Perth 2013 - Day 3 - Fremantle

A trip down to Fremantle for the weekend market as well as for the Sunday live music at Fremantle Arts Centre (do check out this website for more information on the music Sunday).

If you think it is hard to travel in Perth without a car, you are wrong! We took the Railway Train from Perth to Fremantle and it only took us half and hour or so to reach. Personally I think that in Perth, if you planned your itinerary carefully, it would be awesome to simply take their public transport instead of doing a self-drive - you can relax and really enjoy the monent. For public transport, you can get the single ticket or like us (as recommended by the information staff at the train station), get a Family Rider ticket at AUD11.70 (for 2 adults and 5 children) and you can take any bus and train for the day. As easy as that and you would not need to worry too much about the transport  fare. A multi-trip ticket for a single adult cost AUD11.70 as well. SO, worth it, right?

Breakfast at Fremantle was super random. We did not plan or research much on the good food. We simply walked along Cappuccino Strip and found a crowded cafe for breakfast - we guessed we will not go wrong if there were people in the shop. So we ended up at Gino's Cafe. I ordered the Eggs Benedict: poached eggs ham hollandaise sauce on muffins and added extra servings of mushrooms - it was really a big portion but well, nice food, nice ambiance! Top up with a flat white made a great breakfast!

After breakfast, we headed to the Fremantle Market - it was not what we thought it would be. In my own world, I thought it would be like a big big market like that Victoria Market in Melbourne. Or maybe we did not really explore much in the market to find the beauty of it!

Sights of Fremantle

Next up, we went for a Fremantle Prison tour and it was quite interesting to see this heritage building built by the convicts back then. There are many tours organized and we just gotten the "Doing Time" tour as it was the next available timing.  A very informative tour where the guide brought us to the different parts of the prison, and explaining to us the history, stories and the evolution behind it Not sure why, but been to 3 cities in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth), I visited the prisons in all three!

Fremantle Prison

Like Perth City, Fremantle has its own Fremantle Cats (Central Area Transit service) bus. It is a free bus service that takes you round Fremantle and you can hop on and off to see the different parts of the city. However, there is a timing to it. So stick to the timing and you will be fine. From the prison, we took the bus to the Fremantle Arts Centre. There are a few rooms of art pieces that we can see for free. But the main highlight for the Arts Centre that Sunday was the free music. Australians really know how to enjoy life. While listening to free music, they can mingle and have a picnic - be it sitting on bench and tables or on the picnic mat. I love this type of freedom. Like them, we took the chairs provided and enjoyed a few songs! Thanks for the free music!

Next up from the Arts Centre, we went to Woolstores Shopping Centre to take a look. A very small one and maybe it was a Sunday, not many shops were opened. But the supermarket was! We love supermarkets and there, we bought food and souvenirs. We had wanted to visited the supermarket for the past 2 days but they were all closed before we could make it! Happy! But remember to bring a recycling bag or get a carrier when doing your marketing - they will charge for plastic bags! 

After much shopping, we went to San Churros for tea break - Australia's favourite chocolate cafe, serving the best Spanish chocolate in town. Th churros were nice but they got mixed up for my drink. Good service on their part though that they offered to let me take away my correct drink or offer to return us the money. This is what I love about the Australians - service before everything!

Arty side of Fremantle

As Fremantle is a fishing port and thus, we went to the Harbour Port for Fish and Chips - Kailis Fish Market Café. As we wanted to try other seafood, we ordered a combo set.The food was really fresh and nice! The fish was tender an you could 'taste the sea'! Trust me - furthermore, you get great view while dining. Love it! 

The sun, the sea, the fresh seafood!

Do remember that the train back and fro Fremantle has timings or rather the public transport be it bus or train in Perth has timing and they are super on the time. So please do not miss it, otherwise you would have to wait for the next train. So just be at the train station 5 minutes before - I think that is pretty safe timing! Well, we missed it and had to wait for half an hour before the next train arrived. But we were too tired to make further move that we just sat at the train station while waiting. A nice calm way to end off the pretty busy day!

Address:
Gino's cafe -
1-5 South Terrace, Fremantle WA 6160

Fremantle Prison -
1 The Terrace, Fremantle WA 6160,

Fremantle Arts Centre -
1 Finnerty St., Fremantle WA 6160


San Churros -
91 Market St, Fremantle WA 6160

Kailis Fish Market Café -
46 Mews Rd, Fremantle, WA 6160

Taiwan 2013 - Day 11 - Taipei, Yehliu, Juming Museum

On Day 11, we decided to take this Taiwan Tour Bus which caters this Crown North Coast Route.The route went MRT Tamsui Station⇔Qian Shui Bay⇔Sanzhi Visitor Center and Gallery⇔ Baisha Bay Visitor Center⇔Shimen Wedding Plaza⇔Teresa Teng Memorial Park(Yun Garden)⇔Juming Museum⇔Shitou Mountain Park⇔Yehliu Geological Park⇔Feicui Bay⇔Dawulun Industrial Parks⇔Keelung Railway Station.

For the one day ticket that cost NTD 100, you are allowed to alight at any stop and board the next bus again. However, do note that the bus comes in an interval of one hour and it could be late. They will not wait at the bus stop for anyone. So be on time. One advice is that you could not possibly visit all the places of interests in one day. Thus, make some research on the places that you are really interested in. This really helps. We did not do much research and we dropped off at the beaches where there were no activities going on - we just had to wait for the next bus and did rush through those places that we could have spent more time at if we did not drop off at the beaches.

If you like art and museum, do drop a visit to Juming Museum - this museum is located in a picturesque place on a mountain side, overlooking the sea with a park filled with stunning works of this great artist, Ju Ming. A splendid place to be at, how I wished I had more time there!

Juming Museum

Lunch was recommended in the pamphlet that came with the tickets. The stall is located in the middle of Jinshan Old street. Ask around, you will sure to find it. However, the ordering system is very confusing - You will need to queue to order (there is no menu and so just order what you can see). After ordering, you will be led to another nearby place where there are tables and chairs. The food will be delivered to you shortly. After you finished the meal, just call for the bill. Easy as it seems, confusing when we were there. A delicious duck meat - tender meat, nice!

After lunch, we went to Yehliu Geological Park - it is famous for its fascinating rock formations - a mixed sedimentary sandstone and shale sculpted by the wind and water. A number of its rock formations have been given imaginative names based on their shapes such as Fairy’s Shoe, Mushroom Rock, Candle Rock, etc. The most famous is the “The Queen’s Head” (女王頭), an iconic image in Taiwan. To take a close picture with the Queen, you would have to queue for it. A nice way to end this bus tour but trust me, you will need to do some research to see which are the places that you would like to spend more time on. The tour bus can be late, but if it reached earlier than the stipulated timing, it will simply drive off to the next stop. So remember to be at the bust stop 5-10 minutes before the timing. 

Jinshan Old street,
Yehliu

Dinner was at Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市). Our last dinner at night market and we just ordered whatever was recommended by bloggers and friends. A very filling dinner to end the food street night! Alright, we popped into a stall which we ordered butter crab and clam soups. A very nice clam soup - hot soup for the cool day, especially, it started to drizzle.

Tried the tempura too - deep fried fish which are chewy. It is different from the Japanese Tempura. It does not use much flour during the frying, thus, it was not crispy!

Pork Ribs Soup (排骨羹) is a must have, though I found it a little oily. This was really good too where deep fried pork ribs appeared in a sweet soup with cabbages and pickled vegetables.

Last but not least, had the last oyster omelette of the trip - need I say much!?

 

Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市)

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

My first visit to "Princely Treasures: From the House of Liechtenstein" exhibition

It was Open House at the National Museum of Singapore over the two Public Holidays (Hari Raya Pusa and National Day) and admission was free for all exhibitions at all Museums in Singapore. Sis has been recommending the  "Princely Treasures: From the House of Liechtenstein" exhibition since she visited it. As I have nothing to do yesterday, I decided to pop by the museum to take a look. 

National Museum of Singapore

Princely Treasures: From the House of Liechtenstein

Not sure if this exhibition is really that popular or that since it is free, many people decided to spend the art appreciating this European Art.

Queue for the exhibition

While waiting to enter, I did a Google search and read that there are 91 masterpieces from the exquisite art collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein collected over 500 years will be showcased to celebrate the High Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Biedermeier that span from the late 15th century to the mid 19th century. In addition, a selection of 16 oil paintings from the National Collection will be displayed.

Here are some of the art pieces that caught my attention:

Landscape with Roman Ruins

Raphael's Portrait of a Man

The Parable of the Blind leading the Blind

Triumph of Death

Frans Hals's  Portrait of a Man

Besides paintings, this exhibition also displays sculptures and rare decorative art objects. Here is one of the sculptures that caught my eyes:

Here's from the Singapore's collection:

Portrait of Yusof bin Ishak

It has been an eye opener and a pleasure experience for me during the visit. Such great paintings, such great visual effect to the eyes. With the evolution of the digital camera, maybe this painting culture is losing its ways to 'extinction'.

Princely Treasures: From the House of Liechtenstein
27 Jun - 29 Sep 2013
National Museum of Singapore
93 Stamford Road
Singapore 178897
Opening hours: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily.