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?

 
 

White-chan in Taiwan - Eat our way through 饒河街夜市

To go to 饒河街夜市, you can either take the MRT to 後山埤站, or train to 松山站. But trust me, you will really want to take the train. From the MRT station, we had to walk and get lost for more than 15 minutes before we reached the night market, and then to find out that the train station was just across the road from it! DOTZ...

Anyway 饒河街夜市 is just next to the temple 慈祐宮, and since Taiwan temples are opened till quite late in the evening, it is also a good idea to pay a visit to the temple before feasting away! Unlike the other more famous night markets like 士林 and 师大, 饒河街夜市 is more popular with the locals. While we encounter some Japanese and Hong Kongers in the market, at least there is no buses of tourists from that OMG country! Also, 饒河街夜市 is interesting because there are other shops along the road that sell non-food stuff, like clothes and handphone accessories etc.

 

药炖排骨 is kinda like our herbal style Bak Ku Teh, but the herbal taste is not as strong and the soup is lighter. For just NT70(SGD3.20), they are quite generous with the number of ribs, just that there seems to be less meat on the bones lah...

 

Going to Taiwan without eating 臭豆腐 is like not eating durian in Singapore. Personally, I will even prefer Taiwan 臭豆腐 as compared to those from Hong Kong and Shanghai, partly due to the chili sauce and pickled vegetables! The 臭豆腐 we had at 下港臭豆腐 was only NT45(SGD2) for 4 pieces, which is like only 50 cents for one piece of crispy on the outside and tasty and soft inside 臭豆腐!

This 東發號蚵仔麵線 shop is really hidden lor. It is on the left of a 土地公 temple, and you have to walk through this small little main door without any sign! But it is a treasure worth hunting for! With just NT50(SGD2.30), you get big fat oysters and even fatter big intestines in a small bowl of mee sua. The mee sua was tasty and the ingredients don't "smell" at all! So much better than that famous no-ingredient expensive mee sua swarmed with tourists at 西门町!

It's early summer, which means it's the best time to eat ice kacang! The NT40(SGD1.80)雪花冰 is really nice lor! The texture is really like 雪花, so light and melt in the mouth! And the yam was also soft and good!

 

I guess one of the most famous food at 饒河街夜市 has to be the 福州世祖胡椒餅. At NT45(SGD2), it is not really the cheapest food there, but there is always a long queue at the stall. Luckily they are pretty fast in production, so even when some sabo king in front tapao 10 or 20 pieces, the wait was still reasonable. And yes, it was worth all the wait! After eating all the food in the night market, we really had to tapao the 胡椒餅 back to hotel. But even when it was not as hot, the 胡椒餅 was still crunchy and the meat still as juicy. And they really put a lot of meat in it lor!

 

White-chan at the majestic Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls is located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, and is actually consisting of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canada (Toronto) side and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls. These 3 waterfalls combine to form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world and has a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m).

White-chan had to travel all the way out of Toronto city to this ulu pandan Niagara town, and this is a very super duper touristy place all out to get your money. But already in Toronto lor, have to go see right? That biggest waterfall in the world wor!













It only takes less than 1 hour to see that huge Niagara Falls, and after that all the cheesy fast food restaurants and all kinds of wax museums are there waiting for your wallet... But still, it's a very colorful town, and really worth taking a look at how brightly colored a town can be!

Titanic - White-chan not-very-3D version

Yes, I know after the travel agency tell you your $199 travel package is now $599 after adding holiday surcharge, peak period surcharge, airline fuel surcharge, tour guide tips etc... you really don't feel like spending another fifty or sixty dollars on some travel insurance anymore. But do you know it is actually a good idea to buy travel insurance?

Because a good travel insurance will cover you when that stupid budget airline is delayed or even cancelled yet again, when your luggage decided to stay at another airport, when you lost your wallet, and most importantly when you fall sick after eating that suspicious-looking local delicacy. Of course the insurance will not stop above suay things from happening, but at least you get paid for being suay.

I'm sure Rose must have claimed quite a bit from the insurance company back then...



Ok... wipe that DUH look off your face, here's the original one...

How to make your own animation

Nope, you don't need to be George Lucas or Michael Bay to film something these days. Anyone can film it, edit it, and upload it. And nope, you don't have to be Disney to produce some simple animation.

All you need are the following:

• some moment of brainstorming the storyboard - you really think you better than George Lucas, can shoot right away arh?


• something to film with - er... no I'm not talking about those bulky thing-of-yesterday videocams... just a handphone will do lah!


• something to record the video - I'm using iPhone, so this is the app I'm using for motion capture: Stop Motion Cafe, and it's FREE!

And then TADA!

White-chan relac'ing at The Rose Veranda@Shangri-La Hotel

White-chan has just learned something from his colleagues. You can't work and work and work lah, you need to take a break sometimes. That's why they decided to take a break today and go pay $4/hr carpark to eat a $38+++ high tea buffet at Shangri-la Hotel's Rose Veranda.



The Rose Veranda is famous for their wide selection of tea. Very wide. So wide that reading the whole tea menu will easily take you half an hour. Their tea leaves are categorised into so many different kinds, flower teas, black teas, white teas, green teas, blue teas, black and white teas, black and white and green teas... machiam can make into a periodic table! So White-chan decided to take the easy way out. Choose from their "Best Seller" menu - Royal Darjeeling tea. You can actually pay another $8 to try as many tea as you want from that big book of menu, but seriously, you think your bladder can hold so many pots of tea meh?



Since it's an International high tea buffet, it means they have the right to serve all the japalang food - Japanese sushi + Chinese food and dim sum + Indian fish curry + Ang Mor food and baked potatoes + even more mixture of desserts.

The smoked duck breast and salmon is good. Especially the smoked duck breast, which has just enough fat to complement the lean portion to make it chewy on the whole and not too sinful or tough, and it is also not too salty.



The chicken wings are crispy but a bit too tough. White-chan still prefers the Ikea ones. The dim sum... can pass if you're too full lah... Oh the crab bisque is really really oishii! There are real crab meat inside for one, and the soup itself is full bodied and tasty! This is even better than the tea!



The scallops in salsa sauce is also good. The scallops are fresh and chewy but not tough, and the salsa is just sour enough to complement the scallops. The sandwiches are also not bad lah, but the sushi... the rice a bit too tight... can pass if you're too full lah...



Since this is high tea, must have a reasonable selection of dessert right? The desserts are not bad too, got the usual popular cakes like durian sponge cake (not bad!), strawberry cheese cake (too full for cheese cake!), black sesame crème brûlée (this is a good variation!), chocolate mousse (sweet!), tiramisu, and even Nonya kways and mochi (with cream inside, which is a bit weird...). Oh, got chocolate fountain and ice-cream also!





At the end of the day, it was a good relaxing tea-break lah!