Wednesday 22 April 2015

My Solo Taiwan Trip Day 1 & 2 : From Hsinchu --> Maoli --> Taipei

This picture says it all... and yes I am going to Taiwan!

Day 1 :

Going to Taiwan for a short trip this time round to relax and have a mind clearance therapy. Printed my own boarding pass online, do a self check in and self bag drop and I'm ready to go! 


Its been really long since my last solo trip! Finally get to travel alone again! I am not a loner but I really enjoy travelling alone!


Hello Taiwan! I'm back again!

Ok, as usual, the very first thing to grab definitely will be the phone card!


Bought the 5 day pass for NT500 (= SG$21) and I can have unlimited data usage! Very important for solo traveler as I will need data for google search and most importantly, the google map!

Just as I was walking towards the airport bus terminal, happen to bump into a group of people preparing for a wedding proposer!

Taking a bus to the High Speed Railway station.

Grab some food and drinks before the bus arrive.

Off to Taoyuan High Speed Railway Station. Bus ticket at NT30 (=SG$1.30).
  
Yup it's this drink again! People who read my blog should be very familiar with this drink! Haha!

So, after a 20 mins ride from Taoyuan International Airport to the Taoyuan HSR station, bought a train tickets to my first destination - Hsinchu! 
Initially wanting to buy the reserved seats which I will be allocated to seats but the railway station counter staff ask me if I would like to purchase the next coming train but I might not be able to grab a seats because it's a non reserved seats. 
The next train is coming in a few mins and since it is only one station so I decided to proceed with the non reserved train ticket and true enough, there is no seats available! Haha! 

Taoyuan to Hsinchu took me only 10 mins.

Basically there is nothing much in Hsinchu but my main purpose here is to see this little cutie! Ok, and my friends ( cutie's parents )...


Sooooooooooooooooooooooo cute right?!

Heehee, bought him a set of baby clothes from a Instagram seller ( @babylink2015 ) and the baby is loving it!

After settling down at my friend house, head out to grab some light lunch and do some shopping.


Came to Big City, one of their bigger mall with supermarket, departmental, lots of shops and restaurant too.

Pass by this bakery shop and the bread just smell and looks sooooooooooooooo good not to miss it, so we decided to just have bread for lunch and so that we can enjoy a heavier dinner! Haha! By right a correct diet is that we should have a heavier lunch compare to dinner but when I travel, there is no 'By right' for food anymore!  

I had this roe bread and it is really yummy!

There is some Mother's Day promotion at the departmental store, so my newly-mum friend gets her Laneige at a good price! I give it a skip because I'm going Korea for my up coming trip!

Dinner time! My friend make a reservation at Yakinku Resturant and it's a buffer style Japanese BBQ. Now you know why we have to have really light lunch in order to have this dinner! 

The address of the restaurant if anyone is interested in going.

We went on weekdays night so the price for each adult will be NT589+10% = NT648 (=SG$28.50). I guess the price is very reasonable as we might not be able to eat such a buffer with just SG$28. 

Quite a big and atas (high class) place!

So here start our non stop ordering of buffer! 

YUMMMMMMMMY!!

Not forgetting the baby's dinner too but he fall asleep! 

A table full of yummy food! ( and baby is having his yummy dinner too)

The real define of cheessssssseball!

OMG! Yummy scallop! 

More BBQ... more... more... more!!!

After a happy dinner, let's welfie before our dessert!

Dessert time! Mango ice cream cone!

Ok, back home, bath and time to sleep after a long day for me! 

It's only day one and I bought so many things?! 
Actually only the coffee and book is bought at Big city, for the rest of the items, I bought through http://www.payeasy.com.tw/index.shtml and send it to my friend house! Haha! 


Day 2 :

Good Morning! Heading somewhere further a bit so we have to wake up quite early!

Coffee easily settled with my favorite drink but a different flavor. They have new flavor each time I visit Taiwan!

Bread that I bought from the bakery shop at Big City for breakfast! This cheese milk bread is bigger than my palm! 

Little cutie is all dress up and ready to go! 

I think in his heart, he hates me taking picture from low angle... Haha! 

Off we go! 



Yup! We are going to Miaoli for one of their flower festival at West Lake Resort and free entry for 2 days only and lucky enough my visit to Taiwan falls into these two days.

And this explain the jam.... worse, we have to park really far from the resort!




The flower event is from 11/4 to 10/5 but only 2 days free entry and the rest of the days, people have to pay for the entrance fee.

Free entry = Crowded! Not surprise at all...

Maybe I should call it a carnival. 

The happy family~

Many stalls selling food and drinks... 




Cute little chubby baby playing with the windmills.

Children having fun riding a boat!

There is carrousel too! 

But look at the queue for the carrousel! 

We gave up the ideal of riding the carrousel so we just take picture with it.

Other rides were having long queue too...

Ok, where should we go next?

Beautiful flowers but this is not the flower that everyone is here for.

Looks like Alice in the Wonderland?





Still not the flower we are here for...

Went in to this fireflies room but didn't to see anything inside. Every one looks confuse when they step out of the room thinking what have we saw just now and why are we inside? Haha!

Continue to explore the place and enjoying the nature. 






While on our way to see the flowers, we overheard that some people who already went up and came back down saying that the flower is not blooming yet so there is nothing to see yet! No wonder it's free entry cause chances of the flower blooming is not high! 
So after hearing them saying there is nothing to see, we decided to u-turn back! 

Although we never get to see the main flower, we get to see other flower too.




We gave up on the map so we leave it with the baby! Haha! 

All stalls are with long queue so we only manage to grab some dim sum and donuts to eat in the car.


It's a different type of donuts compare to the donuts we know! Crispy on the outside and soft with many layers in the inside!

Eating at the roadside while waiting for the car. We have to leave the place because I need to head off to Taipei already and might be late meeting the host of my Taipei apartment. 
My friends then head back to Hsinchu. Really had a great catch up with them and baby! 

Manage to grab the next coming train but again a non reserved seats. I'm running late already so I got no choice but to take the non reserved tickets. Luckily there is a lot of empty seats!
Anyway, Taipei here I come!

Dog siting beside me in the train!

Ta da! This is where I will be sleeping at for the rest of the days in Taiwan! Such a cute house! Small, cosy and most importantly it has everything I need inside! Love this little apartment which is located at the famous Xi Men Ding! 
Book this apartment through https://www.airbnb.com.sg/ and the host Kenny ( https://www.airbnb.com.sg/users/show/20965710 ) is a very nice and helpful guy! I didn't get to see him because he himself went Thailand for holiday so he had his friend Max to meet me, pass me the key and show me around the apartment. Max is also a very nice guy.
Apparently, Kenny got quite a few apartment within the same building to choose from but since I'm alone, I choose the smallest one. 


A big bed by myself!

Off for dinner! A huge mirror for me to do #ootd ! Haha! That's not what I usually do in my blog, but...........

Googled some of the restaurant and cafe in Xi Men Ding and one of them is just 2 mins walk from my apartment so I decided to have my dinner at IN%! 
Oh wait! IN% Hair Vision? Means that's a hair salon? Yes, you did not see wrongly, I'm going to this IN% for dinner! It is actually a cafe cum hair salon! Apparently it is own by one of the Taiwan celebrity.  

No table at the moment so I leave my number and went to roam around before I can get a table.
Saw this uncle selling my childhood mochi and decided to grab one pack cause I'm way too hungry! 

Looks and taste like those selling in Singapore too! One pack is NT30 (=SG$1.30).
Got a little bit of energy to continue to shop around after this small pack of mochi!

The cafe call up and so I stop shopping and went back to the cafe for my real dinner! The cafe is not big but have a few bigger table for bigger group.


A lot of cute decoration around and my favorite is these eggs! All the egg is with different expression! 
Oh ya those plate with signature is actually signature of local celebrities who came before.  


Order a set course which include standard salad and dessert, my choice of pasta and drink.  
Menu download from their facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/in.hair.cafe/timeline )but doesn't have the pasta that I eaten.

Address : 台北市萬華區西寧南路76號2~5樓
Tel @ Cafe : +886 22311 6065

Salad and bread serve not long after I place my order. 

Rose latte with 3D hello kitty! The rose latte really smell very nice with the real rose bud inside. Yummmy! ( btw, they got other 3D cartoon like bear or cat to choose or not have anything on the drinks )

Seaweed chicken pasta.

Haha... my hello kitty looks like she is peeping at me ( after I start drinking my latte )!

Lastly, my dessert! Melting mash mellow in between the biscuit which I forgot the name for this!  

Next after a full course dinner will definitely be shopping! The night is still young at Xi Min Ding!  

Dog having his scroll at Xi Min Ding too! 

If you guys often follow my blog, then you should find this place familiar! Haha! My favorite department store to shop for my face product at a cheaper price!

How can I not drink pearl milk tea when I come to Taiwan right? So I ended my day with a yummy cup of pearl milk tea!

Put on my lavender night mask and good night!

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