Taipei in Bloom - 9-13 March 2015

It's so easy to overlook Taipei cos it's not in the top must-see places. Hubby and I, minus the kids, went for a short trip to Taipei and we went without any expectation. We arrived very early and couldn't check into our hotel rooms yet, so we dropped by Chiang Kai Shek Memorial to get some fresh air. It's spring, and the air smelled like fragrant flowers. The park was very well-maintained, with info signs to educate us on different types of trees, flowers and birds. But the biggest surprise was to see the blooming cherry blossom trees! 


Dozens of bird enthusiasts clicking away, but the pink cherry blossoms were not the Star, it's the white-eye bird! It was quite a sight to see all the expensive telephoto camera lens aiming at those small, active birds. 







We enjoyed the walks very much - maybe it's the fresh spring air, the sakura season, the beautiful trees or the carefree holidays without kids... I loved it so much that I came back to the same place on my own again. I learnt how to differentiate between the Taiwan cherry blossom and plum flowers. There's also a few cherry blossom species and they bloom at different timing. There're so many bird species we saw in the park too.

Next important to-do on the list - FOOD! Taipei is so well-known for its street food that it needed no introduction. Taiwan was a colony of Japan for 50 years, so a lot of its food culture bears a similarity to Japan. There's so so much to share about the food & snacks in Taipei - it needs another post.


Nearby CKS Memorial, we saw a long queue of people waiting at a corner coffee shop for the Jinfeng braised pork rice and the side dishes and herbal soup. It's great to take something hot on a cold, windy day.


Famous fermented stinky tofu at Shilin night market. Also love the fried milk snacks and the teppanyaki, the oyster omelette, etc.


Next surprise is the Yehliu Geopark, which is about an hour's bus ride from Taipei city. The park is well-maintained and entrance fee is very reasonable. It's not necessary to join a day tour cos the public transport is very reliable and convenient.


It's rather rainy and windy that whole week we're there, with mostly overcast sky. The Pacific ocean was very rough and fierce. It's very scenic to see the impact of weathering, like a sculptor was there shaping, refining, cutting the rocks into various layers, shapes and sizes. And it's an ongoing piece of art, we're seeing new shapes and rock formations.



Famous 'Queen's Head'


A fairy's shoe or slipper?? Formed due to seawater erosion on rock layers. Indeed the wonders of nature!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Al-Attas Garden in Janda Baik - 4 August 2012

Image
Besides being a well-known contentious writer, little do we know that Syed Hussein Alattas is also a self-taught gardener and an architect. He had built Taman Hana in Janda Baik from scratch and named after his wife.  Taman Hana sits on a 8-acre plot of land in the quiet village of Janda Baik. It boasts a collection of 1,000 species of plants including fruit trees, more than 700 big flower pots and five buildings that include the home of the Alattas family.  The good news is that it is open to visitors every day.  As we made our way past the entrance, this place appeared unkempt. It was well beyond its heyday (in 2008) but still showing off its faded beauty. Some parts were badly neglected, which was so unfortunate, because it originally was to be a quiet kampung retreat. A mix of traditional Malay, Peranakan, Indonesian and colonial British architecture and a Minangkabau styled roof. Syed Hussein had actually started building the structures in 1982 and he spent...
Read more

Discovering Pasir Pinji's Comfort Food - 29 June 2014

Image
Pasir Pinji Road in Ipoh is like a living heritage town. If you google this place, you will see a long list of local delicacies you must try - the famous yong tau foo, chee cheong fun, cendol, roast pork, traditional mooncakes, pastry, etc. On a Sunday, we saw the idyllic lifestyle of the local people - watching the days go by, sipping tea and catching up with friends along the corridor of shophouses, waiting for the takeaway of their favourite food or desserts from the roadside hawkers, sitting in coffee shops and dipping Hainanese buns into their kopi-O or Milo. .. it's like a walk to my childhood years in the 80s.  Ban Guan Foong Bakery has been around for more than 50 years. One of the very few remaining bakeries producing traditional Hainanese bread and buns using wood-fired oven.  A family-run business by the Goh family and some old and loyal workers. Getting ready the wood-fired brick oven  Removing the ashes from the heated oven  ...
Read more

A Potter Village in Sayong - 30 May 2013

Image
Pit Stop at the Perak royal town, Kuala Kangsar. The 1st rubber tree in Malaysia was planted in this town. That's about all I knew about this place. Labu Sayong or water pitcher from Sayong village, known for its health value to help migraine, lower blood pressure etc due to the special properties inherent in the local clay. Before this, we didn't know much of labu sayong.  We didn't go to the village or plan this visit. Out of curiousity, we bumped into this unassuming workshop at No. 3, Kg Setia, Enggor, run by Mohd bin Harun.  Pakcik was very open and gave us a tour of his workshop and how he makes labu sayong. His warm, friendly welcoming people made a lasting impression on all of us - a trait that we've lost in the big cities. The traditional way of making labu sayong uses hands to mould the clay into the shape of a 'labu' (gourd-like vase) but this is too slow. Now, the clay mixture is poured into standard mould blocks. It's ...
Read more