Ximending, Taipei

We stayed at Ximending (西门町) in Taipei. It is a source of Taiwan's fashion, subculture and Japanese culture. Thus, it has been called as the 'Harajuku of Taipei'. Ximending was once a well-known theater street in old era but it is now a more popular area for small concerts, album launches, street performances or shopping district for youngsters.

Above is where we stayed in Taipei and recommended by our driver. It is not a hotel or hostel nor a guest house, but is more like a luxury condominium. We rented a unit and it was about ~RM250.00 per nite. The security was 1st class and it is just 5 minutes walk to Ximending Pedestrian Area. 

After throwing our baggages, we rushed to the Ximending streets to hunt for foods. Here is the entrance to its pedestrian area.

They are many street performances in Ximending where u can enjoy them for free! Sometimes, u may experience flash mobs over here if u are lucky!

Not forget our group photo again ;)

People are getting more and more crowded as the night progresses.

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There are many other things u can do over here besides shopping, e.g. hairdo, cinemas, KTV lounges and even go for a gym class!

Not to miss out the very famous Ah Zhong's noodles (阿宗面线) or literally called Ah Zhong's line noodles. The store is easily identified as u can see many tourists or locals huddle outside holding hot steaming small bowls.

The recipe is unknown but it is cooked with pig intestines, slice of bamboo shoots, parsley-basil and Ah Zhong's specially made chili. P/S: Not to put too much the chili because it is really HOT. I was suffered bad diarrhea and fever after all as a result of 'chili-greedy'.

Another famous bubble tea drinks in Taiwan is Qing Wa Xia Dan (青蛙下蛋) besides 50岚 but it does not impress me though. Note: I'm not a fan of bubble tea!

The only 2 foods in Ximending that I strongly recommend here are cuttlefish skewer and bean curd's skin skewer. The taste of the marinating sauce is perfect and the texture of the cuttlefish is simply mild-firm and chewy. I will rate it 10 out of 10, A-MUST-TRY-SNACK in Ximending. It was sold by an elderly woman on a mobile stall.

Random Parts in Hualian

Besides famous for watching whales and dolphins, Hualian has quite a few other sightseeing places. We also tasted alotsa foods along our journey from Hualian to Tapei. Will show them to you afterwards. We did pass by YinLan (宜兰) but not staying long due to time constraint. I felt grateful to have Jacky as our driver because he brought us to many places in a county which sometimes u'll never expected!

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Located near ChihSinTan Beach (七星海滩), ChihSinTan Katsuo Museum or called ChihSin Dry Bonito Fish Museum (七星柴鱼博物馆) is built to show people how Katsuo (Dry Bonito Fish) is made.

There are few floors in the building. Each floor has its own attractions and activities going on.

There is also a part fully filled-up with aquarium tanks keeping few kinda sea creatures. This is the one which attracted me the most. They names it 'Pen Knife Fish' or 刀片鱼 in Mandarin. They swim vertically in the water!

The board showing how Katsuo is made. The process was actually learned from Japan.

The main material to produce Katsuo is Mackerel. The process can be tedious and time consuming. The fish must be carefully selected and fish which is not fresh and contains too much fat will produce unbearable odor during the process.

Katsuo is usually used as topping for many Japanese foods. One of them is Tako. Managed to try the freshly hot produced Katsuo from here topped on Tako and I can tell u that the taste is superb!

Jakcy drove us to Justice Street (公正街) for lunch before proceed our long journey to Taipei (台北).

Foods that u must NOT miss out here are all selling in this Justice Small Buns Shop (公正包子店). It is well known in Internet, TV programs and like a celebrity of Hualian. Look at the queue and u'll know how famous it is.

The nice one is Justice Small Buns (公正包). The skin is very thin and soft and it is stuffed with chopped pork soaked in light soup. They are also selling various Taiwan small snacks included dumplings and the thick gravy soups.

We have to drive though Suhua Highway (蘇花公路) again in order to go to Taipei (台北). Before this, we passed by Chingshui Cliff (清水断崖) that connects counties of  Hualian (花莲) and Yilan (宜兰). It is the highest coastal cliff in Taiwan and a very scenic area.

Chingshui Cliff gave us a very breathtaking view of Pacific Ocean (太平洋). It is about 21km in length with averaging 800m above sea level in height. I'll show u as many pictures as I can for the views.

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They are actually 2 spots for u to look at the cliffs from different angles on the highway. The 2nd one is located just about few km from the 1st spot.

The pix above shows the opposite angle of the cliff. How I wish I can build a house and stay here forever. ;)

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I was really impressed by the blue colour toning of the ocean and sky. 

Snapped a pix of our lovely driver and his 'Yellow Fly Wish' under the Sun shines.

The snowflake desserts which we finally can taste after long waited for 3 hours journey. The shop named JianHuaBingDian or 建华冰店. It is visited by many tourists who on their way to Taipei and well recommend by our driver, Jacky.

The famous series actor, Ming Dao was also here before.

They are like those Ice-Kacang in Malaysia but they are with Green Kacang as well as ice-cream toppings. The special one is the passion fruit ice with raw egg which taste weird but not really bad though.

Chilled.

Not forget for group photo again. :)

Another awesome scenes near the shop before we further moved on.

Next stop is Yilan county. Due to rushing of time, we were not long there. Just dropped by the famous bakery shop called Yilan Bing (宜兰饼) to buy some local bakery products as souvenirs.

Tadaa....the must but product is bull's tongue cookie. It really looks like a bull's tongue and taste good.

They even make packed them in a smaller way to make us easier to take away.

We bought a lot as they are cheap and good as souvenirs.

This huge bakery mold built is their effort for customers or visitors to remember their shops.

'Hunt' for Dolphins in Hualian

The ocean of Hualian is one the world's hottest spot for viewing dolphins and whales and I bet many of you are not know. Reason being waters off the Hualian coast is connected to the Pacific Ocean which is a suitable habitat for marine mammals. However, their appearance is uncertain and according to our boat's captain, the best months are March and April as many species from other area will migrate through here or come here to mate. Before joining the watching tour, let me show you a clearer picture our hostel outlook.

The hostel named ChihSinHai (七星海). The owner has it in two blocks. Pix on the right hand side shows the one that is just newly completed few days ago before we became the 1st guest.

The hostel is providing free breakfast made up of variety homemade breads, porridge and the special one is this Taiwan traditional spring roll. Black and white glutinous rice is wrapped with sweet pickled red cum white carrot and it is a best fast food for Taiwan's military as per our driver.

Many of the fishing ports in Hualian are offering the whale-and-dolphin-watching-tour. Our boat is depart from this fishing port called Hualian Fishing Leisure Port or 花莲渔港休闲码头 in Mandarin. The tour costs us about NTD 750 per person.

Scenery around the fishing port. This pix differentiate out the sky blue and the sea blue. <3

Cute sitting rocks.

Thought this is our boat but actually not. All the boats are of same 'species' just different in terms of name. ;)

Ah haaaa!!.....here comes our boat. The name is Pacific Ocean (太平洋) instead of Whale World (鲸世界) of the pix above. 

He is our boat captain named MooChen driving the boat above and he is also using Nikon brand DSLR. *Winks*

After safety briefing and putting on our life jacket, the boat depart slowly from the port.

Leaving the port.

The easily spotted red lighthouse on the port but I've spoiled the captured as well as the photoshop. :(((

The boat soon speeds up to the center of Pacific Ocean carrying the same 'name' too. Hehe  ^^

After half an hour, pods of dolphin leaping far from behind, getting close to our boat and everyone started to scream out loud. The 1st species we 'hunt' is the spinner dolphin (飞旋). Despite swim fast, they can jump up very high from the water and make a quick spin which bring alotsa delights to us. Dolphin is very special to me and I even make some wishes when they spin. (-_-)’‘’ Haha! No more words after this and I'll just show you their fantastic pictures.

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Put a stop for spinner and captain was driving us to different latitude to 'hunt' for another species. Bye bye spinner!!

Spindrift created by our boat not dolphin, hehe ;)

Not pair but groups made up this ‘Titanic'. :D

The next species we observed was Risso's dolphins (花海豚). They are bigger type with linear scars on their body mainly caused from social interactions (or fighting) among them. They have shorter beak with lighter grey in colour and if I'm not mistaken, Risso's is the largest species of dolphin.

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Ended of our dolphin-watching-tour after 3-4 hours. The best time to 'hunt' for them is early morning or late afternoon. Hearsay they are about 14 species of whales and dolphins can be spotted along Hualian coast. Dolphins are more often appear than whales. If you are lucky enough, you may see sperm whales and beaked whales, unfortunately we were not. Anyway, still feel grateful to see real dolphins swimming in the real ocean instead of in the aquarium. :)))