Hypocrisy at its best

Today, I witness a high level of hypocrisy...

Sounds like you are given a choice when in fact you are not..The decision had long been made..

Why dun plp juz go straight to the point? why go 1 big round and waste every 1's time?

I seriously dun mind the decision being decided by others, but I juz dun like it to be look like a democratic process while it is not..

Why do you need to do all these?

Thank you for the lesson given.

An old fwen found me after 11yrs..

I realli muz salute the founder of FB...

Juz yesterday, an old sec sch mate who is from Taiwan found us in FB..Reuniting alot of our sec sch mates in FB and brought bak fond memories of our sch days..

He left SG after graduating from sec sch and had neber came bak since..All thanks to FB, he managed to find 1 of our classmates and then the rest of us...

When he tried to add me, I was still wondering who this person is till he msg me and told me his name..whahah realli cannot recognised him after 11yrs..And all of a sudden, FB became our little reunion platform...

Caught up with him abit on his recent happenings and made a pact to meet up if he shd come to SG or when we r going Taiwan...Hopefully if he shd come bak here, we will be able to hold a big scale reunion with all the sch mates, after all, we have not see each other for 11 yrs..whahaha all we did is to see each others' updates on FB...

Happie to see you again Ting Jie, after al these while..and Thank you for igniting the flame of reunion among all the classmates...Hope to see you all soon ;)

Taipei Revisited 2011- Lunch in Mao Kong( 猫空)

We continued our walk around the mountain, this time towards the other direction. Came across a kiln, not sure what its previously used for and didn't really read the introductions and thus moved on.

 

The Kiln

Instructions that we were too lazy to read

It was a hot and sunny day though grateful that it didn't rain, its was not pleasant to be walking under the hot sun. Hubs was near his limits and I knew I had to act fast, since I suggested this place of interest that he had no interest in.

We walked a bit more in search of the Tea museum that I was looking for, couldn't find and finally gave up and walked back to the gondola station.

Along the way, I saw this restaurant(龙门客栈） and suggested to stop here for lunchie. My treat. Ha. Cause I made hubs walked so long for nothing and truth to be told, I am also baking under my long sleeve t shirt and my leggings. Should had dressed in these. 活受罪。。

There was this big dog at the entrance of the restaurant and I was having 2nd thoughts bout going in, but then hubs convinced me that it is sleeping and I tip toed my way pass the dog.

Its near lunch time and the restaurant is pretty packed, didn't managed to get a place near the side where we can look down the mountain. Was arranged to sit in the middle of no where..zzz...

Wanted to order tea initially as hubs is into tea-drinking but then found out that its pretty expensive and they charged by the hour. This is to cater to those who want to sit here for long hrs, drinking tea and chit chat. We will love to do so, but time is not on our side. Still have other places to cover after 猫空 and thus we proceed to order lunch and some cold beverages.

Hubs ordered a tea-leave fried rice, I order a Sesame oil rice flour noodle (麻油面线) and also a Kung Bao stir fry chicken (宫保鸡丁) to share. We also ordered a caramel milk tea for hubs and a ice rose tea for myself.

Tea leave flavoured fried rice

 Hubs' fried rice was served 1st and I tried a bit of it, tastes nice! Not sure which kind of tea leave they used to fry the rice with but it has the fragrance of the tea leaves mixed into rice. For some1 who loved roast tea, this is 1 that will suit your taste buds.

麻油面线

 My 麻油面线 came last after much chasing, guess they forgot this order. And they had waited for quite a while to serve after cooking, resulting in the 面线 soaking up the soup, making it a big disappointment for me. The 面线 was all soggy and have no taste to speak of. I only managed half a plate before giving up.

宫保鸡丁

 Their 宫保鸡丁 was good too! Chicken meat was tender and sweet and they had throw in a generous share of cashew nuts which adds fragrance to this dish.Polish of every bit of this dish except the chilli.Hehe.

Hubs and his Caramel Milk Tea

 Hubs never had a sweet tooth like me so it kinda surprise me that he ordered a caramel milk tea this time. Tried a bit and it is realli sweet. Not sure whether is because of the weather, he finished up the whole drink! whaha..

My rose tea

 Loved having rose tea in Taiwan, not sure why. I will never failed to buy 1 when I visit 九份。 Hehe It is especially cooling to have 1, not only it quenched my thirst, it cools me down by at least 2degrees under this hot weather.

The big dog, dead to the world

Bill came up to around SGD30 bucks which makes it the most expensive meal we had in Taipei. Didn't have any complain except for my 面线. View will be greater if we are seated by the side of the restaurant. Ambience is nice, would love to visit again when we have time to sit there and drink tea. After lunch, its good by 猫空 as we descend down by cable car.

Desending from 猫空

With the mascot

Brought a soft toy for Hubs' sis

Tai tai wannabe...

An lazy afternoon, armed with a cup of ice Relax Choya, a half read book and listening to Kenny G's music...

If only I am able to do this often..Life will be so perfect...

An wonderful way to spend my sat afternoon...

Anyone going overseas?Help me buy more choya from duty free...hehehe

Taipei Revisited 2011-Tea break at Mao Kong(猫空）

Took some photos at the station when we reached Mao Kong Station, its brimming with tourists.

While exiting the station

Mao Kong Station

 We initially wanted to visit the tea promotion board or something like that. But we couldn't figured out where it was from the map, asked a staff at Mao Kong station but he seems to have no idea too. Thus, we decided to walk randomly around there to try our luck.

The sun is coming out and shining brightly, luckily that this is on top of a mountain and we do get occasional breezes, else I think we will be roasted!

We followed the path along the mountain and walked aimlessly, passing by tea plantations along the way. There are a number of tea houses which are closed as its only 10am and thus we walked further down. Along the way, hubs saw a vendor selling 香肠 and brought 1 to eat.

Random 香肠vendor

Hubs feeling happie with his purchase

The thing we loved about Taipei is, you can buy food from any random vendor and it tastes just as good!Realli!

We come to a point where we decided enough of walking and decided to turn back. Its seems like we are walking down the mountain and there is nothing much to offer along the way. I recalled passing by a cafe earlier and we decided to go there for a quick tea break.

Random tea plantation

 Ordered a pancake and an ice milk tea to share and sat there to chat and admire the scenery from the mountain top. Hubs is getting bored walking around aimlessly here as we cannot find the tea promotion board as planned.

Hubs pouring chocolate over our pancake

Ice milk tea

Looking down from where we are sitting

As this is a tourist spot, prices here are a bit on the high side, though still cheap as compared to Singapore cafe, sat there for a good half an hr before we decided to carry on with the mountain tour.

The cafe we stopped at

Sat for nearly half an hour before we feel more engerised to continue our journey, we continued walking up to the place where we had initially arrived, hoping to find the tea museum but still with no luck. Since there is still time to kill, we then walked down the other direction of the hill, trying to see what we can find.

Random pic of a dog blocking the drive way

Taipei Revisited 2011-Long Shan Temple（龙山寺） & Going to Mao Kong （猫空）

1st Stop today is Long Shan Temple (龙山寺）, located right next to Long Shan Temple station which is 1 stop away from XMD station. Long Shan Temple is for worshiping Guan Yin Buddha（观音菩萨） and other divine spirits. This is labelled as  a 2nd degree historical site in Taiwan. Am not sure whether its 1st or 15th day of the month when we visited but there seems to be a huge chanting session going on.

Main gate of the temple

As we were did not dare to disturb the prayers, we just went in and walked a round before going off. I did not even get to offer the jossticks as it was pretty crowded, instead I just prayed to Guan Yin Niang Niang, asking for a smooth and safe journey and made a small donation.

After which, we proceed with our journey to the main attraction today- MaoKong Cable car （猫空缆车）.

From Long shan Temple station, we took the MTR towards Nangang to Zhong Xiao Fuxing station where we transferred to Muzha Line going towards Zoo. This is quite a special station as along Banqiao line, its an underground station. But for Muzha line its a above ground station. I remembered seeing the tracks when coming here last year all the while still wondering whether this is a LRT or MTR. Too Singaporean I guess, there is no LRT in Taipei.Hehe

ZhongXiao FuXing Station-Muzha Line

We are going to the ZOO ZOO ZOO

The journey there is pretty long, around 30mins while passing by many residential areas of Taipei. This is the 1st time we venture so outskirt as we are always struck in Taipei City during the last trip. The train is also pretty packed due to the fact that today is a Sunday, guess many of them are going to the same place as us.

When we finally reached the Zoo station, the sun is shining brightly and hotly already. Somehow regretted my choice of shirt today. There are 2 exits there, 1 leading to the zoo and the other leading to Mao Kong cable car station. We followed the signs (and crowd) and started to make our way there.

The walk to the cable car station is ard 10min away from MRT and we are glad that its sunny not rainy.

Saw a park while walking towards Mao Kong

As it turns out, some company has decided to held its family day here and the cable car station are crowded with people!! Left with no choice as it will be closed tomorrow for weekly maintenance, we then joined the crowd in queuing up.

Camwhoring while waiting for our turn

The cable car is situated at 4th level of the building and the queue starts from the 3rd, by our judgement, the queue is moving pretty fast.

A bit of facts about Mao Kong Gondola(猫空缆车）:
http://gondola.trtc.com.tw/eng/index.htm

1). The tickets costs NTD 50 from Zoo station to the Mao Kong station.
2). There are 2 kinds of cables, Crystal cabins/Normal cabins. Both cost same juz that there are only 31 crystals cabins, thus waiting time is longer.
Crystal cabins are cabins with see through bottom.
4). Each cabin has a max capacity of 8 passengers.
5). There are 6 stations in all (4Passengers and 2 angle stations)

Credits from MaoKong Gondola website

We opted for the normal cabins namely because queue time for crystal cabins are around 1hr 30min, and also, I do not have the courage to take the see through cabins. Hehe. Payment of the tickets can be made through your Easy card (优游卡) and thus you need not queue up for the tickets, just tap & go :)

Cabins entering the station

Crystal cabin

While moving out of Zoo station

We boarded the cable car after 20mins and shared it with another couple. This is my 2nd time taking a cable car (1st time in HK Ocean park). And man, how nervous can it get. I am afraid of heights and thus I am not very keen to take cable cars.

As it moved out of the station it jerked a bit, making the cabin sway left and right. Its pretty normal I guess but it does scares me. As we moved along I tried to focus in taking pictures and looking out far so as not to be too nervous, it does help a bit.

I find MaoKong gondola to be more stable than the Ocean Park 1. At least it is moving on smoothly, unlike when I 1st took the HK version not sure whether because of strong winds, it is sway so badly that I nearly broke into tears. This, however  I can sit back and relax after a while.

Soaking in the greens

Part of the zoo-Right after exiting Zoo South Station

Down we go

Not sure how long it took, but it was maybe around 20mins and we reached Mao Kong station!

Taipei 2011-Breakie in Wonstar Hotel Ximen 1

Started the day early at 7am (wat's new) as I wanna make FULL use of our time in Taipei.As we tot it would be somehow cool today, I chose to wear the new shirt I brought in Raohe Night Market last nite.

New Minnie mouse shirt :)

Breakie at the hotel was pretty simple, porridge with condiments, ham,hotdogs, fried noodles and 1 fried veggie..Well known for not taking veggies, I attacked all the meat that was served. I always emphasizes in having a hearty breakie, so as to have more energy later.

Thus, here goes my menu for today's breakie
1). 6pcs of ham
2). 2 bowls of porridge with whatever condiments I liked
3). 2 cups of coffee
4). Half a plate of noodles.

Hubs had somewhere the same portion as me, but he took more noodles as he did not fancy porridge.hehe Lucky for us, it was pretty empty this morning, else I think other guests would have been shocked by the amount of food we ate..hehe

Condiments for porridge

Ham, this is wat I ate most during my 3 days there

Noodles and hot dogs

Round 1- FIGHT!

The thing about breakie in this hotel is, for the 3 days we stayed there, they served the same for breakie. On the 2nd day, I overheard some ang mo commenting that he could not take it anymore and decided to venture out for breakie.

We preserved on though as I didnt see any breakie shop in XMD and I do not know where to get breakie and thus we went down for breakie everyday faithfully. It was not that bad la, juz got no choice only.Hur hur.

After breakie, we decided to camwhore abit outside our hotel before proceeding to our 1st destination. It was indeed cooling this morning with abit of sunshine. Weather looks juz nice for going to outdoor today which is where we are going.

Empty street early morning in XMD

Starting the day soon.cool!

Taipei Revisted 2011-Raohe Night Market (饶河夜市）& Artist uncle in XMD

Rao He Night Market is easily 1 of my favourite night market in Taipei though not as big as Shihlin, but it is exactly the smaller area makes it easier to navigate as compared to Shihlin.

To get here, we took TRA from Taipei Main station to Song Shan Station. After which, we followed the road signs to here, its around a 5min walk :)


Raohe Night market w/o Sign board

The stores are lined up in the middle of the road, with shops on the 2 sides too. But the interesting ones are the 1s in the middle. Consisting of food, clothes and misc items, you can be sure to find something to interest u as u walk in the market.

Twice I came here, I manage to buy some clothes. Not much, but still manage to buy even w/o going to Wu Fen Pu. Of course prices are not comparable as this is not a wholesale market. Then again, I am only interested in that 1 pc only.

The food selection here is great too..Finger foods like pop corn chickie, fried mushrooms/veggies/squids/crabs, cook food stalls like Fried Oyster/ Herbal pork ribs soups, the ever famous stinky fried tofu..The choices are so overwhelming that I do not know what to start eating with.

Crab legs

Pork ribs soup

In summary, this is what we ate..

1). 1pc of fried crab each..Which is not fantastic at all in our opinions..

2). A bowl of herbal pork ribs soup which is super nice. The only downside is, the pork ribs are pretty meatless.

3). A chickie cutlet shared among us and a pac of fried squid. We took quite a long time to finish this as we were too full from the snacks earlier..

After all the eating, we proceed to find the vendor selling the shirts tat Mr Love want..We had no trouble finding her as she once told us her stall will be always in front of the big cross. There is a Catholic center inside the building behind her stall. Mr Love brought 3 from her this time. Which is consider a lot by his standards.

We decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel. After all, we did not have a good rest since last nite.

Upon reaching XMD, we came across the spray paint painter tat Uncle C mentioned. Stood there for nearly half an hr to watch him paint..We were both very impress by his skills. Brought 3 paintings as instructed by Uncle C. I was actually thinking whether to get 2 for our house. But did not in the end..Oh well…

Uncle painting

Final touches

1st painting I brought

I was searching for the tasty grilled corn I brought the other time here in XMD but to my dismay, I think the vendor come here any more…sad, we retreat bak to our hotel after tat to prepare for tmr’s activity.

2nd painting-Serenity