All of us at... some bridge along the way down from our beautiful Olive Tree minsu in Miaoli. 😀 Looking at this picture of us with such big smiles makes me wanna go on a holiday with them again SOON!
Guess what's my favorite BB cream/foundation!
A selfie that blocked the entire scenery. HAHAHA! Love the weather! Absolutely no editing done on this photo okie! In fact, because there are simply too many photos, I only edited a few that I had the mood for. The rest are in their original color form.
Even the most basic of scenery was beautiful to us since we're surrounded by concrete walls in Singapore. Taking a walk in our Botanic Gardens makes me so happy, not to mention seeing mountains and rivers in Taiwan.
Eye makeup was kept to a minimal for this trip - just one overall eyeshadow shade, eyeliner and mascara. Oh, except for when we went clubbing. Hoho.
I don't know why, but despite sleeping sufficient hours at night, we all kept sleeping while on the road. Like the moment we go up the van, everyone would snooze. I wanted to Instagram more pictures but between sleep and Instagramming, I chose sleep. >.<
At 胜兴车站 - Sheng Xin Train Station. It was good being back here coz I was here with my mum several years ago.
Their Taiwan sausages come in different flavors. I think I prefer our version of Taiwan sausages. These were wayyyyy too oily and honestly, kinda weird.
Flavored sausages L-R: Original, Black Pepper, Strawberry, Yam, Rice, Orange
Lunch was at a random restaurant that cooked some really yummy dishes! I don't know the name of the restaurant but it was at the end of the stretch of little shops. The setting, dishes and people made me feel like I was having reunion dinner with family. 🙂
Handmade lavender ice cream! SO YUMMYYYY!!! 😀
After eating a truckload of food at a night market, we got ready to club. I'm sure you can tell from my purple hair and smacking hot red lipstick that I AM NOT A CLUBBER. Don't look at me like that, I'm serious!! I don't like the night life at all - can hardly hear or talk - but since we were in a foreign land, I was raring to go check out a local club! The club we went to (not sure if it was Lobby or Freedom) was extremely BORING, UNEVENTFUL. *rolls eyes & yawns
Dinner at a random stall along the streets of Taichung the next evening. The 卤肉饭 - braised meat with rice was damn good!
My 2 best friends went with me to my bridal studio. For couples who take their wedding photos overseas, rarely do they make a pre-trip trip (lol) but since I was going to Taiwan anyway, I dropped by to talk to the studio peeps and try on a gown or two.
This gown was too tight - the wearer before me must be super skinny coz I already have a very small rib cage but was probably 1cm short of zipping up fully. You can see the giant hole in the back HAHAHA!
Happy faces after a fun (but tiring. I can't imagine how exhausting it's gonna be for real!) time at the studio!
Papaya milk in Taiwan is LOVEEEEE!!! This was at Fengjia Night Market.
We all have that one special person whom we can talk all kinds of nonsense with and then engage in serious conversation one minute after another, don't we? 🙂
Act emo
I'm grateful to have you in my life, honey.
She says I always bring out the bitchiest side of her. Lol.
The focus of this picture should be the food, but I think we looked more awesome. I MISS MY PURPLE STREAKS!! Once I'm done with the wedding photoshoot I'm gonna go back to having colored streaks. Brown is classic but oh-so-boring! =X
Anyway, back to the food. They sell packed food inside the train station and you can EAT IN THE TRAIN! OMG this was such a big deal to us because F&B is forbidden on public transport in Singapore. Nobody was in the mood to eat though, we all slept again. HAHAHA! Kept sleeping!
Train tokens
Cool toilet system! Um, but I don't know what's the use of having this. My guess is that a known waiting time is better than none. What do you think?
The 台湾高铁 - Taiwan High Speed Rail brought us from Taichung to Taipei.
YAYYY!!! Super miss the famous 阿宗面线 - Ah Zong Mian Xian at Ximending. It's vermicelli with pig intestines. Put lotsa, lotsa, lotsa garlic, vinegar and chilli and it's the best thing in the world. *swallows saliva
I'm usually not a fan of unagi don, but the one at 肥前屋 - Fei Qian Wu, Hizen-Ya was ORGASMIC, best I've ever had in my life. My BFF found it in some travel book. Do yourself a favor and come here and try it, no matter how hard it is to make your way here.
I'm gonna be a saint and post the details here. You're welcome.
No.13-2 Alley 121, Section 1, Zhongshan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan
台北市中山北路一段121巷13-2號1樓
Tel: (02)2562-8701. 2561-7859
Business Hour: 11:30~14:30. 17:30~21:00 (Off every Monday)
I'm such a leech when I travel with friends, I just blindly follow wherever they take me. It's entirely different when Mr Mode and I travel though. The leech becomes the erm... leeched?
This was apparently a pretty popular place for soya bean curd and soya bean milk - 世界豆浆大王 - Shi Jie Dou Jiang Da Wang.
Don't know what's the big deal, the food wasn't even average. It was NOT NICE AT ALL. X_X They were either too oily, or too dry, or too salty, or too bland. RARR!!
Funny how the only place I took a picture of its location was the place with not so nice food. You want to go, go lor.
Took the train from Taipei Railway Station to Ruifang, and then the 'To Jinguashi (金瓜石)' bus to 九份 - Jiufen.
Boys don't like to take photos so it's not that I purposely didn't put up pictures of the boys. =P
It looks yummy but it tasted like... what you see - ice cream and peanuts.
Shaving off a thick slab of caramelized peanuts.
This was the best food at 九份 - grilled mushrooms!!! WOOHOO!!
If you climb to somewhere near the top you'll find 阿柑姨芋圆 which is not entirely new to me because Blackball has already made its way to Singapore.
Random fact you don't need to know: It was a dress day! We planned to wear a dress for one day of the trip. Hoho.
Very bitter bittergourd juice!!
I wonder why I looked like I was frowning. This was my only #OOTD for the trip.
View at Jiufen.
Dinner at 鼎王 - Ding Wang was AWESOME. More than anything else on the menu, the RICE was just craaaaaazy delicious! Little white pearls of perfect chewiness and moisture. Our friend's friend who resides in Taiwan, and who reserved the table for us, said that they export the rice to the Japanese royal family. THIS RICE.
Pity the bus journey from Jiufen back to Taipei took longer than expected, and the restaurant was so fully booked they couldn't allow us to extend our eating time so we had like 30 minutes to eat. The most rushed steamboat I've ever had in my life. I must go back someday!
And then we checked out the clubbing scene in Taipei, which was much better than that in Taichung.
We all got really bored of one another and spent the last day in Ximending apart. HAHA! Kidding. No, but really, everyone went their separate ways to do some last minute shopping. Some went to buy books and magazines, some went to buy shoes... I bought contact lenses because I had nothing else to buy. It's funny that I didn't shop much in Taiwan - my entire shopping cart consisted of one top, one pair of denim shorts (from Shilin Night Market) and 2 pairs of shoes (from Fengjia Night Market). Didn't fancy the quality of clothes I saw there. *shrugs
The contact lenses are sitting pretty in my drawer because they're not too comfortable.
Oh yes! Everything is cheaper in Taichung, so if you see something you like in Taichung, just buy coz Taipei will have everything on repeat but at at least TWD100 more expensive.
Lunch at a shop called 天天利 (I think!) was pretty good! Actually I don't remember what exactly was good because it was so rushed.
And yes! Val was in Taipei at the same time so we met up! Please look at the immense height difference. =O Gandalf and Frodo.
Dessert so was so-so only, so I brought Val to have Ah Zong Mian Xian AGAIN. Hahaha!! I super love it! There's a perpetual queue but it moves very fast.
That's why I have bangs - to hide wrinkles on my forehead. HAHAHA!
Even though this stall heavily promotes its bittergourd juice, I ordered papaya milk, which was nice but not as nice as the one at Fengjia Night Market.
It was a mad rush to the airport after that! So rushed we didn't have time for a proper lunch and bought burgers at the airport. But it was a great trip and I can't wait to go on our annual trip in 2014! 😀
Where are your favorite spots in Taiwan? Which countries did you visit in 2013? 😀
