Lily Lee: June 2016

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Taipei, Taiwan 13 to 17 June 2016

Taipei Day 1
Finally saw the sun after 4 days of continuous rain. Checked in to 君品酒店 Palais de Chine Hotel Taipei. The hotel service is so good and they sent a staff to bring us to the hotel from the hsr station platform. He also showed us the room facilities and I am very impressed with the service. We took a cab to Ximenting 西门盯红楼 but nothing much there so we took the MRT to Long Shan Temple龙山寺. Surprised that the ipass (similar to our ezlink card) which I used in 2011 could still be used. We have received another set free from the Taiwan tourist office in Singapore.

Nice lunch with my favourite braised pork rice! Hubby also took the snake soup with wine at Huaxi street.

Went over to Yongchun to meet my brother who treated us to a sumptuous dinner at Yong Chun 夜問永春串燒居酒屋 . Very nice grill and I love the plum wine.

Walked over to Wufenpu (五分埔商圈) and surprised that the prices are quite high and at the end did not get anything. Went back to the restaurant and my brother booked the massage for us just opposite the restaurant.

Hubby ordered room service for supper.

More photos @
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153813972279200.1073742028.676019199&type=1&l=433a30e48c

Taipei Day 2

Chartered a private tour and he picked us up from the hotel. Too bad it was raining heavily again. Visited Yeliu Geopark 野柳, saw the yinyang sea 陰陽海, golden waterfall黃金瀑布, shopped and ate at Jiufen 九份 and finally got to released the sky lantern at Shifen十分(天燈).

Awed by the number of tetrapods protecting the coastal areas in Taiwan.

As it was still raining heavily we decided to cancel our trip to keelong night market and went back to our hotel.

Took the buffet at our hotel. Expensive at NT2100 ++ per person but love the seafood spread especially the crabs!

The macaroons are so cute. You squeeze the syringe to determine how much jam you want inside.

The crab is so good I took 6!

The porridge is so good hubby took 2!

We went to Lingxia night market near our hotel but many stalls were closed because of the rain.

Bought some bread from the bakery in Q square- so good that we went back and bought some more again.

More photos @

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153815968054200.1073742029.676019199&type=1&l=6d185c54bd

Taipei Day 3

Took the high speed rail to Taichung 台中. Tried out the train station bento set.
Reach Taichung station and engaged the service of a taxi driver for NT4100 as we are going to Nantou. At 妖怪村we tried out the Japanese costume at NT250 each and she bun up my hair so nicely!

It would be nice to live in the monster village villa too as it is so serene surrounded by the forest.

Not very impressed with 桃太郎村. Did not have any performance so nothing much to see except the village set in 60s which was also used in filming the local drama.

Bought this cute piggy pork bun

After we visited the 妖怪村 and 桃太郎村, we ate our lunch at 35甕缸雞 which is near to 紫南宫。It is very famous for its grilled chicken in urn.

Supposed to bring you luck touching the golden chicken starting from the beak to the breast then the wing and backside. Finally the eggs.

The paper flies in automatically - amazing!

After that we went to Jiji railway station 集集車站 but almost all the stalls were closed as it was a weekday. The taxi driver brought us to the Rainbow Family Village (彩虹眷村). The rainbow warrior was really amazing at taking photos for us.

Met the Grandpa who had painstakingly painted the whole village!

We took the high speed rail back to Taipei and had shabu shabu at Momo paradise in Qsquare located next to our hotel. There was an exhibition of traditional puppet at the underground street below the shopping mall.

More photos @

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153818369014200.1073742030.676019199&type=1&l=55179dd868

Taipei Day 4
Our hotel deco is really beautiful - just look at this horse statue at the concierge area.

We decided to go to Wulai as my brother highly recommended the place. True enough hubby fell in love with the place and said will be back soon.

We got into a cab and the driver say he will charge us NT2000 for Wulai and 淡水 for half a day. We tried the 泰雅族 costume at Wulai and they only charge us NT450 for the photo plus cute picture frame. They said we should come back again as we missed the performance. The railway service is under maintenance too.

Wulai is so picturesque with the mountains, river and waterfall. Would want to stay there for a few days in our next trip.

After that we went to 淡水红毛城 and got the cab driver to drop us off at 淡水老街.

We took a ferry to 八里Bali (Taiwan not Indonesia) - another place recommended by my brother - very serene indeed. I tried a game of shooting and realised that I could shoot well without missing a shot!