Tamshui Fisherman's Wharf & Lover's Bridge (淡水漁人碼頭&情人橋）

*more pics at blog*

And finally the main attraction in this district! The Fisherman's Wharf and the infamous Lover's Bridge, though I went all by myself haha. After coming down from the hills I took the same bus and arrived at my destination a good 10 minutes later.








As I arrived there quite early for the sunset, I went to a restaurant nearby to try out some food to wait for the time to pass.




The whole set costed about 462 NTD @@ which includes the bread and soup, main course meal and another drink. Didn't taste that nice though.


And finally after waiting until about 6.15pm the sun finally started to set!






And the final two shot below was from the pier at the Tamshui Old Street, which brings my day to an end as I rushed off for the APPS welcoming party



This post has been edited by zstan: Dec 17 2013, 01:31 PM

East Taipei Holiday Inn

For about 5 days in Taipei during my symposium I stayed at this hotel. According to the big plaque in the lobby it'a 4 star hotel and the room that I stayed in certainly justify the rankings.



This hotel is located in Shen Keng 深坑 district about 10 minutes away from the Xin Yi 信義 district is considered to be located in an outskirt location. That's why the organisers could afford to let us stay in such a good place for so many days. Lol. To go to the city you can take a bus or via taxi (which costs about RM25 to reach the City Hall MRT station) or the shuttle bus service by the hotel. If you don't mind travelling and want to stay at a better accommodation this place would be a good choice.

Well it's about 11km away from City Hall station. The nearest one would be the zoo mrt but i didnt try that one. I took the cab a few times and it costed me about 210/230 etc. NTD so I rounded it up to RM25 la. This area is considered remote actually.

erm should be 300-400NTD for my room but its all covered under my symposium.

Taipei Expo Park (Pavillion of Taipei & Pavillion of Dreams)

*more pictures at blog*

From the National Palace Museum my bus then took us to the Taipei Expo Park. I have never heard about this attraction prior coming to Taiwan. According to my Taiwan friends this seemed like a really popular place when it first opened in 2010 and the queues to visit each of the pavillions were insanely long.



Before visiting the pavillions I walked around to admire the surroundings. There was a Flower Expo which was held here back in 2010 and many beautiful flowers were still left behind for the public to behold.





Due to my limited time, we were only brought to two pavillions, the Taipei Pavillion and the Pavillion Of Dreams.

Let's start off with Taipei Pavillion. This was the exact replica that Taiwan brought to the Shanghai World Expo to showcase Taiwan to the world and it certainly did not disappoint.



Videos were projected on the screens and it was simply amazing as the 3D rendering made everything come to life.

Next we were brought to another room where they show case another video using some sort of prism technology in which you are able to see the same image regardless of where you stand.



Moving on to the 2nd pavillion which was the Pavillion of Dreams, which didnt really make any sense to me. Having said that, the decorations and the technology used in the pavillion is also quite breath taking.

ahahhaa sorry. i keep converting it to ringgit >< yes your price is right.

Once u exit the arrival hall the tourist information counter will be in front of you. Turn left go straight and turn left. There are several mobile operators selling their packages.

Sigh.. didn't get to visit much about Ping Xi so I wouldn't talk much about it. Only released lanterns that's all :/ Will be back for the railway tracks and the waterfall!



Lanterns in the sky. by zstan, on Flickr

Mr J French & Italian Restaurant @ Taipei Medical University （臺北醫學大學）


Since I am a Jay Chou fan I had to try out his restaurant as well! XD He has a few branches in Taiwan but I went for the Taipei Medical University branch since I am having one of my talks over there. No hassle to travel around For more info how to get there please visit his website.


Taipei Medical University



The restaurant here is decorated with the themes from his Secret movie as well!






Food here is expectedly, not cheap but still reasonable. I ordered a set which consists of a salad, soup, main course, desert and a drink which amounts to about 400NTD.






Spaghetti! Not bad at all

This post has been edited by zstan: Dec 17 2013, 01:31 PM

can visit the official website http://www.mrj-tw.com/

sorry can't remember the exact name of the spaghetti. i remember it has a bit of mustard taste and has chicken

it's very good! i got it at 10.85

Taiwan Trip 2012 - Area around Taipei 101 (台北101)


A part of the program of my symposium was to do campaigning at this area of Taipei. I think it should be more accurately called the Xin Yi 信義 District. Basically this place is like the combination of Bintang Walk in Kuala Lumpur and Orchard Road. Many places to shop but not cheap la lol.





Shopping malls and other shops can be find all around here. It's one of the popular places to be at Taipei for shoppers or people to hang out.





This area is also where all the popular night clubs are located. Hehe.

Taipei Shopping Mall & Din Tai Fung Restaurant (鼎泰豐）

After a 10 minute walk from the Xin Yi shopping district I arrived at the world renowned Taipei 101 tower!


DSC05254 by zstan, on Flickr

My main plan here was to do some sight seeing around the shopping mall and head up the observatory deck to enjoy the sunset. So without further ado my friend and I headed to the ticketing counter to get our tickets first to avoid the queue.






The ticket price to go up costs NTD440 but if you have the youth travel card (can be applied at the airport) you can get a discounted price at NTD400. After getting our tickets we headed to Din Tai Fung for a light meal. This restaurant is very famous all around the Asia Pacific region and there is also a branch in Malaysia though I did not try before. Wanted to try the original shop in Taiwan




The business here is rather good so do come early to avoid the long queue. Service is excellent.





All in all I paid NTD185 after splitting the bill with my friend. The dumplings area really nice though the skin seems to be a bit thick.

After that we went around visiting the shops and doing some shopping while waiting for time to pass. I happen to pass by their Sony Style shop here as well. The customer service here is fantastic, especially if you want to try the cameras. There's shop assistants who will guide you and give you advises and they even provide a few lenses for you to try out. Hopefully Sony Style in Malaysia could learn a thing or two from them.




And at about 5.30pm we headed back to the floor where we purchased our tickets and waited for our turn to board the elevator up!

Taipei 101 (台北101) Observatory Deck



So in about 35 seconds we were up at the 88th floor at one of the world's most tallest buildings.

As you enter the main hall you will be given a 'phone' which you can dial in a number and it will start to explain to you the meaning of all the exhibits around.





They also have postal services here. So I bought myself a post card to be posted back to my home at Malaysia. It costs 45NTD for the post card including postage if I remember correctly.




After touring around the 88th floor we then moved on to the 89th floor which is an outdoor observatory deck. For once I could finally see the surrounding of the city without a big fat glass panel right in front of my face.

Some sunset photos:

Shih Lin Night Market (士林夜市)

From Taipei 101, I then took a bus to City Hall MRT station and then switched lines to Jian Tan MRT station to head for the famous Shih Lin Night Market!



It was quite a bad idea coming on a Saturday as it was really, really packed!



I think this place needs no introduction. This is the place to be if you are looking for shopping and finding nice food! Though I must say the prices here aren't exactly very cheap though.



The place here is huge and I've given up to complete the whole course and headed for the underground food court to refill my stomach instead.





After circling the area for one round, I decided to settle on the Teppanyaki stall. I ordered a Chicken & Salmon teppanyaki set which costs NTD250. The taste is good and it is rather new experience of eating teppanyaki as the food is placed on the griller all the time to keep it warm




Chicken & Salmon(not in picture) Teppanyaki Set with black pepper sauce. NTD250

Another unique food that I tried, on special recommendation from my friend, was the Popiah Ice Cream! This dessert is basically 3 scoops of ice cream wrapped with a popiah skin and is topped by grounded peanuts. MUST TRY! NTD40





This post has been edited by zstan: Dec 17 2013, 01:32 PM

hi u can read all about it here

http://tour.youthtravel.tw/travel2009/main.php

basically it gives you discounts on participating outlets and attractions la..

good luck in figuring how to take trains man. everything is in traditional mandarin.

___________________________________________

Taiwan Trip 2012 - Babe 18 Nightclub

How can you tell people that you've actually been to Taiwan if you did not experience their night life right? =X So after the Gala Dinner me and a few friends headed to Babe 18 night club. Since it was a Sunday night so we didnt really have much choices really. Lol.

This club is the sister club of Room 18 which is owned by one of Taiwan's famous artist Xiao Kang (庹宗康).


Cover charges for the club



For 500NTD you can drink all you want on the menu, which makes it quite worth, compared to the clubs back in Malaysia (which I have never been before LOL). Though I must say the alcohol is quite diluted. The cocktails taste rather good!




Some apple cocktail.

The down part of this club is that the dance floor is quite small and it's a bit suffocating. There are many guys in the club who tries to take advantage of girls so girls please be careful if you are not used to these. A bigger and a more luxurious club would be Luxy! I would like to visit there too in the near future



And this post concludes my visit in Taipei, Taiwan. There are many places that I've left out, notably Kee Lung Night Market, Yeh Liu, Shi Fen, Yang Ming Shan and many others. I will definitely be back! But maybe not in the next few years haha.

HuaLien 11 Hostel


After hanging around for about 1 week in Taipei, I left for Hua Lien (花莲) which is situated in the Eastern Coast of Taiwan. Since I didn't buy my tickets earlier, I could only get tickets for the normal Tzi Qiang (自强 ) Express train which took me 3 hours to reach my destination. If I took the Taroko Express it would only take me 2 hours!

Taking the train was indeed a new experience for me compared to taking the bus for travelling. At every stops there will be bound to have passengers who did not buy tickets with seats and they will be hanging around your place to wait for one. It can be really annoying when these passengers start to chat away. Having a good pair of ear phones always help!




The new Taroko Express which sells like hot cakes!

When I reached Hua Lien station, the owner of the hostel (Hua Lien 11) that I am staying for the night, Lisa, came to the train station to pick me up.








The hostel is only a 5-7 minutes drive away from the train station and I was very lucky to have chosen this place for my stay at Hua Lien and I certainly recommend this place highly. You can book the accommodation at Hostel World (click me).

So why do I like this place so much? Firstly its the rooms! They are really big (for the price I'm paying (1000NTD) , and compared to that Leopard Garden) and each of the rooms are decorated with different themes. It's really a good place for couples but sadly I was all alone LOL. I got a Lavender theme.....?











However, what impressed me most was not the accommodation but the services that Lisa provided. Besides picking me up and sending me back to the train station when I was leaving, she also helped me arranged my tour to visit the Taroko Gorge. She also generously borrowed me her bicycle to cycle around Hua Lien city at night to visit the various night markets.A very big thank you to Lisa! My stay in Hua Lien was the least stressful one as I don't have to worry about anything at all! =P

This post has been edited by zstan: Dec 17 2013, 01:32 PM

it's very very near! within walking distance.

yeap. there are 2 washing machines there with a proper place to hang your clothes. hualien is beautiful! must go!

the post that i posted is at Hua Lien. not taipei

i used maybank. no issue.