Day 3 - Tainan

After spending time in Taipei in day 1 and Jiufen in day 2, it's time for Tainan!

Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan and also commonly known as the "Capital City". When we went there, it was not the best weather for travel :(

Tainan weather from the train station

We went to the city by the free bus provided by the government. Even though Tainan was the "Capital City" in the past time, but they don't have underground train in the city. 

Very rare bus, and also quite hard to find taxi. For me, taxi is the best choices because the price is not expensive, meter based, and safe.

Near the airport, there is a very huge and European inspired museum, Chimei museum, but too bad we can't go there because apparently to enter the museum, we need to book at least 1 week in advance.  

Arriving in the city, we went directly to our hotel, Fuward Hotel. After we are done with check in, we go directly to Hayashi department stores which located right across our hotel. 

The building was build during Japanese invasion era. The elevator is antique, products sold also still rich with Japanese touch. The product sold there quite pricey especially they also sell Taiwan designer goods.

When you go to 5th floor, there is also a roof top you can go to enjoy the city view. They have shrine there and you can read the history of the building there. ( it will be no fun if I tell everything here ^^).

Since it was raining, so we only spent a bit time on the rooftop and decided to walk around the hotel to see what can be eaten for local dishes. After we walk, not too far, we found a restaurant that seem famous and already become a news in CNN and many other media. Since it was written in Chinese, I'm sorry I don't remember the restaurant name. We decided to go in and try the dishes.

Milk fish porridge soup . prawn noodle . taro cake

Those three dishes are the famous menu in Tainan. I love the milk fish porridge soup, but for the rest, it is not really my taste. They also show us how to make the noddle in case you curious:)

Don't worry, they have menu in English and it is not too pricey. But  I need to tell you that the portion can be considered small.

After that, we are planning to go to the biggest night market but since it rain super hard, so we decided to cancel and go to the malls to have dinner and then go back to hotel to have some rest.

next morning, the weather is still not good but we still decided to go to Anping Old street to see around. After arriving in the Anping Old street, we go directly to Anping Fort.

Inside Anping fort 

Too bad it was raining hard, we can't enjoy the scenery but it worth the visit. You can go to the indoor museum to know the history of Anping fort together with Koxinga, one of their heroes. We only stay for few minutes and we decided to go out to looking for rain coat to cover our body since the rain came with strong wind as well.

Near the fort, there is a family mart, so we go there to buy the rain coat and we found a temple across the street. During that time, there was a ceremony done under the rain, so we also want to see with our new rain coat. Wohoo!

It's us with our new rain coat!! haha..

 After looking at the temple for a while, we decided to dry ourselves and looking for a restaurant with famous local dishes. After googling around, we found the famous Chou's shrimp roll!

There are some restaurants in the alley of Anping claim selling Chou's shrimp roll but I don't know if it is real or not. Anyway, it still taste good haha!

Lo Rou Fan . steam shrimp meat ball . Chou's shrimp roll . milky fish porridge soup . papaya milk

All of them are good! the best things are they are not expensive. You can bring home the Chou's shrimp roll by buying the frozen pack. Queue always long, but I think it worth to try.

After we eat, we decided to go back to the train station to head to our next destination, Kao Hsiung..

Day 2 - Jiufen

After having a good sleep, it is time to explore Jiufen as I heard a lot of good things and I never went there.

The city is very small and long time ago, the isolated village housed nine families, thus the village would request "nine portions" every time shipments arrived from town. That is why they are called Jiufen which means nine family (a bit history information here hehe...)

There are ways to go there, but after we asked around, most of them recommend us to go by train to Ruifang station and then go with the bus to Jiufen. We are glad we choose this method. Why? I will explain later. We went there using normal train with reserved seat from Taipei Main Station.

Ticket to Rui Fang Station

Once we arrived in Ruifang station, you can go out from the station and FYI, the bus station has been changed to a bus stop besides police station. All those blogs that said you can cross the street and aboard from there, it is no longer valid.

There is a tourist information desk inside the station, and the officer will help you. 

Once you arrived in the bus stop, avoid the bus with no seat for you. The driver drives like fast n furious wannabe and motion sickness is possible. I was standing on the way to Jiufen and barely survive.  After you arrived in Jiufen bus stop, just go straight up the hill and you will see the entrance of Jiufen old street directly. The entrance located besides 7 eleven so it should be easy to be spotted.

Jiufen OldStreet Entrance

 I was lucky because I came on weekdays and not so many people around. There are some tour group, but still ok. The road is small and in the left and right side, all are shops and mostly selling food.

First food we tried

Rice Noodle, yong tofu, and fishball

 Since it was lunch time and we are hungry, so we tried the first stall selling food haha.. The taste is good and the price is also fine, not too expensive. Worth to try :)

After having heavy meal, we look for dessert to complete our meal. There are a lot of stall selling peanut ice cream roll, but only one with the most queue and famous, A-Zhu peanut ice cream roll !!

The stall

How they prepare

ready to eat

The taste is unique, because the ice cream it self is home made, and the peanut is made from sticky peanut grater which make it more crunchy and sweet.

Along the way, there are plenty of snacks sold but we don't buy everything to keep our weight haha! #bullsh*t

Roast "escargot"

Pork, Fish, Squid, Rice sausage. My bro favorite is the squid one!

After we walk a bit far, we finally can find the famous Grandma taro balls. The taro balls taste very nice, chewy, but sadly they only have one kind of serving, with yam balls, green tea balls, green bean and ice only. It will be great if they add vanilla ice cream and all things usually mixed together with them hehe..

Taro balls

 If you still have energy, you can go up the hill and see the scenery from the top. There are cafes, restaurant, which give you the scenery but we decided to take a photo only and go back down.

View from the top of Jiufen Old Street

 On our way back to Taipei, we decided to go direct by bus. The bus station location is not the same with the one when you come.

From Jiufen old street entrance, you need to go up again and you will see the bus stop in the left side of the street. You can go back by bus until Ruifang station and go back by train or you also can go with direct bus to the city.

This time, we tried the bus to the city. Apparently all of the drivers drive like Fast n Furious wannabe, luckily we were all seated so the motion sickness can be minimized. There was a Japanese couple on board together with me, they look so scared and after arriving in Taipei, both of them looks blank haha.. (yes, it is that brutal).

The bus stop is not stopping directly in front of Taipei Main Station, but it is near by. Since we saw Sogo building while in the bus, so we decided to go there first and then heading to 101.

Sogo shopping center

Inside Sogo, you can find all the branded stuff there such as Hermes, Chanel, Balenciaga, and friends. Since we don't plan to shop luxurious goods, so we only spend few minutes there and heading directly to 101 to try the famous Din Tai Fung.

Arriving there around 5 PM, people already queuing

Queue for Din Tai Fung

Kuo Die, Pork Xiao Long Bao, Crab and Pork Xiao Long Bao

Tips: When you go to Din Tai Fung, see the queue counter light. If it is turned off, means you don't have to queue but if you see numbers there, you can decide if you still want to try or pass the Michelin 1 star dining experience.
We ordered some menu, but not the heavy meal since it supposedly tea time. So, we order pork kuo die, pork xiao long bao, and crab and pork xiao long bao.

They have few nationality waitress so when you tell them where you come from, they will assign one with the similar language to you. At that time, they assign Malaysian waitress for us as they know that we are coming from Indonesia.

We love love love all the menus there, especially the xiao long bao. The price is reasonable and we will be back to try their other menu.

While you are in 101, you can also try Agnes B cafe. Yes, she is a designer and you usually will know her bag or wallet, but apparently their cake also taste good.

Agnes B cafe in 101

After done exploring 101, we decided to go back to Ximen and shop some more there. In the middle of our shopping, we spot on a very long queue for a rice noodle so we decided to queue as well.

After 30 mins queue still need to spend another minutes to queue

Large portion Ay Chung Rice Noodle

Now I know why people queue and willing to eat there while standing, because no seat or table provided. It taste so good, rich with oyster and you can add on garlic or chili. For me, I don't need to add anything more because the taste is perfect already.

This is the end of my second day in Taiwan with super full stomach.

You can see what I did in my first day in Taiwan or simply continue to my third day for Tainan experience ^^

It's time for Taiwan!

So, recently I went to Taiwan for holiday trip with my family. Usually, when I go with the "elder", I prefer to join a tour group as it is easier and hassle free.

As most of you know, joining tour means you have to have high acceptance attitude. Hotel always far far away from city, restaurant choices is not the best one in town, spending most of your time in the bus, and there still more things that can't satisfied your travel instinct. But it is good for the "elder".

After much effort, finally we travel by our own *yay* We are going to go to Taipei, Jiufen, Tainan, and Kaoshiung for 8 days.

Super excited to go, I was browsing a lot about Taiwan cities and what to do but what shocked me, there is not much blog or information regarding Taiwan for tourist. Most of the review was from 2012, 2013, or maybe 2014. Since it is 2015 already, so some things has changed.

I hope my blog will help you arrange your own Taiwan trip.

Day 1 - Taipei

Arrived there in the afternoon, around 4 PM, there is not much to do anymore in my first day. Since it was super early flight, so all of us was super tired and sleepy. We decided to stay in Green World Hotel Zhonghua, which located in Ximen area. For us, it was a very convenience place to stay if you want to go around Ximen area and it is cheap if you compare with other hotel around there.

It located right besides exit 6 of Ximen MRT station. When you travel from airport with heavy luggage, you can go by taxi (around NT$1100) or you still can go by MRT but exit 6 has no lift or elevator. It's your choice :D

The lobby is at the 13th floor. Don't go to the wrong floor because there also another one or two hotel in the same building hehe..

The decoration for the breakfast place

Twin bed room with no window

The bathroom

The room is quite small but the lighting is good and the most important thing is... clean! I also love their toilet as they use what I call "Japanese closet" haha! #happy

Next to their building, there is also 7 eleven and Family Mart, so if you crave for midnight snack or cute drink, no worries, problem solved.

Right after we put our luggage to our room, we go directly to Yongkang street.

Went there by MRT, stop at Dongmen MRT and look for Yongkang street in exit sign. It could be exit 4 or 5 (sorry I forgot). If you are in the right exit, once you are out from the station, in your right side should be NET, Taiwan fashion brand.

Go straight and in your right side, you will see Sun Merry bread shop. Many people buy pineapple cake there, but for me, Ciate still taste better.

Read some reviews from some blog, Kao Chi is Din Tai Fung rival and most of local prefer to eat there to avoid the long queue. So, with high expectation, we go there and tried their famous dish.

Kaochi menu

Some kind of Pork Pao

Pork Xiao Long Bao

 Over all, the Xiao Long Bao skin is too thick in my opinion. The taste is also so -so. It can't be compared with Din Tai Fung. We didn't try the other menu as we are planning to eat more variety in Yongkang Street. So, only if you have time and spare spot in your stomach, you can try.

After eating at Kaochi, we go straight and found out Smoothie House. You can see their advertisement everywhere in Dongmen MRT station. The queue is super long but it worth the wait!

supposedly our photo ><

Mango Ice with sorbet

It taste superb! especially we are eating it in a hot summer weather. There are many choices, but this one is the most ordered items. The mango is sweet and the Mango sorbet make it perfect! The portion is huge and don't worry, you will finish it as it tasted soo goood.

There are two choices for the mango ice, using sorbet or pudding. We are happy with this one but sadly we have no time to try the other variation. 

After our stomach are full, we just walk along the street for not so long because we want to go back to Ximen area to shop.

Apparently, after we arrived in Ximen, my mom can't stop requesting to stop by in modern toilet restaurant. So, with full stomach, we go there and see if we can do dessert only.

Arriving there, it is already around 9.30 PM so we need to order super fast as 9.30 PM is their last order time. They have minimum spending for each person so you can order anything but in total it should be tally with the minimum spending requirement. Finally we order food as well as we need to fulfill the minimum spending.

It's me playing around with the decoration

The taste of the food is not good, especially the ice cream (once again, this is in my opinion). We ordered sukiyaki set and pork curry set. Both doesn't taste good and it is quite pricey as well. It is good to go there once, just to know and play around, but I won't coming back again.

So, this is what I do in my first day, you can continue to my second day until I go home in the next post.