NICK CHAN DOT NET

Category: Travel

  • Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street

    Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street

    Taipei: Bopiliao Old Street – The day before leaving Taipei was a free-and-easy day which that day itself has nothing to do, or place to go. The itinerary of that day was just random walk, shopping, eat and rest before heading to the next destination – Macau. So, I went to ask the hotel receptionist is there is any places to see around Ximending, and she recommended me to go to this Bopiliao Old Street for a little walk.
    Bopiliao Old Street is located along Lane 173, Kangding Road, south of Laosong Elementary School in Taipei’s Wanhua District. At this Bopiliao Historic District, visitors can see well-preserved streets and traditional shop homes from the Qing period, as well as buildings from the Japanese occupation and early post-war periods.
    Well, it’s very history, well-preserved, but it’s quite empty as well and nothing much to do. This place is more like a film setup, or a place for portraiture photography. But hey, if you have nothing to do, so a visit to here can kill time too.
    Spotted this old shoplots along Kangding Road.
    Capturing the crossing.
    The entrance to Bopiliao.
    Just a street, very clean, and very well-restored and preserved.
    Wedding photography on going.
    Several houses were housing some art exhibition.
    A light installation.
    Another view of Bopiliao.
    Nick Chan.
  • Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market

    Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market

    Taipei: Famous Shihlin Night Market – How can you not visit the famous Shihlin Night Market if you are in Taipei? Although there’s friend claiming that it’s too touristy, there’s some better one like Raohe, or Shida, or Keelung, or blablabla whatever it is, yet it’s still the most famous and one of the best in my opinion! And very sad, I found the same pants that I’ve bought at Wufenpu, was selling cheaper here at Shihlin! So, the one who says Shihlin is touristy and expensive is just not true.
    Yes, it’s touristy, but then there’s still many locals visiting the night market. You can bargain with the stall owner on the price. You can find almost all Taiwanese street food here and the best part for that night, the temperature drop to 18 celcius after so many days of warmness. Oh yeah!
    On the way to Shihlin after alighting at Shihlin Subway Station.
    Funny and cool, the a dedicated pedestrian way on the road instead of bicycle lane of something else.
    Taiwanese at Shihlin.
    Shopping on-going.
    Little vendor selling mobile phone case.
    More Taiwanese.
    Mu Gua Niu Nai, papaya milk shake, good for getting bigger boobs.
    Jelly on a stick.
    The jelly stick.
    Game stall, a thing that you won’t find in Malaysian’s night market. Cute.
    Ji Lie Ge. I didn’t find this stall in the must-eat of Shihlin, but I’ve to tell you after trying it, it’s a must-eat!
    It’s just deep fried chicken cutlet which mixed with various sauces like garlic, cheese and soy sauce. The sauce is the bomb!
    Grilled scallops on a stick.
    There’s a same stall in Gurney Plaza, Penang, and I guess this is the original one in Taiwan. As usual, awesome, but not cheap.
    More Taiwanese!
    More game stall. =D
    Bang.
    Bang bang.
    Shihlin used to have food stalls by the roadside of the night market, but few years ago, the government built an underground space to accommodate all the food stalls to create a food section, underground. Many complains about it, but I find it fine.
    As crowded and happenings as on the ground, the food choices are superb.
    Bitter-gourd juice is my super favourite.
    Tried the sesame pork kidney here. Exotic and delicious!
    Pork Kidney with spring onion in sesame soy sauce.
    Another street food to try – Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang, or literally means small sausage wrapped in big sausage.
    Sausage in making.
    The outer layer is actually rice sausage and the inner sausage is the real sausage. Sweet and yummy! Must try!
  • Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf

    Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf

    Taipei: Evening Walk At Tamsui (Dan Shui) & Fisherman Wharf – Tamsui or Danshui is a sea-side town out of Taipei city-centre where you can enjoy a weekend stroll, eat some nice street food at the Lao Jie, or capture an awesome scenic sunset.
    Tamsui is pretty relaxing, where you can find food, enjoy the breeze and just take your busy mind off for a little while. Tamsui Laojie also has the stall selling very tall ice cream cone! It’s not just one stall, but there’s a few one, the  authentic one is located at the end of Laojie, nearest to the seaside, and there’s a few imitations in between. Tiedan is one hard preserved egg that can be bought as souvenirs, or just eat at there, though I don’t find it delicious. It’s just sweet, preserved and processed egg, looks like century egg but taste differently.
    Buy a ticket to the ferry, hop on and take a short ferry ride to Fisherman Wharf, then cross the Lover’s Bridge, then your trip at Tamsui is completed. Just catch a bus ride back to Tamsui Metro Station then, it’s time to go back to the city! Yeah.
    Human street art statue, real human, fake dog. Good job.
    Tamsui / Danshui Lao Jie.
    Deep Fried Mushroom.
    Fook Chew Fishball!
    More of Tamsui Lao Jie.
    This is not the first and authentic tall ice cream cone stall! I’ve got misled to this one and bought a cone.
    Red Bean Biscuit, something interesting to try also.
    The real and authentic tall jumbo ice cream cone stall.
    Girl with cone!
    Red Bean Biscuit!
    Tamsui Old Street again.
    Red Bean Biscuit again.
    Poodle and kid.
    Relaxing seaside promenade.
    Statue doing breakdance. LOL. or Gymnast.
    Kuanyin Mountain across the Tamsui River.
    A large patch of green field by the riverside.
    No sunset for that day.
    Jin Se Shui An.
    On the ferry, heading out to Fisherman Wharf and met with strong wave.
    Lover’s Bridge.
    The ferry.
    Just a bridge. I feel that bridges at Putrajaya is so much nicer. HAHA.
    This gives tha name of Lover’s Bridge.
  • Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley

    Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley

    Taipei: Interesting Visit To Beitou Hotspring Museum & Thermal Valley – Taipei has various hot spring site, one of which is Xin Beitou where you can find numerous hot spring hotel where you can enjoy a healthy dip in the natural warm water.
    However, the hot sprint is not as open as I thought, I thought of the hot water pool would be set outdoor, or a nicely built indoor bath pool, but then it’s more like a private hotel room with a bath tub of hot spring water. You can book for a room with the hot spring bath tub by hours, or you can just stay overnight, it’s just like a typical hotel. That’s it. If you visit with your partner, then it’s gonna be a good dip. =D
    Nevertheless, even if you don’t plan for a dip, a visit to Xin Beitou is recommended too, you can check out the old Japanese-built Beitou Hotspring Museum, the beautiful Taipei Public Library, and feel the steam and the farting sulphuric hot gas at the Thermal Valley. Not recommended to visit during summer! It was spring when I visited and it’s still very warm!
    Beitou Station where you change to head to Xin Beitou Station.
    Different metro line as this line only goes to Xin Beitou where the hot spring is.
    Taipei Public Library, Beitou Branch. The architecture darn cool right! Ho liao.
    The Beitou Hot Spring Museum.
    Queuing to get in to the museum. FREE OF CHARGE, I LIKE!
    The hall.
    Old movie poster.
    Very small pool.
    Larger bath pool. It’s definitely so much smaller when you compare it with the Turkish bath houses.
    Corridor.
    It may seems close, but it’s really not good walking under the heat!
    The public hot spring, the one and only with outdoor pool!
    Beitou Thermal Valley. Yeah yeah.
    Steam.
    More Steam.
    A small cafe.
  • Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park

    Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park

    Taipei: Gorgeous Scenery At Yangmingshan National Park – Enough of city walk and it’s time to spend a day out to the gorgeous and beautiful nature attractions of Taipei – Yangmingshan National Park. Not a perfect day out because of the cloudy weather, mix with a little bit of rain occassionally, but the temperature was just a bit cooler than in the city during that time!
    If you have a lot of time, head over there by public transport and tour the place slowly with their free shuttle bus. If you have little time like me, hired a cab driver and fetch you all over the main attractions of Yangmingshan and ciao! Just negotiate nicely with the cab driver, mine charged when we were on the road and he paused the metre when we visit the attractions and each attractions won’t last you long unless you are a photo-whore or nature freak who really stand there, smell the grass, smell the flower, lick the air.
    Since time was limited and a wet rainy day, I can hardly cover everything and only went to the 3 main attractions at Yangmingshan! Xiaoyoukeng, where you can smell natural fart in the air from the sulphur of the post-volcanic site with a superb scenery that I like! Then stop-by at Ju Zi Hu, the Calla Lilly Farm for a while and didn’t really get to get close to the lily because an entrance fee is needed to get close. The sky drizzled and lastly went to the flower clock for a quick photograph then ciao!

    XIAOYOUKENG

    CALLA LILY FARM / JU ZI HU

    CHERRY BLOSSOM

    OTHER FLOWERS THAT I DON’T KNOW

  • Taipei: Around The Beautiful Taipei 101, Xinyi District

    Taipei: Around The Beautiful Taipei 101, Xinyi District

    Taipei: Around The Beautiful Taipei 101, Xinyi District – Previously, I’ve visited the tallest building in the world that shape like a bamboo – Taipei 101 in the day time, it doesn’t look that great in daylight somehow. Then I went again at night and yeah, it’s better! But then being a patriotic Malaysian, I’ve to say KLCC is the best. =D
    Went to walk around the high end shopping district of Xinyi and the retails are pretty fascinating but then right, the crowds wasn’t really happenings. Hmm. I wonder where are the people? It was a Tuesday night by the way.
    Taipei’s Bamboo 101
    Taipei 101 tip.
    Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, a high-end and ‘atas’ ‘tua-kong’ departmental store where every different department is house in different building.
    High end, wow, beautiful, but very quiet at night.
    Found a leopard, that can stand!
    This leopard is very flexible!
    Courtesy hand-kiss from leopard. Never know leopard can be so kind! HAHA.
    A Collie Dog. Ah! It took me a while to Google up what this dog breed is. Am I correct?
  • Taipei: Wu Jiao Chuan Ban (Five Dime) Restaurant With Crazy Interior Design

    Taipei: Wu Jiao Chuan Ban (Five Dime) Restaurant With Crazy Interior Design

    Taipei: Wu Jiao Chuan Ban (Five Dime) Restaurant With Crazy Interior Design – The queue to see the Jade Cabbage at National Palace Museum was too long which delayed my precious time to lunch at Wu Jiao Chuan Ban Restaurant, ended that I was only able to capture photograph but not eat! Actually that’s a good thing too because I’ve read that an average meal costs about NT$400/person at that restaurant which is rather expensive.
    It wasn’t really the reviews that had attracted me, cause the reviews don’t seems good, but the interior design of the restaurant is quite bizarre, crazy, creative I guess? or exotic. I do not know how to describe the interior space, it’s just weird, and special. Well, check it out and tell me what it looks like.
    Visit the website for more details.
  • Taipei: National Palace Museum Is Not Really A Must-See Attraction

    Taipei: National Palace Museum Is Not Really A Must-See Attraction

    Taipei: National Palace Museum Is Not Really A Must-See Attraction – Despite that the National Palace Museum in Taipei is ranking 4 out of 130 in TripAdvisor, my experience told me that it’s not really a must-visit if you are not so much of a historical person.
    The palace doesn’t looks like a palace inside. The museum is a very modern & contemporary gallery featuring all the artefacts from ancient China until today. I just find that the interior does not justify the element of historical artefacts. NT$160/person for admission was quite reasonable, but comparing to the free admission of British Museum is just so-so-so-so-so much different. HAHA.
    There’s really a lot to see in the museum but I was just yawning through everything and joined the long queue of seeing the cabbage! ‘Why would people be queuing to see just a vegetable?!’ That’s the most special artefact of the museum, a jade carved into a cabbage-shape. Yeah, that’s it. One more thing, all of these were belong to the ‘original China’ before the born of People Republic of China, you can say it’s not originally Taiwan, but Chiang Kai Shek had did a good job preserving them.
    Visit, or not, it’s up to you, I think it’s not really a must-see.
    No photography inside, so there’s not much photos. =D
  • Taipei: Ay-Chung Mian Xian 阿宗面线 (Ah Chung Mian Xian/Mee Sua)

    Taipei: Ay-Chung Mian Xian 阿宗面线 (Ah Chung Mian Xian/Mee Sua)

    Taipei // Ay-Chung Mian Xian 阿宗面线 (Ah Chung Mian Xian/Mee Sua) – Throwing back and continue on where I’ve stop on my Taiwan trip last year. I just remembered that I did not finish my Taiwan trip post for last year because of all sort of laziness and uni project. Whatever it is, let’s go back to Taiwan in pictures.

    One of the must-try food in Taipei is this Ay-Chung Mian Xian located at Ximending. In a very simple explanation, Mian Xian or Mee Sua literally means rice-flour noodle and Ay Chung, is of course the person, Ah Chung, the brand, the kickstarter, the boss, the whatever. Instead of oyster mee sua that you can normally find in Malaysia’s Shihlin Taiwanese Street Snack, Ah Chung serves it with large intestines and the best, it doesn’t smells bad. Don’t worry that you will not find any disgusting things in it.

    Fusing 3 of the condiments available – chilli sauce, garlic & vinegar, it gives you a burst in the mouth, not spicy but delicious. A bowl costs NT$45 (about RM4.96) and I would say it’s reasonable me. Good breakfast for me back then, but the real thing is, I prefer mian xian with oyster instead of intestine. Yeah.




    Xi-Meng-Ting Headquarter/西門町總店： 
    Address: No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City
    Walking Directions: 5 minutes walk from Ximen MRT station, exit 6
    地址: 台北市峨嵋街8號之1
    Opening Hours: 11:00 to 22:30 (Mon – Thu); 11:00 to 23:00 (Fri – Sun)
    Tel: 02-2388-8808

    Shilin Branch/士林分店： 
    Address: 1F., No.24, Lane 101, Wenlin Rd., Shilin District, Taipei City
    地址: 台北市文林路101巷24號1樓
    Opening Hours: 15:30 to 01:30 (Mon – Thu); 15:30 to 02:00 (Fri – Sun)
    Tel :02-2883-8058, 2883-8867

    Xinyi District Branch/東區分店： 
    Address: No.2, Lane 17, Sec. 4, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City 地址: 台北市忠孝東路4段17巷2號
    Opening Hours: 11:00 to 21:30 (Mon – Thu); 11:00 to 22:00 (Fri – Sun)
    Tel :02-2721-9198, 2721-9899

  • London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye

    London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye

    London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye – You know, I was trying to cover most of the important places during the 4 days getaway to London back in November, but then it’s was pretty lame and didn’t really see much because it was like quantity over quality. And right, I failed to cover everywhere. Wooooo! Not sad because London is so near that I can visit at anytime.
    So, a quick visit to Westminster, crossing the Westminster Bridge, looking upon the Thames River at the London Eye that is not an eye, and seeing Mr Ben Ben the Big Ben, and also the Parliament building. “Wow, beautiful, good, nice, take a photo, jom, let’s go, next!”. So that was a pretty short while.
    Westminster Underground Station.
    FAKE and doesn’t even look like Charlie Chaplin.
    Crossing the street.
    Most-photographed angle of Underground sign and Ben Ben the Big Ben. Why Ben?
    Parliament Building & Big Ben.
    London Eye!
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