White-chan in Taiwan - Beautiful Calla Lilies on 陽明山

My Taiwanese friends were so concerned when they learned that we were planning to go up to 陽明山. "But you don't have a car, how do you go up the mountain?" they asked. But hey, it's actually not that difficult using the public transport lah! This is all you need to do: Take MRT to 北投 station, then take minibus 小九. That's it! Easy right? The only thing is that the bus is running on a 40mins interval (you think got so many people going up the mountain meh?), so if suay suay miss one, then have to walk around the station lor!

The journey up the mountain is not very long, and the best part is that the minibus stops right at the main attraction - 竹子湖! Cool!

NOTE: My dear old Canon 400D died on me after I was caught in the heavy rain back from Kaohsiung, so all these Calla lilies photos are taken using my new Panasonic G3 instead. And boy am I impressed with what this micro four-thirds can do!

Even thought it is already the end of the Calla lilies season, the scenery at 陽明山 is really beautiful. There are also private plantations on the mountain that you could visit if you dine at a minimum amount at their restaurants. But let me tell you this, their minimum amount is redundant if you are having lunch there lor! The meal ended up about SGD20 per person leh! It is really not cheap, but what to do? This is a tourist attraction after all! But ok lah, at least the wild vegetables are fresh, the 3-cups chicken is tasty and the sweet potato soup is to die for!

White-chan in Taiwan - that old village 眷村 in Zuoying

眷村 is an unique part of Taiwan's history. When loads of 国民党 soldiers bring along their families from China to Taiwan in 1949, they thought it will be a short term thing. So they built these temporary houses and surround themselves with bamboo barriers to isolate themselves from the native Taiwanese. These villages are then called 眷村.

In Taiwan, you'll get conflicting information about 眷村. The 眷村 China Chinese will tell you how hard life was when their parents migrated to Taiwan, and they had to make do with whatever limited resources they have. The native Taiwanese will tell you how the 國民黨政府 gave these anti-social 眷村 all the special privileges instead of taking care of the local natives. It's definitely a A says B says. But applying that in Singapore now, isn't keeping all China people barred up in an area a better idea than to let them roam around dangerously with their reckless Ferraris? I would suggest Jurong Island. 

Anyway, at the 眷村文化馆, you could find some brief history from their side of the story, and some old items donated by their older generation which are pretty cool. I meant the old school items are cool.

White-chan in Taiwan - All the good food at 鹽埕區

鹽埕區 was once a very prosperous commercial area in Kaohsiung, until the businesses shifted east. But don't worry, it is still not a dead town. There are still banks and financial institutions near the MRT stations, and wholesale fashion shops along the way. Most importantly, there are lots of good (and cheap!) food around this area! One of the most famous restaurant around here is 阿英排骨饭.

It is not easy to locate 阿英排骨饭 as they do not have a super huge sign board like the rest of the shops around. The best way to locate it is that it is next to the 城隍廟. The more popular dishes here are the chicken drumstick and pork ribs (DUH!), and they have two kinds of prices: 雞腿特餐 NT95(SGD4.30) 原味餐點 NT75(SGD3.40); 排骨特餐 NT85(SGD3.90) 原味餐點 NT55(SGD2.50). The difference between 特餐 and 原味餐點 is that 特餐 is the real set menu that comes with three set dishes, one 魯蛋 and one soup. Unfortunately when we reached there in the evening, they have actually sold out on their side dishes, so we could only go with the 原味餐點. The pork ribs is really good! It is crispy and meaty at the same time, and very fragrant. The chicken drumstick is also to die for! The skin is fried till crispy but the meat is still super juicy! These kind of drumstick really difficult to find in Singapore lor!

 

We then carried on to find 郭家肉粽 and 北港蔡三代筒仔米糕. But since we were already half full, we had to choose between two (hello, can only take so many carbo in a night lor!) and so we chose 郭家肉粽 because White-chan wanted to see what is the difference between Taiwan 肉粽 and Singapore 肉粽.

We order one 肉粽 NT30(SGD1.40) and one bowl of 四神湯 NT25(SGD1.20). The 肉粽 was not as good as we have expected though... for one, we are not really used to eating 肉粽 with sweet sauce and peanut powder. And then there was not much meat, so it is like we ate one big lump of carbo... 四神湯 is actually pig intestines soup lah! It is not as spicy as our 猪什汤 but rather on the milky side. I heard that this soup is brewed from pig trotters! As for the intestines, they are chewy and nope, there is no weird taste or smell.



On the way back to the MRT station, we stopped by two more shops. We tapao'ed some 滷味 from 阿囉哈滷味, bought the chicken backside and something known as the chewing gum, which is some internal part of the duck. Their 滷味 is really tasty and has a hint of spiciness, and so very good for snacking! The only thing is that there are two shops of 阿囉哈滷味, next to one another. Apparently one is opened by the mother and don't know which daughter and the other by another daughter and don't know who else in the family, kind of like our Alexander Village claypot laksa vs. Depot Road claypot laksa...



The last shop that we stopped by was at 高雄婆婆冰 for some 木瓜牛奶. Our verdict is that Taiwan's papaya must be so much more expensive than milk. Their 木瓜牛奶 is so milky!

White-chan in Taiwan - The Takao Railway Museum 打狗鐵道故事館

高雄港车站 at 高雄市鼓山区 was built originally for commercial freight purpose and after the line was stopped, it is now servicing as a museum. A couple of old trains are still in the station, the office still looks as if the clerk has only went on annual leave, and even the station master's uniform are still there for tourists to try. Instead of busy goods transactions and transportation, it is now a quiet place for Taiwanese to rest and relax, and fly some kites if they'd like to. This is a piece of history that Kaohsiung intends to keep and educate their people how things used to work around the station. We have a railway station that is no longer in operation as well. But I know Singapore will not want to keep that old railway station at that prime location, especially when it makes more economical sense to give way to yet another condominium or hotel. And even if we do surprisingly keep it as a museum, I'll expect to pay through my nose to visit it, not free like the 打狗鐵道故事館.

White-chan in Taiwan - Walking around 旗津

For a little island, there is actually quite a number of temples on 旗津, but the more popular one is the 天后宫 near the ferry point.

 

There are street hawkers selling snacks like fresh tomatoes and some kind of fried lalas, but after the seafood lunch, we were really too full to try anything else...

There is a shopping place on the island that sells all kinds of salted fishes and dried goods, and of course that place is flooded with obasans and ojisans! And really, I've never seen such a big salted fish before! They have all kinds of fish floss for sale as well and these are really nice, so we bought some back for rice and porridge!

 

White-chan in Taiwan - 旗津 that sunny island

Kaohsiung has a very beautiful MRT station called Formosa Boulevard 美丽岛 Station. This station is designed by a Japanese architect 高松伸所 and an Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata. The station was even voted second most beautiful station in the world by a US travel site! Don't play play ah! And as if the station is not artistic enough, they even put a piano at the hall where anyone can volunteer to play to entertain the crowd! When we reached the station, we met this guy who was playing 陳綺貞's song really well, and then he saw us taking pictures of the station which makes it very obvious we are tourists, so he stopped to have a friendly chat with us...

Pianist: Where are you from? Hong Kong? Malaysia? (don't know why most Taiwanese thought we're either from Hong Kong or Malaysia...)
White-chan: Haha... no lah, we're from Singapore.
Pianist: Oh Singapore! I should play a song from Singapore then... hmm... but what song do you have?
White-chan: Er... I don't think you'll know bah... (like Chan Mali Chan?)
Pianist: Haha... oh, I'm so sorry! I should find out more about songs from Singapore!

And then the moment we stepped out of the station, we remembered. WTH! We have 孫燕姿 and 天黑黑 mah!

 

We heard that 旗津 is a great place to go for cheap and good seafood in Kaohsiung, and so we decided to have our lunch there. To get to this little island, we took the MRT to 西子灣 station, then from there took a ferry. The ferry ride was only about 5 minutes and it costs only NT15(SGD0.70)! Cool!

There is a seafood street 海產街 on 旗津 with quite a number of seafood restaurants, and all of them have the same NT100(SGD4.50) per dish pricing. The only reason why we chose 海忠寶活海產 restaurant was because it started to rain and we literally ran into the restaurant!

 

We ordered a dish of 海瓜子 which was quite tasty, 炸银鱼 which was a bit disappointing because it was a bit bland, 炒螃蟹肉 which was okay, and 凤梨虾球 which we expected to be gulo meat style but turned out so differently. But at least all seafood are really fresh lah! Oh, and the NT100(SGD4.50) per dish also include free flow of rice and a plate of fruits wor! Where to find?