Tourist For The Day

The first night went far better than I had expected. Waking up in an unfamiliar place, I managed to shut my eyes till morning until I was awoken by the noise made by the girls. That’s the good thing about them, free alarm, especially since I am not the morning person.

First up for the day is none other than FOOD! I’m normally not a breakfast person-never wake up in time for it. However it would be a real pity if I were to miss breakfast here. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed we followed Michael and Po Po to his usual breakfast haunts.

Breakfast!
First breakfast meal
Pau with vegetables
Soup dumplings
Pan fried dumplings

Similar to what you can find in Singapore but fresher and tastier and all the more traditional. The soy bean milk is much more fragrance and it comes with a thick aroma of soy bean and natural sweetness thus eliminating the need for much sweetener. Served either in hot or cold servings, it is a must try for all. Others that we tried are the Pau, soup dumplings and omelet rice. From the five foot way front shop to the golden red paper writings in the shop to the bubbly middle aged staff and hot steaming food, it is evidential this is a place not lacking any form of tradition.

Amiable staff

To know about Taiwan, we would have to start from history and what better place to view it all than the National Palace Museum of Taiwan – 古宫博物馆 (http://www.npm.gov.tw/). Apparently the artifacts displayed were all shipped from China when the people fled to an island off the China Sea and named it Taiwan. Unfortunately for you, photography is prohibited in it, the only way you can see those history filled artifacts is to go personally.

National Palace MuseumPo po doing her movesAnd she got us to follow herThe 5 of us

Next up, we head to another highly publicized attraction, Lung Shan Temple - 龙山寺 (http://www.lungshan.org.tw/). Taiwan like many Asian countries still holds its religion dearly to its heart. Unlike other cosmopolitan countries where foreign aspects influences the religious culture and inject many other Gods and deities into daily lives of the people, Taiwan is still predominantly a Buddhism based country. I remember sitting in a car of a park ranger and passing by a huge hospital beside a university which I couldn’t see the other end and asking him what is it. He told me that under the Buddhism community, people had donated to fund every single dollar used to construct and run the institutions. He also added that the power of the Buddhism community in the country is so powerful that it even influences the political scene.

Chess - A common Sight in the vicinityHigh tech temple Lung Shan Temple
Many devotees
From the young to the old
Serenity
Blessings
Our lunch - Fish bee hoon, Pork meat, Vegetables and Pork Tongue!!

Next we hopped onto the bus and rode our way to the landmark of Taiwan – 台北 101 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101). Instead of heading up the tower like every other tourist, we went to the nearest mountain to ogle at the marvelous architecture – 像山. It was almost totally deserted except for the rare passerby and we went crazy up there.

Long bus rideFollowed by a long climb up
Po Po & Audrey
Michael and Audrey

Taipei 101


The mountain where we had so much fun on

The last stop for the day, we took a long bus ride to oh so famous Shi Lin Night Market - 士林夜市.One thing to note when travelling there by metro, the stop to alight is Jian tan station – 剑潭站and not Shi Lin station - 士林站. The whole night market is divided into 2 parts, the sheltered part where it’s full of food stalls and the back alley streets where apparels, snacks, food and pets could be found. This place is so huge that I barely scrapped the surface of it and even so, I discovered many gems in this rug sack. A rule of thumb for all, if in doubt do as the locals do and eat as the locals eat and you will never go wrong. This is a place that you can revisit day after day and discover something new each time.

Top 3 recommendations:
1) XXL Chicken Cutlet from Hao da da Ji Pai – 豪大大鸡排 (Look for a blue signboard with a long queue)
2) Pig intestines rice vermicelli Ah Zhong Mian Xian – 阿忠面线 (A shop where many people crowd around with a bowl in hand)
3) Smelly Bean curd Chou tofu – 臭豆腐 (Lots of ‘em around, all tasted the same to me…smelly)

Hordes of people
Busy back alley
Ah zhong Mian XianAh zhong mian Xian
XXL chicken (expect long queues)
Alight the metro at Jian Tan when you see this
Smelly bean curd

Mango Shaved ice

There are even puppys on sale there which i suspect are from puppy mills...

Easy card, the 1 thing you will need to tap on the extensive public transport network in Taiwan

Finally at the end of the day, we broke the news that we could speak and understand Chinese. It was a grueling day trying to act like we don’t and we were all very very relieved that we don’t have to put on an act anymore. Nonetheless, it was a great day out with our Taiwanese friends.