The Shilin Redundancy

Hello everyone, I am really sorry for not uploading any article these days. My workload has increased and I have less time for leisure now.   :(

Today, my friends and I decided to go to Shilin night market again. Last time, I had not seen everything in the night market. I didn't go into the shops or into the underground food court.

Before heading to Shilin Night Market, we decided to go to Shipai, not very far from the night market. So we took the bus...travelling on bus in Taipei can be fun, but it's the most unstable mean of transport. You need to have strong arms if you don't want to fly inside the bus...It reminded me of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter, better hold on tight...

After the bus ride, we went to have one of the most delicious dessert I ever had...Taipei's temperature is pretty high now, the minimum temperature is 25 °C and can go up to 35°C...Fortunately, they are many ways to cool yourself down. This time, we went to enjoy some crushed ice with ice cream and fruits. My friends suggested me to try the mango flavour...it was really good !! Got a bit of brain freezes but that's more part of the fun ^^

I really don't how to explain this, only say it was delicious !!!!

That one was mine : mangoes, strawberry ice cream, jelly and ice...and more!! 

After this large snack, we took the MRT to go to Shilin :

As you can see the MRT in Taipei is very comfortable, nothing to do with Paris métro...after all, drinking and eating are prohibited inside the MRT station.

Then we arrived in Shilin, I was expecting it to be crowded, in fact, it was over crowded...It had been raining the whole week and the weather looked good only today...So I think, many people decided to go out...

I had to go through this street you see on the picture....it was extremely crowded...I took a deep breath and melt into the crowd.

Going into that thing is a kind of suicide....but I did it ^^

Of course, I stopped to take some pictures  :)

I really took my time to enjoy the view despite the crowd...the good smell of food and drinks was really nice !!

Fresh juice !!!!

Some bubbles, iron eggs : iron eggs are just small size eggs that have been dehydrated...taste really BAD !!

This time I got the opportunity to go in the underground food court in Shilin night market....The big surprise was, no heat inside the place..I thought as it is underground and a lot of cooking going on...the place must be boiling...but fortunately they had air conditioner everywhere !!! how cool is that !! (get it : how cool xD )

Everything just looked so yummy !!!!

Now I can say, I have completed my visit of Shilin Night Market, this place is huge !!! So many things to see and to eat !!! I really had a great time again in Shilin Night Market !! The best place on earth for shopping and eating  :) 

Even a nice spot, to have some fun !! 

Until then,

Sonal saying Zai Jian !!

Once Upon A Time In Liuchiu...Or a Tourist Marathon !!

On this Mother's Day weekend, I didn't want to stay alone again in Taipei, so a friend invited me to go to his home town LiuChiu. At first, I had never heard of LiuChiu before..after checking it out on Google, I was extremely excited to go ! LiuChiu is a small coral island located in the south of Taiwan. 

               

 

We decided to leave Taipei on Friday morning, so we can avoid the big rush of the evening during this Mother's Day weekend...We left Taipei at 10:00 am by bus...It was a pretty long journey, but fortunately, there were tablet on each seat, just like in a flight ! I got the chance to watch a movie I really wanted to see..Pacific Rim...but it's just a crap of film. Fortunately I had brought my tablet with me and so I could watch my favourite Tv Shows (Glee & GOT) haha

Our first stop was in Kaoshiung, the second largest city in Taiwan after Taipei :) But we didn't stay long in Kaoshiung as we had to take the taxi to the city of Donggan to take the boat to LiuChiu.

It was raining a lot in Donggan, afraid that my trip would be ruined because of bad weather :( especially when I saw this :

And this :

The sky was grey, it was raining like hell...At that time I thought the trip is ruined...But after half an hour of boat, I was amazed to see this :

The rain had vanished, letting sunshine pierce the thunder clouds :) I was really happy to see the rain clouds leaving LiuChiu and heading to the mainland haha....

On my arrival, I was welcomed by the hotel staff who came to receive us at the port to take us to the hotel...It was a very charming hotel, held by a couple, I was welcomed very nicely !! They offered me some drinks and fruits :) I think it is not a conventional hotel, but more like a big house where everyone lives like a family. In only 5 minutes, I was part of this family :) The hotel room was very comfortable, nothing to say :) The bed was very comfortable and there was Internet access, what could you ask for more :) I stayed there two nights (friday and saturday). 

The icing on the cake was the different activities offered by the hotel, like scooter facility and wildlife observation activities :)

After unpacking my stuff in my room, my friend took me around the island. But, it's started to rain heavily, so we headed back to change and go for dinner !! I was starving !!

My friend took me to one of the most famous restaurant in LiuChiu !! Where I had excellent fried rice, and some eel :) yummy !!

Then time to head back to the hotel to sleep, a whole day can be exhausting :( There was a television in my room, I thought it's of no use, all the channels are in Chinese...Nevertheless, I switched on the Tv, Disney Channel was on and in english too !!! So I sat with my plate of fruits and watched a nice movie !

I wonder if the movie has a link with my visit to LiuChiu....."Finding Nemo"..."LiuChiu paradise of sea life..." :p

The next morning, the weather was awesome !!! I had breakfast at the hotel, tea with some "pao" which is bread stuffed with meat or brown sugar :) Delicious !!After that, my friend took me arround to see different places...it was like a tourist marathon !!! haha

I really fell in love with the beach here, the white warm sand and the transparent sea was really like paradise...those places you see on postcard...I really had a great time !! 

We also visited a place called the "Black Dwarf Cave"....At first I thought it was a cave owned by dwarves a long time ago...hehe

But actually, it was a trail of different places to visit which were very close to the sea...LiuChiu is a coral island and some old corals were still intact, dead but intact to observe :

I also visited the landmark place of LiuChiu, like the Indian Neck Rock :

It is called that way as the rock looks like an Indian Guy, American Indian of course !!!! The rock is the face, and the trees make the feathers on the head....Use your imagination !!

The Eagle Rock :

But the most beautiful scenery was the Flower Vase Rock, the most visited site in LiuChiu :)

If you look at the shape of the rock, it looks like a vase with flowers...it's just a question of imagination :p

We head on visiting other places...like a cave in the middle of the rocks and next to the sea :p I had to be extremely careful as being tall was a big drawback in there....

On the way, I stopped for a treat, it was extremely hot in LiuChiu...even with the fresh salty-air the heat was really unbearable at some times...

After that, we went on visiting around the various places :) and went to see the sunset :)

Right after the sunset, we headed to have dinner so we can go to see the wild sea animals after the low tide :)

We waited for the moon to at the right position to observe the animals, the animator said we were quite lucky as the stars were unveiled and there were many species !!

Here are a few :

Star fish :

 Sea Slug :

OCTOPUS !!!

 Sea cucumber :

The next morning was for me the time to leave...go home :(

The in-charge of the hotel :

I had a great time in LiuChiu, it was one of the best weekend holidays I have ever had !! The location was beautiful, the people are extremely friendly with foreigners...Most especially, the hotel staff member for making me so comfortable and relaxed in their hotel !!

The next morning, we left LiuChiu at 11 am, to take the boat to go back :'(

My friend and I decided to visit Kaoshiung before departing, as the bus was at 5:00 pm. We were in Kaoshiung at 12:30...So we took the local Mrt to move arround...the most shocking thing was that the MRT in Kaoshiung was a big as Taipei Mrt, but not as many passengers as Taipei. In fact half of the station was empty !!! Very weird...

Befor getting to the beach, I had the privilege to visit the Sun Yat Sen University...This university is located just next to the sea !! How lucky are the students !! The red brick building gave a nice contrast with the green forests surrounding the area and the beach :)

We stopped there to have some quick meal before heading to the sea side....

Any way, we arrrived at the beach area to observe the scenery which was very pretty...It was very hot in Kaoshiung that time...so hot that I had to take out my umbrella to protect my skin from burning !! The beach was nice, as the sand was black...I had never seen a black sand beach before...It looked smoother than the white one :D

Then, with this killing heat...my friend took me to one of the most famous food corner in Kaoshiung...where they served fruits with jelly, and ice !!

Check it out by yourself :

It was extremely delicious !!!!

I arrived in Taipei very late on Sunday night, around 11 pm...Fortunately, I made in time to the dormitory as they close at 12 pm :S

I really had a great time in LiuChiu and Kaoshiung !! The location, people and food were just incredible...it is very hard to synthesize everything in one article...to write about three marvelous days is not easy haha...I hope you enjoyed this article :)

Thanks to all for your support,

Zai Jian !!!!

The Geek Market (Computer Market) :)

Hello everyone,

I got the chance to visit one of most famous street in Taipei, which is the computer market street. In Taipei, there is an area for everything (animals, clothes, jewellery..) making things easier for one to shop. Being fond of any electronic device I was very excited to visit that market.

You can find anything here, from computer to headphones they actually have everything :) There is a floor for each type of stuff. The ground floor and first floor are mostly meant for computer and tablets. It's a 4-5 floors building. It's really a paradise for those crave for gadgets ^^

The day I went was not very crowded but I heard the place is completely packed during the weekend.

The best part is, the vendors are extremely attentive to you and live to show all kinds of things...They have all the brands you could possibly imagine ! From Samsung to Asus, even Toshiba or Acer were present.

When I visited this with my friends, I was told it was possible to negotiate almost everything here...Good for me, as I don't mind to bargain a bit...

I was very impressed by the numerous shops selling tablets and smartphones...I even got the opportunity to try some new stuff like the Samsung Galaxy S5 or even the new Asus tablet. 

For the prices, being the capital of electronics, Taipei Computer Market is not very cheap as we can think..the prices are very different from Europe...But some local brands (Asus, Acer) can be interesting to buy here...

It was a great day to visit the computer market, the vendors really know what they talking about...very professional. And fair prices :)

Until then,