Taipei, weekend fun

21 August 2010

The Grand Hotel 圆山大饭店

The Grand Hotel reminds me of the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite. Huge, grand, old, built to accommodate VIPs.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit this hotel was that it was featured in one of my favourite K-dramas, "On Air". (Here's a synopsis with the individual episode ratings which speaks for the popularity of the drama itself.) :)

We had lunch at the Cantonese restaurant in the hotel. Overall, food was ok. The view of the city from the restaurant was great. It was a clear day and we could see the Taipei 101 building from the table where we were sitting.

If you plan to eat there, I would recommend their fried rice. It's amazing how a simple dish can taste so delicious! ^^

 

Final thoughts... I liked the exterior of the hotel more than the interiors. There's nothing much you can do there, except to enjoy a meal, after all it's just a hotel. If you are short of time, the Grand Hotel would be a place that you can admire it's beauty from afar.


Danshui Old Street 淡水老街

After lunch, we had nothing to do. Since the Yuanshan subway station was on the same line as the Danshui station, we decided to take a train ride to Danshui.

Danshui is a river-town. The main purpose for visiting Danshui was to get the famous fish crackers. I checked with taxi-drivers, hotel staff and salesgirls in the local speciaties food shop, none of them knew of another place that sold them. The fish crackers were only available in Danshui.

This shop that sold fish crackers and fish-related products at Danshui was packed with customers. Everyone was buying the crackers in five or ten packet bags. The girls at the shop were young, pretty and down-to-earth. They were full of smiles and would happily chat with you even though their hands were busy packing your purchases.

It was a hot summer afternoon, so we stopped by one of the 创冰 (translate: shaved-ice) shops to enjoy a cool dessert. The brown syrup on top is called 黑糖 (translate: brown sugar). So, this dessert is called "黑糖创冰" (translate: shaved ice with brown sugar syrup).

In typical shaved-ice shops like this, you'll get to choose your favourite 'side dishes' to go with your shaved ice. We chose red beans, glutinous rice balls (white and pink), grass jelly (black), koniyaku jelly (transparent).

Kids get to enjoy different types of traditional games in the main attraction street.

There are many shops selling all kinds of snacks and knick-knacks in Danshui. This shop sells live insects as well as insect specimen.

"Wow, the chicken spicemen in this are so life-like!" exclaimed Vincent. 

 Well... erm... of course, cos they are live chickens! Hahaha... :D

Leaving Danshui with my prized fish crackers (^  ^)v

Shilin Night Market 士林夜市

Shilin Night market is a must-go for everyone visiting Taipei.

The main attraction here is the FOOD so the pictures will do the talking. :)

 

 Deep fried stinky tofu with pickled cabbage (rest assured, no stinky smell at all)

 Fried oyster pancakes (tastewise, very different from the Singapore version)

Gigantic Taiwanese sausages

 Hot's Fried Chicken (豪大炸鸡) the stall with the longest queue in Shilin Night Market

 

Taiwanese jelly with lime drink  (柠檬爱玉冰)

Biscuit-pancake-wrap (大饼包小饼)

 Sliced-almond brittle candy (杏仁酥)
Fresh and yummilicious, great souvenir to take home with.

A young mother selling shoes in the night market. She has two very cute helpers. The little boy in green waves his hand at the display of shoes, shouting "两百，两百，全部两百" (translate: NT200, NT200, everything here is selling for NT200).

At the other side of the night market, kids were playing pinballs, with their parents watching over them.

 

What a contrast...

Taipei, not too far back in time

20 August 2010

Si Si Nan Village 四四南村

The most memorable part of the trip was visiting the military village 四四南村 (Translate: 44 South Military Community) at Xinyi 信义. I didn't read much about it other than hearing from the friendly grandpa whom I met at Taipei 101 earlier that morning.

"The villages to house the workers and dependents of the military factory were divided into four areas, North, South, East and West. Living quarters were allocated to the workers according to their rank. The one in the South that was for the lowest level factory operators. During wartime, these people from the 44th military factory in Yantai, Qingdao, came to Taiwan by boat." He seemed to know exactly what this place was about.

"There won't be anyone there (in the village). No one stays there anymore."

"It's too hot today... Don't go there..."

As stubborn as a mule, and already set on going there since the day before, I walked out from the cool air-conditioned Taipei 101 mall to look for the village at 50 Songqin Road with a city map in my hand.

It wasn't easy to find the place. I walked round Xinyi Elementary School many times, but still missed it. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant walk, capturing these along the way:

Taxi-drivers meet for a puff under the banyan tree (榕树）.

Squirrels admiring music played by a lovely young cellist.

Nursing mum with toddler.

Facade at the entrance of the cultural museum.

Si Si Nan village was made up of  three rows of preserved houses. All of them were locked, except for the first row which was converted to a little 'showroom'. True enough, like what the old grandpa said, it was just me and the curator inside the exhibition hall. There were collage displays of old life made by the ex-residents as well as some mock-up displays of a typical home.

 The words on the red banners read “我舍不得离开四四南村 ~史荣高 ”
(translate: I can't bear to leave Si Si Nan Village. ~ Mr Shi Rong Gao)

"Memory treasure box"

记忆百宝箱

 "Memory treasure box"

 记忆百宝箱

One exhibition wall had a poem on it. This poem was made into a song and a famous veteran singer, 齐豫 (translate: Qi Yu), sang it. The title of the song is <橄榄树> (translate: Olive Tree):

        不要问我从那里来
        我的故乡在远方
        为什么流浪
        流浪远方流浪...    (poem by 三毛)

It reminded me of my own situation and I became a little teary.


Here are the remaining photographs of the visit.

 

Reference sites:
Web project done by a group of 12-13 year old students (English & Chinese): http://library.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh2006/gsh4294/index.htm
Morris's blog (mainly photos, Chinese): http://yuminghui.pixnet.net/blog/post/22939121
Wikipedia (brief intro of the village, Chinese): http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E5%9B%9B%E5%9B%9B%E5%8D%97%E6%9D%91
Wikipedia (explains the formation of military communities in Taiwan, Chinese): http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E7%9C%B7%E6%9D%91
Taiwan Travel Website (opening hours, Chinese): http://travel.network.com.tw/tourguide/point/showpage/102597.html

Taipei - the Arts

18 August 2010

Exhibition: From Manet to Picasso, Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Taipei Fine Arts Museum 台北市立美术馆

Marine View with a Sunset, by Claude Monet, 1874
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/104452.html

Entering the unpretentious exhibition hall, I was greeted by the glow of sunlight from this tiny (49.5 x 65.1 cm) painting. Foggy but yet emitting a warmth that could almost be felt on my cheeks. A short paragraph accompanying this Impressionist painting, tells the story, "In the twilight view of the basin, two sailboats glide along the Seine..."

I wish I could take photos of everything to show you, but there are rules to follow in a museum gallery:

1. No photographs ~ Wow, no one tried to even steal a shot with his handphone. This will never happen in Middle Country.

2. No pens ~ Ok, I'm the country bumpkin. Even kids know this. Many children were sitting cross-legged outside the barrier posts, armed with coloured pencils, trying their very best to capture the works of these great artists. A nice museum worker handed me a pencil to continue my scribbles.

3. No food and drinks ~ That's the easiest. :)

Artist I am not. So I'll just post some photos of my scribbings and postcards from the gift shop for your viewing pleasure (and a good laugh!). :p

Above is a painting of Madame Renoir made by artist Renoir. His works are mainly portraits. I thought it was very nice of his wife to pose for him (to practise/). And I do hope the both of them won't mind my over-simplistic sketch of the painting. ^^ ^^

 

Left: "Portrait of Emilie Ambre as Carmen" by Eduoard Manet, 1880

Right: "Woman with a pearl necklace in a Loge"  by Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1879

An innocent remark by a four-year-old boy with reference to these two ladies above, "好丑!" (Translate: So ugly!) "好漂亮!" (Translate: So pretty!), made everyone in the hall laugh. ^^ ^^

Please excuse me, Madame Emilie, I didn't mean to make a bad sketch of you. To prove your beauty, I'm posting your lovely portrait printed on my ticket here:

Other pretty ladies painted by Cassatt about twenty years later:

"Family Group Reading", 1898

Some arty-farty paintings:

 

 Top: "Women and Children" by Pablo Picasso

Bottom: "At the Circus (The Mad Clown)" by Rouault.

A late lunch at the museum cafe:

Reading in Taipei

17 and 19 August 2010

Eslite Flagship Store, Xinyi (誠品書店)

I went into the store expecting to find books, instead I saw specialty clothing shops. Proceeded to second floor for books. Full collection of magazines here, but limited selection of topic-specific books. Nevertheless, enjoyed myself immensely reading the Japanese translated craftbooks!

Photographs from top:

Scrapbooking guide

Promotional poster in store

Great selection of local and japanese fashion magazines

Quick lunch from the foodcourt at the basement (肉羹 was v nice)
Quick lunch from the foodcourt at the basement (鲁肉炒米粉)

 

19 August 2010

Page One Bookstore, Taipei 101

A surprise find. I didn't expect there would be a bookstore here. Maybe because this is a touristy mall, the collection of travel books and English books here is better than other Taiwanese bookstores.

Heard a familiar Singlish phone conversation. Realised the person speaking is that guy who appeared in a reality show where Singaporeans go to another country to engage in the local activity. This guy appeared in one of the episodes whereby he went to some puppeteers in India. He made puppets with the Indian puppeteers and presented them with scissors as a gift before he left. Don't know his name though...

Photo of Ah Min taken by friendly grandpa here

25 and 26 August 2010

Eslite 24-hr Bookstore, Zhongxiao Dunhua

Best thing about this store? It never closes. :)

May it be early in the morning before the malls open, or late at night when you are done with your shopping. You can go there whenever you have spare time and that bit of energy for books.

You must be thinking, "China also has Chinese books ma, why go all the way to Taiwan to buy?"

Ans: Different crowd. Different atmosphere. Most importantly, entirely DIFFERENT collection.

Ok, finally, Vincent borrowed the store's discount card from his colleague and I was able to start the buying spree. The book collection here is better than the Xinyi store, I happily 'brought' three books on cooking, three on craftwork, one on painting and two on religion home. Nine altogether. Imagine the weight of nine books in my luggage! Will there be weight for other goodies??.....

Photographs from top:

<Tree in Cage> seen while walking from subway to bookstore

<The Sweet Trick> by Patissier eS Koyama小山進 

Cooking books by <型男大主厨> Chefs 阿基师 &詹姆士

Illustrated books by 高木直子