Again, we woke up pretty late again (about 10am ish). We had our breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang. I don't think this chain is the famous Yong He Dou Jiang. There are a lot of places with the name of Yong He Dou Jiang but actually they are not related to each other. Nevertheless, we wanted to try the local breakfast in Taiwan, and the place is just around the corner of our place. Again, you need to grab a ordering list from the counter and mark down whatever you want to have. Give the order back to the staff at the counter and pay there. We ordered the three things, 102NT all together. It was not great, but ok.
The menu; Mushroom noodle (but no mushrooom?)
Spring onion shao bing with omelette stuffing; Warm soy milk
Shao bing the chinese flat bread with various stuffing in there. You can have the plain shao bing too.
After the breakfast, we went to visit the Miniature Museum. Stop at the Song Jiang Nan Jing Station along the brown line and walk to the museum using our GPS. The museum is located underground of a company building. No. It doesn't have a building on its own.
Miniatures Museum of Taiwan (MMOT)
Labbit; Entrance of the museum
Some miniature figurings
Fancy little things you can see in the museum. 1-2 hours should be enough. You can grab a stamp passport for little kids, to play around with. They can collect stamps in different stamp stations when they journey through the museum. Everything in the museum is so tiny, so cute. You will be amazed by the little details of the work!
Remember the Travel Youth Card (click here to check my post about it)? Show the staff and get 10% discount. If you are still a student, be it overseas or local (Taiwan), show then your student ID and you will get student priced entry tickets. Cheap tickets YAY.
We headed towards Beitou after visiting the museum. We took the brown line and head towards MingQuan West Road on the red line. Take the red line to Beitou and change to pink line to XinBeiTou.
BeiTou Station, platform 4 to XinBeiTou
It was about lunch time so we head towards the famous MaLai ramen place in XinBeiTou. Jot down your name on the form or register yourself with a staff. Yes, they do have a long long queue. It wasn't too bad when we went there, about 15 minutes wait for us. Keep walking straight when you exit from the MRT station.Cross the intersection and the ramen shop will be opposite from the BeiTou Park.
ManLai Onsen Ramen
Mini Game
There a mini challenge for every group of customers that came in. You can deliver your own order using the the suspended string stretching from the dining area to the kitchen area. If you can successfully ring the bell then you can get some special deals of the month, in our case, half price for the tofu side dish.
Tactic: Like playing badminton, you need to use your wrist instead of swinging your whole arm like your playing tennis.
We ordered a pork ramen and corn ramen, price range about 100-150NT per bowl. Side dishes we ordered are 40NT each. I like the noodle, very springy and it looks like the wholemeal version of the normal ramen noodle.
Corn ramen, pork ramen; Ramen noodle
Tofu and pickled seaweed
Love the seaweed! Tofu is not bad too. But we forgot to order the famous hot spring egg ): . Overall pleasant lunch. After lunch we headed towards Hot Spring Valley. Along the way (ZhongShan Road) we checked out the Beitou Library (famous of its architectural design) and BeiTou hot spring museum. If free to go into the museum however, you need to take off your shoes and wear the slipper provided.
BeiTou Library
Hot Spring Museum's Tatami
Old Hot Spring Bath Tub?
Hot Spring Valley
Hot Spring
Is pretty amazing to see all the mist coming out from the boiling hot hot spring. Not sure will it still be like that during the summer. We spent about 3 - 4 hours in Beitou. We did not experience any of the hot spring bath because we were too lazy. Anyways, give it a try if you are keen, there's lots of hotel and public bath available on the way.
Next destination was Tamshui. Take the MRT back to Beitou station (red line) and from there to Tamshui. Tamshui is the last stop of the red line.
Map or Tamshui just at the exit of the MRT station, Tamshui famous food street
Remember the Travel Youth Card (click here to check my post about it)? Show the staff and get 10% discount. If you are still a student, be it overseas or local (Taiwan), show then your student ID and you will get student priced entry tickets. Cheap tickets YAY.
We headed towards Beitou after visiting the museum. We took the brown line and head towards MingQuan West Road on the red line. Take the red line to Beitou and change to pink line to XinBeiTou.
XinBeiTou Station
It was about lunch time so we head towards the famous MaLai ramen place in XinBeiTou. Jot down your name on the form or register yourself with a staff. Yes, they do have a long long queue. It wasn't too bad when we went there, about 15 minutes wait for us. Keep walking straight when you exit from the MRT station.Cross the intersection and the ramen shop will be opposite from the BeiTou Park.
There a mini challenge for every group of customers that came in. You can deliver your own order using the the suspended string stretching from the dining area to the kitchen area. If you can successfully ring the bell then you can get some special deals of the month, in our case, half price for the tofu side dish.
Tactic: Like playing badminton, you need to use your wrist instead of swinging your whole arm like your playing tennis.
We ordered a pork ramen and corn ramen, price range about 100-150NT per bowl. Side dishes we ordered are 40NT each. I like the noodle, very springy and it looks like the wholemeal version of the normal ramen noodle.
Love the seaweed! Tofu is not bad too. But we forgot to order the famous hot spring egg ): . Overall pleasant lunch. After lunch we headed towards Hot Spring Valley. Along the way (ZhongShan Road) we checked out the Beitou Library (famous of its architectural design) and BeiTou hot spring museum. If free to go into the museum however, you need to take off your shoes and wear the slipper provided.
Is pretty amazing to see all the mist coming out from the boiling hot hot spring. Not sure will it still be like that during the summer. We spent about 3 - 4 hours in Beitou. We did not experience any of the hot spring bath because we were too lazy. Anyways, give it a try if you are keen, there's lots of hotel and public bath available on the way.
Next destination was Tamshui. Take the MRT back to Beitou station (red line) and from there to Tamshui. Tamshui is the last stop of the red line.
And of course after all the walking in Beitou, we went on a food hunt the moment we got down from the MRT. First stop, the chicken nugget. Don't really like it, it has bones in it ): , 55NT a serve.
Takoyaki, Plum Juice
The Tako ball is a must try! So tasty and its only 40NT ;) and the plum juice was delicious as well. Apparently is the most famous plum juice (30NT) around tamshui and is a must try as well.
Fried Milk; Ferry ticket counter
Some weird thing along the way, fried milk (20NT) pretty tastly, the milk just melts in your mouth when you eat it. After have a tour around the old street, we went to get our ferry ticket to Fisherman Wharf, for 120NT per way, so we paid 240NT at the stall above. Now, I advise you to go around and check the ferry prices from other stalls before getting one. Apparently we got it for way too expensive. I saw stalls that advertise for 80NT for the whole trip. So we basically just paid way too much. The stall above, which I encounter, will be the first stall you see that sells ferry ticket if you walk along the beach when you got down from the MRT. Just be careful. It is very competitive and there will be people walking and trying to sell you their tickets.
If ferry is not your thing, alternatively you can take bus to Fisherman Wharf.
The Ferry Entrance
So we took the ferry and headed towards Fisherman Wharf!
Love
Lover's Bridge
There's actually nothing much to do in Fisherman Wharf, but the incredible scenery view makes it worth while. A very romantic place for couples too ;) . Best to go there during the evening, where you can see the sun set and the lighting of the bridge as well.
We headed back to Tamshui after a short tour in Fisherman Wharf.
Ah Ge; Fish ball soup
Ah Ge
We had the famous Ah Ge in Tamshui as a light snack before visiting Shilin night market for proper dinner.
Its basically a vermicelli noddle stuffed tofu in sauce.
Something special to try, taste good too.
Hand crafted chinese zodiac miniatures
Found this side shop selling these cute miniature. Wanted to buy one with my zodiac and my boy's zodiac on it but I don't quite like the fingerprints on the miniatures. So we gave it a miss. 190NT for the pairs, and 100NT for the single one.
And no, we didn't try the famous iron egg in tamshui. They usually sell them in bulk as souvenirs.
Next stop, Shilin Night Market
Hop onto the red line and get down from Jiantan Station, not shilin station. Follow the sign, there's big big sign of shilin night market everywhere because is such a touristy spot ;).
We tried a couple of thing and get out there pretty quickly because there's just too many people around. There's a underground food court which I think is pretty cool but I wouldn't spend much time there. It gets pretty smoky and heaty and the with all the crowd.
Tamagoyaki
We found this stall that sells tamagoyaki (fried eggs with stuffing like cheese, roe, ham etc), we went back for the second time. It's so good! no cheap though (compared to the other stuff), one is about 60NT?
Fresh fruits look really good
My boy actually got one papaya/pawpaw fruit milk drink from the other stall, he loves it, I don't quite like papaya.
I read around on the net and many had bad experience buying fruits in Shilin night market. 1. the fruits a generally more expensive in Shilin night market, because is such a touristy place, 2. more often tourists do not know how Taiwanese sell their fruits (usually by gram not by pieces) and they get 'scam' without reading the vague sign properly. So I would advice you to avoid getting fruits in such touristy place like Shilin night market
Shilin night market; Ah Liang mian xian
I personally enjoyed this Ah Liang (阿亮) mian xian (intestine noodle) in Shilin night market than the famous Ah Zong (阿宗) mian xian. It has more flavour to it. This stall is at the open area of the market, just right in front of the temple. The oyster omelette from that stall were good too.
Cock-shaped snack ._. ; Cheesy potato
Did not try the cock-shaped thingo, looks weird and there's no people queuing for it. On the other hand, the cheesy potato is sooooo good. The stall name is Little Prince Potato. Is a must try ;)
And this ends our Day 3 ;)
We found this stall that sells tamagoyaki (fried eggs with stuffing like cheese, roe, ham etc), we went back for the second time. It's so good! no cheap though (compared to the other stuff), one is about 60NT?
My boy actually got one papaya/pawpaw fruit milk drink from the other stall, he loves it, I don't quite like papaya.
I read around on the net and many had bad experience buying fruits in Shilin night market. 1. the fruits a generally more expensive in Shilin night market, because is such a touristy place, 2. more often tourists do not know how Taiwanese sell their fruits (usually by gram not by pieces) and they get 'scam' without reading the vague sign properly. So I would advice you to avoid getting fruits in such touristy place like Shilin night market
I personally enjoyed this Ah Liang (阿亮) mian xian (intestine noodle) in Shilin night market than the famous Ah Zong (阿宗) mian xian. It has more flavour to it. This stall is at the open area of the market, just right in front of the temple. The oyster omelette from that stall were good too.
Did not try the cock-shaped thingo, looks weird and there's no people queuing for it. On the other hand, the cheesy potato is sooooo good. The stall name is Little Prince Potato. Is a must try ;)
And this ends our Day 3 ;)
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