Happy Malaysia Day, people~! It's yet another long weekend, yayyy! I took another day off next week and even my language school is taking a break so no traveling whee~~
So back to Day 6 in Taipei! We started our day by heading to Addiction Aquatic Development, a seafood market just 10 minutes away from Shilin by taxi! A lot of travelers dub this place as the Tsukiji of Taipei but really, it's much smaller but still with quite a number of restaurants inside the building and its vicinity.
We first headed to the wet market section where they displayed the fresh and some live catch.
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These are geoducks, a penis-shaped clam LOL. Initially we wanted to try the geoduck sushi but that day they were only serving those as a whole sashimi which cost about RM130. Pretty reasonable but we were on budget LOL
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Moving forward to the cold storage slash food section.
We chose this restaurant to have our fresh seafood breakfast LOL. I heard the queue in this place and almost other restaurants are super long but we were lucky to be fourth in queue and got our seats in just a few minutes. Well, no seats actually. It's a stand and dine sorta place.
While waiting for our food, went to check the chef at work and what other people were eating LOL
And our food is here!
Had mostly
sashimi but then it was too fresh and bloody I couldn't take it anymore LOL. Not quite a huge fan of
sashimi :/
Later, we explored a bit of the other sections while my other friends had grilled oyster with cheese. Apparently it's good but I didn't have that. Also not a fan of oyster 'cause they smell like the ocean.
Then off we head to
Beitou! Took the taxi to the station again before leaving via train.
Exited from the station and was greeted by this scenery.
We decided to head up to YangmingShan first and while waiting for our bus ride up, we played Beans Boogled. So very disgusting hahahaha
Our first ride up was aweful. The road were zig zaggy and yet the driver was speeding and at the turns and corners, he turned so hard I felt sick. Sorta reminded me of my dad's driving skills around Balik Pulau, Penang. I always offer to drive around the roads there..
Our first stop was at the bus stop
We were a bit lost from there and couldn't decide where to head but followed a group of Japanese tourists for a bit before diverting to YangMingShan Visitor Centre because we thought the trail was shorter.
It lead us to an empty flight of stairs before leading to a dark trail. It was actually much darker than the pic below.
I was creep out just looking at it and beckoning my friends to move forward instead of just hanging around taking photos. Only halfway through my friends started feeling creep out and wanted to head back but I thought moving forward will be best considering we've walked quite a distance.
Thankfully, part of the trail was closed to the road so the passing cars gave us assurance.
Not too long later we finally reached the Visitors Centre, and a cafe decorated with life-like animals figures and a store that sells plushes and souvenirs.
After resting a bit and walking around, we decided it's time to move forward. Our next destination is
Leng Sui Keng or Hokkien for Cold Water Well. I'm surprised I understood what
leng sui is LOL. For that, we boarded yet another bus heading upwards.
Little did we know heading upwards meant, the temperature was lower and the wind was so strong! We were so not prepared for the weather up there. I mean, look at this!
But at our destination, thankfully it wasn't as cold and as misty as we thought. We were surrounded by greens and hills which we came to love. The view is splendid!
Off we hiked down and then upwards to check out the view of Niu Nai Lake or Milk Lake, a lake with water in milky white color. Apparently it is caused by sulfur contamination. Speaking of pollution wtf. My friends had noticed the strong sulfur stench but I didn't LOL. Nose blocked I think
Just close by was a hiking trail leading to an Ecology Pond and up the hill. We only hiked to check out the pond. By then, it was drizzling slightly and started to get cold we decided not to go further.
We didn't go further as we were totally not prepare to hike. Instead, we went to the public hot spring nearby thinking of soaking as the weather up there was much more appropriate for a dip. In front of the hot spring, there is a spot for leg dipping, which we went to try. It was really warm and pleasant.
I went up to check out the bath house and was greeted by sight of naked old ladies, to my embarrassment. Heck I was so not getting naked in front of everyone for the bath. So no lol
With nothing much to do from there, we decided it's time to explore Beitou. It took us another two bus rides down.
Beitou
Started exploring as soon as we touch down to Beitou LOL. That stream is from the many hot water bath houses in Beitou though no dipping legs or playing there because apparently it isn't hygiene.
Unfortunately for us, most attractions are closed on Mondays so we couldn't check out the Thermal Valley. I screwed up the timetable :(
This is the rather iconic library in Beitou. If only libraries in Malaysia looks like this and have more books, I'll visit everyday hahahah
We're done pretty early and my friend suggested we go up back to YangMingShan though I disagreed saying it will get pretty dark when we reached. So we sat down and looked for a night market to explored since we don't want to go back to the same place. We finally settled for the one back in the city center, a dozen stops away LOL
Unlike the other attractions which are pretty close to the train stops, we had to walk a distance only to find out we could've chose to stop at nearer station wth
A few metres before the market, we found a shop serving braised meat. I, still craving for all things braised, suggested we have our meal there. We were already starving and a bit tired then.
Check that steaming pot of awesomeness! Salivating just looking at this.
We ordered braised pork trotters and ours came with so much fat there was hardly any flesh! I guess you can say it was loaded with collagen hahaha. Mouth got so oily after that wth
Later we explored the market. Qing Guang Night Market's specialty are braised duck with a number of stalls and shops serving this. We were quite full by then but my friend insisted to try so we ordered only duck and nibble away.
Before we head home, we went to the convenience store to get alcohols to spend the night with while watching Games of Thrones LOL. Tasted pretty alright LOL
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Read my other posts here!
Day 4: Jiufen ⇒ Shifen ⇒ (Attractions along the Pingxi Line) ⇒ Miaokou Night Market & Part 2
