whimsical*girl

The untold parts of my trip have conveniently been rounded up in this final instalment. Coincidentally they all took place out of the city, thus called "Outskirt Taipei".

I would classify my chapter at Danshui (淡水) as "Fun Taipei".

Will skip the introductory on Danshui Old Street, Lover's Bridge and scrumptuous food finds whereby information are widely available. Despite so, they are still not to be missed. The turning point came at our plan to 寻找周杰伦 which essentially retraces the movie 不能说的秘密. I've barely seen the trailer at that point in time, but being a Jay Chou fan, here we are at Tam Kang High School (淡江中学).

The octagonal tower which marks the center court of the school.

Taipei is synonymous with night markets. However if you have only time for one, Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) has to be it - which is what we basically did.

Saturday, 24/5.

Our 3rd day in Taipei, or 2nd last day of the trip, we finally hit Xi Men Ding (西门町).

This is the Harajuku of Taipei, that oozes vibes of life and youthfulness. A good way to spend the afternoon here, would be just to roam about or people watch at a cafe. Running short of time, we chose to be on the move which was quicker and could cover more things. Shall leave you with the pics which could speak a thousand more words than I can (Ok, it's plain laziness @ work).

XMD Station

Standing tall, Taipei 101 landmarks the Xinyi District (信義).

Day 2, Cingjing

First thing in the morning, we hiked to Green Green Grasslands (青青草原) - a nature enclosure where visitors get up close with the sheeps while they graze away. There, our entire afternoon was spent chasing sheeps. Also, after some experiential testing, we found out that people can't differentiate between real and fake sheeps calling. BAAAA~!

Sign says, "Please do not ride and chase sheeps."

A rollercoaster ride is apt of the trip so far.

We went from adrenalin rush at the themepark and concert, to a tranquil retreat at Sun Moon Lake. And now we're on to Cingjing (清境), a literal high point of the trip. Plans to Cingjing was impromptu. We decided to check out what they call "the farm in the clouds" since it was in the same Nantou county as SML, and a 2-hour bus ride away.

Day 1, Cingjing

With no prior arrangement, we knocked on Maple Lodge where we put up for the night. It was a weekday and we were the only guests at the lodge, apart from the B&B's owner and his family. For a moment, it felt as if I was in a Kindaichi movie as we navigated through the dim hallway to our room. Imagination running wild on my part! >.<

The gloomy weather somewhat dampened our day. We parked ourselves at Starbucks (when I least expect to find one here at SML) for a dose of my favourite Java Chip Frappe, while waiting for the rain to stop...

Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) at dawn.

Because we had so many activities going on during our stay in Taichung, my impression of the city was loosely defined by:

Feng Jia Night Market (逢甲夜市)

My eyes literally lit up when the bus drove into the colorful night market stretch. Located in the Feng Jia University vicinity, this is the largest night market and most vibrant spot (I conclude) in Taichung, with endless shopping and street food! NM no. 1 rule: Long queues = good food!

Sun Biscuits at Zi You Lu (自由路)

The city is famous for its sun biscuits, that the entire stretch of Zi You Lu is dotted with sun biscuit shops. We spent an afternoon sun biscuit tasting and sniffing out the authentic ones.

And the rest of Taichung simply went past in a blur.

We had to do as the Taiwan variety programmes do (read: early day 少年特攻队) ! And 月眉马拉湾 being the closest off Taichung, made it into our itinery.

There were 2 parks and we chose the water one over land. Believe it or not, it's my first to a waterpark. Being a non-swimmer, I've never stepped into the local ones voluntarily.

How it all began...

When in Taiwan, we must attend a Taiwanese concert and our plans coincided with Mayday's. Thanks to the great WWW, we managed to book tickets to the concert which swings our travel plan into action. Taiwan here we come!

Temptations brought out the worse in my friends too!
We were all transported Back to Earth. Taichung, 17 May.