Taiwan 6 days vacation

Visited Taipei last week

Date: 19 September 2017 - 24 September 2017
Season: Summer
Temperature: Around 27 - 33 degree Celsius.
Number of people: 8 people
Accomodation: Airbnb homestay
Transport: Bus, MRT and one day of van rental.
Average conversion rate at this date: 1000 TWD = RM145.90


Day 1.
- Basically our day one end with us arriving Taipei city to our accommodation location.
- But we manage to get to eat our supper at Taiwan Niu Beef Noodle.
- Our accommodation is like 10 meter within this location.

Day 2
- We started off by eating our breakfast nearby our stay. 
- Then we continue our journey to yangmingshan. It's like a national park. There are few ways to go to yangmingshan. Bus is cheapest method. Bus station usually will have a clear notice on how to go yangmingshan. If you have extra money, just take cab or uber. It will be faster and more comfortable.
- This is the map in yangmingshan national park.

- We went to stop number 7, where we can see the smoke coming out from hill.

This is the entrance to start hiking.

Remember don't wear slippers. Hahaha.

- Readers, if you are reading this and planning your Taiwan trip, you MUST go to the top! The view will be spectacular and you will definitely not regret it! But it will require some will power and good stamina. You have to be physically fit. If not, I advise you start working out now. You can go to get some home made ice cream after the hike too. It will taste a lot better when you are tired.

- There are more several stops in yangmingshan. We went to niunai pond and lengshuikeng. You are free to visit anywhere you want.

They have this cute pinyin on their direction board. Shouldn't it be milk pond or niunai hu?

Ok, this one is very straight forward, leng shui keng.

- We went to tamsui old street for some food first. They got some nice crispy bak kwa selling it at TWD 200 each packet but if you buy 5, they give 2 for free. So basically it's 1000 for 7 packets.

- Next, Shihlin night market at night. Plenty of food and things to buy. Remember to try out their famous sausage and chicken chop

Day 3
- Started the day with breakfast nearby.
- We rented a van for 8 people (Mercedes brand van) but it is quite small and packed. Not comfortable at all. At the cost of TWD 5000 for 8 hours. (Later on we find out, other people charge at lower rate, with more comfortable van ... VW brand at TWD 5000 for 10 hours. If any readers want the contact, just comment on this post.)
- We go straight to Yehliu geoparks. This place main attraction is the Queen's head. The rock that looks like the Queen's head. (You have to walk a bit to see her)

This is it. You have to queue there to take picture with this queen's head. Sounds like she is main player here.

- We went to jiu fen afterwards. Main attraction there is the taroball desserts, that looks like "Snowflakes" in Malaysia where you can find some in Paradigm Mall. If you walk along jiu fen old street, there are so many food you can try.

It tastes really good at this hot weather (33 degree celcius). Most of us, share one bowl with 2 people, while I eat one bowl alone. Hehehe.

Homemade meatball. This is a must try in jiu fen too.

The popiah skin with ice cream and peanut in it. Taste real good too.

- After the short walk in jiu fen, we went to shi fen. Shi fen become famous after the movie 那些年，我們一起追的女孩 being aired worldwide. So we go to release some lantern there, like how it's done in the movie. 

My brother said "You said health is the real wealth but your point form there write earn more money first then only write stay healthy". Yeah, it contradicted. Hahaha.

Bye bye 200 taiwan dollar.

- We went to Raohe night market after that. This is the place I spent the most money (Bought 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes, souvenirs, food and drinks). There is one thing you must try here. The Aiyu Jelly. It's the greatest I have taste until now.

You can ask the auntie to add the boba pearl.

It is made in big size, then the auntie will use the big round head spatula to cut it into smaller pieces.

Day 4

- We have a more free and easy day on day 4. First we went to some highly rated breakfast place. 五湖豆浆. The review is 4.3 over 5.0 from google. I would have to agree with google review this time. It really serves good breakfast.

Their soya bean is homemade and fresh. Taste really good that I had to have 2 glasses.

They basic food is just few but the way they wrap it together become another food makes them have more variety.

- We went to zhongshan memorial park next. You can do a lot of things there like taking picture, watch a team of few people doing some drills. Going further into the museum got a place for you to practice your brush painting.

The park got all the nice building that you can only see from tv most of the time.

Everyday at certain hour, they will do this drill.

- We went to Lao Wang restaurant for some nice beef noodle at reasonable price. Some people might consider another beef noodle restaurant that had been promoted by celebrity before but it is too expensive. Starting from 200 taiwan dollar which is about RM30 

:'-(

This is the restaurant.

I would say the soup and the beef is totally awesome. The noodle is quite normal but the portion is very big. Definitely more than enough for those who eat a lot.

- Of course we don't stop here. We went to eat Mango Snowflakes. Located not too far from Lao Wang and definitely worth the walk.

Very easy to find it.

I ordered mango snowflakes with panna cotta. Cost 210 taiwan dollar. Shared it with a friend because of the big portion but actually I can finish it alone.

- After this snowflakes, we went to the underground shopping mall. Be careful when you buy here. Some stuff is being sold at higher rate than other place. You can go in from Taipei Main Station for this underground shopping mall.

- We went to ximending night market after that. I didnt manage to get any nice picture there because I am busy looking at iPhone 8 that had just been released in Taiwan on that day. See here for some update that I got from there.

Day 5

- From 8 people, 3 of us agreed to wake up at 6.30am to go xiang shan (elephant mountain). But only 2 manage to wake up on time and really go. This xiangshan is tougher than yangmingshan because each step is very steep. Be prepared and bring water because you will definitely need it. It will definitely worth your time.

This is the map. You can don't need to go all the way, because the best view only like half hour hike. The rest is just hiking trail.

(Do note that there is one uncle that will hike here everyday in reverse mode. He is quite famous in Taipei, I believe it's because of social media, maybe a certain website had wrote about him before. We stopped by when some local hikers asked, is it him who hike everyday in reverse mode, he said yes. He also mentioned hiking in reverse mode only pressure ur leg 20% of original pressure, make u less tired and your leg can last longer. You also have to keep looking back make u alert all the time, reducing the risk of getting Alzheimer's)

This is the view from the middle.

When you reach another milestone, there is one big rock, you can climb onto it and take picture. But it's quite dangerous because there is no support to hold onto. Be careful if you wanna take this kind of picture.

- After the hike, it's only about 9.30am, so we meet up with the group at Beitou to go for outdoor footspa that is free. Many aunties and uncles sit there to rest. It's like a healing fountain, that regenerate your hp after walking whole day long. 

- The party splitted into 2 groups, the hikers and the shopper. The hikers went back home to shower and the shopper went straight to 101 tower. We meet up again at 101 tower and continued our picture taking.

There are no other way to take 101 tower picture in full unless you are at a very far place like xiangshan where you can see it in full, so this is the best way.

- Went to Raohe night market again at night to continue shopping, some of us went to Shi Da night market. 

Day 6

- This is our last day, but we managed to wake up on time to go church. New Life church, a well known church for a lot of celebrities and artist there.

- We are quite lucky to see Huang Mei Zhen (Jane Huang) and Ah Qing (FIR main guitarist) on stage sharing their testimonial.

- We asked the helper in church where is the best place for lunch nearby, they suggested 大宅门乾锅鸭头. So we went and eat to our heart content since it's our last day here.

Ordered the normal 3 in one. Got chicken, charsiew and siuyuk.

- We sit in McD until our transport arrive and fetch us to airport.

Summary of this trip

Number of people going: 8

Number of people coming back: 8

Number of people sick in Taiwan: 0

Number of people sick after coming back: 1

Number of people got darker skin after coming back: 8

Total amount spent: RM 500 (flight) + RM 350 (homestay) + RM 1900 (expenses) = RM 2750 but I have leftover of around RM150. So my total amount spent is only RM2600.

My advise is if possible, try not to go during summer season. You will feel like staying in your homestay or hotel only because it is really hot. Everytime I step out, I really feel like going back into the homestay right away.

Few days trip to Kota Kinabalu

So I went to KK with my brothers. We wanted to go to Kundasang and island hopping.

Sorry, I got no picture in this post.

Luckily we are driving there, so going anywhere is also quite easy. But even if without car, you can pretty much travel anywhere in KK nowadays. Lots of people doing Grab and Uber, especially when there are a lot of discount or promocodes from Uber and Grab.

So we stay at nearby Jesselton Point, which is the place you get the package for island hopping (snorkeling, parasailing, zipline, jet ski, banana boat, flying fish, diving and so on). Don't straight pay for the amount displayed. Ask for discount because they usually will give discount.

Our accommodation is called The Bunk. It's cheap and located at good location. Many tourist and foreigner stays there because it is a cheap and strategic location. However, 2 nights of our stay, I got bitten by quite many bed bug. So we requested to checkout and get our refund back. So we moved to another cheap hotel nearby called Little Gaya Hotel. It's cheaper than many other hotel but it's clean and spacious, at least enough for us. Of course it is a lot more expensive than The Bunk, but I really rather pay extra than suffer.

The Bunk: RM 22 per bunk

Little Gaya Hotel: RM160 for 2 single beds, we add extra beds cost RM65. Total RM225 / 3, it will be RM75 each. 

For our island hopping, here's the price breakdown

Boat to go and back for 2 islands hopping : RM 35 

Parasailing: RM 70 each

Snorkeling equipment: RM 10 each 

Diving: RM 180 each 

Zipline: RM 68 each

Each of us take different combo.

Elder bro: Parasailing + Snorkeling. Total only RM 35+70+10 = 125

Me: Parasailing + Snorkeling + Zipline. Total only RM 35+70+10+68 = 193

Younger bro: Parasailing + Diving: Total only RM 35+70+180 = RM 285

There are 2 big shopping malls here called Suria Mall and Imago. If you have anything that you want to know more about this trip, just leave me a comment.

Searching through the downtown in Montreal

I had went to several souvenir stores in downtown Montreal, Canada, just to find the suitable size of souvenir that I am going to buy. After been to 6 or 7 different stores, I finally found a suitable one. 

It is quite fun, to shop for all these items. I will probably buy some for myself too. 

The most exciting event next is to go Toronto. I will be there for 2 days 1 night. I really want to visit their Ripley's aquarium and Toronto Zoo. The journey will take about 6-7 hours probably. Hopefully the bus is comfortable enough for me to sleep.

Simple Singapore trip guide.

I went to Singapore with my brothers last weekend. I better write down everything when the memory is still fresh.

So we booked the Universal Studio ticket online with  SGD68. The promotion ongoing that time gave us free SGD5 meal voucher and SGD5 retail voucher. But the retail voucher can only be used when we spend more than SGD35 in USS.

We scan the ticket that we printed after we purchased it online. Then we can straight go in. So we know there will be a lot of people because its Saturday, so we went to buy express ticket. At their website, the price is SGD30 for limited express and SGD50 for unlimited but the price is dynamic. It changes according to the season. Saturday, of course will be slightly more expensive. We purchased limited express ticket that only allow us to go through Express Lane once for each game.

Basically, we spent almost 6-7 hours inside Universal Studio. Remember to catch some show that is available at the time of your visit. Your just need to look at the sign board, they will show you what show is available at what time.

Vivocity is the largest Singapore mall. So remember to take a walk inside, eat some food and also buy some candy.

So we planned to go Marina Bay. We find out, we need to get off at Bayfront MRT station to get there. So we went to Bayfront, and looking for the place. However, the weather is not siding us. The rain pour down and we need to get to shelter. So we go to find some food instead. Went to the cheapest place in Marina Bay for food. Looks like a food court but still serve a very delicious and pretty food.

We stay at Hotel 34 nearby Geylang. We just need to get off at Aljunied MRT station and then we need to walk for about 10 minutes...

Some simple guides if you are going to Singapore.

1. Download a MRT station map to your phone and planned out where you want to go before you reach Singapore.

2. If you are willing to spend, just go to 7-11 to get a Singapore mobile number and get a data plan. I used Singtel once and the internet speed is good enough.

3. If you want to speed up your way from MRT to MRT, get an EZ Link card. Top up accordingly and you can save up a lot of time because usually a lot of people lining up to buy the ticket for MRT.

Feel free to comment if you have anything to ask.

East Malaysia Vacation. Bintulu to Miri to Brunei

Hello. 

It has been some time since i update my blog.

So here is the first greeting picture. 

This is inside a shopping mall in Bintulu

Along with 2 of my brothers.

So here is the stories. My brothers and I went to Bintulu and stayed at my relative house for 2 nights. The first day is bored and nothing much can be done during afternoon. Only walking in a shopping mall which is much smaller than the shopping mall in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

But East Malaysia!!! We should enjoy the nature. Not the city live...

So we went to Kuala Tatau.... (Sounds like tak tau.... in chinese, island is "dao", so is actually "bu zhi dao"... which mean i don't know in chinese)

So we take a small boat to get over to the other side.

Here is some worm for fishing purpose.

Its actually a boring moment when you need to wait for the fish to get hooked.

So at night time, we went to this relative house and we started BBQ. Its really fun.

However, when we are eating happily, this dog, Lulu if not mistaken, got poisoned by someone outside. They throw some food with dog poison. Of course dog know nothing. So they just eat whatever there is. Few minutes later, the dog started to vomit bubble. Cannot move and start shaking on the floor. It died in about 20-30 minutes.

Cannot do anything about it. We still need to continue the bbq.

Happy family.

So the third day, we wanted to go to Miri to play. So my relative brought us to eat breakfast first.

Nasi lemak ayam. Which is really really delicious in my opinion.

On the way, we stopped at this beach.

And the scenery is destroyed by him... Hahahaha.

So we went for lunch at Uncle Lim Kitchen. The food is really made using their best effort. Because it took more than half hour for 3 dishes to come out. Hahaha.

Of course i always eat meat in each meal.

And my brother tried this out. But it's satisfying and full.

Side dish for all of us.

Fried fried not the packaging type. 

Our next journey is to Crocodile Farm. 

So i take a picture with the statue at the entrance.

Its actually a zoo. But the main attraction is crocodile, that's why its called crocodile farm.

Bak kut teh crocodile soup. I didn't try...

Some sort of big turtle.

This crocodile with its stories.

And more crocodiles.

Crocodile with albino.

Trapped pity bear.

Trying to get to the other side to meet the other bear.

I will stop here because i need to get my dinner. See if I can update again later.