Stomach Flu & MacDonald's

When I'm sick, I crave for MacDonald's. When I'm nauseas or after I vomitted, I crave for coke (and I'll drink the entire can). Yes, I know its weird. I cannot understand why too. I supposed its the high salt and high sugar content of these food that somehow makes me feel better.

Since Monday, I'm down with stomach flu. With the constant stomach upsets, feeling of nauseas plus physical weakness. I decided I MUST have my Mac breakfast today!

The thing is, after I bought my sausage McMuffin with egg meal and put my tray down on a table which is located in the MIDDLE of the restaurant, I went to the ladies to wash my hands (not going to risk a round of stomach upsets due to unhygiene practices).

When I came back, my McMuffin and hash brown were GONE!!! Yes, GONE GONE GONE. From the tray, on the table, in the middle of the restaurant. What was left, was my ice milo which I had drank half of it before going to the ladies. I almost cried... My Mac meal which I had been craving and it costs me $5.90!

Like WF said," When times are hard, such things happens."

So friends, better watch out for your valuables and FOOD in public places. Don't say I never warn you.

Other Interesting Sights of Taiwan

No visit is complete without visiting some of the national sights of Taiwan. Thankfully, our hotel is located within walking distance to the 228 Peace Park and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, so we managed to complete that in one morning.

Other than these, we also went to see the guards changing at the Martyr's Shrine and had tea at the nearby Grand Hotel. We also took Ning for ferries wheel ride at the Miramar Shopping complex.

We had some pretty interesting adventure here and there. Like how the taxi driver drove us to a betel nut shop and taught WF how to chew-spit-chew the betel nut. And nope, we didn't see any scantily dressed betel nuts ladies (you see them in the south, not the north part of Taiwan).

Plus Ning playing hoops at a 'tikam' store and won two little prizes whereas WF only gotten one. I must say, she's quite good at throwing hoops.

And the most interesting incident of all was bumping into WF's secondary 2 classmate who was also staying in the same hotel! After 20 years, they met and in a foreign country, staying in the same hotel (in fact, we took the same flight as well!). What is the probability of such things happening?

So that sort of concludes our Taiwan trip. We had a positive impression of Taiwan (in fact, its a much more child friendly place than HKG). We probably might visit the place again with the kids some years down the road.

The Food of Taiwan

Because of the many foodie show Taiwan had produced, we always have the impression that it is a foodie nation. Indeed, everywhere we went, we see food. Gone were the regular meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner while we were there. We ate what we saw and while we walked.

They have so much variety of food and fruits. Even the Taiwan beef noodles, you can go for the spicy one or the hot one. And every county and city have their own local famous dishes. If you want beef noodles, then Taipei is the place. If you want to try their pineapple tarts, then Taichung is the place to go.

Some interesting finds we had:
- We chanced upon a stall named "Ice Cream King" near Ximenting which sells 70 over flavours of ice-cream. Ranging from bittergourd (which I bought) to curry, tonic soup etc. Of course, they sell the traditionals like red bean, chocolates too.

- They have so many kinds of fruits like white bitter gourd, custard apple (they call it Shi Jia), green plum and many many more. You'll go confused when you want to buy something from their fruit stalls.

- They have their local version of "roti prata" called Onion biscuit. Its really nice. A mix between roti prata with onion and butter milk biscuits (if you've taken the US version of McMuffins) but crispier and crunchier.

- Froget about fast food. You don't need to have a fast food meal when there are so much options of food to choose from.

Leofoo Village

There are a few theme parks located in Taiwan. But the nearest to Taipei would be Leofoo Village, situated in Hsinchu. Which is about 1.5hr drive from Taipei. You can take a shuttle bus from one of the Taipei MRT station to get there.

Its like their local version of Disneyland with their local mascot and such. With specific areas like Arabian Nights, Wild West etc. In the park, they have a kiddy zoo where you can ride a pony, feed the animals, see the giraffes/monkeys etc.

Of course, they have the adult rides like the 360 degree roller coaster, vertical drop etc. Don't worry about food, they have the various themed restaurant in the park that you won't go hungry. Best of all, children under 110cm get FREE entrance. Ning was 100cm so we didn't have to pay for her entrance.

While in the park, we've also realised Ning has a love for roller coaster rides. All in all, she took FIVE times of various exciting & high speed rides (only those she cleared the height limit). And never seemed to get scared. Amazing... because Mummy is totally negative about any kind of dangerous rides. She must've inherited the genes from WF then.

Shangri-la Leisure Farm, Ilan

Taiwan is a place full of leisure farms. It can be a fruit farm, animal farm, tea farm etc. So I decided we should spent a night in one these farm and hopefully Ning will enjoy it.

I opted to stay in the Shangri-la Leisure farm in the Ilan county, which is an hour express train ride from Taipei.

 

Taking the train was a new experience and interestingly, while waiting for WF to get the train tickets, Ning was interviewed by some TV crew on her wish for 2009 (New Year was just around the corner). Of course, our dear girl was all so shy and didn't say anything to the microphone at all. Eventually, mummy me had to say it for her.

We alighted at this really old and 60's kind of station at Luodong town. And had to take a cab up to the mountain area.

The leisure farm started out as a fruit plantation and then eventually the owner added the chalets as well. The view from the farm was scenic and fresh. Too bad, it was raining on our first day of stay. That dampened our spirits a little.

The farm's staff will organize a typical night activity every day which includes rice dumpling making (the farm's kitchen will pound their own rice to make the dough, so its extra QQ when we ate it), top spinning competition among the guests and lighting of the lanterns. Other than these, you can tour around the farm and visit their plantations with/without a guide, enjoy the view and create your own huge gigantic bubble from the soup water the staff concocted (see slide show).

Its a nice experience and we definitely want to stay in another leisure farm for our next trip. Probably an animal farm this time.

Taiwan - Yehliu

Yehliu is located on the North coast of Taiwan and we had to take a 1.5 hour bus journey from Taipei to reach there.

At the Yehliu Geopark, you can see the natural rock formations caused by the erosion of the sea and wind.

Too bad, when we made the trip there, it was raining. And we had to don on our poncho and waddle around the place. The rain and the wetness sort of killed our enthusiasm a bit. Otherwise, according to WF, it would have been a beautiful, breath-taking and amazing sight of nature.

We took quite a lot of pictures and even though it was raining the entire day, we actually spent quite a meaningful day there, plus enjoying a nice local seafood lunch. And I always thought Ning looked adorable in her yellow poncho.

Last Day of CNY

Its the 15th day of CNY and thus the moon is full. Since Jan, it is reported that the moon appeared to be larger than usual. According to Singapore Science Centre (ST Page A4), this is because the moon has come closest to the Earth than at any time since 1957.

We had a good view of the full moon from our balcony last night and I quickly took out my camera to capture this shot.



Do look up and admire the moon in the next few months. Otherwise, you got to wait for another 60 years to see a closer view of the moon...

Taipei Hotel

I forgot to share with you guys about the hotel we stayed in Taipei, See You Hotel. I thought it was a really simple and newly renovated hotel with affordable rates. Plus it was in such a central location: walking distance from Ximenting Night Market, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, 881 Peace Park and opposite the Taipei Main Train Station.

In addition, you will never go hungry because the hotel streets are filled with food stalls, shopping malls and convenience stalls. Breakfast was provided in a cafe across the hotel every morning (see picture of Ning enjoying her toast).

And next to the cafe is a famous beef noodle stall where they won the second prize for Taiwan's National Beef Noodle Competition (see picture, taken with the owner cum chef). If you asked who won the first prize. It is the stall opposite this stall. Too bad, we didn't get the chance to taste the first prize noodles because everytime we wanted to, its either not opened or closed.

Because we're travelling with Ning and we were travelling in and out of Taipei a few times, this location at the train station was ideal, with easy access to Taipei's MRT and train out of the city.

Here are some pictures I took of our room, which I thought it was really nice and the shower facilities was fantastic. Ning always say the bed is a "princess bed". So WF ended up sleeping on the extra single bed by the side while Ning and I enjoyed our sleep, princess-style.

Blooming Red Radish

In my previous post I shared about the three red radish plants we planted this year. Planting the red radish signifies good luck and I am glad that the plants had grown really tall and is blooming with flowers!

Here's a picture of one of the radishes.



I still hope this year will be an "okay" year for us, given the poor economic outlook.

Taipei 101

No, we didn't go to Taipei 101 for the New Year's countdown. Not with Ning. Thus we went to the tower some nights before 31st Dec.

Taipei 101 boast of many new records:

- It is one of the world's tallest building, surpassing Petronas Tower in KL. And the world's first "tallest building" to be constructed in the new millennium.

- It has the world's fastest elevator. Reaching the observation level (88 levels) in 37 seconds. And you don't even feel your ear is blocked because the elevator had been "pressurized".

- It has the largest damper sphere in the world (see picture). Because Taipei is an earthquake and typhoon zone, Taipei 101 is built to withstand tremors and winds. The building includes this damper to stabilizes the building of strong winds and any earthquake tremors. And it is the only building in the world where the public can view the damper (for other tall buildings, the damper is always enclosed and not for public viewing).

The observation deck is like any other tower we went. Except they have the audio guide which you can use for free and every details of the building and its surrounding are clearly explained in the guide.

They have created 4 different mascot for Taipei 101. And Ning found them so adorable that she ended up taking pictures with them.

The Many Night Markets of Taiwan

I think our Taiwan holiday posts are long overdue. So I better start posting some pictures and quit procrastinating.

Taiwan is a place full of night markets. Every county and every town you go, they have their local night markets. And of course, you get to eat their local food from these streets too.

Just in Taipei alone, we went to three different night markets: Shilin (we went there twice!), Tong Hua Street Night Market & Ximenting (which is near our hotel).

Also, while staying in a leisure farm in Ilan, we went to their local Luodong Night market as well. As you can guess, during the evening, we spent most of our time walking along these markets and eating.

Most memorable was WF playing the pellet guns at the stalls in Shihlin. I believe this has got to do with his NS thingy, WF is quite good at aim & shoot activities (except arcade games). Ning wanted those Mickey Mouse soft toy and to win it, WF must burst ALL the revolving 10 balloons (see picture, WF is aiming at the 5th wheel from the left) with only 11 pellets in his gun. It was quite a tough one because the balloons were placed on the rotating wheel that spins.


Sadly, for both tries, he only managed to burst 9 balloons out of 10. Nevertheless we still managed to get a Mickey Mouse car which we thought Zhi will like it instead.