Lai Wah Restaurant

Mother's Day came fast and furious after we returned from our holidays. Flooded with work, there was no time to plan for it at all. It was only on the afternoon itself that we went on a mad scramble for a restaurant. No Japanese, Western, or any kind of exotic food allowed. Chinese food is our safest bet.

Toa Payoh SAFRA's Mouth Restaurant had a vacancy, so the kiasu sotong made a reservation first, despite not having any interest in the Mother's Day menu at all. Called up Father's recommendation - an established, famous Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. They did have a vacancy, but at the upper floor, accessible by stairs only. Ok, that's out.

Father suggested Lai Wah, another established restaurant he patronized since he was young. Located at the ulu Bendemeer? No problem, we were going by cab anyway! The bad news was that the only available table was unair-conditioned. Er... I think we could try putting up with it? As for my brother... well... too bad!

The restaurant was located at a flat's void deck. Peeking in, the deco in side was seriously dated. Like those steamboat restaurants Hong Kong mafias like to fight in. Anyway, our table was the makeshift type on a tent extension outside. The only respite from the hot, humid and windless weather was a fan that hardly reached us.

Let my parents make the order. Couldn't remember exactly what we ordered, but there was fish, yam ring, a meat and rice. There must have been more, but seriously forgot lah ^_^;;

The fish was the most special. It's garoupa done in 2 styles, a portion fried and the other steamed. Not bad, except they probably put too much corn starch in the steamed part. The rest of the dinner was forgettable. The yam ring was full of ingredients we didn't like - mixed corn and peas. Cheap also lor!

Taking account that we were dining at a void deck with no aircon, was $22.80 per head considered exorbitant?

Taking the heat into account, overall, it wasn't a pleasant dining experience. Especially the use of cheap ingredients for the yam wall! I think Makansutra should withdraw that chop, really.

Taiwan Trip - Day 10

First thing in the morning: Pack! I think we threw out really a lot of things, those wrappers and valueless space-takers. We were going to check out before heading out. One more pair of contact lenses left, how come? I thought I had counted exactly and I was supposed to be wearing spectacles today since I was going on a plane? Couldn't remember... ah, just wear them so I wouldn't have to go back with them. Slapped on more sunblock as we would be out under the noon sun. Tied our luggage at the reception again and out to Ximending for perhaps the last time.

The shop near Neijiang Hotel that sold 碗糕.

And the beer supplier 7-11 next to it.


淡水 Danshui
It's pretty weird to go Danshui in late morning, but we did, no choice.

Danshui was the last station on the Danshui line, so by the time we got there, it was 11+am. Taiwan has been gradually warming up everyday of our stay. On this last day, I could have done without my jacket, but I chose to keep it on to block the sun.

A Tourists' Centre was conveniently located at the Metro Station. My sister obtained a map and a staff member suggested that she just walk along the 老街 and enjoy the sights.

Seemed like the place has been commercialized. I say this because it has proper pavements.

I'm not sure if I'm kidding.

Ok ok, lunch first. Again, a place with not many food choices! My siblings really did not fancy fishball noodles for lunch again. Saw a western food restaurant advertising cheap steaks and stood outside deliberating for a long time, before finally entering, after the waiter had given up waiting to open the door for us.

Our steak came in a sizzling hotplate, yeah!
This is mine. Scallops! See that tea behind? It's 3-in-1, bad.

Our lunch set also comprised of a free-flow buffet of cooked food, desserts and drinks, but the buffet was quite a sorry one. The good thing was that if you ever needed more gravy for your steak, would like to change your black pepper steak to a mushroom steak or wanted to fulfill your childhood dream of drinking steak gravies as soups, the gravies were all in the buffet. Unfortunately, the steak was wasn't good. It's thin tasted like hawker centre's, a place a I never order steak from. The gravies were... couldn't remember exactly how they tasted like, but it's not good anyway. The Hougang ah beng western food and Aston's still win hands down.

All chocolate fountains look delicious, but I didn't go gaga over the one found here. Well, I was doubtful of the quality you see, although the color looked ok. I steered clear of it, unwilling to waste any calorie quota on it.
The chocolate hardened as soon as it left the fountain, forming a shell around the skewer. Here's my sister's attempt to make Porky sticks and other chocolate-coated snacks. Dunno what that blue ring around the tomato was. The chocolate was tasteless, according to my sister.

Doraemon-lookalike! Unintentional.

There was a mini-lift next to our table, the door only about 1m high. Wow, how to use huh, squat while in there?

Later it was demonstrated that it wasn't meant for human usage. It was for transporting non-living things to and fro the upper floor.

The waiter was very lun zun one, spilling things and making a lot of noise while clearing tables. Haiz need more practice!

The bill was NT1180. Affordable, but not nice ley. We picked up a business card on our way out. The staff must be pleased to witness the act.
But the actual intention is to... warn you to avoid the place LOL!

Continued down the road, another temple with fanciful signboard that changes color.
The interior, taken from outside.

The temple's wall on the street.

Eye-catching deco that stood out from the crowd. Also means that it's rather out of place.

We came to the rectangle on the left of the map and went to be closer to the sea. On the way was plenty of dog poo, almost kena!

I supposed it's low tide now.
Lots of tiny crabs!

I wonder if these birds eat crabs.

Polluted, still air. Not a pretty sight. Not much wind.

Fake man atop a roadworks lorry, for warning motorists about roadworks. He could swing his arms. Wonder why we don't have it here? Getting a bangala is cheaper?

We could have gone up Zhong Shan Road and then to Zhen Li Street to try the 阿給 that the locals patronize, but when we got blocked by a busstop sign in the middle of the pavement, we decided there's no guarantee we could make it there easily. Besides, other than the a-gei, there's nothing else to do there.

Look at this scooter, how innovative! No more black hands fair arms!

Thirsty already. I was looking for a drink, but like no drinks around ley, not even a fridge with coke or something. Only got Tian Ren Ming Cha bubbletea, which we never tried because it's more pricey, although it's everywhere. Now no choice lah, so I bought their pearl milk tea.

OMG, it's NICE lor! I tried so many, and this is the best! Worth the NT48 (I think)!

My sister went to look at Crocs opposite Tian Ren Ming Cha. Not much cheaper.

Then we got stuck inside the Sophisca outlet, where my siblings bought gifts. It was too narrow for me, so I stayed outside, trying very hard not to finish the bubbletea.

Walking back to where we came from, it's time to do the touristy things.
Bought 鐵蛋 (NT100 each) and 魚酥 (NT50 each).

Turning the corner at A Po Tie Dan's shop, we came to the street along the sea. We found ourselves at the tourists' trap of Danshui. A whole street of it! I thought Zhong Zheng Road was commercialized. This one worse lor! Just look at the number of tourists congregated (wonder if they knew better), a-gei, Turkish ice-cream (no photos allowed, so dao! Maybe he's illegal immigrant.), long ice-cream, games... to think I was wondering where all these things were!

The ferry terminal.

No choice, had to settle for a-gei meant for tourists, and lamented to be inedible by locals. We picked the shop nearest to us, at the ferry terminal.
It's tofu skin with dongfen stuffing in sweet sauce for NT35. Not nice ley, I didn't like the sweet sauce. Dumped it.

Getting the long ice-cream out of curiosity, although I was convinced it must taste horrible.
Not smooth and tasteless. Why did they even bother coming up with different flavours? Took photo of it and into the bin it went.

Haha so full lor! Just need to shake!

Almost 3pm already, time to leave. The sun, argh! My sunblock couldn't fight it. My exposed body parts turned chao da!

Onboard the metro towards Ximen, watching Taipei city stuck in time.


Ximending
Very last walk along Ximending back to hotel, we dapao A Zong mee sua for the 3rd time and bought more Tian Ren Ming Cha. Walau last day then discover the nice one! If I had found it earlier, I will surely drink everyday.

A busstop near Tian Ren Ming Cha.

Stopped by Xin Dong Yang. My sister bought some rougan.

Got to repack once we were at the hotel! All the Sophisca, tie dan, yu su, wa headache!


Taoyuan Airport
Our chartered cab arrived on time at 4.40pm to bring us to the airport. The cabbie couldn't believe that we were from Singapore as our Mandarin were good and many Singaporeans could communicate effectively only in English. Haha really, that bad? Wow, so we have a reputation :X Like many others, he guessed correctly that we were siblings, but got the order wrong. But still, better than guessing we were father and daughters. The fare was NT800. Very worth it for the convenience and peace of mind.

Walked around the airport looking for dinner, but couldn't find anything we were interested. In fact, the airport was bare except for a Xin Dong Yang store. Surprisingly, the prices were not exorbitant. Bought more goodies since we still have space in the luggage and excess NT. Yummy-looking cup noodles, muah chee, 奶油酥, nougats, NT1096 spent successfully. REPACK AGAIN!

We checked in our luggage first so we didn't have to bring them around. I had to check in my wheelchair too and loan an airport wheelchair for NT35. No problem, expected! No change of seats for this leg :(

Before we knew it, we were out of time, couldn't find our dinner anymore (not with that airport staff tailing us also). We gobbled the mee sua (didn't expect it to be my dinner) and went in... T_T

Barely 10m from the Jetstar counter, we spotted the VAT refund counter. More NT in our hands now... But a money-changer was there to help us. Sold all our NT here, no point bringing back anyway.

Better empty my bladder before boarding... I was shown to a really cool accessible toilet with the fanciful Japanese toilet bowl! No need to go Japan to play with it!

Got to come here to stone early because we were going to be the first to board.

There's a vending machine charging commoner's prices, so we bought a bottle of coke (for smuggling!) and a can of coffee.

I wondered if we were taking the same plane that just arrived at Taipei, back to Singapore. Barely minutes after the passengers had all alighted, we were told to board. The plane wouldn't be overworked meh?

Once we boarded the plane, the flight attendant helped me arrange for a wheelchair at Changi Airport, saying it would cost S$35. Wa, same as Taiwan, except the currency sign was different! So that was like, 20X more expensive! This Changi really know how to earn money lor! No choice, I agreed. All for convenience's sake.

I turned on my mobile phone, which has been sleeping for most of the time in Taiwan. I got a sms from my boss, telling me to work from home the next day. I couldn't fathom the reason. H1N1? An exchange student returned to Taiwan from Mexico, that was it! Like that also want to quarantine me? Might as well... my siblings were all taking some time off too hehe.


19:10 Byebye Taipei, end of holiday :(

It was all dark outside. After the lights from Taiwan were gone, it's just the plane's wings and the engines' roars. I recalled my "extra" contact lenses were from the day I left them behind due to the sand-in-my-eye thing from Day 5. Should have just taken them home, for the cabin's air was seriously dry! Could neither read nor play games.


23:45 Home, sweet home. It would indeed be, if not for the work.

Upon touchdown at Singapore, I received another sms update from my boss. I was to go to office as she had arranged some work for me that must be done. SIGH! Hello work tomorrow :((

The plane cleared pretty fast. Maybe the passengers were trying to beat the cab's midnight surcharge. We were the last to alight again. Despite the time spent waiting for the passageway to clear, the wheelchair hadn't shown up. The flight attendant helped us call them again. We waited for another 5min, but still no wheelchair. The flight attendant asked if I could walk the "short" airbridge. It would have been possible if it were flat, but it's a challenge since it's a uphill gradient. I understood she was asking me to get out of the way gently... Fed up, my brother decided to piggy-back me while my sister had to manage all our hand-carry luggage. The flight attendant was almost looking apologetic at our decision, closing the cabin door as we left. Wow, we must have taken up a lot of busy Changi's precious time.

My brother has piggy-backed me all the way past the travellators, we had all finished visiting the washroom, but we swore we saw no wheelchair all this time. Still no action despite reminders! Give them money also don't want, don't know if it's because Jetstar has a problem arranging for such service, or we shouldn't expect to enjoy such a service since we were taking budget although we were willing to pay, Changi doesn't bother about budget passengers or simply bad service on Changi's part. I didn't expect this from Changi at all. Cannot make it! I will know the next time I take a full-service flight.

At T1, there's still quite a distance to the immigration. I sat on the trolley, the next best thing available. It didn't take me very far though. It was a flight of stairs down to the immigration, and no trolleys were allowed beyond the lift lobby. We took the lift down, but our destination lift lobby appeared to have turned into a construction zone with no directions to the immigration. My brother sent my sister to recce the way to the immigration. What a bad impression all these would have left a tourist!

And we finally made our way to the luggage collection area, where probably only ours were the only ones left rotating. Even the fellow passengers of the same flight were nowhere to be seen! Must be on their midnight surcharge-free cab ride now.

Look what the guys have done to my wheelchair! So many rounds of tape, so tight!

Of course we were not going to leave with just our luggage! Retraced our steps to the DFS to enhance our arsenal. This is why people go overseas! Buy buy BUY (when we come home)!

We were not in the mood to look for food at this hour, so we decided to go home first and go out to buy, or just cook instant noodles.

Took a limo cab back home. With airport limo and midnight surcharge, it was S$45. OUCH.

Still not hungry at all. Bathed, ate instant noodles and slept at almost 3am. The end of my holiday, and start of a hellishly crazy 2009.

Taiwan Trip - Day 9

小人国 Window On China
We were going to utilize our complimentary amusement park tickets today! My sister had this thing for Window On China. Since we weren't interested in the other theme parks, some entrance fees were dirt cheap to start with (e.g. Yeliou Ocean World) and Window On China tickets were expensive (NT499!), so she got her wish.

The plan was to arrive at Jing-an Metro Station to catch the 9.45am bus to WOC. Well, this WOC is "conveniently" located in Taoyuan, so I reckoned we would go broke cabbing there. We were certain that we noted the bus timing correctly, but after 45min of waiting, still no bus in sight. At this time, a cabbie came to ask if we were going to WOC or Liu Fu Cun, as there were 2 others going to Liu Fu Cun and we could share a cab. We didn't know if we missed the bus or the bus was coming at all, so we accepted the offer. The couple's language gave them away - they turned out to be Singaporeans too!

Fare was NT150 per pax, could be lower or higher depending on the number of people on the trip. I think it was only slightly more expensive than the bus ride. Comfort without the waiting time, we got a good deal!

Window On China a.k.a Doraemon Theme Park. The whole place was playing a Doraemon-inspired WOC theme song "Ang, ang, ang, ang, 小人国...", constantly. ARGH!

The first was an amateur acrobats performance. Since we were here already, just enjoy it! Uh oh, kids on excursion spotted again! How come always got kids on excursion?

Lunch first.

A kiosk outside the hall. Everything Doraemon. No, we wouldn't be getting our food here.

The only restaurant, but not opened yet. And the menu was quite expensive.


Aiyoh, yet another place with no food? We walked further to see if there's any other kind of food around.
We were forced through this tourists' trap before we were allowed to see anything else.

Oops, outside were the miniatures already, so more interesting food was unlikely. Seemed like the kiosk was our best bet. Boohoo, never have I bought lunch from a kiosk!
Rice burger. Piping hot, not bad at all!

My sister ordered a hotdog.
And a hotdog, she got. Without the bun.

We got a packet of fries too, the thick kind. Steaming hot!

Total damage for lunch was NT350. And we were good to go.

Kids on the left! Quick, look at the exhibits before they come our way!

The park was divided into areas of the world. First was Taiwan and China.
Not 1, but 2 Godzillas! RAHHH!!!

This ship would catch fire and get doused, repeatedly.

How much did the airlines pay to get featured here?

A regular train station.

See all Taiwan's places of interest here!

Even got their old zoo, where gorillas swing freely in 2 directions!

We should have planned WOC before CKS Memorial Hall. We spotted a likely handicapped access in a glance -_-;;

The Office of the President...

And they have changed the president too!

Very intricate miniatures.

The panda reserve in China, with a blue robot cat among them. Can you find Doraemon?

Sorry fish, you have to go hungry.

Ok I've been to the Great Wall of China already!

And the Forbidden City!

We saw some life-size Doraemon and gang figurines and posed with them, despite the blazing sun above us. What a place!

I was falling asleep, so I went to get iced coffee from the kiosk. Cost was NT70, expensive!

More Doraemon-inspired food.

Not to forget a shop selling Doraemon merchandise. This place ah...

Upstairs was a Doraemon exhibition.

We learned why Doraemon was blue and earless. Very educational.

And we saw the exact same life-size figurine we posed with under the freaking hot sun. Duh!


We hopped on board the mini train to get to the other side of the park. The kids went crazy at Egypt, not because of the pharaohs and pyramids, but over the curvy metallic structure above it.
Most of the time, kids could only look in disappointment when they couldn't meet the minimum height requirement for amusement rides. Not anymore here. Adults were the one busting the maximum height. Even I busted. The most popular was a roller coaster like what could be found in Haw Par Villa years ago, landing with a splash, except the splash here was so big that you and the passers-by would be drenched. So we could see many kids getting changed at the washroom and the park happily earning from pay-per-use hairdryers.

Strangely, we did not see many African miniatures around.

You mean that was it, the roller coaster?!

Is there really such a temple in the world.... XD

Wa... really no need to go Japan anymore. First sakura, now castle!

This is the train. Real small and cartoonish huh.

Kids approaching, run before they engulf us!

Finally standing on railway tracks for a photo, after missing 3 chances.

Taj Mahal. Great to see it here, since I don't think I will ever visit India this lifetime.

Don't know can take a break climbing up this spiral or not.

Even have Stonehenge wor!


This spells Tetris.

Such a structure would never be allowed to remain if built in modern days.

Indoor kiddy rides with bored adults. This whole park is totally targeted at children.


Stay out of its radius in event of earthquake!

Was it easier carving this?

We have stayed longer than intended to finish the park. Since we were here already, might as well? That was at the expense of Danshui though, since it was 3pm already and would be 4pm by the time we reached Taipei. But since we didn't think the Fisherman's Wharf and sunset at Lover's Bridge were a must-see, we decided to postpone it to noon the next day.

Hoped we would get lucky by bumping into people wishing to leave WOC too, then we could share a cab, but it was not meant to be. Take bus lor, dunno how long we must wait :( At this time, we saw a bus driving by. Was that THE bus? Sent my sister after it, and indeed it was! In fact, it was about to leave, so we were just in time. Confirmed that it was heading to Taipei (don't want to get sent to some funny place) and we boarded. The driver was very helpful and allowed me the half-priced ticket :D Original fare was NT118 per pax. This made the cab earlier looked like the best buy of the day. The bus was the same kind as the one we took from airport to Taipei, dangerous for my brother and I!

The bus dropped us at Jing-an Metro Station. My brother threw my pillow at my sister, asking her to catch, but she was looking elsewhere, so it landed in the middle of the eeky pavement with a thud. Yucks!


台北地下街 Taipei City Mall
New destination was the underground Taipei City Mall, which I heard to be a shoes haven. My sister wasn't too happy as it wasn't the one with her douhua, but since she was only looking forward to the douhua and nothing else, she gave in. The wheelchair access from the Metro to the mall wasn't direct. For able-bodied people, it's just a few flight of steps. We had to study the station layout, send people to recce, wonder if a wheelchair access really existed, before discovering that we had to go a big round, through a smelly carpark, up an ulu lift (really scared of ulu lift in Taipei Main Station after that episode on Day 3).
We were like, FINALLY LOR *pant*

First, some public awareness.
Ok, we will stop for no police now.

Many shoes lah, but not suitable for me again. Cheap clothes available too, but still failed our picky shoppers' criteria. It did have many hobbies shops though. We found ancient game cartridges, manga and figurines, which enticed my brother into making his one and only purchase in Taiwan. Damn bulky also! I found cheap accessories, happy! We also bought an instant coffee from the accessories shop (actually it sold a wide variety of things lah, skincare, snacks, whatever's interesting)

Bought a scoop of Duroyal ice-cream for NT25. But this time so-so only ley. Maybe because no Meiji to contrast with it.

Decided to go to Shilin earlier. On our way back to Taipei Main Station, we had to use that ulu lift again. But first I wanted to pay a visit to the shop selling Jap-sy sweets beside it.

I was about to pay for a candy when the sales assistant recommended this, saying the bursting rose flavour was very popular with ladies. It's more expensive than the one I was about to get, but I got it instead. Haiz like so gullible hor, people say then I buy. Think it was about S$3 for this tiny bag hur hur.
But it's really yummy! What a sucker for expensive Japanese sweets I am!


士林夜市 Shilin Night Market
Alighted at Jiantan Metro Station. An old, dirty structure with a roof was located opposite the station. Couldn't believe that it was THE Shilin as I never knew it was covered and the place was much smaller than expected. Well, it looked just like a wet market lor. But apparently there's a larger part further down the road, mainly for shopping. Ok, we shall stick to food only.

It was 6.30pm and so crowded already.

First stop, join the queue for the must-try XXL chicken cutlet! Aiyoh, wait very long ah...

While in the queue, we saw something heart-stopping - someone holding 曾记麻薯 paper bag! Taipei have??? WHERE? I WANT!!!

Or maybe the person just came from Hualien, or he's just using it as a bag... :\

While my sister was queuing, I went to get 大肠包小肠. I thought I would get 2 sausages, but it's really 1 hotdog wrapped in a rice bun.

Some games to help burn off the excess calories.

Exploring the interior of the market, we saw many repetition of the same food. The further we went, the quieter the place was. The building was big, but only less than half of it was the food stalls. The rest were all closed. Er, like that only?

After the disappointing sotong soup and fried oyster at Ximending, we decided to give them a try again. With a whole row of seafood zichar stalls, which one to give our new chance to?
Since my brother and I had no preference, my sister picked this stall with plenty of Luo Zhixiang.
蚵仔煎. I guess my brother and I really don't like the Taiwanese rendition. I like mine crispy, not nuah after pouring that gravy on top.

花枝羹. O this soup was much better. But the sotong was tasteless, which was expected after being cooked in soup. I should be worried if it were tasteful. Conclusion was, 花枝羹 was also not for me.

BONES in the XXL chicken cutlet! No wonder so big! Hate bones!

Passed by the toilet. From the general condition of the place, I didn't even dare to inspect it.

My sister said must try 爱玉冰.

Then we really got a bowl of 爱玉 + 冰. It's like jelly, resembling the jelly that came with the honey sea coconut at the market near our house.

My sister said must try white bittergourd juice.
Not bad! Refreshing and good for washing away the oiliness.

Alamak... so fast finished walking one round and back to the front. What other food to try? How about 蔥油餅, the one I didn't get to try at Tianmu? The stall beside the XXL chicken cutlet had 蔥餅... not sure if it's the same, but just try lah!
Looking carefully, we realized that the stall had 2 queues. The line selling 蔥餅 was snaking, but the line for chicken cutlet was empty! XD

Browning and looking yummy.

Collecting dust and killing appetites. Eh... look at the browning better.

This thing is delicious! Great eaten while piping-hot, full of juicy, crunchy veggies.

Look at some non-food stuff now.

Out-of-place arcade.

To make the trip to the night market complete, my sister played one of their games, the BB gun. The boss started by giving her a plastic toy gun. That gun was damn lousy lor, cannot aim properly. My sister didn't hit any balloon for the first round. She asked for the "real" (not sure really real or not) gun as she has handled a real gun before. The boss said she would have given her the "real" gun the first time round had she known that! Sure or not... you never asked lor... and still charged for that round also! That toy gun cannot make it lor, if they always give people that for the first round, expert also cannot hit anything! Cheat! Now much better, majority hits!

This person replenished the balloons really quickly. 1s per balloon.

With her superb shooting skills, my sister earned herself a prize. But that was after spending NT300 :O

We were done pretty early at 8pm. Nothing to look at already. Frankly, Shilin didn't quite live up to expectations, especially when we had been to Raohe and Keelung already.

Spotted antiques for sale - cassette tapes.
The first problem would be finding a cassette tape player. The next would be whether these tapes were still playable.


龍山寺 Longshan Temple
The night was still young. We figured that we still had time for Longshan Temple as a filler programme. Wa... today's itinerary can throw away lor! Emerging from its namesake Metro station, we walked past a park with old people playing chess and many others gathered around watching. Such healthy activities!

Old temple with ultra-modern marquee signboard.

A staff member, who appeared to be dedicated to handling visitors, handed us a bunch of joss-sticks and told us to go to hall W first and put 1 stick, then hall X and put 1 joss-stick, then hall Y and put 1 joss-stick, then hall Z and put 1 joss-stick... she spoke so fast that we all blur liao, didn't catch in what order, total how many halls... didn't catch a single ball lah! We just stared at her, and asked her to repeat XD Then she did, but we still didn't catch. Must be wondering if we understood Chinese lor! She slowed down and then we understood. Just 1 round lah...

But I'm not a Buddhist ley, can don't offer the joss-sticks or not? I only wanted to see see look look. My sister still considered herself as one, so she went to do the round, while my brother took me around.


The left and right sides of the temple corridors were narrow with kerbs, not very wheelchair friendly. Forgot to mention, the entrance to the main hall was also steps-only.

We saw some devotees asking for divination lots. Never asked before, so all of asked for one. The lots didn't come in a handy container like seen on tv. Instead, it came in a gigantic vase and the lots were like 1m long. Eh... no fun ley like that. There wasn't anything I wanted to know in particular. Just give me what you want to give me!

To the cabinets to find the paper slip for our lots... but couldn't understand. Didn't even know from which direction to read the words haha! Then we saw people flipping a book... ooo that's the interpretation! Walau, all in traditional Chinese lor! And chim also, don't understand!

Then we saw the English translation at the back of the book -_-;; But it's very short only lah, I guessed it's not as good as the Chinese version.

Mother said we should not divulge our divination lots to others, so cannot show! Mine was a good lot, although I don't know for what timespan it was for, so cannot tell accurate or not.

Exiting the temple, somebody was giving out some flyer.
Haha, don't understand.

I wanted to look for a snack called 碗糕, which I heard was delicious and plentiful around the vicinity of Longshan Temple, but looking around, we didn't see any signboard bearing its name. The eating places didn't carry it either. Was it something only available in daytime?

My sister saw a 85°C cake shop outlet and hopped in to buy a piece to try, while my brother and I went to a fruits shop nearby to get some fibre of the day. We ventured further and further, came across an unknown street market, until we landed ourselves here:


华西街夜市 Huaxi Night Market
Absolutely unplanned!

The night market for the adventurous stomach. Think snakes, frogs, etc. The bosses guarding manning the entrance looked so fierce that we didn't dare to take photos.
This turtle shop was unmanned, so got photo.

This night markets' goods range reminded me of a flea market. Food, religious, touristy stuff, useless stuff all under one roof. I found a LED lamp and almost wanted to buy it. Couldn't remember how much it was, but it wasn't the price I would pay for a table lamp.

Still unable to find the elusive 碗糕. It didn't help that I didn't know how it looked like. The night market was 3/4 closed already, so we had better move. A dessert shop was selling something called 米糕粥... was it an alternative name? Ah whatever, just try lah! So we dapaoed for supper later.

On our way back to the hotel, my brother dropped by our usual 7-11 for beer. While stoning outside with my sister, I looked up at signboard of the food shop selling rice dumplings.

碗粿

WTF! Everyday pass by yet I never see! Only saw after we have overloaded ourselves with supper, pengz! Don't care, BUY!!!

My brother went to do the laundry while my sister and I started our supper... and had to be very careful not to finish them.

米糕粥, a pleasant sweet dessert. Good (random) buy! NT20 I think.

Expensive jelly grapes, our fibre of the day. There's 水翁 too, again. Total for the fruits was NT220.

O yeah, the 碗糕 that we went through so much to find, only to find it at our doorstep. A salty kind of snack, very fragrant! It's like a rice cake with chunks of meat and half a sinful salted egg yolk. NT40.

The cake. So-so lor. Looked like this 85°C was probably another fad, like Cold Stone.

We ran out of our Darlie toothpaste, so we had to use the hotel-provided nemesis toothpaste.

Last day tomorrow, sad!