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!

Perth for a hot sunny Christmas

An impromptu trip down to Perth with only less than a month of planning. This was my third (and last) overseas trip of 2013 - did not expect myself to travel again after my Taiwan trip (oh yes, I've yet to finish blogging about my Bali and Taiwan trip). My friend got cheap tickets and that prompted us to fly over to Perth. A nine-days trip was great with nice sunny weather (but at times, it was scorching hot). The third Aussie trip for me.

A summary of what we did and detailed blogging will be up (soon, I hope).

Day 1:

Basically, we reached the airport in the evening. Nothing much can be done on this day (by the way, it's a Friday and shops in Perth are closed at 9pm instead of the usual 5 or 6pm). From the International Airport, we took a shuttle bus to the Domestic Airport to catch the bus connecting to the city. It costed AUD15 per person while the cab will cost around AUD50. Thus, if you have more people sharing out the cost, it is more worth to take a cab straight to your Hotel. We just wanted to try this service, and thus, we embarked on this mode of transport to our Hotel. We stayed at Hotel Ibis for the trip except 2 nights when we were at Swan Valley. 

To wrap up the first night, we went to Fast Eddy's cafe for dinner.

Day 2:

We booked a tour day via this website for a Full Day Pinnacles, Koalas and Sand Boarding 4WD Adventure before we departed. This tour costs AUD215 and top up another AUD15 and you will get a lobster lunch (plus a can of coke). Trust me, unless you are allergy to lobster or seafood, you should just upgrade to the lobster lunch. Most of our travel mates ended up paying AUD30 for the lobster lunch and that was on top of the normal lunch (I think is chicken or beef with salad). 

With this tour, the first stop was to the Caversham Wildlife Park in the Swan Valley to view koalas and hand feed kangaroos. Then to the Lobster Shack at lobster fishing town of Cervantes. Next, we went to the Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park. Highlight of the day would be the sand boarding and 4-wheel driving over the vast sand dunes of Lancelin. It is about a 10 hours tour and we ended up back in Perth after 7pm. 

Day 3:

A trip down to Fremantle for the weekend market as well as for the Sunday live music at Fremantle Arts Centre. 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. Thus, for non-drivers, you will still enjoy Perth as much as I did. 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. 

We went for a Fremantle Prison tour and it was quite interesting to see this heritage building built by the convicts back then. A very informative tour. Like Perth, 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. 

As Fremantle is a fishing port and thus, we went to the Harbour Port for Fish and Chips - Fresh and Nice!

Day 4:

We went to Rockingham Wildlife Encounter on this day. We booked a Dolphin, Penguin & Sea Lion Adventure Cruise prior to our trip through this website. They do run some promotions here and there. With the promotion on hand, we saved AUD20. Taking a train and bus down to Rockingham was not hard and trust me, the timing of the bus/train are really accurate. Take a brochure from the information centre and you will never miss your bus/train. 

The weather was pretty nice to us and so were the dolphins. It did not take long for us to see them 'jumping' out of the sea for air. Pretty amazing. Next off to the Penguin Island to see the cute Penguins. They never failed to make my day. Do take note if you are going to Penguin Island. There is no cafe there and thus, grab a bite before you head over or grab some food to bring over for a picnic. 

Day 5:

Today was the start of the 3d2n trip to Swan Valley. We were quite ambitious on this side trip which we thought we could walk to our B&B and walk around the place freely. Nightmare came when we had to walk a 5km route under the hot sun. Luckily we met great people along the way and we managed to hitch a hike to our B&B. I'm so grateful to the couple and well, I forget to ask for their names! I will take more about the Fantastic stay at Keller's Bed and Breakfast in my detailed post of Day 5. 

On this day, we managed to walk to Yahava Koffee, Margaret River Chocolate Factory and Lancestor Winery. A hot day but the Ice Koffee was totally worth the walk. 

Day 6: 

Breakfast at B&B was great as most of the food were homemade - from fresh juice to fresh milks to scrambled eggs (fresh eggs from the hens) and jam (yes, they grow their own fruits). Totally love it.  In the morning before breakfast, we went for some farm activities, like milking the cow, collecting the eggs and feeding the animals. Simply love this life - How I wish I can own a small farm and lead a farmer's life!

After breakfast, we cycled to Guidlford to embark on a heritage bike trail as all of the shops were closed. Yes, Christmas day it was and shops are closed for the day. What else to ask for but to simply cycle round the town. 

Day 7:

Breakfast was once again enchanting. The owner, Marija, was nice enough to bring us round the place before dropping us off at the Railway Station. Lucky for us, if not, we needed to walked for hours before reaching back to Perth. Back in Perth, we shopped around as it was Boxing day sales - City wide sales to be exact. Nearer to evening, we went to Cottesloe beach for a beautiful sunset and picnic. Simply relaxing. 

Day 8 & 9:

We bought the 48hours Citytour Bus ticket and we basically roamed round the place. Dropping off at some stops to tour the place was great. King's Park was amazing nice for a walk, looking at the flowers, the magnificent view of the city buildings. Crown Perth was simply boring unless you love Casino. Last minute shopping and lunch at Jamine's Italian basically end up the trip. 

Good mate, and till we meet again!

Beauty of Perth, Western Australia

Gyoza at Osaka Ohsho Raffles City

A off day out to Shopping was simply great. Less people on the street, less people in the shops. And what's more, there are less crowd queuing for food as well. 

Went to Osaka Ohsho, Raffles City for a shopping break. Ordering your food is no longer through the service crew - it is a self service ordering using the tablet provided. Browse through the tabs and choose your food. Lastly to submit your order and simply wait for your food to be served. Good way to ordering of food. No longer need to feel the tension of the service crew standing beside you and waiting for your order. 

Order from this tablet

Needless to say, I ordered the handmade gyoza (meat dumplings) which they are famous for. Half a dozen costs S$3.90 and a dozen is just S$7.80. The gyoza was skilfully pan-fried, making it crispy on the oustide. The filling consists of tender pork meat as well as cabbage and garlic made it so juicy. Served piping hot, you could simply pop into your month one after another. Not oily but tasty. 

Gyoza (6 pieces)

Really love it and I guess I will be back to try their gyoza set soon!

Raffles City Shopping Centre,
#B1-75, 252 North Bridge Road

Curry Udon at Tamoya (Chinatown)

Not my first time to Tamoya. I had been to the first outlet at Liang Court earlier this year. After looking at the menu, I decided to try the Curry Chicken Udon. As what the sign says "please wait to be seated', I stood outside for like mintues before realising that no service crew attempted to serve me. Not wanting to look like an idiot, I walked straight to the cashier and asked if I should order from her. She pointed to the front counter when there is a chef cooking the udon. 'Order from there' was what she told me. Feeling puzzled, I walked to where the chef was and asked if I should order from him. "Yes" was his answer. So here's the ordering system at Tamoya:

They have this self-service system: 

1. Order (tell the chefs at the counter what you want) 

2. Collect your noodle and select the fried items ( if you want any)

3. Proceed to cashie

4. Add your own toppings or sauces at the nearby counter

My suggestion to Tamoya could be just state these instructions and placed it at the entrance. It does help to orientate the customers. 

Enough said of the situation, I ordered the Curry Udon with chicken as well as a croquette. Okay, I had to say, I would prefer the udon in soup based rather than the curry. But trust me, the udon is quite nice and you can easily slurp into your mouth. The croquette was normal and I wished I had ordered the pumpkin tempura instead. Well, Tamoya is definitely on my list to return for more Authentic Japanese food. 

Curry Udon with croquette

133 New Bridge Rood,
Chinotown Poinl,
#Bl-48/49

Bali 2013 - Day 2

"Cycling tour is a must try" went the comment from my friends when they knew I was heading to Bali. So I implanted this idea into the trip and I'm glad both my travel companions loved it too. 

Prebooked the cycling tour together with the Mt Batur Sunrise trek through this Bali Eco Cylcing website. By booking two tours, we managed to get the tours at a discounted price of 750,000 IRD. The standalone price for the cycling trip is 360,000 IRD and that for Mt Batur is 450,000 IRD. 

As I had mentioned earlier that we stayed at Seminyak, we needed to be ready by 7am for the pick up. Luckily for us, breakfast at Sense Hotel starts as early at 6am. After picking up the rest of the tour mates, the first pitstop was not to the Penelokan (Kintamani) for breakfast. Yes, this tour includes breakfast. The first stop was a view of the rice paddy. "This is a Kodak photoshoot spot" went the tour guide. Oh well, the view was great and it felt so green and relaxing to be immersed in the surrounding. 

Rice Paddy View

Afterwhich, we headed to Kintamani for breakfast. Ok well, forget about the breakfast. It was not very great but the place does really portray one of the stunning views in Bali for me - Mt Batur, an active volcano, and its cater lake. Nice weather to accompany the view was the best 'postcard' we can ever get. 

Mt Batur and its Cater Lake

Next up, we were brought to a fruit and coffee plantation whereby the tour guide introduced the plants to us. Okay, this was not really my cup of tea but it was still nice to know some of the plants. We were also allowed to try some of the coffee varieties, ranging from hazelnut to caramel. However, we got to share the coffee cups with our tour mates. Thus, if you are not comfortable with it, I guess you might want to give it a miss or to order a cup of coffee on your own expenses. One of the tour mates ordered the Coffee Luwak, the unusually produced and most expensive coffee in the world. We managed to watch how this coffee is being brewed. 

Coffee related

After the "coffee break", we are finally off to our cycling tour. We were brought to collect our bicycles. One of my friends was not confident in cycling on her own and we were so glad that they offered a tandem bike. The tour guide offered to ride the tandem bike with her. A very good service from them. 

The first stop is to the including a visit to a Balinese home. The tour guide told us the structure of the house and also some of the Balinese culture they have. An interesting insight is how we can gauge the wealthiness of the family by looking at their house compound. He also mentioned how the government conducted their census. The number of people staying in the house to the family nuclei are clearly stated in front of the house.  

Cycling through the village did attract the attention of the locals and the children were extremely excited. We stopped by the rice paddy and was given the chance to walk through the field. Unfortunately, it was not the harvesting period. We also stopped by an enormous Banyan tree for some photo-taking. Basically, it is so enormous that I felt a bit being compressed by it. 

Oh, just to mention that Balinese were celebrating Galungan and they actually hang this Celebration decoration known as penjor (bamboo poles weighed down by offerings suspended at the end) in front of their house as well as along the street. Interesting to know this as we were quite curious about the decoration when we first saw it on our first day. 

Scenes through cycling

This tour includes lunch as well. A nice ambiance restaurant to have a balinese buffet lunch. The satay was great but it was not free flow. If not, I would have grab a few more sticks. Yummy.

After the whole trip, we reached back our hotel at around 4pm. We decided to head to Seminyak Beach to take a look and we managed to catch the beautiful sunset.

Sunset

Dinner was back at near Seminyak square, but we decided to head to small eatery. It was not crowded at all and we actually hesitated before walking in. The rest of the cafes/restaurants along the stretch are not selling local food. I'm glad we went in. We ordered a couple of dishes to share and the food was quite nice.

First of all is the pineapple rice. It was a little oily but the taste was great. The second dish was the chicken satay rice with kangkong. The satay sauce was quite different from that we tasted in Singapore. It was not very 'peanut'and gave a sweeter taste. The blanched kangkong with the chili was a great one. Without the chili, it was just normal though it was fresh. But once you mixed it with the chili, it was real spicy. Trust me, if you do not take spicy food, do not order this dish. Last but not least on the table was the gado-gado. Totally different from what we get in Singapore. It consists of more leafy vegetables. I liked! Avocado shake was the drink to end off the dinner. Thick and nice.

Balinese Food

Before heading back to hotel, we bought a 10,000 IRD gelato as desserts. Cheap and yummy to end off the day!

Bali 2013 - Day 1

Taking an afternoon flight is always not a good choice for a short flight. We reached Bali at around 1pm via Tigerair to Bali. From the airport, if your hotel does not offer a transfer, you can simply get a cab and travel down. Take a look at this link. It states down the fixed price for the different destination. The official taxi counter is located outside the arrivals hall (exit arrivals turn right). Pay the fare accordingly and the cab driver will lead you to his cab. To note, we stayed at Sense Hotel Seminyak and the price should have been 60, 000 rupiah. However, the counter told me to pay 80,000 rupiah for our hotel location. Not wanting to create a fuss upon arrival for just SGD 2 dollars, we paid accordingly and board the cab. 

The journey was quite short, taking around half an hour to reach. The Sense hotel is situated along the lane near to the Seminyak Beach. It is also within walking distance from Seminyak Square which is at Jl. Laksamana Oberoi/ Kayu Aya, Bali. This street is more lively and nosier due to many boutique hotels and restaurants/cafes/pubs. Sense Hotel is actually a good choice for a quieter night rest. 

The cost of the deluxe room with breakfast for per night was around SGD 150. The cost included an additional bed for the three of us. Quite affordable and I had to say, the service crews are great. They are very attentive to our needs and even helped us to confirm our tours when we were not in the hotel . Thumbs up for them.

1. Deluxe Room
2. Swimming pool

Anyway, for Day 1, we did not plan much activities since we reached in the afternoon. After check-in and wash up, we headed to the Seminyak Square. This place became a routine place for us to settle our dinner for the next few days. 

Lunch was definitely on our mind as we did not had any food on the plane. We settled down at Kafe Betawi after browsing through the menu. This place is quite nice to hang out, given that there was not much crowd.

Here's my first meal for the trip - Nasi Uduk Ayam. Nice and comfy food as it tasted like food that we can find in Singapore. To note, the meat was a little tough though overall, it was great. 

Nasi Uduk Ayam

After eating, we decided to walk along the street in hunt for Bintang Supermarket which is at Jl. Raya Seminyak No.17, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia. I read online that this is a relatively big supermarket that sells many things. I am a supermarket-lover when I travel. It is always interesting to see what they sell. I love to buy back interesting food stuff for myself or as souvenirs. However, this hunt was a real long hunt. I would recommend to take a cab if you are someone who does not like to walk. But to us, walking and do sightseeing at the same time was not that bad afterall. I did not really note down the timing we took but I guess it was around 45 minutes to reach the supermarket. 

After touring in the supermarket for an hour or so, we were happy with our buys. Walking back to our hotel was a little smoother, given the fact that we no longer need to keep looking out for the destination. We even pop in to some smaller shops.

Back at Seminyak square, we saw this pushcart selling corn. Not a roadside food lover, but I could not resist this. There are two flavours to choose from - Spicy or Salt and Butter. Great food.

Grilled corn by the roadside

This pretty much ended our day 1 at Bali. Time to hit the bed as we had a whole string of adventurous activities for the next few days.

For a summary of our trip, click here.

Macpherson BBQ Seafood - Clarke Quay

Do not be mislead by the shop name - Macpherson BBQ Seafood is not located at Macpherson but at Clarke Quay. It is always crowded during weekday lunch and the selling point of this shop is the affordable 'Tze Char' menu. For a price of $5.80 nett, you can enjoy good bbq stingray rice that comes with a poach egg. The chili that is served on top of the Stingray was marvelous. Not too spicy for me and if you can't really take spicy food, you can jolly well scrap the chili off the stingray. Seriously besides the fresh stingray, the chili is the selling point. It goes well with the steamed rice too. The serving of the stingray is just nice for me. 

Stingray Rice

Besides stingray rice, they also sell many 'Tze Char' dishes ranging from sweet and sour pork rice to fried hor fun to slice fish bee hoon. Just a  point to note if you are heading there for lunch - reach before 12pm or go after 1pm. In this way, you will be able to find a table easily. 

34 South Bridge Road
Clarke Quay

Redhouse Feast

Hurray! Been looking forward to this December as Miss H has promised to treat us to a Seafood feast. Crab was on her mind and she suggested going East Coast Park. However, as we were meeting on a Friday night, we decided to go somehwere nearer town. Redhouse at Robertson Quay was the final decision and that's great as I have never been there.

This restaurant is located further down from the Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay, away from the main stretch of restaurants. It is walking distance away from Clarke Quay MRT station and we reckoned it might be nearer to walk from Chinatown MRT station as well. 

First to be served the Red House Combination Platter (小红楼拼盘). It consisted of 4 dishes, namely birdnest fried with egg, prawns, seafood cake and some meat (I forgot what's the meat). We ordered  the small share which was just nice for the five of us. This appetizer was not really appetizing. Can give it a miss to save the stomach. 

Next up was the Wasabi Mayo Shelled (芥末沙律虾). This dish was great. First of all, you needed not deshell the prawns yourself. Secondly, I like wasabi. Topped the dish was strands of cucumbers which makes it very refreshing. The prawns were fresh and the i is a good combination for a seafood dish. 

The third dish was the Tiger Garoupa (老虎斑) steamed with Superior Soya Sauce (豉油皇汁). Fish is a dish that really test the chef's cooking skills. I had to admit the fish is fresh but I am not a fish lover. I guess that applied to my friends as well. This was the most expensive dish on the table (yes, much more expensive than the crabs) and we did not even finished it. What a waste. Go for it if you really love fish. I guess fish-lovers will really appreciate it. 

Got to be healthy was one of our beliefs. We ordered the Sautéed （蒜茸炒) Broccoli (香港芥兰). A very simple and refreshing dish from the heavily flavoured seafood dishes. 

Feasting at Redhouse

Here's the anticpating dishes - Sri Lankan Mud Crabs. We ordered two crabs with two different cooking style - Golden Salted Egg Yolk (黄金咸蛋螃蟹) and Red House Chili Stew (辣椒螃蟹). Marvelous!!!

Let me start off with the Golden Salted Egg York crab. A relatively dried version as compared to others that I had tried before. But this was great. You could literally eat the salted egg york. As it was not the gravy type, it was less messier to attack the dish. 

For the Chili crab, with the thick and sweet chili gravy, everything had to be put on hold. Delicious gravy paired up with the fresh crabs is the best combination. With the sweetness added to the gravy, this dish is not very spicy and everyone including children can definitely try it.  We ordered the or Fried Buns (炸馒头). Fantastic Combination. The bun is a great way to finished up the gravy. But basically, dip anything with the gravy and it can never go wrong. 

1. Golden Salted Egg Yolk (黄金咸蛋螃蟹)
2.Red House Chilli Stew (辣椒螃蟹)

Ending the dinner was a plate of Deluxe Seafood Fried Rice (红楼海鲜炒饭). A sumptuous meal with great companions made a wonderful day. This dinner took me two hours or more to complete - mainly due to savouring the crabs. One thing to note that we realised that the restaurant is patronised by more foreigners than the locals. But no worries, the service crews were very attentive and they would promptly changed our plates or to fill up our tea. No complains on the service. A good downtown place for a nice seafood feast. 

Red House Seafood Restaurant (Quay Side)
60 Robertson Quay
#01-13 The Quayside

Taiwan 2013 Prelude

Finally a long trip out to Taiwan, my first trip to the Heart of Asia. Been wanting to visit the place since years back but always not able to make it come true. Finally, this year, having many days of leave to clear, decided to go for a long trip there to eat and play. 11 Nov to 22 Nov, 12 full days in Taiwan (we reached at 6am and departed only on 23 Nov midnight), we had our fun. Itinerary was planned well ahead but we shifted it to suit the weather. Had been raining since we reached and Sis decided to push the shopping days ahead as she said that we should not be going up mountains during rainy days. So here's the actual itinerary we took for the 12 days - a prelude to the trip. I really have a lot of photos to sort them out. 

We took mostly public transport to reach our destination, except for Kenting which we had a driver to drive us to Kenting from Zuoying and also co-hired a driver with a couple to visit the tourist attractions. Likewise for the Hehuanshan (合歡山) which we had to wake up as early as 3.30am. The transport network in Taiwan is well-connected and the High Speed Rail is very convenient to bring us from Taipei to Tainan area. 

Day 1 & 2:

We visited the Mengjia Longshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺), Bopiliao Old Street (剝皮寮老街) in the morning after leaving our luggage at the hotel. Intial 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. Thus, we went on to the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) and National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine (忠烈祠). Dinner was back at Ximending (西門町). 

Day 2 was a shopping day for Sis. Happened that Sogo is having their anniversary sales. I wandered off to visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂管理處) and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國立國父紀念館). We met up for lunch at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) first branch. Afterwhich, I proceeded to Taipei 101 while Sister continued her shopping. We arranged to meet up at Shida Night Market (師大路夜市) for dinner and to shop. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (day 1-2)

Day 3 & 4:

These 2 days were devoted to Kenting (墾丁) located at the southern of Taiwan. We took the High Speed Rail (高鐵) to reach Zuoying station (高鐵左營站) where we waited for the driver to pick us up to our Minsu (民宿) at Love Sea 126 ( 戀海126). We eventually reached our 民宿 at 4pm though we left Taipei at around 10am. Long journey but totally worth it. We just laze around and went to the beach for a stroll, hoping for a sunset view. Then off to the night market for dinner. Splendid food there, really enjoyed eating along the street. Or rather, there wasn't much to do at night and thus, food was the only entertainment. 

Day 4 was the co-trip with a couple from the USA. And we went for a trip round Kenting, covering some of the tourist attractions like beaches, lighthouse, which I will go into details later on. 

Stayed: Love Sea 126 - 戀海126

Kenting (day 3-4)

Day 5 & 6:

Said Goodbye to the beach and off to Kaoshioung (高雄). Luckily for us, the weather had been great since we left Taipei. We reached Kaoshioung before noon and we went to the Lotus Pond ( 蓮池潭) which is a a man-made lake and popular tourist destination. There are Pavilions, temples along the trail. Made one round and we ended up back at Zuoying Station where we had our lunch and off to our accommodation - Jia's Inn.

Then we went to the Singuang Ferry Wharf (新光碼頭) and Dream Mall (統一夢時代購物中心) before heading to Ruifeng Night Market ((瑞豐夜市). According to the hotel service crew, tt is a very localised night market. There, we played games, ate and shopped.

Day 6 was a cycling day for us. We planned to head to Cijin Island (旗津島). At the train station, we rented the bicycle for the whole day at NTD 90. Cheap deal but the catch would be we will be cycling along the cars and trucks to the ferry terminal. Really an experience which we would never do in Singapore. Almost spent the whole day at Cijin Island where we had seafood. Back to the main island, we visited the Takao Railway Museum, Love Pier/Pier 2 Art Centre (驳二艺术区) and any places that we happened to pass by which attracted our attention. Back to Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市) for dinner. 

Like I said, the weather was great for us that my tan-line was formed. No rain but the scorching sun was there. 

Stayed: Jia's Inn (高雄佳適旅舍六合館 )

Kaoshiong (Day 5-6)

Day 7:

From Zuoying Station, we travelled to Taichung Station (高鐵台中站) to take a Nantou bus to Cingjing Farm - where the sheep are. We also went to the Little Swiss Garden, ate at the Carton King Cafe. Highlight was the sunrise trip to Hehuanshan (合歡山). 

Stayed: Misty Villa (雲濛仙境)

Cingjing Farm (Day 7)

Day 8, 9 & 10:

Half of day 8 was spent loitering around Cingjing and travelling back to Taipei. After check in at 3pm, we made our way to Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). Once again, we ate and shopped. Sinful!

Day 9 was spent going to Jiufen (九份) and Shifen (十份). Scenic views with history of the mining industry. Further to that, these areas are fairly influenced by the Japanese Culture. Interesting. Visiting the Jiufen Old street would mean eating and shopping again. Here, we managed to get some food souvenir back home. Shifen is the place where we can release Sky Lantern - Pen down your wishes and may your wishes come true as it flew up the sky. Initially we wanted to visit the Shifen Waterfall, but we missed the train from Ruifang (瑞芳). So be mindful of the timing of the train to Shifen. It seems to come in an hour's interval.  From Shifen, we decided to head back to Taipei Main station for dinner as well as to shop around. Finaly stop for the day was still Ximending since it was so near to our hotel - a plus point to stay near XMD. 

First half of Day 10 was to  Xin Beitou (北投) for a walkabout as well as hot spring. We managed to follow a walking trail which I found online. The route went like this: Ketagalan Culture Center > Beitou Hot Spring Museum > Millennium Hot Springs (which we went for Hot Spring) >  Plum Garden > Beitou Thermal Valley > Puji Temple > Lunch. 

Second half was to Tamsui (淡水). We walked through the The Old Street (淡水老街) to the Fort San Domingo (紅毛城), then to the Little White House (小白宮). Finally, we took a bus to the Fisherman's Wharf & Lover Bridge (情人橋) as it was quite a long distance to walk. Dinner was of course spent at the Old street after taking a ferry ride back from the Fisherman's Wharf. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (Day 8-10)

Day 11 & 12:

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. Dinner was at Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市). Our last dinner at night market and we just whack whatever was recommended. 

Last day in Taipei and Yang Ming Shan was the only places of interest that was left on the list. Sister requested to start the day slightly later so as to catch up with some sleep - she had the impression that YMS can be conquered in half-a-day. By the time we started our YMS journey, it was around 11am. Trust me, to fully appreciate YMS, cater one day to it. There are many walking trails in each different stop which could lead you to nice scenery. Like above, the bus does have its timing and thus, do not alight at the wrong stop. If not, you've got to wait again. One of the must visit place in YMS is Qing Tian Gang (擎天冈). We almost wanted to skip it as it was getting a bit late. But luckily we did not. As for why, I will leave it to my YMS detailed post. 

Last dinner or rather supper was at  马辣顶级麻辣鸳鸯火锅 before we headed to the airport. Goodbye Taiwan and may we meet again. 

Stayed: CityInn Plus Hotel (Ximending)

Taipei (Day 11-12)

More information on how we travelled, more pictures of what we did there will be posted up soon. Till then...