Taiwan Day 2 : 椰林大道 - 淡水 - 公馆夜市

Our offical start of Taiwan holiday!

Can't remember what time we woke up but we were definitely later than planned. 

Jasmine munching on biscuits.. 

Jasper too.

The night before we decided to cover 3 places today (so ambitious) using the public transport. 

Going to 淡水 but before that we will go to a nearby spot i.e. Taiwan university. 

It's quite windy but Jasmine is all ready!!

On the way to Taiwan Uni, we pop by a famous spot to buy breakfast. Then relying on Anne, we cross some roads and minimal walking, arrived at Taiwan uni. We are aiming for 椰林大道.

Saw a filing room and decided to take a serious photo.

Finally we found a spot to sit down for our breakfast picnic! 水煎包

Coconut trees at the back.

It was just a little messy because the juice or soup will drip a bit from the bao.. other than that, good call.

Little poser.

Finished our breakfast and then take some photos of the famous grand entrance to the uni.

I look so tall and giant in this picture.

Would've been nice if we take a picture lying down on the road literally but there were occassionally cars driving through, so no one came up with that crazy idea.

Then we made our way back.

We saw a sign over the trees that they are endangered tree... so around the uni they were planting and protecting endangered tree species.

We were to take the train to 淡水, the station was just next to our airbnb. I had to go back to drop a bomb and grab my black beannie. Joshua got coffee from McD's together with Jasper.

Train station. Ergo is the way to go!

Plus it was almost 11am if not wrong? Jasper's morning nap time. 

I may not have remember correctly, but I think Jasmine has her pants changed because she wet her pants when she pee at airbnb. 

Inside the train. Glad that mummy is such a good sport to follow us on this adventure. 

And my little girl here was not complaining too. 

During the long train ride, we had to sit separately, because of the packed train. 

Almost an hour long journey, we arrived. Anne & Joshua had been here before. Me & Mummy's first time.

淡水老街
It was lunch time, kids are hungry... and Anne had a specific mission - 卤肉饭 at a so-called famous shop.

We literally walked through the wholeeeeeeeeee street without stopping, all just following Anne.
I got to admit I was salivating over all the food being sold on my left & right. I was thinking to myself, when I return later, I am sure going to eat this buy that......

Finally.....卤肉饭 came. But it was nottttt nice. Nothing to shout about. 

And they don't have baby chair... place is so cramp... we hardly enjoy the meal.

I took the picture to check how I look with the beannie, did not like itttttt but my hair was already in a mess so I had to stick to it. Already decided this beannie won't go back to Malaysia. 

Finally we are done with lunch and can start exploring the street.

They have local street artist.. until now I still couldn't figure out how this guy can stay in this posture for so long without moving much. Anne told me there's actually something he was leaning against.. I still couldn't see it. I was more concern of the kids, because they were starting to get cranky and bored.

First thing we bought was the 海燕窝 & 姜母茶。

We got to taste a few types and even Jasmine got a cup.

After this we walked down the street and Joshua saw a stall selling fried durians. He bought all 3 types and asked Anne to help video him tasting all of them. Mummy, myself and kids were waiting at the next souvenir shop, and then suddenly I turn back and couldn't find both of them! I tried calling their phones but couldn't get through. -_- After like 5 minutes or more, they found us and came to us from the other direction. Joshua said he thought we had walked down the street. Like what??? He said he saw someone like me... WHAT??? I was really mad!!!!! Miscommunication!! And hello... I never walk away like that.

Then we were next to the seaside, Joshua asked us to sit there while he do a 5 minutes time lapse video. I sat on the bench to feed Jasper and tried to keep Jasmine with me. Still angry.

We striked a conversation with this lady who took the dog out on a dog stroller. That's when I felt bad that Jasmine couldn't converse in Mandarin at all! But she's still a friendly girl. :)

Then Jasmine demanded to come to this side... we walked.. although I really want to just buy what we want to buy and go home.. time to put the kids down for their nap.... and still a little angry.

Picture didn't turn out great because of the crazy wind and my ugly beannie.

I think this should be the highlight of our 淡水trip, I wished I had appreciated it more back then.

I thought I was going to try a lot of the street food... and decided to give this peanut wrap ice cream a try -  spoiler : not nice! Too sweet and doesn't taste special at all. We couldn't even finish it.

Jasmine saw us buy and requested for an ice cream. So we bought her a scoop. She slowly lick and lick and eventually we found her fell asleep in this cot holding to the ice cream cone, ice cream half melted. 

We quickly found 许义 and bought 鱼酥. Famous snacks we came all the way here for. Then down the road Anne went to buy 虾酥 & 铁蛋. And just as we proceed to train station, we bought the 葱油饼. Earlier we passed by, it had a long queue, we thought should be very delicious. Turns out, taste like our roti canai lah. It'll be nicer if eat with dhaal !!

Journey back was tiring. We were all low on battery and dozing off on the train. 

Arrived at our airbnb and the kids were up from their nap. We all rest & had some snacks before going to 公馆夜市 (just behind our airbnb). Anne had gone nearby to buy bubble milk tea. 

Our dinner at 蓝家割包. Famous place Anne found on google.

Have to queue up so I sat on the bench to wait while Anne explore the night market up & down, searching for her list to eat like 猪血糕。。。

Finally got our seats and ordered our food. Came so quickly.. and wowwwwww... this soup is the winner!

See my messed up hair by the beannie?? Grrrrrr....

No baby chair again, we were not mentally prepared. No one warn us!

After dinner, Anne bought her peanut coated 猪血糕 which we all got to try. Not a fan! Joshua didn't like it either. 

We thought we could find some minor christmas decorations nearby but couldn't find anything close.. it's Christmas eve.. feel so sad we couldn't give the kids something christmas... so when we walk, we just keep singing christmas songs together. :)
We went into some old bookstores... nothing special.

And ate somemore food. This peanut tao foo fa, I thought it was quite tasty at first but after I down the whole bowl, it was quite oily... I won't come back again if I am local. 

Special sausage bun. Ok only if you ask me. Seems like I was quite picky about food the whole day! 

We were on our way back to airbnb when Anne decided to buy ear rings. She spent some time making decisions, so we took the kids down to a gift shop that had a dancing Santa Claus!! Thank God we found something christmas finally!!!

So we went back to airbnb. I was wearing the nursing dress that Shin Wee lend me the whole day only I change my top at night.

We put the kids to bed. This boy is quite funny!

When Joshua say wow wow! he imitates a baby "wow wow!" with his hands up.
He also points at us and dances around when Jasmine dance & sings at our airbnb.

After the kids slept, me & Anne took a walk to Family Mart, I needed to buy super glue for Jasmine's shoes. Her boots front were opening up because we left it unworn for 2 years.
Then we pass by a small street, sat down for a bowl of dessert.

Again, sorry to complain again. I am not a fan of yam balls or taro balls, so I picked the peanut soup base.. but it tasted BURNT. @.@ Taiwan, you really let me down.

On the contrary, Anne seems to be enjoying the local food whole day! And she still thinks this little outing at 11pm was quite fun. :)

So that's Taiwan Day 1 for us. :) Next up, we are going to meet our local guide 小傅，I know I was quite looking forward to being driven about, instead of walking and walking endlessly. Haha..