Taiwan Day 1

Decided to come to back to revive my dead blog!!! Not that anyone would actually read it but I'll just write it for my own memory's sake :)

Anyway! We woke up bright and early and left home at 7+ am to go to the airport (T1). After checking in we proceeded to have breakfast (I was a starvin marvin) at the staff canteen!!

Kaya toast, egg, and horlicks

After we were adequately stuffed, we checked in and waited for our flight which was to be at 10 25 am

Wore my fox jacket for the first time hahaha

Anyway pretty soon we were on board!! I slept a bit, watched half of Meet the Millers, watched a full despicable me 2, and part of kickass :)

Plane food: fish and rice ( I regretted it- fish was rather dry), fruits, spicy noodle salad and pretty bomb eclair

4hr50 mins later, we reached our destination!! After the usual passport checks etc, we took a high rail bus to the railway station followed by a bullet train to Taipei main station :)

Papaya soya milk- awesome

Original- not as awesome but still great 

We checked into our hotel- Cosmos hotel which was just a stone's throw away from the railway station.

After settling down in the well furnished hotel room; 

We got ready and left again!!

We took the Mrt to xinmen(ding) which took only a few mins 

So bright and Christmassy

The real purpose of our visit, however, was to eat the world famous AH CHUNG MEE SUAAAAA!!! Heheh I was quite hungry by then so I was really excited 

The queue seemed long but the service was instant

Finally <3 the bowl is quite small, quite sufficient for one person :) there was a station where one could add chilli, garlic and vinegar sauce to the piping bowl of noodles to one's desire! 

How was the noodles? Well it was warm and delicious, but not mindblowingly so.

After that it was time for a spot of bubble teaaaa!!

First bubble tea in a long time :) also had a wintermelon lemon tea (omg and I just realised 'melon' and 'lemon' consist of the same letters????) which was also wonderfully refreshing 

猪血糕!!! Or pig's blood cake. Cubes of pigs blood mixed with glutinous rice to form a savoury yummy 'cake' reminiscent of zongzi :) I liked this but it wasn't the traditional one which I'm hoping to try in the days to come!!

Genius guy doing painting using spray cans 

Next we boarded the train again and headed to Long Shan Temple station, where the long Shan night market was located!!

Heheh isn't the entrance so grand... First night market visit!!!

CORN CORN CORN. And some bull's horn shaped thingy that tasted like steamed nuts.

Fried taro balls. Balls of fluffy light chewy delight :)

Guava and huge cherry tomatoes stuffed with plum. YUM.

Fried chicken!!!

Dad ordered chicken's butt and fried chicken which didn't taste too fried!

BBQ corn :)

It was....ok.

Something called 'exploding cake'?? I was anticipating a real explosion of flavours in my mouth but nahh....

It's just an egg.

Yum yum aiyu jelly!!! Even after all the feasting I still wanted mochi.... So we found some in a shop on an ulu lane!

These are different from the ones in Singapore: firstly they're not cut up and secondly they were boiled instead of steamed so they were soft and hot.

Also some hot taro ball bowl with a tau suan like topping and taro balls and red beans. Heheh I'm gonna eat this everyday if I can :)

Mochiiiiiiiiiiii

View of the night market 

After that we were well and truly stuffed( there's some food I didn't take) so we decided to head back.

Breads galore @ the Mrt station 

Dad also bought some mixture of appetizing spicy stuff like squids and fish skin and chicken skin that was really nice :)

Ok I'm really stuffed but I still ate the remainder of the bull's horns and stuff hahhaa I think I'm gonna put on quite a few pounds here!!! But yolo so ;) tata!!! Looking forward to tomorrow~

Bangkok Pratunam: Day 4

Yup as usual I had typed out a long luvly blogpost just to have blogger wipe it off the face of this earth after I forgot to save it on my phone. Well shit happens :)

Anyway just a brief post about day 4//aka last day in Bangkok ):

Waffles, pink noodle, stir-fried veggies with pork, sunny side up, cherry tomato

Woke up and waited for the folks to do some packing before heading down for the /last/ breakfast at the lovely glow hotel :'( 

The pink noodles tasted really yum! It had a slightly sweet aftertaste that paired well with the more salty veggies. The food at glow hotel is commendable, although  there isn't too huge a spread, but the food that they DO offer are wonderful and the awesome service by the staff doesn't hurt either :)

Pork porridge

Loved the condiments on this one! It has and distinct flavour that is unique to the thai cuisine and the porridge is oh-so-smooth and creamy!

And the usual mixed fruit platter. Thai fruits are really too good to pass.

Following that we rested at the hotel till about 12+pm when we were graciously chased out of the hotel room as it was the checking out time! 

Last shot of Bangkok from the hotel room

We left our luggages at the hotel lobby before heading out for lunch! We decided to have street food as our final lunch here; at the place we went to the day before. Thankfully most of the stalls were still there!

Be not fooled by the appearance of this heavenly morsels of delight; these aren't fishballs, but tapioca balls sweetened by coconut and creamy corn bits. 

We finally caved and got the fried chicken! And oh we were so glad we did. These tasted way better than anything KFC could offer, at a much cheaper price too! The chicken was so tender and juicy and the fried skin was flavourful and crispy. thumbs up!

We also bought many of the same food we got before //ie. thai tea, grilled coconut pancakes...// which I shall not elaborate on heheh.

Then we walked around the mall and made our way to the top floor, where there was Made in Candy store! Even though I've seen the candy making process a few times in Singapore, but I've never watched it from start to end as I did here! It was so fascinating to watch the two staff working in tandem with nary a word to one another.

One shaping the candy, the other pulling it.

One pulling,

One cutting

Both cutting at bullet speed!

We stayed there for a good half hour, before heading to platinum mall food court for lunch #2 ;)

Mango glutinous rice

Pad Thai!

And these cute little desserts //sweet mung bean paste encased in jelly//

Then we went back to the hotel, grabbed our luggages and headed to the airport!

As we had plenty of time to kill we decided to go to Black Canyon, a cafe there.

Mom wanted gelato but she chose a lime and wild berry sorbet instead! A happy mistake cos these were refreshing and really good :)

More pad thai cos this dish apparently won the best phad thai in Thailand award! Errr....the sauce tasted like ketchup so I don't really know how they managed to win! :/ 

After this we spent a long time leisurely walking to our gate (the airport is HUGE) and many funny things ensued, such as us stealing tons of free samples from the generous airport stores selling food haha

Plane food! Chicken noodles,warm crusty bread roll, some cold cut salad and glutinous rice in coconut milk as dessert. 

I regret to say I ate it all haha even after all that eating today! Sigh really gotta learn some moderation ): 

Anyway it has been a great trip with wonderful people! Really enjoyed myself and the short break from reality was very welcome indeed :)

Bangkok Pratunam: Day 3

 Woke up early again today to go to Pratunam market with the mom while the males stayed in the hotel! 

Managed to get some pretty good deals, 3 bags handmade by the shopowner herself for 150 baht ALTOGETHER! (That's less than S$5)

I was carrying these bags happily down the streets and my mom pointed out that it looked like I had 2 butts! 

Returned to the hotel for breakfast :)

Food o' glorious food! 

Oh and some cake  that we bought previously// tastes like pandan chiffon cake!!!

After breakfast we decided to walk to Central Mall again, and found that there was a mini market going on with many food stalls lines up along the streets! So we attacked >:)

Fried sweet potato balls// l

Some 'savoury mochi' as my mom termed these chewy balls of delight; and I honestly can't think of anything else to name them. These were filled with something sweet (which I couldn't identify, coconut? Prawn paste?) that contrasted nicely with the QQ nature of these balls. Thumbs up!! :)

CORN GLORIOUS CORN! We bought a completely red one to try; tasted really sweet compared to the one with just a few coloured corn. I LOVE THIS OMNNOM.

I'd been wanting to try the thai tea; so dad bought a cup to try. Omg this was so sweet without being unbearable,

PERFECT sugar rush. It was so good that we got another cup after this one.

And what's this?? Well we didn't know, so dad bought some to try. 

Bliss

HOLYSMOKES. Anyone who's planning a trip to Bangkok should totally try this if they are able to. Served piping hot, these quail-egg sized balls had paper thin crispy skin; and when you pop them ((whole)) in your mouth it would just explode  into pure joy and rainbows and unicorns and all things good in your mouth. //I think the filling is a rich creamy sweet coconut custard with bits of corn//  we also had two boxes of this :X

Minute fingerling sweet potatoes!! //in purple and yellow// So much sweeter than those in Singapore :)

Haha I don't think dad meant to appear this picture hence the face! But we were wondering what was so special about meat skewers in Thailand that had almost every alternate street food stall selling them; so of course we had to try some! I have no idea what special marinade these people use but it was HEAVENLY especially with the tender meat. LOVE.

With happy full bellies, we decided to visit Madam Tussards, the world-famous wax museum located in Siam discovery centre nearby. 

//plenty of photos were taken with many celebrities and famous figures in history but I shall be selective and showcase only a few heheh//

How often does one get to take a selfie with the princess of Wales? Diana is so pretty!

I think Lee Hsien Loong looks real happy to be taking a picture with me ;)

Who's the new queen??? :)

Oh it's nothin', I hang out with mr and mrs Obama every other day ya know 

And I jam with Beyonce by night 

Johnny Dep is mah man

Having an animated conversation with Oprah :)

And Jackie Chan's a family friend. 

Had a lot of fun at the museum and it's so interesting to see famous people up close in actual proportion!! Definitely one of the highlights of this trip.

After all this we were hungry, so we made our way to the huge food centre at the basement of Siam centre!

Delicious flavourful fresh beef stew. I loved the soup which was slightly sweet.

Today was supposed to be our 'authentic thai' day so phad thai is a must! Can you believe this was our first phad thai on this trip?! Though not the cheapest; this rendition was certainly satisfactory.

And Tom yum soup which was spammed with lemongrass.

After this we exited the mall for... MORE STREET FOOD! street food FOR THE WIN. 

This bowl of refreshing grass jelly with ingredients like gingko, dates, nata de coco and lots of natural brown sugar was less than S$1!!! Gahhh why is thai street food so cheap and darn guuuuud.

Then the guys went back to the hotel //poor guys eh// while mom and I headed to platinum mall for more shopping. Pretty productive shopping, I might add- bought everything I needed :)

After we headed back to the hotel, we rested for a few hours. It rained quite heavily but that didn't deter us from getting our dinner in some way or another! 

Found a seafood restaurant opposite our hotel which was a welcome shelter from the rain so we decide to try out.

Iced tea :)

Tom yam!!! 

Salt-grilled fish// basically BBQ fish smeared all over with plenty of sea salt.// this fish was quite tender and huge yum!

Fried rice with chicken chunks! Meagrely portion for about S$3 -_-

Le spreadddd!

Quite expensive for the little we ordered ): 

Headed back to the hotel and went to the gym again with the family!!! :)

Check out the hotel gym- nice right?! With windows that overlook the busy street so one can watch people shop while working out haha

#missmuscle

Ok that's all heheh byeees! Quite sad that tomorrow is the last day and well have to leave this place and get back to reality ):