Rebecca Heng: A Trip to Taiwan ( Day 1 )

Sorry for the long hiatus because nothing interesting happened after the last post until recently, I went for a trip to Taiwan! Our plan was supposedly a trip to Korea but dad was told by the tour agency that there weren't sufficient people for a group tour to Korea. No fate probably? Another reason was the current weather there right now. Oh well, there's always next time!

If you guys don't know where's Taiwan, it's actually an island situated in East Asia.

Source : Google

And so, on the 12th December 2013, at around 9.30pm, we ( Jessica, mum, mum's friend and I ) left Johor Bahru to Changi International Airport, Singapore. It was a pity that dad couldn't join us because he was busy with his work but nevertheless, he still managed to settle all the trip's paperwork for us at Five Stars Tour Agency. He even went to the airport to send us off! Time passed pretty fast when we were at the airport, maybe because there were many shops to occupy us. Mum started to shop the moment we checked in, and I've to stop her repeatedly by telling her that we could get everything in Taiwan but, I've failed.

On the 13th December 2013, at around 2.15am, we travelled approximately 2000 miles from Singapore to Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan by China Airlines. What I'm always excited about in-flight activity is not the entertainment, but

the food! In the economy class, we were all given a choice of fish fillet rice or chicken noodle pasta and I've chosen the latter. It would be even better if there was fish fillet noodles. The food was better than I expected. The in-flight movies provided were much newer than I thought too and it made my flight experience better when I got to watch Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters which I have wanted to watch since months ago... So yeap, it was good!

It took only 4-5 hours to get to Taiwan and we reached Taoyuan at around 7am. Being the excited me, I was able to survive the whole day despite the fact that I only got to ~~sleep~~ nap for an hour in the plane. We were all introduced to a Taiwan local tour guide ( Michael ) by the Singaporean tour guide ( John ) whose job was to bring us to and fro Taiwan safely.

After much observation on the bus, I realised many people in Taiwan have their own crops and plantations at their homes.

We were simply brought to this shop somewhere in Taoyuan for breakfast to fill our stomachs. This, was where the non-stop food indulgence began when I was in Taiwan. No, I'm not complaining.

The food was quite cheap. Basically, for a quick approximate calculation to convert the TWD ( Taiwan Dollar ) currency to MYR ( Malaysian Ringgit ) currency, you just have to divide the amount by 10. An accurate conversion would be TWD 1 = RM0.11. Quite embarrassed to say this but with my Chinese knowledge which is only at elementary level ( or lower ) , I was actually pretty happy that i could still read some of the Chinese words on the menu. I also realised that every signs and signage in Taiwan are in Chinese and I felt giddy for the first time trying to interpret / guess the words ( not kidding ). Mum probably got sick of sis and I for asking her countless times about all the unknown Chinese characters which were alien to us.

The interior of the shop;

So many types of drinks!

& buns!

This 'xiao long bao' may seem unappetising but please, don't judge a book by its cover.

'Dou jiang' / soybean milk. This was great on a cold weather.

All this for less than RM10!

Walked around the area while waiting for other tour members to be done.

It's common to see stalls ( lorry in this case ) by the roadside selling food. You won't starve at all if you're in Taiwan, I promise.

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Then, we went to the Taoyuan high speed rail station to take a train to Hsinchu. While time was ticking, I wandered around the station and went into 7eleven. I was exhilarated when I saw the products and items it was selling. There were so many varieties of junk food, breads, biscuits, chocolates, drinks, fruits, instant noodles, bentos and etc. ( Many local products and also from Japan, if you're wondering why was I even feeling excited for ). There was even lok lok! No wonder people do suggest tourists to take a look at Taiwan's convenience stores. You can actually settle all three meals in 7eleven or Family Mart ( another popular convenience store ), I'm not even kidding.

The train only took 11 minutes to reach Hsinchu. The purpose of the ride was to experience their high speed train. It can actually run at a speed of 300km/h and according to the tour guide, the system is based on one of Japan's railway technologies which explains the similarities with Japan's bullet train.

Then off we went to LeoFoo Village Theme Park!

The entrance of the theme park.

Map of the theme park which gives an impression that it's really big but we finished touring the whole place in less than 2 hours.

The theme park is divided into 4 theme areas;

1. Wild West

I wanted to try this because it turned 360 degrees, but my sister didn't have the guts to do it. It wouldn't be fun if I ride it alone. There were also many other rides but I didn't take pictures of them. Many primary and secondary students had their school trips on that same day which was why it was so crowded.

There were also many game stalls ( like the picture above ) there.

Food stalls too!

I was told to try the pastries in Taiwan, and so we bought these two breads; Red Bean and Red Bean & Mochi. They were so goooood. Or maybe I was just feeling hungry.

Just me.

2. South Pacific

I wanted to go for this ride too.. Any volunteers to be my theme park partner?

There was nothing much. Only these two parrots attracted me.

3. Arabian Kingdom

Entrance.

Merry-go-round.

And again, I was just observing. Not experiencing it.

Turkish Ice-Cream! Something I reminisced from the one I had in Kuala Lumpur last year. The ice-cream man was so kind that he gave me extra after I told him that I'm from Malaysia.

4. African Safari

In this area, there were more animals than rides and I've actually spent more time in this area compared to other areas ( unless I've queued up for the rides that I wanted ).

Alpacas!

Flamingos.

Sheep.

This little lamb caught my attention the most, so cute!

There was camel riding too!

There were many of this 'Fried Chicken' stall in the theme park, and each of it had long lines of people. Must have tasted quite good and I regret not trying it, not even a bite from my mum's.

There was a slight disappointment at the theme park or was I just expecting too much? It probably just doesn't suit my age but the kids there seemed to be having a lot of fun! After we were done touring the place, we realised that we were actually 2 hours ahead the schedule... It was raining and so, we got up to the bus first to catch some Z's.

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Checked into Yuan De Hotel at Taichung! It took about 2 hours to reach Taichung from Hsinchu.

Nice place to stay in. I was expecting to stay at a budget hotel. This time, my expectation got a bit too low.

Here comes the best part of the day, Fengjia Night Market!

Fact: It's the biggest night market in Taiwan.

Food!

Glorious food!

One of the most popular stores in the night market, selling this;

大腸包小腸 / Small Sausage in Big Sausage

Thought this was going to be intestines or something similar but it was actually pork sausage wrapped with glutinous rice sausage. One of the best!

This is no ordinary guava that we have in Malaysia. It was a lot sweeter because the guava trees were watered with milk! Special right?

Dumplings! 7 for only about Rm3, say what?

Scallops! With many different flavours.

Searched high and low for these; sweet potato balls and yam balls!

I miss these!

Strawberries! These were really sweet too.

Many shops selling clothes and shoes at rock-bottom prices. Didn't buy many because we were too engrossed with the food there.

After stuffing ourselves with food and more food, we took a cab back to the hotel. But mum and her friend decided to search for more food nearby the hotel, because we didn't have any 'proper meal'. And we came to this shop.

It's famous for its 'stinky steamboat', thus the name of the shop. It's called stinky steamboat because the hot pot consists of Taiwan's popular 臭豆腐 / smelly tofu / fermented bean curd. We didn't order that though because none of us dare to eat it.