and this photo says it all, doesn't it? taken in yang ming shan in taipei county, the nine of us braved the rain and the cold to take this picture. which was a stroke of luck, considering that at any one time, there was always one person missing. either sitting out in the car too cold/sick to venture out.
sickness and cold aside, this trip in dec 2010 will also be remembered for being the first in many years where all of us could come together from three different countries. too bad wei and xru couldn't make the trip. (angela couldn't make taiwan but we met up in hong kong.)
oz and i arrived first in taipei, followed by a not too well ming. we checked into a clean, conveniently located hotel tried and tested by other bloggers, called SEE YOU hotel. within spitting distance was a very famous taiwanese beef noodles place.
the waitress offered to take a picture for us the moment she knew we were foreigners. must have been asked so often she reckoned it was easier to preempt us since she had a free moment.
the rest of the group arrived from malaysia by night fall. the next day we did the usual taipei stuff. taipei 101, ximenting and later, shilin night market.
spotted this at the night market.
we moved out of taipei city on the third morning, to
beitou, a hot springs town. nestled up in the hills, the place had a laid back vibe which we all loved.
there were many public hot spring baths in this town. like this one.
totally love the blue polka dotted one piece with matching bath cap. :-)
but because it was so open, it put us off bathing in public. we decided we would do it in the privacy of our hotel room. we had booked CHYUAN DO SPRING RESORT in town. luck again was on our side cos i had no idea when i booked it online that it would be so central. this was the town where we needed a doctor (for sis) and a pharmacy (for ming's recurring cough and oz's sudden allergy) and eating shops, all within walking distance.
anyway, back to our visit to the hot springs, this time to the museum.
this sunken area used to be a public hot bath. errr...just not sure they scrubbed their backs the way xiu was doing.
beitou was really a delightful town. there was also this lovely building which turned out to be the town library. father and mother took a stroll in.
mother taking a breather outside the library
from beitou, we proceeded to
yang ming shan, one of taiwan's national parks. the weather was uncooperative. it rained the entire time. winds were strong and we were constantly battling with our umbrellas.
not a single unmangled umbrella so far. things got worse when we proceeded to
danshui, a seaside town. if only it wasn't raining cos the town looked really nice. we took a walk along the famed lovers' bridge where we continued our battle with the winds and the relentless rain. i went across the street to purchase two new umbrellas and they were gone in no time. see below.
we screamed as we struggled and laughed in the rain. oh, what memories "-)
later, we took a leisurely walk along danshiu old street, located along danshui river. filled with quaint souvenir and eating shops, we had a pleasant, nostalgic time.
esp when they had an old school shooting game like this:
where they had to shoot as many targets as they could with a given basket of balls
aiyah, why liddat?
the sharp shooter is hui, an award winner shooter in school. of course she won a prize. oh, some useless plastic toy she was almost too embarrassed to claim.
the next morning, we were off to
pingxi, a town known for letting off sky lanterns. you could write your wishes on the lantern and the shop owners would let them off for you.
hui and xiu buying souvnenirs at the sky lantern shop
all of us took turns to write our wishes on the two lanterns we bought.
we then went across the street with the owners where they fixed the lanterns to release them.
we attached a string of fire crackers to the second lantern and it literally went up with lots of bang!
our drivers had wanted us to experience a train ride from pingxi to
shifen, the next town. the railway track runs through shifen and it's one of its attractions. but our timing was not very good; the next train was a few hours later so we opted to get there by car instead.
when we reached shifen, the whole place was dead. it was cold, barren and soulless. we had a sick person on board and it was almost two pm. hungry and a little desperate, we wandered into this tin shack where two old people were chatting. it had a semblance of a restaurant but there wasn't a single customer. heck, even the kitchen looked cold.
the drivers spoke with the old lady who turned out to be the owner of the restaurant. yes, she could cook for us. yes, rice and dishes. not three, not four, but eight with a soup.
we went, WAH but thought we needed to wait a long time since she was the only one and the cold kitchen looked as if it needed a kick start before anything could get remotely cooked.
she got down to work and voila, suddenly, steam filled the place, the sounds and smells of cooking filled the air and it all came magically together.
our domestic goddess with a touch of sartorial
on the left is xiao chu, one of the two drivers whom we engaged to take us around. our domestic goddess plonking yet another quick dish on the table
adding to the count of 8+1
in thirty minutes, the table was laden and we had one of the best meals in taipei. (in the middle of the picture, next to xiu, is the other driver)
we were supposed to go see the waterfall, shifen's pride but the raging rains stopped us. we were taken to
jiufen next.
had made bookings at WINDSOR B&B at jiufen, one of taiwan's most picturesque town. our room offered us a sweeping view of the town as well as the pacific ocean. unfortunately, it poured all the time so we could only catch glimpses of the spectacular view.
for oz, this was his view for the 2N that we were there. he was down with fever, headache and body aches. he chose to sleep them off.
these two intrepid guys were our heroes during our first night in jiufen. temperature dropped to a single digit and the winds were howling outside. there was no delivery service from the numerous eating shops that dotted jiufen old street so they had to venture out to buy dinner for all of us.
that must have been when oz caught his chill.
jiufen is a very pretty town and i would love to go back in spring and stay in the same B&B just for the view. we walked the old street which, though windy, was thankfully covered overhead. it was still cold so father and mother opted to stay in. oz, of course, was in bed. the rest of us went out for a few hours, got some souvenirs and snacks and food to last us the whole day.
some of the other food we tried:
yam balls soup
more yam balls
and then some.
we were told yam balls were very popular in taiwan so we ate at every stop. honestly, i found them a little too starchy and not enough yam.
from freezing taipei, we flew into hong kong where the temperature was a lot more bearable.
by now, i had fallen ill, oz and sis were recovering and ming was still hacking away.
i couldn't do justice to this bowl of wantan mee that first night. the rest had taken a train into mongkok by the time we woke up so we crossed the road to this hole in the wall eatery.
oz said his beef noodles were not bad too. guess both of us were in no mood for any gastronomic adventure.
the next morning, we took a walk from our hotel in wanchai to causeway bay. what a difference it was, having come from the mountains in taiwan to the crowded streets of hong kong where everyone seemed determined to get somewhere.
amidst the crowds and buildings, it was a pleasant surprise to find a green lung.
our second group photo. at least there's sunshine here and thankfully, no mangled umbrellas!
the hotel we were at, NOVOTEL at wanchai was such a popular place, the lobby looked like a refugee camp. i just had to take this photo:
this is just a fraction of the luggage left by guests who had either checked out or waiting for their rooms to be cleaned.
it was in hong kong that we met up with angela who took time off to join us on certain occasions. we had lunch with her parents and family. it was indeed a good opportunity to meet up.
meanwhile, hui turned eighteen and ming and angela came back with a box of cakes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUI!
later that night, we took the star ferry across to kowloon to catch the laser show. the wanchai ferry terminal was walking distance from the hotel and it was a real pleasant walk in the cool night. but on the way back, we took the wrong ferry, hahaha.... we should have taken the ferry from kowloon to wanchai but we took the one to central. busy talking and laughing, we jst followed the crowd and ended up on the wrong ferry. had to catch two taxis from central back to the hotel!
waiting for the ferry ( the correct one to kowloon)
oz and father waiting for the laser show to start
mother and sis
the next day, we took a ferry to macau.
it was a mistake to visit macau on a sunday. first we had to buy black market ferry tickets because scalpers had a field day. then, because of the crowd which literally run into hundreds, we took almost an hour to clear immigration.
at st pauls' ruins, we had difficulty finding a spot just to take a photo so i gave up. the streets leading up to the ruins were chockablock with tourists. not our kind of scene at all. most shops were selling the famous, yummy almond biscuits but all of them were full of people. i helped mother buy some and had to raise my voice to be heard.
xiu and sis sharing a quiet moment among the madness
and what were they, and ming, queuing for?
for these traditional "plate cakes" which came in chocolate, corn and coconut flavours.
then, we had to hunt for a place to eat. we found a dirty, grime-thickened place that sold roast meat.
the ribs were good but the duck was too fat
the vegetables were no better, soggy and over doused with oyster sauce
the rest made their way to ocean park the following day with angela while oz attended a meeting with his contacts. i chose to make use of this last day to buy some gifts because i had not been shopping. i took the ferry again, and walked to harbour city where i engaged in a bit of retail therapy. a lot of shops were having festive sales.
i enjoy shopping in hong kong because the service is really first class. salespeople are chatty without being too intrusive. they give useful suggestions and seem to sense when they can come in for the kill. again, without being too aggressive or off-putting.
we had the good fortune of attending angela's brother, sam's wedding dinner, in hong kong. the timing couldn't be better.
the pre-dinner mahjong game which really looked tempting :-)
and one for the album!
we might not have seen as much of taipei and hong kong as we would have if we had taken a tour but we did not want it any other way.
we took the time to get away, to be together and to forge ties and memories.
no tour agency could ever give us that.
