30 to 31 may 2008, taipei

a summary of our route

士林夜市

sealing up the freshly baked 太阳饼

taipei 101 - i remembered Cher told me that the colors of this tower changes everyday.
yes, it's friday today.

Day	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Colour

28 to 30 may 2008, hualien (花莲)

九曲洞步道

car accident that happened almost a week ago

绿水步道

visit Taroko National Park (太鲁阁) if you are in hualien.
start with this trail, 白杨步道. total 4km walk (to and fro) with several tunnel passings. i loved the beautiful rock formations and the water curtains (水帘洞).

26 to 28 may 2008, kending (垦丁)

25 to 26 may 2008, kaohsiung (高雄)

another night market

爱河

24 to 25 may 2008, tainan

shuffle and pick 15 tiles from the pile.
form a straight line and you get to pick any of their big soft toys.

catch some fish

the biggest night market in taiwan - 花園夜市. so much to see, eat and play.

23 to 24 May 2008, alisan (阿里山)

trekking up to the nearby 祝山 at 4.30am

we missed the last bus (2.10pm) to alisan. so we negotiated with an old lady for a taxi ride up. cant remember how much we paid for, probably around NT 2300 for a one-way taxi cum room stay.
alishan is a popular destination to see its sun rise. most of the accommodations were priced double and are fully booked on fridays and saturdays.

22 to 23 may 2008, sun moon lake (日月潭)

taichi/qigong?

stayed at a 民宿 owned by an old couple. the room was beautifully furnished and cost about NT 1000/night for a triple room.
chatted with the owner for a bit while he chewed on 槟榔. he generously offered us some of it from his packet. his mandarin carried a bit of a hokkien accent and honestly, i enjoyed hearing him speak.
he told us that the peak season in taiwan is around jul to aug. and through his wife, we booked the half day morning ferry tickets to see the lake. their price was cheaper than the ticket booths.

make full use of a digital camera to save time on taking down details. hee...
this is a daily departure train schedule from 水里. served as a useful reference for our next day departure. from 水里, its a 45 mins bus ride to sun moon lake.

21 to 22 may 2008, jiji (集集)

camera set on timer. hee...

ran over

honey bees for you?

impact of the earthquake - a damaged temple

on our way to Sun Moon Lake, we made a stopover at Jiji, a small village that is abt 1.5 hours train ride away from Taichung. checked into a 民宿 for about NT1000/night (approx SGD 50) for a triple room. after a good rest, we set off in the early morning to cycle around the village.

here, one can still see the damage of the 921 earthquake (also known as the Chi-chi or Jiji earthquake) that occurred on 21 September 1999 in central Taiwan at 1:47 am and measured 7.6 on the Richter scale.

19 to 21 may 2008, taipei

sk won a piece of candy at the end of this game. hee...

huge watermelons

at a night market (饶河夜市) : me, Anny, Brian, Cher and jza theme restaurant at 西门町 - one sits on a toilet bowl and eat from a "toilet bowl".

CKS memorial

parliament house

龙山寺

waiting for a city bus at taipei airport

we were glad to see that sk's grandmother was recovering when we returned home.

took some time to rest and catch up with family and friends. indulged in weekly mahjong games and the comfort of having no rush to do anything.

after about 1 month, we, together with jz, bought 2 weeks return plane tickets to taiwan.
on our first night in taipei, Anny and Cher brought us to a good place to have "甜不辣". it's a very special dish with bean curd skins, rice cake with some kind of red sweet soup.

after the meal, we met Brian at Cher's place and we talked till late before we get to bed. the next morning, Anny and Cher brought us to a good place for a simple but tasty breakfast... fried pan cakes and soya bean milk at a small eatery. in taiwan, everywhere is good food and friendly people.