Another must go place. It’s definitely on the touristy side but still worth a visit to get an old town feel. And for fans of “Spirited Away” like myself it was nice to finally visit the location that gave the artist, Hayao Miyazaki, inspiration. The name Jiufen or Nine Portions was derived from the nine families that settled here during the Qing Dynasty. The would go down to the town to order nine portions of whatever they needed and that nickname stuck till today.

The place that everyone visits in Jiufen is the Old Street where all the shopping and food is located. It’s a narrow street with endless choices and lots of people!

We walked till the end of the street for the hilltop view before slowly exploring the dozens of tiny shops. As usual the shops that got my attention most were the food stalls! Choices and more choices!

One of the most famous stalls is Grandma Lai’s Taro Balls. They actually have balls of different flavors like taro, sweet potato, green tea and so on but I liked the taro ones best.

Handmade mochi, tarts and sweets were at every corner and you can get free sampling before you decide to buy some. I bought quite a number of foodstuffs back as well.

Their form of carrot cake… I found it to be rather bland.

Braised meat rice “Lu Rou Fun” with home made fish balls was yummy! The fish-balls were huge yet very bouncy and has a lovely texture.

They even had these meatballs with fish paste fillings! It’s an interesting concept to have meat balls over fish-balls and the taste doesn’t clash either!

Home made noodles. Looks a little like lao shu fen but it’s much thinner and taste slightly different.

Century egg toufu. A cold dish. Taiwan is supposed to be know for their yummy century egg. I’m not a big fan of century eggs as a cold dish… I like them hot in my congee.

My sister’s bunny… not for consumption… =)

Grilled garlic butter cheese escargot and cuttlefish!

My sister with her ice-cream popiah.

Greedy face dad with the mini guava juice! It’s good for digestion but on the sour side though.

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Yehliu is one of those must visit place for all nature lovers that holiday in Taipei. It’s is actually a cape on the north of Taiwan between Taipei and Keelung. As you can imagine there were tons of tourists even though it was raining that day. See all the colorful umbrellas out at play!

The lovely hoodoo rocks you see were all a result of mother nature which is the beauty of it all. I absolutely loved how the red rocks with their unusual formations and the red cliffs contrasted with the blues and greens of the sea.  Spectacular don’t you think?

This cape was formed as the geothermal pressures try to push Datun Mountain (a volcano) out of the sea. Keelung is a volcanic area so there are many lovely natural formations and Yehliu is the most famous of them all.

A life buoy for tourist that insists on going pass the safety borders and risk getting swept away by the strong winds and mighty sea. The safety borders are denoted with red tape on the floor near to the edge of the cliffs but most tourists seem to just ignore it.

There are actually more photos especially of the famous “Queen’s Head” rock which is the main symbol of this area and is constantly being eroded by nature. It is said that in another 15 years, there won’t be that rock anymore. Unfortunately, those pictures were taken with my dad’s camera and I never got them uploaded on my computer so these are all the photos I have.

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In Danshui there are a couple of attractions to view.  The Hongmao Castle (Fort San Domingo), Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf and the lover’s bridge. You can also take the ferry to Ba Li. But in this post I’m only gonna focus on Danshui Old Street. The main draw for me is multitude of local specialties.

The street stretches from near the Danshui MRT station all the way to the ferry docks. Some of the local foods include iron egg which is stewed in spices then air dried so you get a chewy tiny egg at the end of the process. The famous stall is Grandma’s Tiedan 阿婆鐵蛋.

Another local specialty is A-Gei 阿給 which are deep fried tofu that have been stuff with flavoured crystal noodles (tang hoon) and sealed with fish paste and some sauce over. Apparently Danshui is the place of origin for this dish.

You can also try the Danshui fish balls 淡水魚丸 and  fried fish snacks 魚酥. Among these I also tried the fried cheese which is great for cheese lovers but might be overpowering for those who are not used to the strong taste of pure cheese.

Not forgetting the famous Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang. It looks like a hotdog but like the name suggests, instead of using bread to wrap over the sausage, they use an even bigger sausage to wrap over the smaller sausage and stuff it with pickles and lettuce and sauce. The content of the larger sausage is filled with a mixture of meat and glutinous rice.

My personal favorite is the muah chee!

Freshly made with a spoonful of peanut inside every muah chee ball before getting coated with more peanut. It’s so very soft and chewy! I came back for seconds!

I’m now gonna leave you with a video of the hot spring session we had at Beitou and shots of Danshui old street. Hope you enjoy! You have to be on www.renzze.com to view the videos though.

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I’m back from my little beach getaway and I haven’t had chance to clear the 300+ emails (minus spam) yet. So my dear friends, readers and so on, please have some patience with me as I slowly work my way through. Meanwhile, let me share more of my Taiwan trip with you.

One of the nicest things about Taipei is that you are simply a train ride away to many world class hot spring resorts. There are several choices from Yang Ming Shan (Jin Shan), Xin Beitou or Wu Lai. We decided to head to the Xin Beitou area.

From the Beitou metro station we had to change to this colorful train for another stop to get to Xin Beitou, where all the hot spring hotels and resorts are gathered.

As you walk uphill towards the area with a huge concentration of hot springs, you’ll see many pools with lots of steam rising. The smell of sulphur envelopes the air. You may want to stop by the hot springs museum which is free and explains how this area was mined for sulphur during the Qing dynasty and later developed into a hot springs area during the reign of the Japanese Imperial.

For a mere NT$40 you can try out their outdoor public hot springs. The public outdoor has several pools with different temperatures. The hottest ones are located higher up. This area was featured in the Chinese movie “Turn Right, Turn Left” starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung.

As you can tell from the photos, the choices of hotels and resorts are endless! I was told that I-Tsun Hotel and The Whispering Pine Inn offers a rather old school feel. We decided to go to Spring City Resort as it was newly opened 5 star resort and offered choices of both indoor or outdoor pools.

Spring City is located almost at the summit of the hill! So it was quite a walk up! When we got there, mum felt that she would be more comfortable in an indoor pool so we booked a huge Japanese themed tatami family room.

They had a nice little family bathtub that you could fill up with the spring waters and soak in privacy. Here’s the address of Spring City Resort.

18 You Ya Road, Beitou.

Tel: 2897-5555

After soaking in nice warm hot spring waters, we pulled out some of the nice mattress to rest and just relax. It was so comfortable we felt too lazy to make our way back to our hotel. I should have arranged one night stay over at the hot springs instead.

After a nice bath and a change of clothes we were ready for some dinner and then back to our hotel to rest for the day! Here we are signing out at the hotel lobby!

And the journey downhill to the Xin Beitou station with the crisp smell of rain.

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I’ve just received a few gorgeous pieces from ClubCouture but have yet to wear them out. My latest dress has got to be one of my personal favorites! The lovely lace dress with sweet heart neckline with a gorgeous bow has won some of my friends over even though I haven’t worn it out. They just happened to be at my place when the ClubCouture parcel arrived! Click the photo for the link to this pretty lace strapless dress!

But I will definitely wear this piece out soon and I’ll promise to upload the photos here on my blog.

Meanwhile, for those of you that are interested in ClubCouture latest offering, I’ve got fantastic news for you. ClubCouture has it’s own page on Facebook. And as a ClubCouture Ambassador, I’m pleased to invite you to join. Just click here or the picture below to join and you will be entitled to many exclusive benefits including an upcoming private sale on the 7th of March 2010 for ClubCouture Facebook fans only!

With a cool 30% off store-wide, it’s a sale not to be missed!

On top of all these, you can also view more photos of the different ClubCouture Ambassadors that will be available for viewing in the ClubCouture Fan Page. Here are some of the photos that of the photo shoot that were not released previously. Join the Facebook page to view even more.

As and when I have time I will also load up photos of myself wearing ClubCouture outfits into the fan page. You are welcome to do the same too! Join today so you don’t miss the upcoming private sale!

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Some readers emailed me asking about where I went shopping in Taipei and whether there was clothes worth getting. To be honest, I didn’t really buy that much in Taipei on this trip however my sister bought tons so it really depends on what sort of clothes you are looking for. The season which you go is also crucial.

There are so many places and choices for shopping in Taipei. We did some shopping in Xi Men Ding but that was also because our hotel was in the heart of that area so it was the most convenient. If you are looking more for the boutiques and departmental stores, you can go to Xinyi Planning District to shop at Taipei 101 and other shopping malls in that area. Alternatively, you could go to the area around the intersection of Zhongxiao and Dunhua South roads where SOGO can be found.

If you are looking for cheap wholesale type clothings such as those you come across on blogshops and online Taiwan sellers, you should take a little trip down to Wu Fen Pu. Just that the Metro to Hou Shan Pi Station or a train to Songshan station.

You can get cheap trendy clothes at this Wu Fen Pu wholesaler market. The quality of the clothes are reasonable for the cheap price but the fashion can be a little young. I did manage to buy some lovely Korean imported clothes though price-wise they aren’t as cheap as the rest. The Korean clothes have much better quality in my opinion.

Generally the shops open after noon and will stay open till 11pm or midnight. Try to avoid Mondays because that’s the busiest day with huge wholesale transactions going on. Since they do wholesales, you can expect things to be cheaper and easier to bargain when you buy 3 pieces and above. So it is a good place to shop with girlfriends or other female family members.

Other than clothes, they have shoes, accessories and bags. The place is so huge we couldn’t really finishing looking at all the shops. You can also walk to the nearby Raohe Street Night Market for some yummy food after all that shopping.

I only brought my DSLR on this Taiwan trip so for most of the days that we went shopping I didn’t bring my camera out with me. I figured there wasn’t that much to take in and I didn’t want to carry extra weight when I’m planning to carry my new purchases!

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I guess you must have read about my early birthday celebrations with friends in Singapore at 1-Carmel. If you haven’t you can click here to read it. But my actual birthday was celebrated in Taiwan with my family.

Whether planned or incidentally, almost 80% of my actual birthday has been spent abroad. Sometimes with friends and sometimes out of necessity so I’m lucky this time that I had my family to spend it with me.

We took the metro to a surprise venue for my birthday lunch! And it was the Hello Kitty Sweets, a Hello Kitty themed restaurant! I’m sure I’ll get many requests for the address in Taipei so I’m putting it down here.

台北市大安路一段90號

90 Da’An Road, Taipei, Taiwan

Ph: (02) 2711-1132

If you have a large number in your group or will be going down on a weekend it’ll be wise to make reservations first. I was told that you might have to wait for hours!

I may not be a Hello Kitty fanatic but I do love the cute adorable kitty and all the sweetness and girly tendencies that is associated with her.  My sister was so excited that day she was almost hyperventilating! LOL… nah… I exaggerate but suffice to say she was way more excited then the birthday girl.

Before I even entered, I was already captivated by their beautiful range of desserts!

Visiting this official Sanrio approved restaurant for Hello Kitty fans is a must and you can be sure that there will be lots of photo taking involved =)

The whole 2 story restaurant is filled with all manners of Hello Kitty products! Ranging from deco to napkins, to crockery and food! In fact the place is totally infused and submerged in pink! I believe that all the men in the restaurant were there only because of their wives, girlfriends or children.

We were ushered off to the 2nd floor of this kawaii-mecca and after making orders and removing my trench, it was time to explore the place in detail.

A glass panel on the 1st floor allows you to see the chefs at work, churning out the pretty kitty themed cakes.

The waitresses uniform are as frilly and pink as to be expected in a Hello Kitty themed restaurant. I was told that they used to wear kitty ears but now they just wear ribbons on their hair instead.

My sis  and I even took photos in the Hello Kitty themed wash room! LOL.

Back at the table to wait for the meal to start!

First up were the drinks.

I can’t remember whose fruit drink this was cause we all ordered different drinks. I know I had a chocolate milk shake with hello kitty face stenciled on it.

Next up was a pumpkin with cream sauce soup. Creamy and rich. We all had the same soup as it came as part of the set lunches we ordered.

Then, the main courses.

The next picture is actually a Hello Kitty burger and since we had to cut it eventually, we couldn’t resist stabbing it with the knife and adding some ketchup for blood. (Die-hard Hello Kitty fans must so want to kill me now!)

The last part of the set meal is the dessert and a serving of coffee or tea.

We ordered way more food then the pictures shows… everyone was snapping photos with their own camera that day so I didn’t take all the foods thinking that I could always get the pictures from them later. But then I came back and I forgot about it so the photos on my blog are the photos that were taken on my camera only. The desserts were the prettiest so I really should remember to get the photos from my parents.

After the meal, my sweet little sister decided to surprise me by ordering a little chocolate souffle for me so she could sing me a birthday song.

Unknown to all of us, my dad had secretly planned to surprise me with a Hello Kitty cake! Haha! So imagine my surprise when after my sister sang me my birthday song and I blew out the candle on this chocolate souffle, the staff presented me with my large Hello Kitty cake with the Happy Birthday song playing over the whole restaurant.

Once again my family sang Happy Birthday to me and I got to make another wish before blowing out the candles. I guess you can never be wished too many times! Other patrons of the restaurant must be wondering why I seem to have a never-ending birthday celebration!

We were all so stuffed from the meal that we could hardly eat anymore so we only had half the cake and brought back the 2nd half to the hotel so we could have it for supper.

Thank you to my dearest family for spending my 28th birthday with me. I feel really blessed. I have to say it was such a cute feeling to be like a little 5 year old having a theme party thrown for me by my parents… something I didn’t do as a kid because when my peers were having their McDonalds or My little Pony theme parties, my parents felt it frivolous. Somehow now that I’ve reached 28, they probably felt that I had earned enough experience in life to have a themed birthday and not risk growing up a brat.

I do have the video taken that day of my Hello Kitty themed birthday celebration below. You can only view the video at www.renzze.com =)

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Regular readers of my blog would know the drill, I’m away which means emails and comments reply would take longer but I will get to them eventually. Meanwhile I’ll try to keep the blog updated even though I’m not around.

I’m heading of to a beach resort on a sudden impromptu trip with girlfriends… at this point I kinda regret saying yes but the ticket’s been bought so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the trip will be worth it.

Here’s leaving you with 2 photos of myself I took in  Taiwan as a prelude of more to come.

They were taken indoors and outdoors respectively when my camera was all fogged up by the morning cold mist and turned out pretty nice with a redish and bluish tones.

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Before we left for Taiwan my sister’s hair was terribly fried from a bad perm by a horrid hairstylist. She had been really upset at how her hair turned out and I told her to endure a week or two before attempting to rectify it so that her hair would have more time to recover before being subjected to more chemicals. And I also promised her that when we got to Taiwan I’ll scout a nice hairstylist to do some work on her hair since I too intended to do a little snip and retouch.

I asked around and we ended up at Cutti Hair Salon at Xi Men Ding, just a stone throw away from Rainbow Hotel. The best thing was that the stylist was very accommodating and even opened past midnight to finish up my sister’s extensive hair treatment, rebonding, color and cut.

After settling my sister down nicely and explaining to her hairstylist the cut, effect and color that I was hoping to achieve with my sister’s damaged hair I left the salon. I was only intending to do a quick touch up and trim while my sister had a 5-6 hour process to get her desired effect which meant I had time to grab a quick bite and some foot reflex massage with my mum before returning to the salon for them to work on my hair.

I had some nice pasta at a shop nearby and met this fur boy who almost look like the mascot of this joint. Whenever I go to countries that accept dogs in most restaurants and boutiques freely like Taipei, I always wish that I could bring Louis and Emmie along as well. Some dogs aren’t leashed in Taiwan and are pretty much free to roam around while the owner is living or eating nearby. The foot reflex was not bad though I didn’t take any photos. It was raining that day so my hair was pretty wet but since I had a hair appointment soon, I didn’t really mind. The pink cardi I wore only cost SGD8 and I bought it from one of the street sellers there!

Returning back to the salon, my sister was still I long way more from getting done.

I was ready for my cut, treatment and a good hair wash after being in the rain.

I really liked the rustic fan they had installed in the salon and being a pink and white themed salon made the place look so girly! Even my hair clip and wristlet blended in.

This Coach wristlet was a birthday gift from Sushi dear and it served me well my whole Taiwan trip. Thanks babe! As for the pink ribbon, I bought it in Korea many many years ago and it was one of my favorite hair accessories for 6-7 years. Unfortunately, 2 days after I returned to Singapore I lost it. To make things worse, Sushi gave me a similar one and I was just showing her how similar they both were when I lost both of them on that very same day. I never knew what happened to them I got home and just couldn’t find them even though they were supposed to be in my bag. If there are any kind souls that visit Korea and come across my ribbon please help me buy one back!

I finished about an hour or two earlier then my sister so I was cam-whoring with the mirrors while waiting for her to be done.

Here’s my sister with her stylist after a whole evening of work! Her hair and cut might not look spectacular but it was a very impressive improvement from the time she first walked in. All her damaged ends were cut and the remaining salvaged and tamed beautifully. She also has no more frizzed dried hair with a lovely healthy color.

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I had a couple more request to blog more about the food I had in Taiwan and what was nice to recommend. I’m honestly no expert in Taiwan but I did try quite a no. of food stuffs at the Ximending area since my hotel was nearby.

As mentioned before, my family love the donuts especially the simple sugar ones. I, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the bubble teas in Taiwan!

I highly recommend the 50 Lan bubble tea. They allow you to customize the amount of sugar level, type of ice, amount of ice and type of pearls or jelly. My personal pick is milk tea with 25% less sugar, 50% less crush ice and mini pearls. The texture of the pearls are perfect and extremely yummy! I had 50 Lan bubble tea almost every day while I was there!

My mother’s favorite food in Taiwan was teppanyaki. While it was not authentically Taiwan in origin, it can be found in most places and if you do try it, you have to order their Gindara! It’s really tasty and fresh!

Other then the recommended Gindara fish, they also have a wide selection of vegetables, seafood and meats served with Japanese rice and a bowl of miso soup.

Lastly, if you are around the Ximending area, any local or guide book would tell you to try out the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian.  Be prepared for a long queue and lots of people standing around with a bowl in their hands because there is no seating.

I know of many die hard fans both Singaporeans and Taiwanese that will swear by Ah Zong Mien Xian. But if you want to know my personal experience, I have to admit that I wasn’t WOW-ed by it. But a good friend that loves it to the core told me that it was probably because I didn’t eat the pig intestines and didn’t add enough chilli oil and garlic to the noodles so I couldn’t feel the full blast of flavor. It’s pretty cheap so if you happened to be around the area you could give it a go.

Taiwan has way more street food to offer but I’ll end my post here for now cause I’ve got a movie to catch. I will be posting more places and food I’ve encountered in Taiwan in the next couple of days.

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