Taiwan Day 6

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Wake up early morning before strolling around Xin Bei Tou. 2-3 hours is sufficient enough to walk around the main places of interest at Xin Bei Tou. We went to famous thermal valley 旅人茶房, plum garden 梅庭 for calligraphy, Beitou Museum 北投文物館 and random church.

Thermal Valley

Plum Garden

Beitou Museum

After checking out from Aqua Bella, we headed directly to Manhattan Bridal Shop for photo selection. Took us around 5 hours to complete whole selection including photo selection for album, sister photos, frame photo and Thank you card photos. Mostly are nice that we had a hard time choosing it.

We managed to take memorable pictures with 賴sir and 豆豆先生 and Vivian. Too bad unable to take picture with my make up artist and the lady that help me with my gown selection.

Finally, we headed to the most famous and overrated night market, Shilin Night Market 士林夜市 at Jiantan station 劍潭站 at Tamsui Line 淡水線. Do not get off Shilin station 士林站. You need to walk 1/2 hr to reach. The nearest station would be Jiantan station. Had our dinner at Shilin and we bought some snacks back to hotel. The best buy would be the original OPI nail polish at only NTD280 each and NTD500 for 2 bottles. Hubby does not allowed me buy 2 bottles, very regret. OPI nail polish in Malaysia can easily cost RM68 each. Super expensive. I'll be back for moarrrrr!!.

Not much activities for Day 6 as we spend most of our times at bridal selecting photos.

Next Day 7.

Taiwan Day 5

Carving for a must eat mian xian, we woke up early and headed to Xi Men Ding for the famous Ay Chung Mian Xian (阿宗面线). It was less crowded in the morning compare to evening or night time. We ordered a large bowl of mian xian with pork intestines. As expected, it tasted so good. For a not oyster mian xian lover, this was good enough for me. Hubby said rather normal though. We finished the whole bowl without any left. Slurrp!

Ay Chung Mian Xian

Next, we headed to National Democracy Taiwan Memorial Hall 國立中正紀念堂 at Chiang Kai Shek station (中正紀念堂站). This time we managed to see the guard changing ceremony. Took around 15 minutes to complete the whole ceremony. I keep looking at the 'smart' guard though (dreaming). Then we walk around the hall while me as usual searching for stamps. Superb happy each time I saw stamps XD.

Feeling hungry we headed to Dongmen station Exit 5, a new refurbished station opened in Sept 2012 for the famous Yong Kang Beef Noodles 永康牛肉麵. The station was in the middle of Zhongxiao Xinseng 忠孝新生站 of Nangang Line 南港線 and Guting 古亭站 segment of Xinzhuang Line 新莊線. We had a hard time finding the shop that I accidentally bump into a San-X store out of nowhere. Happily, I bought Shappo from Sentimental Circus. I was giggling whole day long for my new plush. Yong Kang Beef Noodle shop 永康牛肉麵 was crowded by the time we reached. We waited for around 10 minutes before it is our turn. The weather was cool, well I do not mind to queue up though. Compare to Malaysia, I won't bother to queue up as the weather was too hot for me to patiently waited for my turn. We ordered one big bowl of beef tendon noodles and 2 side dishes which we can select from varieties.

Shappo from Sentimental Circus

Beef tendon noodles

Side dishes

Enough said, I simply love the side dishes and the beef noodles taste was rather special but not the best.

There is only two of us, so normally we did not order a lot of food so we can taste more food XD. We went to Smoothie House, a famous shop for dessert. We ordered mango smoothie and it taste superb and soft. The ice just melted in my mouth. We even had our smoothie under cool weather. Divine.

We had planned  to stay overnight at Xin Bei Tou 新北投 to enjoy hot spring. We booked a room at Aqua Bella at Xin Bei Tou. We sit MRT to Beitou 北投 and transit to Xin Bei Tou train 新北投站. After checked-in, we headed to Tamsui 淡水區 as it was nearer to Xin Bei Tou compare to Taipei Main Station.

When we reached Tamsui, the weather started to get dark. We headed to Tamsui Old Street 淡水老街 to search for food. Initially, I thought Tamsui Fisherman Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭 was a walking distance from MRT station. Little did I know, we need to take boat or bus to the wharf. So we sat Bus 26 and headed to Tamsui Fisherman Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭. Maybe it is weekday, there were mere people around. It was a quiet place far from what I expected. We strolled around before we waited for next bus back to MRT station.

The regret is we unable to find Ah Po Iron eggs 阿婆鐵蛋. People would easily find the shop but not us. So we give up and headed back to Aqua Bella for our hot spring. The good about this hotel is the hot spring is right inside our bedroom and we can enjoy it as much as we can. But please do not soak yourselves too long, you gonna get a nose bleed and dizziness out of it. A recommended of 15-20 minutes is the best.

That is how we end our 5th day in Xin Bei Tou. Next, morning stroll around Xin Bei Tou.

Next Day 6.