Taiwan Trip - Beware of Sands Flies in Taiwan

On the fourth day, Mom started to rant about how itchy her legs were. She said maybe it was because she used the soap given by the hotel and her sensitive skin reacted to it.

I did not think about it until I experienced it.

It was three days after I landed back in Singapore. It started in the morning. Suddenly I felt my legs were so itchy and some red swollen patches on my legs. It looked like mosquito bites.

By afternoon, some turned to many. I used menthol medication oil but to no use.

The next day, there were more than 100 on my left leg and about 70 on my right leg.

Red. Swollen. Itchy.

This was how it looked like

And it has been almost one month, but nothing improved. Sometimes the itch went away, sometimes it came back. I try so hard to resist scratching it but my sensitive skin is totally against me.

How my legs look like now

It's getting more reddish, more swollen patches, more rashes, and some wounds.

I can survive in air conditioned room, but once I go out, the itch just comes back.

So Guys, please beware of sands fly when you are going to Qixingtan. Apply some insect repellant on the exposed skin. I am quite sure those damn things bit me there.

I wish nobody catch this after me.

It makes my life miserable.

Very.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Taiwan Trip - fin

Taiwan Trip - Bidding Good Bye to Taiwan

Our last destination was Shilin Night Market.

It was still 4:00pm but we already reached there. With hungry tummy. 

The first thing we saw was manjoo cake and we straight away bought it. No photo. Because we were just so very hungry

The start of Shilin Shopping District

Shilin Night Market is located in Shilin Shopping District. There are a lot of shops which open since morning. Only the food stalls will open around 5:00pm or so.

Some sellers are still setting up their stalls 

We walked to the back and saw this stall selling quite a number of chinese style bread

I bought black sesame bread but the bread was so hard it was so difficult to chew

Shilin is big. Some of the alleys are specially for foods and some are for fashion apparels. I didn't know how we walked but we ended up walking along an alley with all the restaurants and food stalls. I bought some fish cakes and felt like have more snacks, but Mom was so hungry she wanted to eat RICE.

So we ended up in a Taiwanese restaurant ordering some Taiwanese foods recommended by the chef.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle. For me it tasted fine but Mom and Ah Yi said it was too plain. They expect something more salty.

I don't know what it is called. Basically it's pork, mushroom, yam, quail egg, vegetable, and bamboo shoot cooked in Taiwan style. I wasn't into it.

The two dishes cost us NTD 400 (~SGD 17). When we walked out of the restaurant, it was around 5:30pm.

We walked around for a while. I still wanted to shop but Ah Yi kept saying, "Let's go to the airport".

I was very pissed because it was still more than 6 hours to our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. I didn't want to care for what she asked but Mom told me to just follow what she wanted.

So in the end, we went back to the hotel, took our luggages, and boarded the airport bus. The bus ticket cost NTD 95 (~SGD 4) per person.

Guess what time we did reach the airport? 8:30pm. Three hours before the flight.

Bag deposit - Walked slowly - Immigration clearance - Walked slowly - Eat supper - Walked slowly again - Groomed ourselves in the toilet slowly - Walked slowly - Walked slowly - Sat in the waiting room - Boarding

Good Bye Taiwan

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Next Post - Beware of Sands Flies in Taiwan

Taiwan Trip - The Sexy Beitou Hot Spring

From Longshan Temple Station we took blue line to Taipei Main Station and transferred to red line to Beitou Station.

From Beitou Station, we transferred again to pink line to Xinbeitou.

This is how Beitou Station looks at Xinbeitou train platform

And this is how the train looks like. Not an ordinary train.

Of course not just the outside. You see that table? It's a screen with some information of Beitou Hot Spring!

The MRT journey took about 10 minutes and we finally arrived at Xinbeitou Station! Our destination was just in front of the station: the park.

Beitou Park. Right in front of the station.

The map showing all the possible trail

We didn't know which one to go so we just walked. We visited Katagalan Culture Centre first. This building is located just besides the park. There is no entrance fee, no security, nothing. Just walk in and enjoy the story of aborigins there.

Hello from the first floor

The exhibits

One of the aborigins with the traditional clothes

One of the equipments used long long time ago

We then continued our journey at the park. We walk around to find Beitou Hot Spring Museum. From the outside, it looks like a colonial house but it shows its Japanese heart inside. This area was developed as hot spring resorts during Japanese occupation.

The exterior of Beitou Hot Spring Museum

The Japanese style interior 

The Public Hot Bath Area

The view you get when you look out of the window

We were required to take out our sandals before entering this museum and change with their slippers. I guess this practice is to preserve the Japanese feel of the museum.

Then we walked and walked and walked.

We passed by a public hot spring bath and another museum but we did not get in. We wanted to visit Beitou Geothermal Valley at the end of the road.

The valley is a volcanic crater filled with steaming sulphuric water with acidity of 1.2 to 1.6. The high temperature can reach up to 100 degree celcius and it is not suitable for bathing. The hot spring bathes around this area are sourced from Beitou Geothermal Valley.

In earlier days, there was no fences along the crater and people could boil egg in the water. However, a few accidents had happened until the valley was called Hell Valley. To prevent more unexpected things to happen, the government decided to fence up the area. No more boiled egg but no more accident.

The sign to let you know where to turn

Hot Spring Valley

What you can see when walking inside. Cool?

No, it's hot. See the steam.

There is a cute temple up there

When we walked out of this area, we realized that we were hungry. So we walked and looked for the well-known 'Hot Spring Beef Ramen' as mentioned in some travel blogs. It was a bit of up slope walk to reach the restaurant but it was about 2:30pm when we reached there. The restaurant was having the break.

We walked back down with some disappointment.

We saw a lot of people did some foot bath at one area and we decided to try. It is freeeeeee.

The Public Foot Bath

Some people even brought their dog to have some hot spring bath

After soaking our feet and let the warm stream massage them for a few minutes, we decided to close this journey at Beitou and walked back to Xinbeitou Station. Time to go back to Taipei for our last destination.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - Bidding Good Bye to Taiwan

Taiwan Trip - A Morning at Longshan Temple

Our last day in Taiwan.

I asked the front desk where I could get a nice breakfast and he introduced a doujiang shop nearby. He particularly mention the xian dou jiang and the you tiao.

So we walked there.

The shop from across the road

The shop was full of people. We had no doubt that this was the perfect spot to have breakfast. We ordered quite a number of things.

Xian Dou Jian a.k.a salty soya milk. It is basically an unsweetened soya milk with vinegar, salty soy sauce, celery, and you tiao. It tastes like porridge. 

Egg Pancake with Floss Filling.

Dou Hua a.k.a Beancurd.

Mantou with Egg Filling. It's huge.

You Tiao and Soya Milk. The you tiao is soooo crispy.

This satisfying breakfast cost us NTD 179 (~SGD 7.5) and we were sooo full.

We continued our journey by MRT to Longshan Temple. This temple was built in 1738 by settlers from Fujian and it is a mixture of Buddhism and Taoist. Longshan Temple has undergone a few rounds of renovation after bombing by USA, after world war, after earthquake.

How it looks now

The temple

Quite a number of people prayed there and we were one of them. After that we continued our journey to our second last destination.

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - The Sexy Beitou Hot Spring

Taiwan Trip - A Short Night at Ximending

There's a reason why I chose a hotel near Taipei Main Station. Every transportation mode pass Taipei Main Station especially those out of the city.

After putting all our shopping bags in the hotel room, we went back to Taipei Main Station to continue our journey to Ximending, the harajuku of Taipei.

I don't think any explanation needed to describe this place. Shopping paradise it is.

The gate of Ximending

Shop and shop and shop and shop and shop

When it was getting dark, a lot of random food stalls appeared out of nowhere. I bought ordinary muaji like what Singapore sells for NTD30 (~SGD 1.3) per pack.

Muaji muaji~~

I also bought another unique food. The seller grilled the muaji until its all body blistered. After that, he poured some condensed milk over it and lie it over a bed of peanut/chocolate/black sesame/cheese/etc.

I bought a peanut one for NTD 30. Sinful but nice. Oh oh oh.

We were sourcing for dinner but whatever we suggested, Ah Yi seemed not to want it. So in the end, I felt upset and angry. I let mom pamper her and I bought my own thing.

XL Fried Chicken. Cholesterol whatever!

I wanted to walk and shop some more. I felt that we had not even walked 20% of it. But Ah Yi already felt tired.

She successfully doubled my anger.

We went back to the hotel.

Love is in the air,

Little Feet

Next Post - A Morning at Longshan Temple

Taiwan Trip - Going Out of City to Jiufen

The next morning we planned to catch 9:00am train to Ruifang. From Ruifang we would transfer to Jinguashi and Jiufen.

So we walked from the hotel to Taipei Main Station for about 5 minutes. We then just walked into the train platform using our easy cards.

We had our breakfast in the train.

From 7-Eleven and I love it!

I was continuously amazed by how Taiwan kept its cleanliness. Everybody is allowed to eat inside the train, there is not much rubbish bin, no threat of fines. However, everybody plays his part to be a good citizen, a good tourist. I hope Singapore can learn from Taiwan.

And we took selfie1

After reaching Ruifang Station, we walked across the street to catch the bus to Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park. Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park is a preserved mining town. This place used to be a mining town during Japanese occupation. There are a lot of areas open for public, like the Crown Prince Chalet, Benshan Tunnel, etc.

The bus ride to Jinguashi was a tough one. Ruifang was located at the foot of the hill, Jinguashi was located up there around the peak. The road was winding like hell,

And to my surprise, when we reached there, most of the area was closed for general cleaning. This cleaning happens every first Monday of the month. So, be reminded not to plan your visit on FIRST MONDAY OF THE MONTH.

The gate. No notice. Nothing.

The chalet was closed.

A few shops were still opened.

I walked up as Mom and Ah Yi waited downstairs. I got the impression they didn't like the place.

So I walked up. If I continued to walk, I could go a temple at the end of the hill. But I just walked halfway because I didn't want them to be too bored waiting for me down there.

The Benshan Tunnel was closed too

I continued walking 

The view. Oh God.

A beancurd stall where quite a number of people patronized

So we walked back to the front gate and waited for the bus across the road. Suddenly a taxi driver approached us and offered us a ride to Golden Waterfall and back to Jiufen for NTD 200 (~SGD 8.5).

We took his offer.

Golden Waterfall is yellowish in color due to the gold deposit in the water. Nowadays, nobody mines the gold there anymore. So the waterfall is purely for tourism.

The Golden Waterfall

They even built a viewing platform

Not up to here, the driver brought us to another site down the road to see the former gold processing factory. We could also see the gold deposit in the small stream there.

The factory

The stream which is even more golden than the waterfall

Then he sent us back up to Jiufen Old Street.

Jiufen Old Street is a shopping alley that sells foods and souvenirs. There is only a single alley that lead to the open space at the end. And the view of Pacific Ocean can be seen from there.

The Pineapple Tart Shop in front of the Shopping Street

Jiufen Old Street

After walking a few steps into the street, I saw an uncle grinding a big block of peanut manually. Being a big fan of peanut, my eyes and my saliva ran wild. I saw him creating an ice cream paw-piah and I ordered one without thinking twice. It cost NTD 40 (~SGD 1.8).

See that pretty block of peanut? I couldn't resist!

Ice cream and ground peanut wrapped with pawpiah skin. It pushed Amei Muaji down to the second place.

Walked another few steps, mom bought some kind of donut stick. 3 pieces for NTD 100 (SGD 4.2).

Fried flour!

I also bought a grilled king oyster mushroom that tasted superb! Chewy chewy!

Chewy chwey! They also sell the fried one.

We bought pineapple tarts, black roasted peanuts, sesame bars, some souvenirs and felt happy. We then took the bus back to Ruifang and the train back to Taipei.

We also got this view as the bonus!

The cutie for dearest besties!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

Next Post - A Short Night at Ximending