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| Being nice and censoring SH's unglam but keeping XY's cute face. Hahaha. |
Our itinerary for today was to explore 陽明山 (Yang Ming Shan) National Park and 北投 (Beitou), before proceeding to the famous 士林夜市 (Shi Lin Night Market) for dinner. Sadly, we reached 陽明山 at about 12pm hence we had no time for 北投. ):
Because we weren't early for 陽明山, we didn't have much time to explore it as well, and had to miss some parts of it. This is because the last bus down the mountain was at 5pm and we had to start queuing at around 4pm to ensure that we can board the bus.
Honestly, I think that 陽明山 is a pretty nice place and a good hiking experience, and it's a pity we only visited 2 places in the park. On the other hand, Shi Hui HATES 陽明山. It's her worst enemy!
We didn't want to take the shuttle bus around Yang Ming Shan as we wanted to do some hiking. (which I'm glad we did)
Firstly, the hiking starts right after alighting at Yang Ming Shan stop via Bus 260 at Taipei Main Station. To get to the tourist information center, we had to climb up slopes and stairs on uneven ground for a good 20 minutes. After which, the official hiking may start.
Due to time constraint, we only hiked up to 七星公园 and not the mountain peak since we were told that we would not be able to catch the last bus down the mountain. Nevertheless, it took us a good 2hr+ hike up never-ending stairs to reach the park, with random bees buzzing around. I was totally more scared of the bees than MORE stairs. >.>
I guess after such a tiring hike, any sort of aerial view would be deemed as rewarding.
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| Mandatory Shot |
Thinking back, this is a rather good hiking place as there were plenty of foliage around to shade us from the sweltering hot sun.
After taking some pictures at 七星公园, we proceeded to 冷水坑 (Lengshuikeng) as it was on the way back down the mountain via another trail.
On the way there, we met an old local couple that led us to 冷水坑 with lesser hiking to do. They were very friendly and helpful, and thank god we met them. (Or maybe not; to be elaborated on in a later post.)
On a side note, we are so thankful to have met numerous helpful Taiwanese people during our 20 days tour.
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| 冷水坑 |
Our initial plan was to go 擎天崗 (Qingtiangang) after 冷水坑, but time constraint (again) made us spend the rest of our time at 冷水坑. Ironically, the attraction was a hot spring foot bath there, which was totally apt after our climb up to 七星公园.
Afraid of not being able to get up the bus, we started waiting for the last 5pm bus at 4pm. But we saw this instead:
Oh well, at least we got up the bus, but not without some sudden pouring rain that left us soaking wet with squishy shoes just by boarding and squeezing up the bus from the sheltered bus stop.
The hike up left us drenched in sweat, but the journey down left us drenched in rain.We knew the bus would bring us to 士林夜市, but we weren't sure of which stop to alight. And we are thankful again to the old local couple which was on the bus as well, who guided us on how to get there. (谢谢#1)
士林夜市 (变肥#2) was really big. Or maybe just to us cos we kind of walked the same area again and again, somehow, though not intentionally.
We ate super yumz bacon wrapped with spring onion (more please thanks!) And it's actually those small sticks one instead of one big roll. Grilled squid was okay. Drank 海燕窝, and ate tempura which was not what I expected. I was expecting the fried ones that we usually eat in Singapore's Shilin Taiwan Street Snacks. But that's not the point.
Upon looking at the tempura dish, Miss Lee Shi Hui decided to point and announce that a particular food item was actually 猪血糕 (Pig Blood Cake). EEW. But I still decided to try a tiny little piece of it. Didn't taste weird, but no thanks to eating more of it. The thought just totally gross me out.
We also bought some random fluffy cake that was meant for breakfast the next day, but was squashed by dear Xin Yi on the way back. :/
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| Cute Mini Tortoise we saw at Shilin |
And I guess that's all for the worst day of SH's life. :P
