Taipei Day 4

Day 4 was a great morning. Why? Cos' there was delicious brekky awaiting us downstairs!

Yummy creamy corn soup, freshly made sandwiches and guava! The sandwiches were so so so good! <3

Went out for some last minute sight seeing before making our way to Taichung. This is the Four Joined Japanese-Style Residences, a dormitory built by the Japanese years back. 

 Walking further up was the Gold Ecological Museum (金瓜石). 金瓜石 is a town in Ruifang which was famous for its gold mining activities.

There is a souvenir shop nearby I think. You can take a rest at this sheltered area as well.

Walk up the stairs to the museum on the left.

Rita told us that there was this shuttle bus outside the museum that will take us around the area for more sight seeing!

 

 

There were only 2 of us and another old grandpa in the bus. The bus driver was really nice and stopped at all the attractions for us to alight and take photos!

Then we went back to Jiufen Old Street for some souvenirs shopping for the last time. They had plum drinks in these big plastic milk bottles!

Had our lunch at this place since it was quite crowded and we assumed it was quite famous.

We had cellophane noodles and beancurd stuffed with fish paste. Very yummy! :D

We took a really long bus ride all the way to Taichung, and decided to visit Miyahara Ophthalmology Department (宫原眼科). This is actually a shop selling all kinds of famous Taiwanese pastries. What is special about it is that the pastries are packaged in boxes that resemble a series of books or CD records. The interior has very high ceilings and full panel glass windows as well which makes you feel like you are in a Harry Potter setting!

There is a restaurant upstairs.

The packaging are so pretty!!

Packaging that resembles series of books.

Classy and spacey interior.

They sell chocolates as well. These chocolates come in the shapes of teddy bears!

Kong Ming Lanterns packaging!

We saw Yong He Dou Jiang just across the street and thought we should perhaps grab a bite there since it's supposed to be famous.

Tried the soya milk and pan fried bun (水煎包). Soya milk was okay but the pan fried bun wasn't very good. In fact the next day we found out from our taxi driver that the authentic Yong He Dou Jiang was far away from here and there are actually many Yong He Dou Jiang and Dou Jiang Da Wang around. Too many that nobody can differentiate the real from the fake anymore. So try only if you see a long queue outside the shop!

 We were staying at Mei Hsiao Yuen Hostel in Taichung, close to Fengjia Night Market. The room was very clean and elaborately decorated but the location was quite difficult to locate. We had to ask around and use GoogleMap. And getting to the hostel required us to walk along many dark and deserted alleys since we arrived at Taichung quite late in the night. Furthermore the hostel's entrance had a totally different name. If we didn't do any research we couldn't have found it.

Our room had an Indian theme to it and the bed was very very comfy!

Snacks were provided as well. There was a laundry area at the basement with coin slots washing machines and a water dispenser! It was a happy day for us because we didn't have to hand wash our clothes that day. :D

 

Have a good rest, it's mid-week tomorrow!