Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 2 (3)

Welcome back!! This is my e-travel series which I am writing on my family trip to Taiwan. This is 3rd part of my 2nd day and location; Tainan. After a 4hr+ train ride with at least 15 stops along the way (slow train), it was nice to start walking and exploring. In fact, it is my 2nd time here but 1st for my family. So I was their guide. =P

First stop was lunch!! Yup, along the way to our hostel; Dorm 1828, we stopped by a shop to have ramen. Simply and nice meals. You can read up my earlier trip to Tainan here; Taiwan: 2 Days Trip on History series.

  

Looks yummy right?

In fact, I didn’t know or noticed this shop on my frist trip. Guess I was on a rush rush trip to take note.

Anyway, after checking in, we continue our journey to explore Tainan. First stop was Shennong Street which was in the heart of Tainan city.

Old red partially demolished building which was transform to an art piece.

A close up shot of the art piece. Any idea what is the theme?

Along Shennong Street, there was also beautiful mural painting.

Lots of beautiful old building of houses and shop lots.

… some of which the houses converted to shops.

lovely place to have a walk and to enjoy the sight.

It feel like it bring you bakc to the early 1900’s

Nice? Well… it is just the beginning of the journey. Want more? Easy.. just follow me and enjoy the e-travel with me. If you have not started following me, the don’t wait. Presss’ Follow me’ =)

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Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 2 (2)

Hi!! Well more snapshots of the hostel; Mr Lobster’s Secret Den Hostel as it does look interesting and clean.

  

Panoramic view of the place.

Giant clock but out of order, sitting behind the kitchen.

Time to start our trip. Just outside the hostel near the road junction. These statues caught my eyes. Man waiting for a ‘bus’ and a child ‘cycling’ around here.

We walked ab out 20min behind we arrived at the Taipei Railway Station. This is the inside of the station. Yup… it Xmas time…

Ticket counter to get your interstate tickets. either over the counter or via the machine. If you cannot read Chinese, better go to the counter and get your tickets.

Waiting on the platform to catch our train to….. Tainan; on the southern west of Taiwan.

Bought my brunch at 7-11. Look delicious right? It is!

How much did it cost me from Taipei to Tainan? NTD701 and the ride took us 4hrs+.

Want more? Stay tune…..  Follow me if you have not so that you will not missed out my e-travel.

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 2 (1)

Hi there!! Thanks for staying with me on this new e-series of my trip Taiwan back in 2014. (sorry for the delayed e-series. Took a while to produce and edit this. =P )

Anyway, this is the beginning of my 2nd day in Taipei. Staying in one of the hostel in the heart of the city. The place is called Mr Lobster’s Secret Den. Sorry no lobster for check-in gifts. We just bunked in here for the night as we arrived late into Taipei the night before…. more like wee hours in the morning.

Actually this place is located in a old the building which it took a us a while to find at it is located on 8th floor (if my memory serves me right). The owner had converted the whole floor on this building to a hostel.

  

This is the walk-way .

They even had names for their rooms.

Pipe tube direction sign to tell you the sitting area.

A wondering open view of Taipei from here.. though most of it was the roof of the shoplots and houses. Is that a Vespa??

More pictures of the walkway.

Place is well kept and clean.

Another shot from the living room overlooking the area near the hostel.

This is lobby which looks very pleasing.

Anyway… not much view except just to start off slow and easy before jumping into the beautiful views along the way.

So, do stay close to me on this e-series. If you have not followed me, then dun stop there, Click on ‘Follow Me’ =) and the journey begins…………..

Taiwan (Western Part) – 9 days Free n Easy Journey; Day 1

Hi there!! Welcome to my next e-travel write-up. Sorry. this was a trip more than a year ago but it is never too late to share, right?

Yes, it’s Taiwan again but this time is more of a free and easy journey where my family and I took a 9 days trip to the western part of Taiwan from the south to the north passage.

Although it was free and easy, it took a few months of planning to ensure that my trip there was as smooth and as accommodating as possible. We took the transport the locals took and also stayed in hostels or 1 or 2 star hotels. Simple reason was most of the time we were on walking and exploring, and we just need a place to shower and sleeps. So, accommodation wasn’t our top priority.

Ok… let’s start our e-travel. The journey started from Kuala Lumpur KLIA2 and it was a direct flight to Tao-yuan International airport in Taiwan.

It was in fact my first time in this low cost carrier airport. I am quite impressed with the size and also the number of shops in here.  

Yup… what a trip to start off with a heavy storm heading our way. Flight was delayed as usual. This was taken from the skybridge connection main terminal building to the satellite building to catch the international flight.

‘Yoda’ himself making a ‘presence’ in KLIA2. =P

M&M ‘attacking’  Petronas Twin Tower…….

After a 5 hours or so flight and with delay….. we finally touched down in Tao-yuan International Airport which was close to midnight.  Luckily we still could catch the public buses operating after midnight but very limited. Took the Kuo Kang bus at its stop point to head to Taipei city.

Cost? Well NTD125 per person. Journey took as around 1 hr++ and with stopping points in the city. So do plan where you want to get down. (especially after midnight)

Our stopped was near the Taipei Railway station and we had to walked about 30 min before getting to our hostel.

My supper after we checked in our hostel. Bought from Familymart. Taste good! Haha guess I was hungry.

Anyway.. that’s for today. Catch up with my next posting my this new e-travel series. If you have not followed me yet, pls do so by clicking on ‘follow me’

 

Taiwan – Jiufen, A Walk in Old Street (2)

Thanks for following me here on my walk in Jiufen. Before I start my walk, a brief intro on Jiufen. Jiufen is located in a mountain area in the Ruifang District of New Taipei City near Keelung, Taiwan.

Jiufen literally means ‘9 portion’ (direct translation from chinese to english). History says that Jiufen was a small isolated village where it has 9 families house in the area during the Qing Dynasty and each time they was any shipment, the families would ask the shipments to be divided into 9 portions as accessibility to their village was hard. So that how it was that the town got its name. Ok back to the walk.

A view from close to the top of the hill. Gloomy weather with thick clouds flying above (when I was there, they were expecting typhoon hitting the northern part of Taiwan by noon but lucky me… there was a delay (haha) else…..)

Fushan Temple. More on this temple later on.

Heading up to the street to the historic (small) commercial district ….

Mmm. Which direction should I go?

At the entrance of the Jiufen Old Street. You can’t miss it. 😊

Lots of small stalls on both sides….. stall selling Chinese calligraphy brushes.

to bag luggage tags…. more!

Only this? Well hell no!! LOL!! There’s more stay tune. 😊

Malaysia – Night Market the Malaysian way (1)

Yesterday, I brought my Taiwan colleague to see the night market in Malaysia. I guess you may have heard, seen or been to a night market in Taiwan as it is so well known. Example like Shihlin in Taipei or Liuhe in Koahsiung or Fengjia Night Market in Taichung.

Well today I am going to share with you the typical night market scene in Malaysia. This is the Chow Yang SS2 night market. The size of the market…. well do not expect it to be huge like the Taiwan ones but it is good enough to capture your stomach and also your pockets. 😊

We had to park our car quite a distance as there wasn’t any parking close by as it was located within a housing area. It was good excuse for an exercise after a heavy dinner (I will be posting the place where we ate; Dinner – Restaurant Murni SS2 in my food blog)

The stall was selling fresh jack fruit. What is jack fruit you may ask….

This is jack fruit. Inside it, it has many little pieces which were attach to the center.

It has a firm texture and sweet in taste with a seed in the center which you can’t eat.

Stall selling fresh buns from the oven. Lots of variety to choose from.

You want to try the local pastries? This stall sells pastries.

….. they also have a stall selling praying incense; joss stick.

More pastries…..

Fruits? Well not local fruits but more of imported fruits like oranges, apples, cherries, grapes….. as they quite popular among the locals.

Want to see more? Then stay tune……

USA – San Francisco Bay Area on a Self bicycle tour (1)

This is one of my personal trips to USA way back in mid 2007. During this trip, I visited a couple of places nearby which was within driving distance or within a day trip except for LasVegas where I stayed for a night. Anyway that’s another posting. 😊

Took a flight via Taipei, Taiwan before reaching SFO. Saw this colourful lantern decorations in the Taoyuan International Airport.

A long flight; 4 hours flight to Taiwan then a connecting 12 hours flight to San Francisco Airport.

A shot outside my window before the plane landed a SFO.

For my posting here, I will share my day trip on self bicycle tour around the Bay Area in San Francisco. Arrived at the Bay Area in late morning a day after I landed the day before. I took the Caltrain all the way to the San Francisco station.

First place I passed was the AT&T. It is a ballpark used for Major League Baseball, located in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. It has served as the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball since 2000.

Unmanned newpaper stands on the roadside.

I walked along the pier and managed to rent a bicycle to get around. By foot, I know I would not cover or get far.

Yacht Club at the San Francisco Bay Area.

Cycled along the cycling path passing under the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge until I reached Pier 39. Lots of shops here and nice to walk around.

Lots of fridge magnet to choose from…..

…more selection.

Cute sign which I saw at Pier 39…..

More pictures to come. Stay tune…..

Taiwan – Trip to PingXi train line (6)

This is my last part of my series on my trip to PingXi train line.

The old building in Shifen is nice. It’s a small town all within walking distance. It was previously also a mining town.

While walking back to the train station, I managed to catch a close up of the lantern with hand written messages by the visitors who purchase and release it later. Can you read or understand what was written?

There were also lots of shops selling souvenirs of the miniature lantern where some can even glow at night.

Below is the message that was written by the tourists or local visitors on a bamboo sticks. Not sure what they wrote though. (I can’t read Chinese. Just only spoken and still struggling)

…..and cute mailboxes too to sent yr snail mails.

Here is another shot of one of the old machines which was used during mining times.

A beautiful view of the hills with the bridge over a small river.

My next and last stop was PingXi town.

Where should I head too?

A beautiful painted mural.

That’s all folks. So wanna guess what’s or where will it be for my next blog?

Taiwan – Trip to PingXi train line (4)

From Huotong to Shifen, it took about 15 to 20 min train ride. The train ride was beautiful; cutting thought the hills, green trees and a beautiful waterfall before you to reached Shifen. When arrived at Shifen, I was surprised to see the stalls so close the tracks. You will understand when you see the pictures below.

This is the photo from the station and the paths to the Shifen town where the stalls are literally on both side of the tracks.

Me walking on the tracks. You could see lots of people

Shifen is famous for the sky lantern. You can see lots of stalls selling the lanterns from deco size where some could even glow at night to the big ones which you can write messages on four side of the lantern and then release it.

People releasing the sky lanterns.

… up up and away.

I continued walking along to the town and headed to the Shifen Waterfall. It was a nice and easy walk and along the way, I had to cross the railway tracks.

A beautiful shot of the railway tracks.

A bridge near the Shifen Waterfall with the hill at the background.

More to come……

Taiwan – Trip to PingXi train line (3)

Welcome back! We are still in Huotong. Walking along a small street and a gloomy day with a magnificent view of the mountains.

A temple along the street which I managed to capture.

Heading back to the Huotong station, I had to cross a covered pedestrian bridge to get over the other side of the track. In the covered pedestrian bridge, you could see people feeding cats and cartoon cat size stand.

Another beautiful view of the mountains from the other side of the tracks.

A lazy cat sleeping on the souvenir items while visitors taking photos of it.

…… my next stop was Shifen

This small town is really interesting. Do follow me on my next blog. 😊