2013 台湾之旅

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taiwan-here-we-come.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-1-9-sep-2013-mon.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-2-10-sep-2013-tues.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-3-11-sep-2013-wed.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-4-12-sep-2013-thurs.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-5-13-sep-2013-fri.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/taipei-day-6-14-sep-2013-sat.html

http://meoweemeow.blogspot.com/2013/09/bye-bye-taiwan-15-sep-2013-sun.html

Bye bye Taiwan - 15 Sep 2013 (Sun)

6am woke up. Get prepared.

飞翔, our taxi driven is already waiting for us.

On the way to 桃园机场 airport, while talking to the taxi uncle, my mind was wondering, recapturing all the beautiful events, and trying to do a summary on why did I fell in love with this new found land which I didn't even know anything about it a week ago.

was it because of its cheap goods?

was it because of its wonderful tourist spots and beautiful scenery?

was it because that there are a lot of pet owners here in Taiwan?

or was it because that the transportation infrastructure is very good?

I was trying to search for an answer, and then I found that it wasn't exactly true at all.

cheap goods? can it be any cheaper than spending in Thainland?

wondeful tourist spots and beautiful scenery? There are a lot of other countries that can do better than this.

And then, i came to realise that, all those are just the surface that paints the picture of it.

I like Taiwan not because of the goods are cheap, but because of the attitude of the people that is selling their services and goods, the politeness.

I like Taiwan not because of the wonderful tourist attraction and beautiful scenery, but because of the effort they put to upkeep and maintain those places to be always clean, structural and organized.

I like Taiwan not because of there are a lot of pet owners here, but because of the community and people here that shows a lot of acceptance and care and love towards animals, and giving those animal a fairer share of respect and treatment.

I like Taiwan not because of their awesome infrastructure in their transportation, but because of the courtesy, the thoughtfulness, the tender, loving and care that is displayed by most of the passengers here.

The entire week during our travel was very hot, and warm, 37degree almost. The same temperament I see in most of the people here as well.

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Along the journey to the airport, the taxi driver was very warm and approachable. He even took the courtesy to ask us our flight details, and drove us straight to the exact entrance of Cathay Pacific.

We only get to know upon check-in that our flight from TW-HK got delayed for an hour. Well, I guess Danielle can live with that extra leeway of shopping spree. 

Didnt did we expect that after our bags were checked in, the attendant at the counter came up apologizing to us, passed us 2 NT$120 cash voucher to be spent within the airport, and upgraded our flight from HK-PG to business class.

While in HK, after everyone boarded in the plane, they found out there was something wrong with some parts of the plane which needs replacement. And our flight got delayed another 2 hours. I was pretty worried as my parents would be waiting in the airport by then. I approached the air hostess, telling her that I need to access to wifi so that I can somehow notify my parents of the delay. She somehow saw my worriness and said that she will get back to me.

I was expecting that she could at least let me go back to the airport and so. cold make use of the free wifi there, After a while, she came back and asked me to a corner. She said that she's sorry that there's nothin she could do to allow anyone of the plane, but she could just use her smartphone as a hotspot and allow me to access to it. 

All of these experience somehow came to me as if they were purposely arranged so that I could somehow get those lessons. 

I was going thru some very hard time finding myself back on track for the past few months. Things and work were pretty hard. Confidence level were way down the valley. And all these incidents and long breaks and stuff seems to be coming to me at a perfect timing.

I see how the correct way of serving people in the service industry.

Although things could get pretty hard a times, they can still maintain their composure and politeness despite not loosing their assertiveness. 

They stand in the shoes of the customers, do their best in understanding the hardship that the customers have to go thru, and feel them.

They work together with the customers in a common ground, finding solutions for them, and if that's not possible, give them an alternative which could mitigate and help ease the dissatisfaction, in a very sincere manner.

They talk to people, not because they wanna get your money, but I can actually feel their sincerity in really wanting to understand, to help, and to share.

Thank you to the air hostess, in teaching me the lesson in understanding the customers' worries.

Thank you to the Cathay Pacific check-in attendant, in teaching me to take the initiative and extra mile in showing sincerity when amending mistakes.

Thank you to the auntie that cooked breakfast for us n the 无赖 home stay hotel, which taught me that we should share more and expect nothing back in return.

Thank you to our drivers, 小杰 and 飞翔, in showing me the right and sincere attitude in sharing their life experience with the customers. 

Thank you to all the passengers in 捷运 in showing me that, warmth and care and love is still something reachable and still exists.

Thanks to the people that work in 丽霞商旅 in 西门町, that shows me the correct attitude, and politeness a person in the service industry should have.

Thanks to 江医师, the vet in 台北猫医院, that shows me that how all people, everyone, should be treated and welcomed to share their common interest without putting revenue as the first line of consideration. 

Thanks to all PKS member who followed us to this trip. for their real and true understanding, team work, and patient whenever they have to wait and tolerate for our punctuality issues and constant stop for finding toilets to unload our shit. >.<

And last but not least, thanks to Danielle for her understanding, and her willingness to share my pain, my worries, and give me a hand whenever I'm in deep shit, constantly reminding me in improving myself, to be a better person, and never give up on me no matter what, through thick and thin, sharing our dream in building a pet home together, and constantly giving me advice. I wouldn't have been able to survive thru the difficulties if it is not because of you.

Thank you Taiwan. 

I'll be back!!!

Taipei Day 6 - 14 Sep 2013 (Sat)

I name this day the Ultimate Feasting Day of our trip.

We started off our day at 8am, taking 捷运 to 善道寺 for the famous 豆浆油条 introduced to us by our 乌来 driver 小杰.

The place is located about 15 min walk from the station , and is within a supermarket named 华山市场。

He told us that its gonna test our patience to the max if we were going for this, but we really didn't expect anything quite like this.


This shop is located at level 2 of this supermarket, but the queue tailed all the way into level 1, and stretched outside the building, surrounding it. Can you imagine that ? !!
It took us a good 45min to reach for our turn to make our order.

As highly recommanded by our taxi friend, we ordered the famous  厚饼煎蛋, and a tau hu fa which sounded quite unique to us, the Salty Tau Hoo Fa.

Here's the Salty Tao Hoo Fa(on the right). It tasted almost exactly like steamed eggs.


Everyone loves the 厚饼煎蛋 like nobody else's business, ass they claimed that it was very special, but i found nothing so special about it.
 

The only thing that i really love was the 油炸鬼. I personally found it very crispy, and not oily. Even the one that was already dipped into the tou hoo fa for a very long time retained its crispiness, which is very rare and special to me. I loved it very much.

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And that was breakfast. Now's lunch.

We took a MRT to 行天宫. 20min walk, and reached this place called 上引水产。


Its a place which is located right at the port, where seafood were harvested straight from the sea, and directly processed and put on the shelve to be sold, either to go, or for direct consumption.
Needless to say, it's all about freshness they're talking about here, as everything comes straight from the sea and immediately to the customer.

To give u an idea how fresh the seafood is, take a look at this shot clip which I've shot on a pack of squid displayed on the selling shelve:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srdwl7nvCOY

(To read more about Why squid change color, go here:- http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/squidcol.htm)

These seafood are alive, and you can simply choose any of your choice, and they will immediately process it for you. 
You can either pack it back, and consume it there and then.


Me happily handling an abalone ...


See how huge is this crab???


And just will ya look at the crowd on the packed processed seafood ....


There is no chairs in this place. If you'd like to dine in, you will have to collect your number, and wait for like an hour until u get your turn to order, and eat standing.

And well, there's really nothing much that I can say about this place, only to say that if you love sashimi 
and fresh seafood, this place is one damn freaking place you shouldn't miss.
4 pairs of us people went in there, and spent a load some of NT$2500 per pair on this meal, and 
nobody was crying that the price was too expensive.
I'll just leave it to you guys to do your own wild imagination on all the following pictures of seafood that 
we've consumed.

So.... enjoy :)

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We could hardly move after that meal.
On the way back, we suddenly saw a very fat cat snoozing inside a shop, and everyone goes crazy.


Surprisingly, the shop owner was very friendly and welcomed us and invited us in.
Only then we found out that it was actually a Cat Veterinary shop.


We spent almost more than 1/2 an hour there playing with the cat, and talking to the very friendly vet.

It was really one of the most fulfilling event of this trip.
It triggered a lot of thoughts, especially at this special timing where Me and Danielle have started planning on going serious about operating our own pet shop. It even triggered me to really start my 2nd career as a vet by attending a night school on Veterinary.

We exchanged ideas and talked a lot on the back, in the bus, and even when we reached our hotel.


Danielle was a person who's full of ideas, and a true visionary. She seems to have been drafted all the plans in mind.

We could do everything step by step. No rush.
We could just start off with just providing boarding services to cats. And well, they need food and litter sand, right? We could be getting those in chunks, at distributor price, and even sell them to customers.
Slowly, we could expend our offerings to other variety of food, accessories, etc .......
Services could come along when we start attending pet grooming courses and stuff.
And then we could have joint venture with other vets. We don't even need to be vet ourselves. Not to say that we couldn't. But that's an open option for discussion not for now.

And the discussion goes on and on ........

I'm really excited. And I'm really happy with how this final stop of our Taiwan trip ended in a wonderful way.
It's all about what I've learnt, and experienced, and I've gained way a lot more that I've expected. And I hope I could share those, but that would be a story for another day .....

:)

Taipei Day 5 - 13 Sep 2013 (Fri)

Early morning, we took a bus to 野柳。

It's a place where people can show off their artistic part of their side by staring at a bunch of weird shapes of stones and give their professional comments.  

All the stones have their form due to 风化. Each of the stones have their own names for it, which resembles the form of the stone itself. 

For example, this one (which is the centre of attraction of this entre geo park) is called Queens Head (女皇头)

(Picture taken by guantou)

There are lots of other examples like elephant trunk la, shoes la, candle stands la, etc.....

One thing that I notice about Taiwan that impressed me a lot is that, the government here has done a very good job in ensuring that the pollution level of this country is always kept at its minimal. You could hardly see any rubbish in the streets, nor any vehicles spitting out exhaust with thick, black smoke which smells like charcoal. 

The sky is always blue. Clouds clearly visible at all times. The sea and river is always crystal clear, with fishes and crabs and seaweeds noticeable. 

Hmm.... Well, I guess that's all about this place. Not really my cup of tea, so really nothing much I can say about it. 

(Photo courtesy from guantou)

And yeah. Not forget our famous PKS 合体照 before leaving this place. :)

Went back to hotel, packed up, and took a train back to my favourite 西门町。

Yeah!!!

Spent the evening walking and eating along 师大夜市 at 台电大楼。 

One thing worth mentioning is the 花生包 at this place. Awesome !!!

We spotted a 流浪汉 with his cat selling this along the street. 

We came to know about this from somewhere. There is this drive which helps 流浪汉 with their cats to be able to self sustain by selling this photography magazine. It's selling at NT$100, where 1/2 of it goes to the seller and his cat. 

It's good to know that people are given a chance if they are willing to do it. And u can actually see this in large from the community here. It's really a very heart warming and touching feeling which is really hard to come by these days especially in the world which is moving at a really face pace. Good job, Taiwan!!!

Taipei Day 4 - 12 Sep 2013 (Thurs)

Had a very wonderful breakfast prepared by an old auntie from 天池御皇 hotel. Althought it's just a simple plain white porridge and some 8 ordinarily dishes, the meal was way above extraordinary. 

小杰， our taxi drive reached at 8am and off we go to our next destination. 

On the way our from 乌来，we stopped by an snapped some photos of this 吊桥。

Reached 十分 around 10am. Remember the famous Taiwan movie 那些年， 我们一起追过的女孩？Yupe. That's where it was filmed. 

We went there for 放天灯。

 

We ordered one (NT$200 each) , and wrote our wishes at all 4 faces of the lattern. 

After you r ready and satisfied with your artwork, they will help u fire off your lattern to the sky, just like a hot air balloon. 

Spent some time there for photo snapping, and that's about this place. Off we go to our next destination. 

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九份- 老街. A place to shop and eat, just like any other 夜市.

 We spent our whole afternoon there, buying lots of souvenirs like 姜母茶， 凤梨酥， etc...

There is something really special that we've noticed in Taiwan. People here have a very good awareness of equality and animal rights. You can see that the level of acceptance of the people here towards animals and pets is way way 197664x higher than those in .... Ehem....  *cough cough* ......

Dogs and cats are brought along together with their owner when they go to work. It's totally not a rare scene to see restaurants/boutique shops with the pets of the owner roaming around when customers are patronizing. 

There r even corners where stated that this is a place for feeding stray cats. And everyone will just walk up to the cats and  stroke or play with them. You never see a scene where people are kicking, or chasing after strays like they are owning their mothers NT$18364 million dollars. 

Taiwanese have the practice of catch-neuter-release program. All strays that are neutered will have their ears clipped, so that they can be easily recognized. It's  a very common drive in most of the advanced countries, but some of the countries ... *cough cough* still prefers to choose the easy path of exterminating the u lucky ones. 

Another thing 九份Is famous of is its yam balls （芋圆）. We rested at this special place or this dessert, where all it's tables are made of natural wood/stone crafts. 

On the way back, I just couldn't resist myself from getting on of these local musical instrument of Taiwan. It's call 陶笛, a flute made of clay. 

The top a made up of 6 holes, while the bottom consists of a variety of low numbered holes depends on the level of complexity. I bought the beginner level's with one hole at the bottom. Lets see how I progress with it when I get back to Malaysia. Hahaha. :)

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九份 was once a very huge gold producing place. Until recent years this stops after the depletion of that natural resource. Throughout the years of mining has causes some natural pollution to Mother Earth. 黄金瀑布 is one of the consequences of this. 

庙中庙 is another place we visited. 

As the name depicts, there is another small temple within this temple. 

We learnt something very important from 小杰. When we were about to enter the temple from the main entrance, he was so surprised and worried and immediately stopped us. He was surprise that we weren't aware of the unspoken rules when entering a temple, which was something really totally new to us. 

According to him, a temple normally has 3 entrance, the centre, the left and the right. As there is a Chinese saying , 左青龙，右白虎。we never want to enter into the mouth of a tiger. And entering a temple thru the middle (main) door is something very disrespectful. And as such , we should enter a temple from the left entrance, and come out from the right door. 

That's mostly about it. The day ended with us staying in a lousy hotel in 基隆, and had our dinner and night shopping in  庙口夜市。that's a story for another day. :)