Nam Nam Noodle Bar

Pre CNY lunch at Nam Nam Noodle Bar with Sis before heading to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year Market. The shop is always crowded and it is common to see long queue during meal times. Here, you would have to wait for a seat before ordering at the counter. 

We had the lunch menu that come with a bowl of pho (a choice of your own), a salad and a glass of coffee - Quite worth the price at $9.90. Read a good news about Nam Nam and that is – no MSG at all. That means the broth is cooked with real good stuff that made it sweet and the addition of spring oinions, white onions, fresh herbs and bean sprout made the broth flavourful. The pho was springy. I ordered the Chicken pho where the chicken was tender. The broth really complemented both the pho and chicken. Yumz. The salad that made up of crunchy pickled vegetables, fish cake, pork belly and peanuts was great too. Personally I liked the pork belly a lot - tender! We ordered the Crispy fried prawn & pork rolls as side dish. This roll was served hot and it really lived up to its name. Crispy!

The pho at Nam Nam Noodle Bar may not be as good as those I had in Ho Chi Ming, but definitely worthy enough to at least give it a try especially when the 3-course lunch menu is priced at SGD$9.90nett. Well, the service at Nam Nam was excellent and basically you need not wait long for your food. From the time sis ordered at the counter till she took the utensils back, the food was already on the table. See how fast that was. I did not wait long for my food but queued long enough for it!

Crispy fried prawn & pork rolls, Salad of crunchy pickled vegetables, fish cake, pork belly and peanuts and Pho chicken

252 North Bridge Road, #B1-46/47
Raffles City Shopping Centre

Osaka Ohsho Raffles City, Once again.

Lunch date with the ex-colleagues was really a challenge - working at four different companies now, the most centralised place to meet for lunch was at Raffles City. Lunch crowd is something that I hate most but is something that is unavoidable. Lucky for us, there is this one person with 2 hours lunch break. Thus, she volunteered to order food for us. 

Venue was decided to be at Osaka Ohsho. I have decided what I wanted to eat after my first visit there last December - Fuwatoro Tenshin Han Set. The Gyoza was a must and since it is lunch, rice is very important to me too. I have read some good reviews on the Fuwatoro Tenshin Han and thus, been wanting to try it . 

The first look at it, it looked like omelette soaked in thick gravy - A very normal appearance but well, it was really nice. The fluffy omelette upon slicing into, revealed steaming Japanese rice. The first look was quite alarming as it was really a bowl of rice - but I loved it as it was rich in flavour. The gravy really complemented the egg and rice. And with the pan fried gyoza, this meal really made a wonderful lunch date with the girls. Like what I mentioned before the gyoza was cripsy on the outside and super juicy for the fillings. Yumz. 

A great lunch that cost SGD12.90 before gst!

Fuwatoro Tenshin Han Set

#B1-75 Raffles City Shopping Centre, 

252 North Bridge Road Singapore 179103

A day across to JB

The first overseas trip in 2014... that was across the border to Malaysia for a shopping and eating trip with siss. As it was a weekday, there was not much people travelling over though Chinese New Year was around the corner. 

A light breakfast at home led to a heavy lunch - we went to Bornga for some korean food. Though Bornga also co-exist in Singapore, I have not been to the local branch yet. Like all said, for most of the restaurants, it is normally cheaper to eat in JB than in Singapore. Well, it applies to Bornga as well. For the three of us, we ordered a BBQ pork, a tofu stew and a seafood pancake. 

Frankly speaking, I found the food quite normally. The seafood pancake wasn't crispy at all. It was a bit soggy but in my impression, I had crispy pancake before. The best ever korean pancake I had was at Big MaMa in Singapore. As for the BBQ pork, though it looked like alot, there were quite a fair bit of pork with just the fats. Sinful dish but well, it really goes well with the lettuce. I loved the way Koreans mix meat with vegetables. A pity that they did not provide garlic which I thought was a norm and went well with the pork. 

As the the side dishes, Bornga did not disappoint me. There were in total seven different variety and personally, I found the Kimchi, the potato salad and the peanuts the best - well flavoured. We did not ask for any refill as we were real full though I am not sure if they allowed free refill. 

Total damage for the meal was MYR98. There was like less than SGD40. Woooah... Sis had Bornga in Singapore before and she mentioned that for the same food, it costed her SGD80. Crap! We should really go over to JB to eat if time allows!

Bornga Korean Food

I was not expecting myself to buy anything that day as I always did not see things that I liked. But as Chinese New Year was coming, I was hoping to get a new pair of shoes. And here this pair of heels caught my eyes. A normal black pair of pumps but with a bright orange heels. NICE. It costed MYR75 but that was a 20% discount (=MYR60)  if we used Citibank Credit Card or if we purchased 2 or more items. Sis helped me to pay using her Credit card and when the bill came, the heels costs SGD24. Wooah... My best buy of the day!

Black pump with orange heels

Well, time passed fast when we shopped and it was time for dinner. Not knowing what to eat, we stumbled upon PaPa Rich - Malaysian Cuisine. After looking through the menu, siss concluded that it is simliar to White Town Coffee. In the end, we ordered Chicken Satay, Curry Mutton, Penang Prawn Noodle, Chicken Noodle. The best dish was the Curry Mutton with the Naan. The Naan was softer as compared to what we had in Singapore but it complemented the curry very well. The Chicken Satay was tender but I preferred the peanut sauce found in Singapore. The peanut sauce at Papa rich was not very thick. The chicken noodle was quite noodle and the prawn noodle was a little too spicy to my liking. Overall, the food was quite decent though we preferred White Town. 

Papa Rich - Chicken Satay, Curry Mutton, Penang Prawn Noodle, Chicken Noodle

With this, we ended our JB day trip! A fruitful and filling trip indeed. Till we cross the border again!

Luncheon Egg Sanwich

Mummy's not cooking and so it's the day to make my own simple lunch. Judging from the ingredients at home, i decided to make a Luncheon egg sandwich. A very easy, simple dish but it is also simply delicious. 

Well, like what I had mentioned before, cooking is also mood - dependent and according to the chef's preference - thus, here's my ingredients for the day:

Ingredients:

Bread - 2 slices

Luncheon Meat - size of your delight

Egg - 1 or 2 depending on your preference - i used 1

Butter or Cooking oil - I used butter

Steps:

1. Toast the breads

2. While step 1 is in progress, beat the egg(s) in a bowl. Add salt and pepper if you wish

3. Heat up the pan and put butter

4. After it melted, pan fry the luncheon meat

5. After that, add more butter and pour in the egg 

6. When all's done, cut it into halves for easy- eating!

As simple as 1,2,3!

Ch4r's Luncheon Egg Sandwich

I am now exploring some recipes. Hopefully I can cook soon!

Hotpot @ Shabu Sai

Lunch for the day was at Shabu Sai - a treat from Sis made the day. She highly recommended to go to Shabu Sai at Orchard Central to have hotpot. The lunch buffet starts at 11.30am and we read that we have 70mins of time limit to complete the meal. However, upon asking the manager, he mentioned that it is only upon there is a crowd and line forming that they will execute this time limit. Well, a reasonable answer to our question. 

At Shabu Sai, you would have to pay before eating. For each pot, we are entitled to 2 soup choices with a total of 7 soup bases to choose from. In the end, we took the Sukiyaki Soup and the Seafood White Broth. The latter is the special soup of the month which changes every period. For weekend lunch, the price is S$19.90 per adult and we add on S$1.99 per adult to enjoy free flow of drinks.

The buffet concept is that the vegetables, ramen, udon, and some seafood are put at the counter for self-service. For the meat (chicken, pork and beef), we would have to order from the service crew who will bring them fresh to us.

For the chicken and pork (we do not eat beef), they are very thiny sliced and thus, it took us just seconds to get them cook in the hotpot. The meat was tender and sweet. As for the self service counter, there were cooked food and sushi and rice for us to eat while waiting for the hotpot to be ready. The variety of vegetables was great - mushrooms, chinese cabbage, lettuce, radish, carrot, bamboo shoots and more but the other variety of hotpot ingredients was lacking - just mussels, clams, crabstick meat, fishballs and vegetable balls. But well, I guess people go for the meat, that's why.

There is a counter where we can mix and make our own sauces according to our preference. I added sesame sauce to peanut sauce and added sesame seeds to it. I quite liked the combination. The soup broths got saltier as we put in more ingredients along the way. The way to tackle this saltiness was the pot of seaweed broth on the table to dilute the soup broth.

To conclude, Shabu Sai is reasonably-priced. Thus, if you are looking for affordable Japanese Buffet in Orchard area over a good supply of meat and vegetables, Shabu Sai is a place you can consider. Moreover, it is located at Orchard Central which is a relatively less crowded place to dine at. 

Hotpot @ Shabu Sai

Address:
Shabu Sai
#08-09, Orchard Central
181 Orchard Road

"Staycation" at Blue Bali

Was supposed to be having a staycation with them. But everyone seemed busy and in the end, we settled for a chillax dinner for the first meet up in 2014. After much deliberation, we agreed to visit Blue Bali - just think of Bali and it's like we are out of Singapore (*self-illusion*). Well, Blue Bali at Cluny Road is located in quite an inaccessible location - within NUS Law School. We walked for about half an hour from Botanic Garden Mrt to the place - not a place that I would visit again unless there is a car. Luckily we made a reservation prior to the dinner - I cannot imagine having to deny dinner after the long walk.

Upon reaching Blue Bali, we were brought to the backyard which is al fresco dinning concept. The design of the Balinese garden gave us the feeling that we were in Bali. What a staycation concept! My fren mentioned that at Blue Bali itself has their very own brewery and they do help to pair up a glass of wine/beer with your food. But still, you have your freedom to choose whichever drink you want.

In the end, we ordered the Mongolian Chicken (S$20), Pumpkin Prawns (S$20), Ayam Bakar (S$20), Indonesian Nasi Goreng (S$16) and Paneer Tikka (S$16). All the food mentioned were under the Main dish menu. With the arrival of the dishes came our surprise - we thought that main dish normally comes with rice. But the dishes (exclude Nasi Goreng) were without rice. It was more towards the 'zhi char' concept. That was not a bad thing after all. We ordered rice and shared the food. If only we knew, we would have either ordered less or ordered more variety. 

As for the drink, I ordered the Pink Mamba (1/2 pint). It has a tint of sweetness and well, I am not sure it goes well with the food.

We managed to get a 20% discount off the total bill with a particular credit card (which I forget which was the one). Further to that, for the beer, the next pint only cost S$6 when you order the second glass and more! So for the beer lover, I think this is quite worth it.

So much for the walk, ciao till we meet again!

Our food....

Address:
One D Cluny Road, S259600
(behind NUS Bukit Timah Campus oposite Law Faculty Eu Tong Sen Building)

Taiwan 2013 - Day 2 - Taipei

It was still raining on Day 2 and did I mention, it was real cold at night for Day 1. But well, we got to make use of the time we were there and we decided to tweak our itinerary once again. For today, me and Sis would spilt up with me visiting the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂) and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館) while Sis went on her shopping spree. It so happened to be the anniveray sales for Sogo.

We asked the Hotel receptionist for some directions and they were really very helpful and even gave suggestions to us. Really appreciated their kind service.  For breakfast, we headed to Fu Hang Dou Jiang 阜杭豆漿.  This place opens from 5.30am. We took the train (blue line) from Ximen Station to Shandao Temple Station (NT16, 4mins). To our surprise, there was already a long queue forming. When approaching the stall, we saw a picture notice, showing customers on how to queue for the stall - dumbfounded. "The food must be great" went to my head. But with the long queue, we did not really wait long - probably half an hour or so. 

Oh well, the food tasted great! It's really like fresh out from the oven/pot that the food really tasted hot and fresh. The salted beancurb was special as it was the first time I tried it. I think this flavour is not sold in Singapore. Pardon me if I'm wrong and please let me know where to get it in Singapore if there is a branch selling it. The egg prata, i would call it, was great. Do try it when you are in Taipei. The fried fritters was filling as it was really made up of flour and more flour.

Fu Hang Dou Jiang 阜杭豆漿 -
热豆浆，咸豆浆，蛋饼，薄饼油条

After breakfast, Sis and I split up and we arranged to meet at Din Tai Fung, 鼎泰豐 for lunch. Off I went to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Take the train back to Taipei Main Station and transfer to the red line to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall Station (NT16, 8 mins). It was a little confusing when we arrived at the station. No worries, follow the sign to get to the right exit. From the exit, I remembered I saw a dry market within a building. I happened to see a traffic police and got the direction from her. Cross the pedestrian crossing, and walked through a lane between the buildings (you will see a kindergarten school). Walked till the end and turn left, keep walking and you will see the Memorial Hall in front of you at the opposite road. 

This Memorial Hall is really big and I managed to view the special exhibition of Mrs CKS - an interesting biography. Oh, by the way, they do have the guard changing ceremony at the top floor. Ask the receptionist at the information counter for the timing if you would like to view the ceremony. This was the second time I watched and well, it gave a different feeling as it is indoor. I spent like 2 hours in the area, viewing the exhibitions as well as walked around the compound. Felt so relaxed walking in the drizzle - the weather was indeed cooling. 

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall 國立中正紀念堂

Some of the exhibits

Time to meet Sis for lunch. From CKS memorial hall station, take the train to Guting Station (NT16, 8 mins). Well, this is the direction given by the CityInn Plus receptionist. Initally, we thought of stopping at Daan Station which was the direction we googled. It turned out that there are new stations added to the metro network and Guting Station is really very near to Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) first branch.

Despite the light rain, despite being a Tuesday afternoon, there are crowds standing outside the shop when we reached. We took a queue number and the menu to take order first. The catch of the menu, if you would like to have half a dozen of the dumplings, write 0.5 instead of 1 on the menu. This was what we learnt from the service crew. We ordered quite a number of dishes despite the heavy breakfast. 2 different Xiaolongbao (Green Squash and shrimp XLB and Pork XLB), a steam shrimp and pork dumpling, a plate of pork chop fried rice and a plate of stirred fried cabbage. The standard I deemed it to be of the same as what I ate in Singapore. Nothing really fantastic but there are more variety of dishes to choose from. A waiting queue of 20 mins was acceptable.   

Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐

Next up after lunch for me was a visit to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 國立國父紀念館. 12 Nov 2013 marked the 148th birthday for him. I expected the place to be crowded and I had diligently avoid this day for a visit. But the weather made me visited this place to celebrate this day for him. The guard changing ceremony was a little bit different in this case, with flower wreath being presented at the end. Totally gained the respect of the people!

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 國立國父紀念館

From Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, it was a short walk to Taipei 101 building. Went up to the observatory to have a bird eye view of the city. It costed NT500. As I reached around 4plus, I stayed there till after sunset to view both the day and night view of the City. Pretty amazing to see the sun setting from afar in a building. You can rent a audio guide which points out to you the view you are looking at - informative!

Taipei 101

Well, it was time for dinner and we had pre-arranged to meet at Shida Night Market (師大路夜市) for dinner and to shop. From Taipei 101, I walked to Taipei City Hall station so as to catch the night view of the building. The walk took about 10 minutes and the train ride to Taipower Building Station took around 17 mins (NT25). 

Add caption

Sorry, the only food photo we took as we were busy eating and shopping. Sis loved Pig blood cake and today was the day we first lay our nouth on it. I found the taste a bit strong and a few pieces of it was well enough for me.

We ended the night a little early as we needed to pack our bag for the next few days' trip to the south of Taiwan.

Kenting (墾丁), Kaoshioung (高雄) and Cingjing (清境), here we come!

Address:

Fu Hang Dou Jiang, 阜杭豆漿
2F No. 108, Section 1, Zhōngxiào East Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, 國立中正紀念堂
No.21, Zhongshan S.Rd., Zhongzheng Dist.,Taipei City 10048, Taiwan

Din Tai Fung, 鼎泰豐 (First Branch)
No. 194, Xinyi Road Sec. 2, Da-an District, Taipei City 10651

Sun Yat-sen MemorialHall,  國立國父紀念館,
No. 505, Section 4, Rén'ài Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110

Taipei 101
No. 45, Shìfǔ Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110

Songfa Bak Kut Teh

Back to Songfa Bak Kut Teh for lunch. This time round, we ordered the Pig Kidney Soup, Pig Stomach Soup and a plate of Kai Lan. As usual, the lunch crowd was there. My advice, to avoid the crowd between 12pm and 2pm or go in a small group. In this way, you will be able to get a table in the shortest time.

Food was served relatively fast and you got to pay when the food is served. I had the Pig Stomach Soup for today. Nice and chewy went the pig stomach - great taste. Did I mention before, they will top up the soup when you (almost) finished it. Either they notice it or you can just signal them to top up - do not feel shy about it. The kai lan was well cooked with the oyster sauce, topped with the fried shallot.

This place is definitely not a place for a lunch date during weekdays. The shop was very busy and noisy and the service crews are always walking up and down - bringing customers to their seats, or taking orders or serving the food. They do not even have time to help brew the tea (using teapots) for customers. That was what I overheard them telling the table next to ours. So if you like to have brewed tea to go with your food, it would be best to go when there is less crowd. 

Total damage for lunch was S$21.30 with two bowls of rice and wet tissue.

1. Pig Kidney Soup
2. Pig Stomach Soup
3. Kai Lan

Seoul Yummy @ The Central

Seoul Yummy offers affordable Korean food and I would occasionally patronise  it when meeting my friend for lunch during weekday. 

I ordered the Beancurb seafood soup and the service crew asked if I would like it to be spicy or not. I asked for less spicy and I almost got a shocked when my soup arrived. It looked real spicy. But well, it only looked spicy -  it did not taste as spicy as it looks, phew. If you like beancurb, this dish is definitely for you. Almost 80% of the ingredients was beancurb. Prawns, and cuttlefish contributed to the 20%. Not too bad for lunch - had a hearty lunch which cost S$9.90 (before gst and service charge).

Oh well, like most of the Korean eateries, Seoul Yummy serves banchan (aka Korean side dishes). We noticed that they would serve 3 side dishes for a table of 1 and 6 side dishes for table of 2 and above. Maybe for more persons dining together, they would have served more variety. For today, we had the kimchi, cold spicy tofu, sauteed peanuts, ikan bilis, potato salad and radish. I loved all of them - they really tasted great and I guess I could just eat them as my main course instead. 

1. Spicy beancurb seafood soup
2. Banchan

Taiwan 2013 - Day 1 - Taipei

Finally, I am going to start on my Taipei Trip -

Midnight flight was always the best - you can sleep through it especially when we are on budget flight with no entertainment or food to disturb us. This time round, scooting off to Taiwan for about 2 weeks. We bought the Scoots tickets at around SGD225 for person during the Scoots promotion. This included check-in luggage but excludes the entertainment and food. A relatively worth-it tickets. 

Timetable of the Buses

We reached Taoyuan International Terminal 1 at around 5 am and after collection of luggage, we followed the sign to the bus terminal. Before reaching the bus terminal, we passed by a convenience shop and popped in to grab breakfast - our first meal of the trip - ice coffee and rice bun. At the bus terminal, checked out the timing of the next bus and the destination it will bring you to. We stayed in Ximen area and thus, we took the Kuo Kuang bus(NT125, one way) to reach the Taipei Main Station (terminal stop) and then took the MRT to Ximen Station (NT16, 3 mins). The travel time to reach Taipei Main Station was around 1 hour.

As we reached the Taipei Main Station around 8am, people were travelling to work. Thus, it was a bit crowded but everyone was very orderly. Remember to purchase the Easy card at MRT station or convenience store so that you need not worry about not having enough change to take the public transport. Also, it did save up a bit in the long run. *Tip: After 9am, they have shuttle bus from Taipei Main station to Ximen Station. Do check it out when you are buying the bus ticket. 

Anyway, at Ximen Station, we exited from Exit 3 and our hotel - CityInn Plus Ximending - is on the left. It was initially hard to notice the hotel as it shares the same building with other shops. But no worries, looked up to the left and you will share to spot it. If you still cannot spot it, no worries, walked down to the pedestrian crossing in front, crossing the road to the left side and you will see it. It is next to shop - Bee Hiang  Cheng. This hotel was our rest point for Taipei. *I will give a review of the CityInn Plus in another post soon. 

Too early for check-in, but no worries, we left our luggage at the hotel and made our way out for our first stop - Mengjia Longshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺) - to pray for a good trip. From Ximen Station, take the MRT Blue Line to Longshan Temple Station (NT16, 2 mins). Well, the weather was not being nice to us, it was drizzling and that somehow dampened our mood. When you reaced Longshan Temple Station, followed the signs and you will be brought to the exit where you can see the Mengjia Longshan Temple at the opposite road, on the right. 

Mengjia Longshan Temple 艋舺龍山寺

I read it somewhere that the Taiwanese would do their daily ritual praying in the morning and we managed to catch it. The temple was filled with the devotees, who would make themselves comfortable by finding a seat or standing and chanting away. Though I do not understand what they were chanting, I did feel at ease. 

After the temple visit, we walked down the street to the Bopiliao Old Street (剝皮寮老街). Well, this is one of the historical street in Wanhua District and it increases its popularity after the movie, Monga (艋舺). Sadly to say, we missed out on this important information that is, the place is not opened on Monday. We just walked a bit round the circumference. Time check, it was around 10am and it was time for food. 

We popped in to Chow's Porridge 周記肉粥 for some stable food. This shop is recommended by our blogs when we were doing our research and since it was nearby, why not? Oh well, we did not regret this. The food was great. But it was confusing for the ordering part. We were ushered into the shop and given the menu (in chinese). Then, the service crew left us to 'fend' for ourselves. No instructions was given and we were really lost. Sis went over to the counter and well,she managed to order the food through the service crew's recommendation. I really agreed that when travelling, ASK when you are lost. It does not cost you anything and you will in turn, gain something from it. 

The food did not take long to be served. The porridge might look ordinary, looking brownish and unappetizing. But it was tasty with the pork bits and fried shallots. The roasted pork was tendered and well, oily. The bamboo shoot (till date, we still do not know which type that was) was recommended by the service crew who mentioned that the bamboo shoot was in the season now. It was tasty and crunchy. Good recommendation. We had a good meal there. 

1. Chow's Porridge 周記肉粥
2. Roasted Meat
3. Bamboo shoot

For this day, our initial plan was to visit Yang Ming Shan (阳明山) and to visit a hot spring for a wash up. But it was drizzling and we decided to push forward some indoor activities - National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) and National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine (忠烈祠). 

From Longshan Temple Station, take the train to Taipei Main Station and change to the Red line to Shilin Station (NT24, 19mins). From the station, just follow the sign to the bus area where you could catch the bus to the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). Well, it was good to do research on how to get to places, but the people and signs in Taipei were informative too. You won't get lost there. The bus ride took about half an hour to forty-five minutes. *Tip: It was confusing on whether to tap your easycard when you board the bus. Some buses require you to tap when getting up, some only require you to tap when getting down while some require you to tap when getting up. As days passed, we got the hang out of it. When both the front and rear door opened for boarding, it would mean to tap when you alight. If only the front door opened, the trick is just to observe the person in front of you. Needless to say, just asked if you are unsure. 

The National Palace Museum is really huge with its exhibition halls. We spent almost half a day there and we were not able to complete the halls. Moreover, it was crowded in the afternoon with many tourists hogging the place. Queues were formed to allow entry. The good thing was, we managed to cut the queues and we managed to catch some of the guide's story of the exhibits. We learnt a fair bit from them and were well informed than us just reading off the walls. 

The special exhibition we got to see was "The All Complete Qianlong: a Special Exhibition on the Aesthetic Tastes of the Qing Emperor Gaozong". Interesting history lessons for the trip.  

National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院

After which, we headed to the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠. Sadly to say, the main hall was closed for maintenance. But we managed to catch the march of the changing of guards. Not a wasted trip after all. In spite of the rain, there were quite a crowd. The soldiers made their way from the entrance gate and walked the entire length of the grounds before heading back to the entrance gate. I guess the route would be different if the main hall was not under maintenance. 

National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠

With this, we went back to the hotel to check in and to wash up a bit. And it was time to head to Ximending for some shopping and eating. Well, more time was spent on eating and sorry dude, I only managed to take some photos of the food we had. Not much research is required for food recommendation in Ximending. Just headed down and if you see queues, just queue if you are interested in the food. If not, I reckoned any street food tasted great!

Eating at Ximending

After much eating, time to head back to rest and recharge for another good 11 days in Taiwan.

Addresses:
CityInn Plus
No.63. Baoqing Rd., Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan 100

Mengjia Longshan Temple 艋舺龍山寺
No. 211, Guǎngzhōu St, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Bopiliao Old Street 剝皮寮老街
No.101, Guǎngzhōu Street, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108

Chow's Porridge 周記肉粥
No. 104, Guǎngzhōu Street, Wanhua District Taipei City, Taiwan 108

National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院
No. 221, Section 2, ZhìShàn Rd, Taipei, Taiwan

National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine 忠烈祠
No. 139, Běiān Rd, Zhongshan District Taipei City, Taiwan 104

Bali 2013 - Day 4

A highlight of the trip was definitely the Mount Batur Volcano Sunrise Trek. More details of the tour can be found here.

We woke up at 1am to get ready as the car will pick us up at 2am to reach the starting point at around 4am to start the trek. We were supposed to have 2 other persons to join us for this trek but they backed out last minute. So it became a 'private' tour for us again which was great as we could really follow our own pace and not feeling bad to delay the other group. 

Journey to the starting point was really long and we fell asleep on the car. When we reached, it was still pitch-dark. We started off our trek and met this young girl who is just 10 years old. At first I thought she was just following someone she knows up the Mountain as it was school holidays for the students then. Never did I expected that she was actually carrying cans of drinks in her backpack and selling them at the top when everyone stopped and rested. Heavy backpack and she was making a living out of it. Gosh... and I promised her that I would get a drink from her if I managed to reach the top and in the end, I did.

Anyway, here's the beautiful views of the sunrise after 2 hours of trekking. It was quite tiring with some steep slopes but totally worth it.

Beautiful Sunrise at Mount Batur

Good thing that Sense Bali Hotel allowed us to do a late check out as we reached the hotel after 12pm. We washed up and went out for lunch. There was this cafe that was just nearby and it has been closed for the days we were there. I was so glad that it opened for business on our last day and we went in for lunch. Gosh, I rather it was closed and we made our way to Seminyak Square. There was only 1 main course on their menu and they did not state any price at the menu. Looking at the layout of the cafe, we thought the food would not be too expensive. But we were wrong. The total bill was almost the same as what we had at Seminyak square but the quality of the food can't be compared to what we had there. Regretted but well, if we never tried, we would never know. 

Nasi Ayam Kedewatan

With time left to departing to the airport, well, we went to Seminyak Square for the last coffee break of the trip. Back at Black Canyon Coffee for french fries and a cup of Cranberry coffee. I have to say, nice way to end off the trip. 

Black Canyon

A great trip with many first times for my friends and well, I have learnt more about myself and my friends along the way. A journey of self-discovery would never be the same without my two friends with me.

Bali 2013 - Day 3

Finally have time to blog about my Bali Day 3 -

Half of Day 3 was for Water Rafting while the other half was to visit Tanah Lot Temple for the sunset. After some search for such an itinerary, we stumbled upon this wesbite. It catered for what we wanted and was reasonably priced. Most of all, it was a private tour where we had our own tour guide and driver to bring us through the day. "Why not?" went through our thoughts. However, we were disappointed with the whole service provided by the tour guide. Though, I had to say, it really brought us to the places we wanted, the tour guide was not performing. He was busy talking to the driver, or busy with his phone and most importantly, at every stop, he would tell us to proceed on without bringing us to the places and giving us some background or history of the places. In this case, why would we need a guide? We could simply just go for a driver instead. Nonetheless, the water rafting was fun and the sunset at Tanah Lot was beautiful. We had no regrets to the activities but were just disappointed at the service. 

Water Rafting:

We were picked up at our hotel at 8am and we were brought to the Ayung River. We were joined by other tourists for this event. To get to the start point, we had to walk down a long route through the jungle. A tiring start of the trip but worth the effort. The crew gave very clear instructions on his comments, ensuring that we knew how to react at each of his comments. This was very important to ensure that the raft would not capsized due to the wrong execution of his comments. 

There was a break in between the rafting where we could purchase some drinks. Not sure how things worked, but the shop owner asked us to pay for the drinks for the crew - seems compulsory but well, the crew deserved it though. 

The 10 km White water rafting lasted for around two hours. For the two hours, we were welcomed by amazing nature - Greens was really appalling. There was also a wall sculpture that we stopped for photo taking. It was said to be the story of Bali's version of Romeo and Juliet. 

After the rafting, we had to walk up steps (this was tiring) to get to the top where we walked to a restaurant. There, we were able to bath and change into fresh clothing. Then, there was this Indonesia buffet awaiting us. Disappointment came for the tour guide. He did not even notice that we had arrived and the driver had to inform him. He did not bother to come up to us to ask about the rafting. He continued to play with his phone while we had our lunch. Well, nothing fantastic about the buffet especially when we compared it to the lunch on Day 2. 

Start of the White Water Rafting

After the lunch, we were supposed to visit Kintamani but we had been there on Day 2. With this, the tour guide made arrangement for us to visit a art gallery. He told us that we were be able to view the artist painting and learnt more about the art industry in Bali. Crap... he brought us to the art gallery where we viewed the painting that are on sales. I reckon if we had bought something, he would have earned some commission. 

Next up, we reached Ubud Monkey forest. There, the tour guide brought us to a stairs and told us to walk down to take a look without really explaining to us about the place and what to expect at the bottom. Totally ridiculous. We went on our own and were quite lost until we saw a group of tourists and decided to tag along. We did not really catch what the guide was talking but we went brought to a small holy temple. 

Monkey Forrest

Then we met up with our tour guide who was on his phone once again. He told us to take a walk around the town and to meet him half an hour later. What a service. 

Tanah Lot Sunset:
Well, same went for the service but my friends and I enjoyed ourselves at Tanah Lot. We reached the place relatively at 3pm and we strolled through the compound at our own pace, admiring the great Tanah Lot as well as the Pura Batu Balong. It was low tide at that time and we would go close to Tanah Lot though we could not enter the premise. We also donated some money just to see a holy snake.

Tanah Lot

Pura Batu Balong

Highlight of the day was definitely the sunset. Seeing the 'egg york' slowly moving down to the sea was simply calming and relaxing for me. Picture speaks a thousand words. Here some of the shots I took:

Sunset from top to right, bottom to right... 

Dinner was back at Kafe Betawi. We simply loved this place. I had this fried rice with satay. Simply delicious. The fried rice was spicy but nice. 

Fried Rice with satay

This night, we slept early as to prepare ourselves for the hike. We needed to wake up at 1am to get ready for the guide to pick us up at 2am. Good night with Bintang Beer!