Which Airport?

When I booked my ticket to Taiwan last year, it was stated in my ticket that I was to land at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. My sister who booked her ticket earlier told me that hers stated the landing airport as Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. However, the flight number, flight date and time were the same. I was curious that how could the same aircraft land at two different airports at the same time?

In fact the name Chiang Kai-shek International Airport was used until year 2006 and since then the official name of the airport is Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. I wonder why the computer system of the airline I booked the ticket still uses the old name on random basis. Hmmm...

Probably the time you book a ticket from this airline, you will probably flying to Chung-Cheng (Zhongzheng) International Airport, a name that is even older than the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport!

This is the busiest airport amongst the five airports in the island of Taiwan. Most international flights into Taiwan land their aeroplanes here.

Of all the flights that I have boarded, I have never had a chance to see the whole airport in the air until this flight I took from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Luckily I had my camera in hand and I managed to snap some photos of the airport from an aerial viewpoint.

The China Doll Who Cooked Seafood for Us

During our final night in Taiwan, our taxi driver cum tour guide brought us to Tamsui (淡水) for dinner. The restaurant that we went to has a humourous name, as it literally means "China Doll Sea View Restaurant" by direct translation.

Most of the sea produce are alive before they are sent to the kitchen. We were able to choose from all the food on display before the meal.

The clams were very fresh as they were still alive minutes ago before they were being served on the table.

This was the first time I ate oysters cooked with pickled vegetable. It turned out to be very nice as the preserved vegetable elevated the fresh taste of the oysters. Furthermore, the oysters were plumb and juicy.

The boiled cuttlefish was tender and crunchy. The chili dip was the sweet type which went well with the cuttlefish slices.

We also had some fresh oysters served raw. They were very sweet, plumb and juicy.

When we saw the geoducks, we immediately ordered a portion as we have never tasted them before. The chef recommended we had the trunks stir fried in spices and the body portion served raw, so we followed the suggestion. Taste wise, they were just clams with a tougher texture.

I have forgotten what type of fish we ordered but this steamed fish had a very fine texture and mild sweetness.

It was a very fulfilling meal, even more so after a long day of sightseeing and shopping.

Bridging the Lovers

The Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭) at is one of the tourist spots in Taipei City to see the sunset. We were there quite late and didn't have a chance to watch the sun goes down. However, we were treated with the scene of the colourfully-lit Lover Bridge (情人橋). This bridge gains its name from being declared open on Valentine's Day of year 2003.

Night Scene of Taipei City

One of the best vantage points for viewing the night scene of Taipei has got to be the hill behind the Chinese Culture University (中國文化大學) at Yangmingshan (陽明山). There are several restaurants and cafes lining the ridge of the hill overlooking the basin of Taipei City.

The Taipei 101 building is also visible from here, but it takes a telephoto lens of 200 mm to have these shots. Don't forget to bring your longest telephoto lens with you to have a decent shot of this building.

Other than The Taipei 101 building, the relatively smaller buildings blend in well with the street lights, making them interesting to be viewed at night. This place is definitely well worth a visit if you enjoy night scene.

The Perfect Ten Waterfall

The Shi Fen Waterfall (十分瀑布) is regarded as the Niagara Falls of Taiwan as the water flows in the opposite direction of the bedrock slope, resulting in a cascaded waterfall.

The forest park is now managed by a private organisation, therefore there is an entrance fee to the scenic areas. An adult ticket was NT$80 during my visit in April last year. It was not that expensive for a glance of the waterfall.

As my parents were too tired to visit the place, so my sister and I went on a quick visit of this place. We were basically on the high vantage point because we didn't have the time to descent to the lower viewing platforms.

Since this is a post about waterfall, I may as well put forth some technical details on waterfall photo shooting technique. The two photos below were taken at different shutter speed. The one above taken with a shutter speed of 1/30 second resulted in a more splashing water flow. To render a silky water flow like the last photo, a shutter speed of 1/6 second was used. However, these numbers are not the definite reference values as the speed of the water flow is another factor to consider. For slower water flow, a slower shutter speed is required to render the silky smooth effect. For the very slow shutter speed, I used the guardrail as my stabiliser.

Making Perfect Ten Wishes

It is amazing what two rows of shop-houses flanking a railway track can flourish in the business of making wishes. That is what is happening at Shi Fen (十分), or literally ten points.

The Kongming lanterns (孔明燈), or sometimes referred to as sky lanterns (天燈), are mini hot-air balloons used for sending messages during the ancient war in China. They are now used to make wishes, and Shi Fen (十分) has uplifted the hot-air balloon release as a touristy activity. International and local tourists alike bend down to write their wishes on the balloons.

All the writing and releasing of the hot-air balloons actually take place at a railway track that is still in operation. All the people will obligingly give way for the trains. Is there anyone who dare to not give way to a train?

When the railway track is clear again, the mini hot-air balloon releasing activity continues. For the time that I was there, I noticed that Shi Fen was never short of visitors for this kind of activity. It is a successful business model combining an old street and a Chinese tradition.

Jiu Fen: Snacks

The Jiu Fen Old Street (九份老街) is lined with shops selling all kinds of food. One of the highly recommended snacks is the deep-fried shallot cake (油蔥粿), specifically the one with the sign indicating 'deep-fried shallot cake in front of the post office' (郵局前油蔥粿).

This is actually steamed rice-flour cake sprinkled with deep-fried shallot. It tasted quite nice when garnished with the sweet soy sauce. It is very soft and easy to bite.

Another famous snack, or dessert, to be exact, is the taro ball. The balls are made of yam and sago flour. There are many shops selling this dessert but the best one, according to my travel guidebook, is at this Auntie A-Gan Sweet Taro Ball (阿柑姨芋圓). This unassuming shop is situated at a side lane with steps leading up to a hill.

It was a candy store beside the Jiu Fen Primary School but now with extension at the back of the shop overlooking the Pacific Ocean. As we walked through the shop, we could see that all the edible balls were freshly prepared.

We had the warm mixed version with taro balls, sweet potato balls, red beans and green beans. The taro balls and sweet potato balls were very fragrant and chewy. The red and green beans were boiled to almost paste-like texture that melted in the mouth with just a touch of the tongue. It is a nice dessert to taste when you are in Jiu Fen.

Jiu Fen: Coffee

I am a person who cannot live without coffee. Before I visited Jiu Fen (九份), all the coffees that I have tasted were hot-brewed, even for the all the iced coffees. I have heard about the ice-drip (冰滴咖啡) in Taiwan from the travel programmes on TV and when I saw it in Jiu Fen, I couldn't resist myself to try it out.

As the dripping process takes a very long long time, the number of servings is limited everyday. From my own rough estimation, every cup requires about 30 minutes or so.

So what's the verdict? I would say that I prefer the hot-brewed coffee anytime, any day; iced coffee included. My cup of ice-drip coffee had a very mild taste of coffee compared with the hot-brew coffee that I took a sip. In my opinion, the ice-drip coffee is for the beginner of coffee drinkers whom I am not.