Wulai - Hot Springs and Aboriginal Culture

The sun has finally decided to show its face after 5 days of rain. :) Today, we are off to Wulai which is famous for its hot springs and aboriginal culture. :) My mother's good friend, Uncle Jian came to pick us up at 10am. It took about an hour to get to Wulai from Neihu area. We had a good nap in the car lol. :P

The girls at the lobby waiting for our ride to Wulai

Us three just waiting around and taking photos lol

As it was already 11am, we decided to have lunch first. There are numerous restaurants and shops along Wulai Street. We settled on one restaurant and ordered the local dishes such as Bamboo Tube Rice, Wild Mountain Boar Meat, Steamed Mountain Chicken, Chicken Broth with Green Papaya, Mountain vegetables and Fried Stream Fish which were all delicious and very fresh. The broth and green papaya was yummy but I forgot to take a photo as I was busy wolfing down food :P


Bamboo Tube Rice - has 2 version: vegetarian and non-vegetarian

The wild mountain boar meat is really chewy, yummy and not oily at all, very different from our usual pork.

A vegetation found in Wulai, literal translation, water lily roots.

After a satisfying lunch, we continued on our way to see the Wulai Waterfalls. We crossed the Lansheng Bridge to take the Wulai Log Cart to the waterfalls. The girls were thrilled to sit in the log train lol. It is the first time the girls have seen a waterfall and so they were excited. We had wanted to watch the Atayal Aboriginal Culture Show but we would get back to Taipei too late in the afternoon. We skipped the show but as compensation, the girls each bought an Atayal doll. On our way back, we bought more souvenirs from the shops along Wulai Street. I also ate the toasted mua-ji. Yum yum :)

Wulai Log Cart


Wulai Waterfalls



The girls with an Atayal lady weaving the traditional fabric of the Atayal tribe

We arrived back in Taipei around 4pm. We went to Uncle Jian's place for a rest before going for an early dinner at 5.30pm. We went to a Japanese restaurant, yes again haha. It's a small, simple restaurant but the food was great. There was no lack of patrons at the restaurant.

We were dropped back at out hotel close to 7:30pm. As Marieann has developed this obsession with this particular series of children's Korean comics when in Taipei and has been hounding us to bring her to bookshops, I decided to take her to a nearby shopping mall to look at the bookshop there. Juliane decided to stay with her grandmother at the hotel. Marieann and I took the Metro from Luzhuo Station to Neihu Station (2 stops away) where the shopping mall is. Marieann and I had a nice time, shopping together. :) We arrived back at our hotel at 10pm sharp. We needed to rest early as it will be a long day tomorrow.

Duanwu Festival - Family Time Again

It is Duanwu Festival today and it is a public holiday in Taiwan. Most Taiwanese families would take the opportunity today to pay respects and pray to their ancestors as well as visit families.

My mother brought us to visit my uncle who lives in Tamshui. The girls were thrilled by the fish pond and the huge koi in it. Another of my mother's long-time friend, Aunt Principal (when I first met her, she was a principal of a kindergarten, the name just got stuck lol) were at my uncle's place as well as my cousin is currently back in Taipei for a week with her Japanese husband. We had a nice cosy chat over a delicious home-cocked lunch.


The girls and Aunt Principal

The girls eating traditional ice cream sticks

Family photo again :)

After 2pm, my aunt drove us and Aunt Principal to Tamshui Old Street to have a look around. It was extremely crowded as it was a public holiday. We bought more souvenirs and local produces for family and friends back home. :) The girls also played a shooting game and both won prizes lol. Just after 4pm, we parted ways with Aunt Principal (grandaunt to the girls) at the Tamshui station where we took the Metro to Xindian to visit another friend of my mother's.

Tamshui Old Street - see how crowded it is just after 2pm.

Juliane at Fisherman's Wharf, Tamshui

At Xindian MRT Station waiting for the train

My mother's friend treated us to a vegetarian food buffet at Lien Shiang Zhai. I was surprised to learn that there is actually a restaurant that caters just vegetarian food. There was a wide selection of dishes, both Western and Eastern. I was amazed at the creativity of the chefs to come up with the various dishes with the various vegetables! The dishes I tried were delicious and sad to say I didn't have enough room in my stomach to taste every dish. :( Note to self: Must COME BACK again in the future! Hahaha.



Vegetarian sashimi

Plan B

We were supposed to go to Wulai, an Aboriginal Village today. However as it was still wet weather, we went to Plan B, wet weather plan. Otherwise it would be a similar experience as with Yangmingshan National Park.

After breakfast at 9:30am, we took the Taipei Metro from Huzhou station which is just 3 minutes away from our hotel to Neihu station. We went to the Huguang Open-air Market. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for the girls. The wet market in Taipei is different from that in Singapore. You have both the stalls selling meat, vegetables, seafood, etc and stalls selling clothes, bags, kitchen wares, etc right next to each other, and even have stalls selling cooked food interspersed in between them.

The girls on the Taipei Metro



We went for early lunch at 11:30am at a Japanese restaurant near the Huguang Market. We ordered the spicy ramen with extra bowl of ramen, charsiew ramen with extra bowl of pork don and omurice with pork cutlet. Everything tasted fantastic. :)




After lunch, we went to visit a relative who lived nearby, followed by a visit to the Miniatures Museum of Taiwan and to Hsimending. We enjoyed looking at all the miniature houses, etc. We were in awe of the incredible attention to the details. :)




I haven't never really visited Hsimending all those times I was in Taiwan. Goodness, it is crowded even on a weekday! The girls bought some hair accessories before we went to browse at Eslite Bookstore. After that, we had early dinner at 5pm at yet another Japanese restaurant haha. There are plenty of good Japanese restaurants in Taiwan. :)

The start of the Hsimending pesdestrain mall walk

An excellent Japanese restaurant in terms of taste and price :)



After dinner, we went to visit my mother's old neighbour and family who watched my brother and I grow up. It was fun watching the amazement on their faces to see that I haven't changed at all lol. :P

Rain, Park and Pottery

We woke up to an overcast morning. My mother's close friends were going to bring us to Yangmingshan National Park. Unfortunately, when the aunt and uncle came to pick us up at 10:30am, it was raining. Nonetheless, we decided to try our luck. The weather might turn for the better by the time we get to Yangmingshan?!

Alas it was still raining when we got to Yangmingshan. It was too wet and slippery to walk around so we only took a photo in front of the flower clock. We also saw from afar great clouds of geothermal steam rushing out of fumaroles of all sizes encrusted with yellow sulphur crystals. The smell was quite bad too, like rotten eggs lol. :P



The aunt and uncle took us to a restaurant at Jhuzihhu (literal translation: Bamboo Lake), Yangmingshan. It is famous for serving dishes with ingredients found in the mountain. There were fried stream fishes, stir-fried vegetables (grown in the wild), steamed chicken (chicken which roamed free in the wild), ... Although all the dishes were simple, they were really fresh and delicious.



After lunch, the rain has gotten heavier and the fog has settled in which made driving on the windy roads of Yangmingshan dangerous. With a quick discussion, plans for the afternoon was changed. We were now going to Yingko's Pottery Street. The girls would be delighted and indeed they were. They tried for the first time pottery making. :) Their masterpieces which take at least two weeks to be ready would be send to my aunt's place so that my mother who is staying on longer can bring them back to Singapore. :)



The girls decorating on their masterpiece.

The aunt and uncle treated us to dinner as well, buffet dinner. After a sumptuous lunch, we were still feeling quite full. But we were no fight for the Taiwanese hospitality lol. The buffet selection was international and there was a wide variety. We sampled a little of everything and it was a great dinner. :)

Thoughts
We went back to the hotel extremely well-fed. Actually we have been over-fed for the past few days and will be so for the next few days too. Anyone know of a good way to lose weight??!!

My Taiwanese Family

Updated 14 June Monday 11:43pm. I have uploaded the photos. Thanks for your patience. :)

Today is a day of reunions with my Taiwanese family.

Reunion 1
After our buffet breakfast (included in the accommodation package) at 9am, my mother took us to see my grandmother who is currently residing in a nursing home. My grandmother is the main reason for my trip back to Taiwan. My heart felt a twinge of pain when I saw my grandmother lying there in bed. She looks so frail! So vastly different from my memory of her. She is hooked to a respirator to aid her breathing, otherwise all her vital signs are good. I sat next to her bed and held her hand while I talked to her, telling her that I have returned and have also brought my daughters, her great-granddaughters to see her. In early June, my grandmother opened her eyes but it wasn't sure if she could recognise anyone. After talking to her for a while, my grandmother opened her eyes to look at me. I was surprised and happy to see some reaction from my grandmother. Maybe she heard me and knows that I am back? Whatever it is, I hope my grandmother would get well soon.

Reunion 2
When my grandmother was sleeping, we left the nursing home with my 2nd maternal aunt who went to meet us at the nursing home. My aunt brought us back to her place which was a 10 minute walk away from the nursing home. There, I met my cousin-in-law and my 3rd maternal uncle who lived a few doors away. My cousin, the daughter of my 2nd aunt, called up when I was at my 2nd aunt's place. She apologised for not being there to meet me as she had to work and she asked to arrange a time to go for a meal. I am really touched. I haven't seen any of my cousins or aunts and uncles for 18 years yet they treated me as if there wasn't a gap of 18 years between us.


My Taiwanese family II

Reunion 3
My cousin-in-law sent us to my 1st aunt's place in Shen Ao. It's where my mother grew up. I have spent a significant amount of time here during my growing years whenever I went back to Taiwan. Time has changed so many things here. Sigh. But I could still pick out where the old houses used to be, where the path used to lead to the beach, where the well was, where... I couldn't help but smile to myself where all these memories started flooding in. It's a trip down my memory lane.
At my 1st aunt's place, I met my uncle, my cousins and their spouses as well as their children. Everyone was so excited to have me back in their fold, and my girls too. Now my girls are friends with their cousins. :) They "chided" me for taking so long to come home lol. 18 long years. :P
We went to lunch at a family restaurant just a 5 minute walk away from my aunt's place. Along the way, I managed to recognise more sights and scenery from my childhood. I took some photos of Jiu Fen shrouded in fog which is on the opposite coast of the bay from Shen Ao. Lunch was most delicious. I missed the Taiwanese taste. :P There were so much food that I was really stuffed. :P Gosh, going to be packing in the kilos haha.

Jiu Fen, opposite of Shen Ao, shrouded in fog as seen on my way to lunch

Some of the more unique dishes - Cold Dish: bamboo shoots with mayo, squid sausage and sashimi

Glutinous Rice with Prawns

Lobster Club Sandwich

Minced Meat Balls with Fish Roe

My Taiwanese family III (after a delicious lunch)

After lunch, my 1st aunt, my cousin-in-law and her daughter took my mother, my girls and I to Jiu Fen Old Street to have a look. Despite having been in Taiwan numerous times, I have never been there lol. It was really exciting walking the old streets, the colours, the wares in the shops, the aroma of food,... My girls were really happy and excited too. We managed to get souvenirs and other stuff. We had a rest at one of the shops selling yam balls. The yam balls were delicious, which tasted like glutinous rice balls. :) Unfortunately, as it has been raining the whole day, we couldn't see the scenery of Jiu Fen. Everything was shrouded in a layer of fog and shielded with rain. :( But still, it was kind of serene and an experience walking with our umbrellas in the rain and foggy streets. :)

Candid shoot of my family at Jiu Fen Old Street

A local snack at Jiu Fen - peanut roll with ice cream. It is similar to the popiah in Singapore but filled with crushed peanut and ice cream

Another famous snack at Jiu Fen - yam balls and sweet potato balls

The girls in one of the shops which brings back fond childhood memories for me

The girls with one of their cousins

The girls with another cousin

My cousin-in-law sent us back to our hotel around 8pm. We decided to go to a famous ramen restaurant that's opposite the hotel. There is always a queue at the restaurant lol. Our food came after a 15 minute wait. The pork bone soup was full of favour, rich but not oily. :) Absolutely delicious!

The Japanese Ramen Restaurant - Liu Ding Mu



Thoughts
As I was waiting in the laundry room waiting for our clothes to be washed, I thought back on the events of today. It has been an emotional day for me. Seeing my grandmother so frail and weak, meeting my relatives and cousins again, seeing places where I grew up, ... I am really glad that these people are my family. I am glad now that I am half Taiwanese lol. I won't wait for another 18 years again before returning to Taiwan. With the girls now older, we should be able to come back more often, especially now they know they have cousins in Taiwan. :)