Found some remaining photos of the city that I've yet to post here:
#1 Taipei 101 (台北101)- 15 minutes away from my hostel by foot. That was the time I took to finish a chicken cutlet for lunch.
#2 Taipei 101 (台北101) - View of the city from the indoor observatory on the 89th storey; would've loved to take another look from the outdoor observatory too but the weather didn't permit.
#3 Taipei 101 (台北101) - Toy cars from way up here
#4 Taipei 101 (台北101) - Another view from the top
#5 101 (台北101) - A part of Taipei that looks really densely populated.
And enough of these unspectacular aerial shots... let's move on to something more uh, random?
Wandered around Wu Fen Pu (五分埔), the wholesale clothing market (that somewhat reminded me of Bugis Street) after a shopping spree, and since Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市) was just round the corner, I decided to drop by to take a look.
I managed to snag two pairs of shoes for NT180 at the night market and that made me really happy again!
#6 Raohe Night Market (饒河街夜市) - Angry birds and pigs waiting to be clawed.
#7 Raohe Night Market (饒河街夜市) - 包心粉圓; there was a red bean or two found in the centre of each of these gelatinous balls so I suppose the 心 refers to the red beans. It was piping hot and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream by the side.
I really liked how the different stall vendors at these markets will try to get the attention of passer bys; like shouting out funny taglines of their products/brands happily (or at least appear to be).
#8 Sunflower Farm at Taoyuan.
Thought I'd like to head to somewhere less crowded on the second last day of the trip, so I arrived at this super far-off sunflower farm after a 2-hour long train ride, a 30-minutes cab ride with a friendly driver. It was so out of the way that the driver had to ask for directions several times along the way, and he even offered to pick me up again after I was done with the whole farm visit thing because there were so little cabs in that area.
#9 Rows after rows of sunflowers
To be honest, it felt a little depressing to be visiting a sunflower farm after a heavy storm; to be looking at sunflowers that have been badly pelted by raindrops and looking tired instead of radiating positivity, water-logged muddy furrows.
Just my luck!
Anyhow, the farm itself is a pretty cool place. You can arrange for walking tours where they'll introduce the different species of sunflowers (I didn't know there were so many variations until this visit) to you, share some interesting facts about the type of plants they grow at the farm, and at the end of it, allow you to cut stalks of sunflowers to bring back home. Barbecues can also be held here, and they'd even prepare the food for you. Apart from that, there's also a cafe and shop selling sunflower-themed merchandise.
A local group was there when I arrived, there were many happy figures in ponchos and rain boots who were armed with pairs of scissors in their hands. All of them looked really excited about the cutting despite the gloominess, and that was quite a lifting sight.
#10 Still at the farm...
#11 Post-rain lily
#12 'Almost there' - took this while waiting for the same cab driver to pick me from the farm; he took a 2-hour long nap while waiting for me to be done. And shared a lot about his family, and Taiwanese in general, with me on the way back to the train station; we had a really great chat!
I'm somewhat convinced that I have some sort of knack for getting into interesting taxi-driver encounters overseas.
#13 涼拌面; last meal in Taipei before heading back to Hong Kong.
#14 牛肉貢丸, 白蘿蔔湯. Looking at the picture makes me crave for a bowl of this NOW.
And that's all the pictures I have for Taiwan! For now.
Dear Taiwan,
I'll be back in December.
Mumsy and YF will be coming to visit too.
I hope you're excited to see them :)
Love,
AJ
No comments:
Post a Comment