18 Feb 2008

Day 3 - Jian Tan 剑潭 - Dan Shui 淡水 - Ba Li 八里

After a tiring day 2， with the rain, trekking (and shopping *trembles in fear*）and that horrendous bus ride (*gag reflex*), a good night's sleep seem to have recharged everyone.
well, it was only day 3...so after breakfast (at the same cafe), we set off with our barangbarangs (i.e. 12 backpacks, i think....) to the MRT station to head to our next accoms in danshui 淡水.



happy mummies got seats on the MRT on the way to danshui

Dan Shui is located in northwest of Taipei county, and it's a riverside city/town. if you haven't guessed it, the name of the river is 淡水河 or 淡江. the place is supposedly famous for its food, and the view of sunset along the river bank (which we did not get to see because it was too cloudy, and well, we weren't around the river when it was sunset...)

Just like any river in any of the cities/towns, the banks are full of lovey-dovey couples after the sun says sayonara for the day... but because we really didn't explore the river bank much, cannot provide more info about how romantic it is...

It was a 15-20mins walk from MRT to our accoms (probably walking slower with all the backpacks), along 淡水老街.




淡水老街 - loosely translated as 'danshui old street'. kind of like 'old towns' in those european cities, but not that old lah. got lotsa food along this street :D

We reached accoms#2 - 看海的家 which is conveniently located 3 mins from the river bank, and barely 2 mins from the food galore on 老街 ：D


it's like a shophouse. level 1 is a shop, this is level 2, living room



and kitchen. ermm.. we have to find some way to settle our differences... but believe me, nobody was hurt after the pic was taken :P


level 3 is the bedroom...that's 3 queen-sized beds for 6 people

level 4 is actually the roof terrace where there's a fantastic view of the river. unfortunately, i forgot to bring my camera up with me, and subsequently never got the time to go up and take pics :(

after settling our barangbarang x12, we head out to grab lunch. so MUCH food to eat, so little stomach space..sigh..


1st stop: fishballs. this is an old shop which sells the yummiest 云吞和鱼丸. there's meat in the fishballs, like fuchow fishballs in singapore. super yummy..and the soup was just nice, not too salty and not too much msg...slurp!



2nd stop: 鸟蛋吻仔鱼 fried quail eggs with fish. the teeny fish is called 银鱼，i think. and what they do is the crack the quail eggs, "pan-fry" it in those 'takopachi' mould, add the fish and voila, you get 4 of them for NT$10 (SGD$0.50). taste like...fried egg, haha...


3rd stop: 巨无霸冰淇淋 giant ice-cream. this is the 55cm version, huge eh?



mummy got the 30cm version, green tea flavour. the ice cream taste more like very compacted shaved ice, not creamy enough. but nonetheless, it was a good dessert...

after lunch, we head to the pier (which was just opposite the ice-cream/quail egg store) to take ferry across the river to Ba Li 八里.



mummy is high from all the food...that's the pier behind her. in the background, i think that is 观音山，but we didn't have time to visit....

～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～

Ba Li is located on the opposite bank of Dan Shui River. It's not as big as Dan Shui, but has a good cycling trail along the river bank (which dan shui also has, i think..but we didn't see any bicycle rental shops). So our main aim is to rent a bike and cycle along the river...

and that's what we did!

exercise to burn off the calories from lunch :D

only difficulty we had is that Dinnie's mum can't really ride the bicycle very well, so she had a bit of rough time trying to control the bicycle. my mummy was super proud that she can ride the bicycle really well...but still, i was pretty worried that she'll lose control cos the wind is pretty strong...

nonetheless, despite all these, i think we had fun cycling along the river and enjoying the scenery and fresh air :D

i cannot resist taking an "arty" pic with my bicycle and the mountain in the background. got that 骑单车流浪记 feeling hahaha

somewhere along the trail, got this part where there are alot of rock statues (12 zodiac animals, babies, stone chairs, table etc....) and this is a rather nice statue...i call it 两小无猜...

too bad for the overcast skies..otherwise i'm sure the view would be even better. i still like it though..

the 3 daughters...

the 3 mummies...

all of us! 母女兵团　：Ｄ

original plan was to cycle from Ba Li to Guan Du 关渡, via Guan Du Bridge 关渡大桥. But the mummies were getting too tired, and it started to drizzle (our plans get thwarted by rain everytime!)..so we stopped here to take pics before heading back...

mummy trying to do her 美人 pose...

the red bridge is 关渡大桥...

heading back to return our rented bikes. i took this pic while i was cycling...thisi s the clearest one i can find...as your can see, the trail is actually mainly boardwalk, so it was quite easy to cycle...not much slope. quite a leisurely ride if the weather is good

oh yes, forgot to mention that the rental shop also rent mini motorbikes, the kind that runs on fuel, not batteries. and these kiddos (maybe in their teens..not too sure) are like zooming super fast and doing corners at high speed. freaked out dinnie and the mummies. dinner was a bit rusty with the cycling..and the mummies were scared that they'll collide with the 'motorcyclists'...tsk tsk...

anyway, we got back to the rental shop earlier then the return time, drenched (almost) and cold and hungry. sounds like a repeat of the yangmingshan downhill trip..but at least this time round, we were not hypoglycaemic and not carsick...

and so, seems like everyone has digested our 3 course lunch :P so found a shop that is warm and we ordered food and drinks to replenish our energy...

hot sugar cane juice with oyster omelette - yummy!

We then walked around 八里老街, but most of the shops were closed cos it was weekday. Supposed to be quite crowded and happening on weekends..but i guess it's good in a way. cannot handle so many people jostling around, besides...it's easier to cycle with less people around.

We then head back to dan shui via the ferry.

u can see from this pic that it's a very well-ventilated ferry...too well-ventilated...

but the ride back was pretty bad..cos the ferry doesn't have glass panes to block the wind and rain. it was almost like open-air...and the wind was cold and strong. all of us huddled in our coats and luckily, it wasn't a long ride... by the time we got off the ferry, we just want to head back to our accoms to warm up...

after getting warmed up, we decided that we are hungry (again....) and head out for lunch. since we had a rather cold and physically-exhausting day, we treated ourselves to a seafood dinner....

cannot remember which is what...i think, in clockwise direction from the front plate:

mussels 孔雀蚵, sotong 花枝, stir-fry cabbage 高丽菜, crabs, deep fried oysters 蚵仔酥

i mentioned the crabs in the previous pic. this is the plate of crabs (medium sized) which we ordered. ITＷＡＳ SO ＭＵＣＨ！！i think there was like...6 crabs fried with egg and lotsa lotsa onions. tasted fantastic when it was steaming hot (like when this pic is taken), but it got cold really fast..and then it kinda tasted gross cos the oil were all like...pooling at the bottom of the plate

but, knowing me, i still enjoyed the food, oily or not. haha...

dinner was good..everyone felt satisfied (especially since we got to eat rice :D)

after that, we shopped (yeah, shopping again......) along the street....

but i guess the day has worn everyone out..so we head back to our accoms..

YQ and i lounged on the sofa to watch tv （康熙来了！）．．．

actually she was watching..i fell asleep -_-

after which, we head upstairs...

where i promptly fell asleep again...

into yet another dreamless sleep...

to be continued...