White-chan in Taiwan - Digging for gold at Jinguashih 金瓜石

To go to 金瓜石 and 九份, you have to take a train to 瑞芳 station, then take a bus. But please note that the bus stop just outside the 瑞芳 train station is for buses coming down from 金瓜石, the actual bus stop to go up is at the police station which is a couple of blocks left of the station, across the road!



金瓜石 used to be a gold mining town, so you can imagine how prosperous it used to be! Now there is no more gold to be mined and the town has been developed into a tourist area. Which means... expect lots of tourists!



The major attraction at 金瓜石 is the 本山五坑 tunnel. This is a short tunnel that used to be part of the series of tunnels built in the gold mines. It is rebuilt and wax figures are placed inside to explain how gold mining used to be like. With audio explanation at each station, illustrating each process in gold mining, this is quite an educational tour!

Besides 本山五坑 and its museum that contains the world's biggest piece of gold, there are a couple of other attractions at 金瓜石, most of them are old buildings left by the Japanese, like the living quarters of the Japanese officers, and even the house for the Crown Prince when he visited!



And then there is this 黄金神社 which is way up on a hill. After climbing hmm... some... staircases, you will see a few 鸟居 and a few pillars... yes, that is what's left of the once majestic 黄金神社... but hey, at least the view from up there looks good!

White-chan in Taiwan - You have to love these street foods from Wanhua Night Market 華西街 and 廣州街

You know, the best time to go to 龍山寺 is in the evening. Haha... not because the crowd is lesser during that time, because 龍山寺 is always super crowded with local and tourists. It is because if you go in the evening, you can go to the nearby night market for your dinner! And you can find lots of good food there simply because most of these shops are older than you or me!

豐原排骨酥麵

I heard that this famous 排骨酥麵 is from Tainan and when it first started out in Taipei, the crowd was overwhelming! And I can understand why, because it was really that good lor! Apparently they fried the pork ribs till it is crispy, then steam it in 高汤, then when you order they cook the noodles separately and pour the pork ribs in 高汤 into the noodles! That's why the pork ribs are so fragrant, the radish so sweet and the soup so thick and tasty lah! If you ask me, NT70(SGD3.20) is not expensive at all!



北港甜湯

We were so lucky. Really. If the 魯肉飯 store that we wanted to eat at was not closed for the day, we would have lost the last piece of 麻糬 in Ah Mah's pot. The NT35(SGD1.60) 燒麻糬 is supposed to consist of 2 big 麻糬, but when we reached the shop, Ah Mah found only one piece left in the pot, and she had to replace the missing one with lots of little 麻糬. So when the customer immediately after us ordered 燒麻糬, she had to tell him it was sold out for the day! Heng ah! Ah Mah's 麻糬 is so Q you can pull it like 30cm away from your mouth, and together with the crushed peanut, double confirm you'll never go back to those Singapore pasar malam 麻糬! White-chan will literally bite if anyone try to snatch away that last piece of 麻糬 lor!

Besides 麻糬, the other must-have dessert has to be the 芋頭湯. The yam cubes just melt in your mouth and the soup was so super thick and fragrant! Urghhhh... why are there no 芋頭湯 in Singapore?!?





蚵仔煎

We saw this 蚵仔煎 at the end of 廣州街 that was super crowded and looking at the generous number of oysters the towkay put into the omelet, we knew we had to have it. It was actually the best 蚵仔煎 we had so far! Even more impressive than the one we had at 鹿港 previously! The omelet was crispy, the oysters big and fat, and the sauce was just nice, not too sweet or overwhelming! Can forget about those fried oyster omelet in Singapore liao lah!





寶字號香菇豬腳

Yes we know we're not doing the 豬腳 justice by tapao'ing back instead of having it hot on the spot. But we were already very full liao leh... But guess what, even when it is cold, this 豬腳 is still nice! The mushroom taste is still strong and fragrant, and the 豬腳 skin and meat is chewy but not too hard. Yes at NT50(SGD2.30) for this small box it doesn't seem cheap, but I'm sure if we had it on the spot with a bowl of rice we would have gone to heaven!

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.