Spring in Taiwan 2017 - Yang Ming Shan and lots of Calla Lilies

Yang Ming Shan was supposed to be the first destination of our trip. Supposed to be, but weather played with us, so we ended up coming here on the second day when the weather was a bit better than the first day

According to our itinerary, we will be going on the brown Metro line to MaoKong and then on proceed to Jiufen via Muzha. But since weather seemed good, so, we decided to go to Yang Ming Shan instead then proceed to take a train to Jiufen for the night. Twisting the Jiufen-Muzha route back to front.

We went to two locations on Yang Ming Shan
a) Qing Tian Gang 擎天崗
b) Zhu Zhi Hu 竹子湖

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Spring in Taiwan 2017 - All the Xiao Long Bao 小笼包 We Ate

One of the must eat food in Taiwan is Xiao Long Bao, which translates as small cage buns. The cage here is the steaming baskets, :-)
The most famous one, is the Michelin star studded Din Tai Fung, but it's not voted as the best in Taiwan. Read and watch a video about the rankings here.

Whenever we hear Xiao Long Bao, we think of soupy dumplings with a thin dough skin, but no........ there are two types of Xiao Long Bao in Taiwan. Some places sell Xiao Long Bao that is made with yeasted dough, and they look like mini steamed pork buns. The one with soupy fillings and thin dough skin is sometimes referred to as  汤包 (Tang Bao, soup buns).

My friend and I tried  Xiao Long Bao at 4 eateries.
1. Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 @ Sogo Fuxing Store
2. FuDing Soup Dumplings 福鼎湯包店
3. ZhengChang Fresh Meat Soup Dumplings (Luodong branch) 正常鮮肉小湯包(羅東店)
4. ZhouJia Steamed Dumplings 周家蒸餃

So I guess, I can write a stand alone post about all of them, hahaha!

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Spring in Taiwan 2017 - Breakfasts We Had in Taipei

Breakfast in Taiwan, is a thing! So many things to try!
Very affordable for Malaysians.
Extremely cheap for those whose currency is even higher.

Taiwanese breakfasts are a bit different from what we usually have in Malaysia. And there's quite a lot to try on our short trip.

With four mornings in Taipei, we had these for breakfast. I tried to eat something different each day.

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Spring in Taiwan 2017 - Itinerary and Public Transportation Navigation

Earlier this year in March, I went on a backpacking trip with my good friend, SWW. Two mothers leaving their families behind for 9 days for a break! LOL.

For this trip, it's going to be our first full public transport trip. Most travelers to Taiwan will arrange for day tour or get a private charter driver. But being just two of us, a private charter will be too expensive and day tours doesn't encompass exactly the things we wanted. So, it was all free and easy with trains and buses, and an occasional taxi if we missed the bus, of which we did, LOL.

I will be sharing how I arranged for my whole trip.

Taiwan is a country where public transportation is very affordable, and convenient. Most of the information is available online.

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