2006-10-28 – Day 5 – Taichung – Taipei
Taichung (å°ä¸)
0725 A bright morning greeted us in Taichung and we headed out. Unfortunate that the tour doesn’t let us have much time to explore the area since it seems like an interesting place to walk around. We passed a market of sorts on our way.
0905 Our first rest Stop (新竹) after hitting the roads let everyone get a quick breather and stretch out the legs. We’re near Taipei again!
Taipei (å°åŒ—)
1030 Since a visit to Taipei must warrant a visit to Taipei 101, Sam drove us by some landmark buildings like the Mayor’s office and Taipei 101 to have a look. We also had a very early lunch at a hot pot restaurant. Definitely great to have some ma la steamboat.
1215 Martyr’s Shrine (å¿ çƒˆç¥ ) was our first stop of the day tour where we witnessed the change of guards. The guards performed the change of shift with amazing endurance and skill with the weapon toss.
1300 National Palace Museum (故宫åšç‰©é¦†) was interesting but unfortunately we couldn’t take photos inside. There were numerous antiques for viewing and apparently there is so much that all of it can’t be shown at one time. We were introduced to 4 unique items. Bai Cai and Zhu Rou jade that looked amazingly like white lettuce and pork. Also we saw a Tian Lu and Elephant that had some meaning but unfortunately can’t quite remember it 
1435 The last time I was in Taipei, we also visited Fengshui Master Mr. Liu (天禄), this time round, it seemed to be a funnier session with a whole lot of insight into numbers and our names. Apparently, the numbers 13, 9 and 4 are good numbers while 10 is bad.
1615 Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (ä¸æ£çºªå¿µå ‚) had a concert ongoing and an arts display so was pretty interesting to have a look in the great evening sun.
We also bought some native products that are a definite must try like pineapple tarts Taiwan style.
1815 Dinner for us was at Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). We had a few items like 棺ææ¿ (Bread toasted with ingredients “buried” inside) and also a pasty that wasn’t too great called 大饼包å°é¥¼. One of the definite must try is mango ice shavings (芒果冰). We didn’t much like 生炒三鲜羹 which is a mix of various seafood in a stew.
1945 Everyone was parting ways this night as some were traveling back to Singapore and others were staying on. Two of us had booked ourselves into Onestar Hotel (万事达酒店) near Xi Men Ding. The hotel is great (location and room) and we would heartily book it again next time we’re in Taipei 
[...] was pretty good. This was a short 10 minutes walk to Xi Men Ding although I preferred Wonstar which we stayed during the last trip for its nicer [...]
[...] the mango snow ice we had at Taipei’s Shi Lin Night Market in 2003 (which I again tried last year) since the ice shavings in the Snowy Mountain items were definitely just plain ice shavings. The [...]