Taiwan December 2018 - Day 10, 11

Taipei was 买东西吃东西, 买东西吃东西!

But first, Aaron had to go and pay a visit to the ENT specialist to clean his ears - a regular feature in our Taipei trips. SGD20 for consultation, treatment and medicine! A fraction of the cost in Singapore!

We had 鼎泰豐 for lunch. When in Taiwan, one must definitely eat at 鼎泰豐. The quality and taste is very different from Singapore.

After stuffing ourselves, the kids decided that they wanted to go back to the hotel to play with their gadgets, rather than shop. The adults happily went shopping.

While shopping, I needed to go to the washroom. Decided to go into 西门红楼 Ximen Red House to look for a washroom, which turned out to be a unisex washroom! 1st time in a unisex multi-cubicle washroom (not the single cubicle types in restaurants). Was definitely not comfortable using it with guys around!

Next to 西门红楼 was the Air Jordan shop - candy shop for Daddy! But turned out that I was the one who bought a pair of shoes, and he only bought a t-shirt.

For dinner, we had grilled meat at 葫同烧肉十号店. The last time we ate at this restaurant, Aaron had an extremely bad toothache. Was crying and complaining so much so that Daddy decided to bring him back to our AirBnB first, after eating only 2 pieces of beef. So this time, he made sure he had a good meal!

The meat was so succulent and tasty!

Amba Ximenting had a good spread of buffet breakfast. On top of the typical Taiwanese porridge, it also has a variety of western food, which really pleased the kids.

2nd day in Taipei, my sister brought us to a German restaurant, Wendel's for pasta.

The food was really good!

Pizza with super sweet fig.

Then it was followed by dessert!

Then it was a bit more shopping, before dinner - eat again!

We met the Wans, who were holidaying in Taiwan too, at 欣叶日本料理, a Japanese buffet place that had a good huge spread, and costing a fraction of what such a Japanese buffet in Singapore would cost. The restaurant also prepared a special birthday cake for our December baby, Gerald!

And that ended our vacation - another wonderfood, fun-filled holiday with our friends. As usual, during the last few days of the vacation, we already started planning for the next holiday!

Taiwan December 2018 - Day 9

Last day in 宜兰.

Aaron, having seen photos I took the day before in the fruit orchard, wanted to go visit too. Told him the only time we could do it was early in the morning, before we set off. And he actually did wake up at 6am, without me waking me!

This bridge was the key reason why he wanted to visit the fruit orchard.

He crossed the bridge bravely, and was so happy about it!

It was such bliss walking in the quiet peace of the early morning with my son, just the 2 of us.

At one of the look-out points was a Japanese drum!

On the way back out of the orchard, we went on another bridge, a single-plank, even-more-shaky bridge.

I can imagine Aaron joining ODAC and doing really well in Outward Bound School next time. Hopefully he keeps up his curious and adventurous spirit!

Back at the front courtyard of the farm, it's 1 last play with the bubble maker.

Then it's time to leave 宜兰. Actually, after coming back to Singapore, I realised that we probably saw only 5% of 宜兰. There's so much more to see and do that we missed out. But we were really very tired by the time we got there and just wanted some time to chill. Think we really packed too much in this trip. Need to take it slower next time!

On our way to Taipei, we stopped at 十份 to 放天灯.

And had lunch by the railway station.

This chicken wing stuffed with rice was really yummy!

The other food were so-so.

 

Next stop before Taipei - 野柳地质公园, Yeliu Geopark. The landscape of the park is full of honeycomb and mushroom rocks eroded by the sea. the cape stretches around 1,700 meters, formed as thousands of years of geological movement forced the Datun Mountains to change their shape, jutting out into the ocean.

 

That was the end of the countryside/mountain/farm part of our trip. Next, Taipei city! After so many days of country life, we were so looking forward to the city.

After leaving our luggage in our hotel - Amba Ximenting (highly recommend this hotel - good location, big rooms, great breakfast, and most importantly, has a laundry room!), we left for Taipei 101. 

Wanted to have dinner at the 鼎泰豐, but the queue was ridiculously long. So we settled for the food court instead, before going up to the Observatory.

Taiwan December 2018 - Day 8

Woke up to a nice sunny day, that was cold too.

We went to the 清水地热公园, a geothermal park for onsen eggs, corn and sweet potato.

It was quite an experience cooking our food in the super hot water hub.

There was a onsen foot bath as well, but there were so many people using it. Didn't think it was very clean, and couldn't bring myself to do it!

Next, we went to Kavalan Distillery. Established only in 2005, Kavalan has produced a number of award-winning whisky. We're not whisky fans, but it was quite educational to learn the process of making whisky, and about the many different types and taste of whisky.

By the time we finish our tour at Kavalan, it was almost 2pm, and apparently in Yilan, most eating places do not stay open throughout the day. They open for lunch, then close for siesta, the open again for dinner.

Tim brought us to 阿娘给的 for garlic meat soup.

It's sort of similar to lor mee - noodles of our choice in starchy soup with pork. The adults were ok with it, but the kids didn't like it very much. Thought Aaron might like it, since he loves lor mee. But no.

The restaurant doesn't sell any drinks, but cleverly tied up with a fruit juice shop opposite to offer discounts for their customers! Their papaya milk was awesome!

After lunch, we told Tim we'd had enough for the day, and would like to go back to the farm to chill. He was so surprised. Guess most tourists want to see as much as possible, and we came across as really slack.

But it was a good decision to go back to Shangrila coz the place, surrounding and view were really beautiful.

The kids were not so keen to explore though, so only the adults, minus Daddy, went out to the fruit orchard. It was a huge place, with swings, benches, look-out points, bridges and mini obstacle courses.

We got there in time to see the sunset. Beautiful and very serene.

Then it was time for dinner. The farm is quite far from town, so we decided to stay in and have dinner there, and join in their night activities after that. Bad decision, coz dinner was so lousy!

The starters were probably the best of all the dishes. After that, it just went downhill.

Daddy was so unhappy with dinner, and so cold, that he refused to stay on for the night activities.

The night activities were started off well. The kids played "gasing" - spinning top. There was a group of Malaysians there too, and the Gan boys and the Malaysian kids started competing.

The rest of the activities were explanation and role-play of carrying 妈祖, whom a lot of people in Yilam worship, in a carriage, and making 汤圆. We stayed for a little while more, then decided to retreat to the warmth of our rooms - kids play their gadgets in 1 room, while the adults chit chat in another.