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.