Adventures in Taipei (Part II: 25 Dec 2007)

25 December 2007
Fair weather (17 Deg C)

The weather was great, so we planned to go to Danshui, a sea-side town. The Metro ride took around 30min and we were there.

Wanted an iconic photo but Starbucks snatched all the attention. Talk about globalisation!

This little town is full of small shops and pasar malam stalls by the sea side. There is also the "Lovers' Bridge" which we didn't walk through. Visitors can take the ferry to the other side, the Fishermen Wharf, where Meteor Garden was filmed. For us, we just hung out at Jhong Jheng St and ate all sorts of munchies.

One of the few recommended places are Chez Jean, where they sell traditional wedding cakes. You can also visit the Fishball Museum, which isn't exactly a museum. It's a shop selling fish crackers.

We stopped by at a small eatery to lunch as it was time to feed Verity. Had fried bee hoon, gong wan soup, a plate of cold cuts and an ah ge. An ah ge is something like a huge soon kueh but its fillings consisted of fried tang hoon, bits of mushrooms and dried prawns. A pinkish sauce is usually poured over it. Ours had tau pok skin instead of the soon kueh skin.

What I couldn't resist having throughout the Taipei trip was milk tea. I must have at least 1 or 2 cups each day. Cold ones, hot ones, with pearls, Jamu milk tea etc. Taiwanese are health conscious. You have the option of less sweet and there are different sweetness levels.

Verity ready to rock the town!

Treated Cavan to tall ice cream. It was like yogurt ice cream but lighter and less sweet. He was so thrilled! He chose the strawerry and melon flavour and enjoyed it by the seaside. Clem and I had to "fight" with him to get a lick.

Clem and I had our treats too, albeit less healthy. We chomped on BBQ giant squid, fried mushrooms of sorts, crackers, Taiwan sausages with fish roe etc.

Get fat!

At 6+, we headed for Shih Lin Night Market, yes a place for more xiao chi. What a mistake! Given that it was Christmas night, the streets thronged with people. Illegal clothes hawkers also lined the streets with their wares and it was a nightmare trying to push the stroller through the crowd.

Home-made ice cream on chopped peanuts and peanut candy shavings wrapped in popiah skin. A real treat!

We didn't join the queue for the famous Giant Chicken Cutlet. Had it almost every night cos there was an outlet near our hotel who sold this. Would buy one whenever we headed back. Great snack!

We made our way back as it was near Verity's feeding time (around 9+). Verity was bawling and screaming by the time we reached our hotel lobby. The hotel staff were great. They observed that Verity would be crying everytime we returned. For the 2nd night, they had our room key ready so Clem dashed out from the lift, grabbed the key and dashed back into the lift. Didn't even have to tell them our room no.

Tonight, even better. The lift door opened and lo and behold! There stood the hotel staff at the lift handing us our key. We didn't even have to step out! She smiled and said, "I hear her crying already." That's what I call service!

We were having a mini Christmas celebration. Although I was supposed to feed Verity, we wanted to take a pic with the cake as Cavan was close to digging his fingers into the cake and licking the cream off and eating all that adorned the cake. Sorry, gal! Anyway, it was a cute family pic.

Bought Cavan a Christmas present. He loved Thomas the Train so this would add to his collection. Cavan was so excited to see it but the anticipation turned out differently... well, that's another story. (Clem always has a great laugh whenever he sees this Thomas the Train)

Verity happy again after feed

Enjoyed the rest of the night in a simple and warm fashion, just enjoying one another and thankful for all that we have. While the kids slept, we ate our cake, drank our coffee, ate the Giant Chicken Cutlet and cup noodles, and watching the TV prog.

Christmas Day concluded peacefully, with the whole family huddled in a bed. What warmth!