No one don't knows where to go to eat on Sunday as the places suggested by the receptionist was closed. Bought a cup of Soy milk from a street hawker near our hotel which I guess was boiled using charcoal as it has a slight sooty taste.
Had a good breakfast in Four Points @ Sheraton before travelling by the cab booked by Hotel the night before for 8am costing NT$190 (independent taxi driver)and $180 (rented taxicar driver)respectively. I don't know if independents were supposed to be more expensive or was it because of the small reverse move the driver did as he overshot FS hotel but from what I gleaned from the conversation with him, there are very few independent cab owners in Taipei and in order to qualify for an independent license, you need at least 6 years experience in driving a cab and a spotless driving record with not traffic offences. I dunno it is means that the independents are a quality assurance or it can simply mean that the traffic police is very slack in catching traffic offenders. Taipei cabs are metered so not to worry about being cheated.
After dropping our luggage at FS hotel and paying for the hotel rooms, we headed to the Ximen Station which is practically right at the doorstep of our hotel. Less than 3 minutes walk to the nearest entrance 6.
Bought a Taipei 2 day pass which allows unlimited use of the metro and public bus services for NT$310. If your travels cost more than NT$155/day, it original price NT$450 . 1 day pass NT$250 slashed to NT$210. 3 day pass NT$440 up NT$650
Longshan Temple, Taipei 龙山寺
Longshan Temple (LST)was OK
Alighted there and immediately felt that the air there was much fresher and cleaner than both Ximen and Singapore. Not that the air in Ximen is polluted but you feel more refreshed when you emerge from the Longshan Metro Station. Even outside the confines of the temple, you could not detect the smell of joss stick unlike the heavy scent of sandalwood that hits you a distance before you even reach Guanyin Temple at Sima Road, singapore. In fact, the Temple is much bigger and more crowded on the day we visited.
On our visit, I noticed that the bulk of the visitors were students accompanied by friends, parents and relatives were there to pray for good results for their exams and in their offerings of food, you could see photostated copies of their exam schedule slips.
I deemed that it is almost time for their exams for the school hols starts. Typical offerings in their plates include lots and lots of raw vegetables like white daikon, chinese celery and sprigs of green onion, sugarcane or bottled sugarcane juice. I really wonder at the symbolic meaning of the vegetables. I'm guessing that the chinese celery 芹菜 tsin-chai represents 勤劳 hardworking， 青葱 cong represents 聪明intelligence， 甘蔗 kyu jin can lai meaning 苦尽甘来 that your hard work will pay off in the end. But I fail to understand what has Daikon 白萝卜 got to do with the qualities a student ought to possess during their exams. Perhaps there is some other name the Taiwanese have for the veggie...
On a funny note: some students even offered potato chips and other kinds of junk foods. I wonder if the gods will find favour with them because of these new strange foods they haven't tried before !?!
Aside: No particular feelings about LST and unlike the others we didn't pray. Just paid our respects to the 7 gods/deities housed in the temple. Grandma warned us beforehand that any wishes/promises made to the deities? gods? have to be 'repaid' so if you might not have the opportunity to go back to give thanks if your wish comes true, please don't do it.
Chiang Kai Shiek Memorial
CKS memorial was closed!!! Earlier on the news, we heard that the plaque of the memorial was secretly taken down during the night and replaced with another name due to political reasons.
Longquan Market 龙泉市场 and Shida Night Market 师大夜市
Good and interesting. Longquan market is abit like the wet markets in Singapore, except what they sell are quite different from us. Their ready to eat foods aka hawker fare is certainly interesting!
Technically speaking, we didn't visit the Shida Night Market (its afternoon not night you geddit?) but the area was open and there were lots and lots kinds of food to eat. I ate goose meat noodles and Mei, their Zhajiang Mian. Shared a bowl of their wonton soup. Not as nice as singapore's but very still good and piping hot! The store was doing a brisk business of takeaways. Alots of students from Shida decended on that place during lunch. I dunno its because there isn't any food to be had in their Campus or the canteen food was really bad but I think those hawker centres near our uni didn't manage to get that much custom from uni strudents. The price perhaps...
Tamshui 淡水- Valentine's Bridge 情人桥 & Old Street 淡水老街
See Lover's Bridge At Tamshui Metro Station, Exit and turn right to bus interchange. Took Bus 26
Weather Conditions
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