Taipei Flora Expo

The biggest event of Taipei's tourism in 2010 and 2011 would be the Taipei Flora Expo. This event will end on 25th April 2011. So glad that I visited it on the last day of 2010. As there will be a countdown event that day, the Dajia Riverside Park Area had been closed. As compensation, every visitors on that day were given an afternoon ticket which can be used anyday afterwards.

our afternoon ticket

The ticket price can be different based on what time you enter. For us, we enter using the Easy Card, no need to queue for ticket purchasing and can get a 10% discount on the ticket price.

We go there by MRT and get off at the YuanShan station.

the main entrance in front of Yuan Shan Park area.

Our first station, the one nearest to the entrance, EXPO Dome. As we were queueing to enter, we passed by the Flora Rainbows.

flora rainbow

so lucky to be able to take a photo with the mascot

For me, the EXPO Dome is somehow like a science museum.

cloned goat

inside the EXPO Dome

The view is really breathtaking after you walked out from EXPO Dome as we were in front of the flower landscape.

flower landscape

Actually there were a lot more interesting place to be visited in the YuanShan park area, such as Celebrity's house, Pavillion of New Fashion, but looking at the queue, just made us decided to drop the idea straight away.

outside view of Pavillion of New Fashion

As we just plan to stay until the evening, so we quickly moved on to the Global Garden Area.

Thailand

USA

Malaysia

Phillipines

Hawaii

Netherlands

Canada

Greece

Trying to settle our lunch at pavillion of aroma flowers. but, the price seems to be a bit expensive and the whole place are just too crowded.

pavillion of aroma flowers. Source : http://www.2010taipeiexpo.tw

So, we move on to the Fine Arts Park Area. We pass by the floral tunnel.

inside of floral tunnel

And we found this place, there are a lot of stalls over here and decided to settle our lunch over here.

bought my lunch here, 宝岛肉圆 - 第一届彰化肉圆节比赛总冠军

my lunch - 肉圆, the price is around NTD50

After that, we move on to the Taipei Story House. We actually watched a clip about Taiwan's history inside.

in front of story house

Next stop, Taipei Fine Art Museum.

Finally, the XinSheng Park Area. The Pavillion of Dreams was said to be the must-visited place, but unfortunately, in order to enter it, you will need to start queueing from 4 o'clock in the morning. So, we just got the chance to take picture in front of it.

outside of the famous pavillion of dreams

Not much time left for us, so we just enter one more pavillion - the pavillion of future, we queued for half an hour plus in order to get inside.

pavillion of future - ouside view

inside pavillion of future

Next, we went to the maze garden. Having lots of fun there, we actually have a race to get out of the maze. But I'm too short, can't see what's the road in front of me, and really get lost inside of it and ended getting the last place :(

inside Garden Maze

Our last photo before leaving.

thanks to the staff who help us to take this photo :)

It's the end of Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is indeed a really really big festival for a chinese. Today is Chap Goh Meh, the last day of the CNY festival, i'll just sum up what I have did for these 15 days.

it's CNY, of coz need to take a picture with my new clothes...haha

It's been a while since I was able to spend the whole 15 days of CNY with my family. The last time is during 2006 when i was waiting for SPM result.

1st day（初一）, the most important day, of course need to spend it with family.

our steamboat feast

2nd day （初二）, it's time to visit friends（拜年）, too bad, this year a lot of people can't make it and there are only 5 of us joining. But still, we were having a really great time.

friends :)

3rd day（初三）, meeting our one and only che zai who was unable to join us the day before, was having a yum cha session in kb town area. Such a coincidence to be able to meet cai shan, pei ling and jie shu, really long time no see :) . Too bad that we didn't take any picture that day.

4th day （初四）, everyone is leaving kay bee, sob sob :(

7th day （初七）, it's a birthday for everyone, went lou shang.

15th day, chap goh meh, my sis return to kay bee and she's going to have a really long holiday this time, yippy!! Thanks to my aunt who bought us a secret recipe cake today, yummy~

white chocolate cheese cake, love it

that's all for my CNY celebration, a bit boring, but the most important thing is to be able to meet all our family members and friends who I have not seen in a while.

Hope to meet you guys again real soon, miss u all :)

sistas :)

a must visit in taiwan -- yehliu & jiufen (野柳 & 九份)

for me, yehliu and jiufen are definitely some of the must visit places in taiwan. The scenery at these 2 places are just breathtaking. that's why it makes my day 3 in taiwan one of my most enjoyable and memorable journey.

have you ever watched the famous korean drama "ON AIR" starred by park yong ha, song yun ah and kim ha neul? this drama are being filmed at these 2 places too :)

source : http://drama.videoland.com.tw

however, this trip doesn't start really well as we got lost in taipei main station. this is the 1st time i realize that taipei main station is really huge, we walk towards the intercity bus station, and then only realize that to take bus to yehliu, we need to walk towards another building. An advice to the future yehliu visitors, remember to ask the locals, "where to take bus to yehliu?", but not "where is the bus station?"

finally, we bought our ticket and waiting in line for bus. In front of us, there are 4 Thais waiting together with us. Since the bus haven't come, my friend went to the washroom. At this time, the bus came, the driver came down from the bus, standing in front of us. we thought he will wait for us since only 1 person get on the bus. but then, he just get on the bus and drove away like that! OMG!!!

bus ticket to yehliu, NTD96

when I chat with the Thais, then only they tell us, this is the 2nd time they missed the bus, the 1st time, one of their friend went to the washroom, and this time, their friend went to buy some water, well, at least we learned a lesson, get on the bus as soon as the bus came. Luckily, the next bus came within 15 minutes.

finally, we reach yehliu!!!

this is where we get off the bus.

we pass by a harbour, take few photos there. as we walk further in, it's getting strange cause along our way there's nobody there, and finally, we reach a dead end. the conclusion is we got lost again!!! the yehliu geopark（野柳地质公园） is on the other side, haiz~~

we walk along this harbour, and finally get lost :(

here we are, finally!!!

it takes us so long in order to reach here, but the scenery here is so preettyyy~~ and the entrance fee is only NTD50. however, it's really cold over here as it is very windy. it's hard for me to take a proper photo as my hair was getting really messy >.<

each of this rock has it's own name, we are not allowed to touch the rock, there will be a guy keep "beep-ing" you if you did so

this is the queen head, we need to queue in order take photo with it

our next stop after yehliu -- jiufen（九份）!!!

to go to jiufen from yehliu, go back to the place where you get off from the bus just now, but the opposite side of the road. wait for bus that will go to kee lung（基隆）, then from kee lung, take another bus to go to jiufen.

jiufen old street

inside jiufen old street

the overview of jiufen

there are lots of nice food in jiu fen, let's see what we've eaten.

赖阿婆芋圆

we queue for half an hour in order to get this sausage, super damn nice

红地瓜手工蛋卷

花枝丸汤

醉鸡，don't really like it, cause it is icy cold

卤肉饭

from jiu fen, you may take a direct bus back to taipei. the journey will take about an hour and the bus will stop at zhong xiao dong lu（忠孝东路）

since we already there, we might as well have a walk.

in front of SOGO

these little guys will come out every 1 hour, we got lucky as we reach there 7pm sharp :)