8 May 07
Chiu Fen and Ji Long Night Market

We had our complimentary breakfast in the hotel before we dragged our luggages to take the train to Taipei Main Station. Why do we want to change hotel? Coz we want to save money haha.


So city dwellers style! Jun Ming's hands are too free so he is the photographer for this pic

Although our hotel is just about 10-15 min walk from Xi Men station, I seem to have exhaust most of my energy shifting the luggage here and there. I sick people okie... =p


Finally reached Xi Men station!

As the hostel is in quite a wu lu location, we had some trouble locating it. Some of us went to check in while the rest of us hid ourselves so that its easier to smuggle in at night. Our plan is that if we get caught, we will just get more rooms on the spots. If there are no more rooms available, the rest of us can sleep in kbox or something. But being all too honest citizens, we declared at night and all of us have to pay for a bed. At least all of us can bunk together and not with some strangers heh.

We have to take a train and bus to Chiu Fen. Internet says that Chiu Fen is an old fashioned way of life with an aura of old mining. Doesnt really understand what it means but old fashioned way of life sounds boring to me. Boy I was so wrong about it! I totally love Chiu Fen that its voted by me as my favorite place in Taipei! =D


At the train station... so many different timings to different places!


I told them that this is so chinese new year shop man haha


The guys want to experience eating bian tang while waiting for the train. Yum yum

This is our first time taking train so we were super lost. The platform is like so long and you dont know where the train will stop. We see people chase after the train we also follow. And the intervals between trains are very frequent so we were not sure of whether this train is ours or the next one. Nevertheless it is a good experience to localise by taking their public transport heehee.


the dudes


the gals

Very comfortable ride I would say. As the seat in this train is those long long type with no intersection in between, you can practically lie on it and sleep there haha. Took a bus and there we reached Chiu Fen!


This is a hotspot for scenic taking

Walking along the streets in Chiu Fen made me understand why it has the description of 'old fashioned way of life'. I like this kind of feeling! =D Its like those small villages that you see in those martial arts show. A slower pace in life... just totally soaked up in that feeling. Its hard to pen down in words, you need to go there to experience it yourself.

This obasang very 'scary' =p Her hair is attention grabbing and her action is very big! Her butt kept knocking into mine and due to her attention grabbing while we were taking pics together, we came into the limelight as well (other people are looking at us too). Luckily the photographer still manage to take a clear photo of all of us and never pengz heehee

We bought our supplies of tai yang bing and feng li su in this shop. The chef who served us sure knows the traits of Singaporeans. Very nice friendly uncle who knows how to do his business. Therefore all of us bought so many that there's free delivery to our hotel haha

We also bought jelly from a nearby stall. It turned out that the uncle knows the jelly auntie so our supplies of jelly goes into the free delivery as well heehee.

We ate small food here and there. Ordered many different varieties of fish balls till I cannot make out 'who' is 'who'. The fishball Auntie pasted her photos throughout the whole shop. You definitely wont missed it de haha. What a way to decorate your shop eh... brave Auntie! Kinda get sick of fishballs so we played zong ji mi ma, the number game whereby whoever loses get to finish up the food!


So many varieties of fishball wor

As we reached the peak, I saw this little nice shop whereby we can sit and relax with the good view out there. Told Suhui that we can share drinks inside and obviously we two talked so loud that the Auntie should have heard us bah. Apparently we have entered a 'black' shop! All of us had to order a drink each before we could proceed to take any photograph. But well, I think this is just a surviving tactic that the Auntie has to use bah. Else if all her customers harbour such thought of mine, she can close shop liao =p


Its too hot outside! The view is only meant to be seen at that point of time, cant be captured as the sunlight is too strong le


Jun Pei leaving the shop. I like this picture of her. Okie credits to Suhui the photographer too


I like being squeezed in this kind of narrow streets



This is the place where the director got his inspiration for Spirited Away. Look at the mask! Exactly the same!

Next on our schedule is Ji Long Night Market. As I find it hard to breathe at night, I couldn't eat so Suhui and I went to explore around while the rest of the gang had their dinner. Suhui finally saw market in Taiwan and she's so happy about it haha. Actually their market looks the same like ours, but they have a map wor.


Suhui with her market heehee

At the fruit stall, we were amazed by a fruit that we never saw before. Uncle told us its apple banana and we were like 'huh??!!!' Bought four for the rest to try coz its much bigger than the size of a banana. After the rest had their dinner we began to shop together.

The smell of bbq corn is so overwhelming that we just have to sink our teeth in it! We were asking uncle what flavor he has and he said garlic and sa cha. We were like what is sa cha? His customers told us that its satay! Ooooh... I think Singaporeans are capable of direct translation, like satay to 'sa tiae'. Anyway I'm not sure of 'sa tiae' is right or sa cha is right, as long as we get to eat the corn heehee. It turned out that the Uncle's assistant is from Singapore too. But he is too shy to talk to us. And Uncle is too busy to take a picture with us so the picture turns out to be like this heehee.


4 Singaporeans and Uncle!

While bargaining the price for a top, the salesgirl told me to wait a while while she went to throw her rubbish. It turned out that the vehicle siren was to announce the arrival of the rubbish truck and everyone is supposed to get ready of their rubbish and throw! Haha something that I learn from the locals now. I think the rest would have knew about it from tv serials but cant blame me mah coz I stuck in jungleland so dont watch tv de. Anyway I asked the salesgirl whether they have different sirens for different months or something she said the siren has been like this all the while. Hmm... I thought they should have different gendres, like techno in the summer months, and probably some classical when the weather turns cooler or something. If not quite sianz to always hear the same music mah =p