our fishballs blah blah blah ..." All these recited as he was going about his chores. His voice sounded as if he was touting his ware but his eyes were not making contact with anybody. I thought it very interesting, or entertaining, rather.

Coco finally got her wish fulfilled. A tall, tall ice-cream for her.

Barbequed squid

Tie Dan, basically century eggs.

Day 1: Arrival at Taipei

We arrived at Changi Airport T1 at about 8.30am and boarded the plane at 10.35am.
By the time we reached our hotel, it was already 5.30pm. Royal Castle Hotel The humble reception Our room key Our bed My parents' bed Dresser, bar fridge, cupboard, water dispenser

Nice bathroom with a bathtub

We were given a family room that had two adjoining bedrooms on our arrival. We liked the idea that our rooms were just a door away and the rooms looked spacious. The only thing we didn't quite like was the only bathroom the five of us had to share. At times when more than one of us needed the bathroom, it was inconvenient. But it was a little inconvenience that we could put up with, compared with the benefits of staying together that we enjoyed.

I like the cosy 3-star hotel. The service was good in my opinion. The staff were friendly and approachable. There was, however, no bell boy to carry your luggage for you.

We walked out from our hotel to find the MRT. They call it 'jie2 yun4（捷运）'. A milk tea guy laughed when I asked him,"Where can I find 'di4 tie3（地铁）'?"

Xi Men MRT Station

We patronised the famous Hao Da Da chicken cutlet stall. It was some uncut chicken cutlet sprinkled with chilli powder. Not as legendary as the rest of the world make out to be. In fact, the four of us couldn't finish the two pieces that we bought.

Some other stalls in Shihlin: Da Bing Bao Xiao Bing

Oyster omelette - my favourite food in Taipei. I had it on a daily basis. It's very different from the one we have in Singapore. Their oysters are smaller but seem to be fresher. No oyster smell. And the sauce that looks like chilli sauce is sweet and moistens the omelette. Very yummy!

I'm a sua-ku. I stared at the big, mo-beng, white fruit for a long time and finally, I plucked up my courage to ask the counter girl what it was. "It's bittergourd. Ours is white!"

The narrow and crowded pathway in Shihlin