Thus, it was a lazy day at the vicinity of our minsu. I swear the minsu owner is so sick of us hahaha.

Loti caught this at 5am in the morning. I’m almost never sick of this view. It is like an Asian mini version of Europe, somewhat. If you imagine hard enough.

Slow morning.

We ate the same stall everyday and we almost finished trying all the dishes. I swear the restaurant owner got sick of us too lol.

Random cheese ice cream spotted at 7-11, but it tasted like a yucky block of frozen butter.

Night view of Qinbi Village 芹壁村. Ok I swear this is the last photo of it!

Breakfast at our minsu before setting off.

Here we go! Another self-biking tour at Nangan (with bike rental at the same price of NTD 500 per day).

Riding at Matsu was challenging, fun and scary altogether – countless steep slopes up and down, rocky roads, curvy turns, plenitful sea views.

The 88 Tunnel 八八坑道.

Liquor smell was sure damn strong and fragrant in here.

A must-try recommended by a local, but we found it so-so again.

Nangan’s Beihai Tunnel was like five times larger than Beigan’s, and we took a boat tour (think Asian gondola) this time.

Loti said that these holes in the mountains were the entrance to the tunnel during the war days.

Dahan Stronghold.

Iron Fort.

Statue of the Goddess Matsu at the top of the mountain.

Queen of Heaven (Matsu) Temple.

Nangan was much much bigger than Beigan, and we took a longer time to get from one attraction to the other. After covering those spots above, we decided to call it a day and chill at a cafe recommended by some tai tais we met while having breakfast.

It’s called Fu Ren Cafe 夫人咖啡館.

Overlooking the sea.

Their drips coffee 冰滴咖啡 was soooooooo goooooood. It looked freaking normal and was expensive and we ordered it only ‘cos we wanted to hit the minimum spending, but it blew us over and we ended up with another cup. I can totally have this everyday.

We rushed back to the jetty to catch the last boat (6.15pm) back to Beigan.

There, we took away some food and went to our favourite spot at our minsu to have dinner.

5am on top of the ferry trying to catch the sunrise, but failed ‘cos clouds were too thick.

It was 9am when we alighted the ferry at Nangan 南竿. Still had to take another small boat (about 15 minutes) to our minsu at Beigan 北竿.

Upon reaching, we were totally lost. Luckily this lady came forth to offer us scooter rental. It was considered pricey in Taiwan’s context – NTD 500 per day, but we had no choice, and it seemed like the best way to get around the island on a free and easy basis.

Rode up and went through some bickers and lotsa luggage lugging before locating our minsu only to find out that we can check in at 2pm. Exhausted, hot, dirty, sticky, we lan lan still gotta continue our journey.

Our very nice minsu owner, Sammi, marked out a few attractions for us to visit, and the first we went was Bishan Lookout.

Sammi also recommended Stronghold No. 6 and No. 8, but 6 was undergoing some construction.

So here is Stronghold No. 8. Photos can’t really bring out the feel of the whole place, but it was much more stunning X10 IRL.

Then we found Stronghold No. 12 where the War and Peace Memorial Park Exhibition Center was. However, something else caught our attention.

A long narrow trail leading to never ending. (I think it’s called Luoshan Nature Trail.)

This was where all the craziness began.

And it stopped when the trail dropped to steeper part where you have to get down using a rope. So Loti and I just sat on the edge of the mountain, against the sea, wind, and safety. It felt fucking awesome.

Tangqi Village was the only place to have meals on the entire island. Tried their local fish noodles 鱼面 but we found it so-so only.

Visiting the Beigan Beihai Tunnel fitted in nicely after lunch due to tide timings.

Just as we thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, the heavy rain outside dampened our moods again. Both of us were cold, and needed to pee.. so.. we were desperate.. and answered our call of nature in the nature. Wahahaha. Relieved, we braved the rain back to check in!

Our minsu, Chinbe No. 25, is one of the beautiful stone houses at Qinbi Village 芹壁村.

The room, with windows!

Stepped out lucky in the evening to witness a sunset.

Checked out of Flip Flop Hostel.

Goodbye to our small room with no windows which gave us eight restful nights.

After breakfast, we received great news that Loti’s lens were ready for collection. We rushed down to the shop to find it back in tip-top working condition. The aperture ring was damaged so we got it changed for a reasonable NTD 2500, and given the crazy workaround time (one day), the people were very nice and didn’t charge us extra.

Our saviour – Quan Tai Camera Repairs 全泰相機修理總站 located in 60 Bo’ai Road, Taipei. Thanks to diglloyd’s post for providing info of just what we needed.

Lunch was at the (used-to-be-)popular shit place called Modern Toilet.

Ok been there done that.

Shitty food is shitty.

We walked around Ximending area with intend find some scooter accessories that my colleague told me about, but to no avail. Wasted our leg power for one whole afternoon.

Headed to Keelung port at night for our ferry to Matsu. It was both our first time boarding an overnight ferry with beds for sleeping.

Jeng jeng! Almost twelve hours to reach our next destination!

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Spent the morning finding a place to get Loti’s lens fixed. Thankfully we managed to (else he’ll lose another night’s sleep), but I’ll touch on that in the next day’s post.

Dropped by Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall 國立國父紀念館 for a quick glimpse.

Then we headed for Bigtom ice cream nearby.

Cycled to Good Cho’s 好丘 which is quite a hidden cafe at the vicinity of 101.

Lots of homemade bagels with different flavours.

Pumpkin scone and tomato cream cheese.

好丘好!

Soon after, it began to pour. We were stuck at the foot of Elephant Mountain 象山 with the dreadful slippery trail staring at us. Loti refused to go up initially ‘cos he was afraid that I might slip and fall to my death -_- but in the end when he saw the sun, he dragged me up. Chey! Dowan to go also he say, want to go also he say.

The long flight of stairs + many other flights that lead us to a spectacular view.

Overlooking the city with Taipei 101 in it. We kinda saved ourselves NTD 900.

Camped on top for about one and a half hours just for the sunset.

Our last night market in Taipei – Raohe Street Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市.

Second time eating this black pepper bun and I still think it’s so-so.

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Thanks to my mum who glues herself to the TV all the time, she found us this hidden gem – Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產.

It’s a fish market where they rear all the yummy stuffs!

We were prepared to spend a bomb there. Both of us made a pact to let loose of ourselves and just enjoy, ‘cos this was also supposed to be my “proposal” treat from Loti. And I did not hold back.

Happy Kaya + Loti :DD

For appetisers, we ordered two bowls of mixed sashimi. Then the scallop sashimi tasted soooo goooddd..

..so we ordered four more slices.

Our main course was a seafood platter of lobster, oysters, abalone, three kinds of crabs, maguro, salmon roe, which also came with sashimi salad and miso soup filled with sweet salmon.

Tried the sea urchin, and it was even sweeter than the live ones at Keelung.

Last but not least, desserts. A pack of salmon + tuna sashimi, cha soba, calpis, grape jelly, and matcha pudding all from the supermarket session. We stood outside to eat where they very nicely catered proper areas to do so.

But all of the dining were done standing up. Can you believe we stood in there for exactly two and a half hours just to eat!? Our legs were freaking sore by the time we got out man. Then still have to walk a looooong way back to the MRT. This was totally THE meal at Taiwan. Our total bill amounted to NTD 3656 (which is around S$150), but it was HELLA WORTH IT!!!

Tried to catch a movie afterwards, but their ticket prices are ex – NTD 330 for one on a weekday.

So we just.. er.. shopped around.. and err.. *guilty look..

..grabbed some more munchies at Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市. HAHAHHA. FAT DIE US!

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Visited the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine 國民革命忠烈祠 but we alighted at the wrong station, and had to walk almost 2km before reaching.

Right at the beginning of changing the guard, a thunderstorm caught us and we had to run and hide in shelter, for like half an hour. This attraction was pretty much a waste of time and is not even half as beautiful as the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall during day 2.

Went to Xinbeitou, a place where I (intended to but) didn’t cover during my previous Taiwan trip.

Beitou Museum 北投文物館.

Nothing much to see, ‘cept that we can pose like that..

..right before we got told off by a staff for putting the tripod on their mat.

Hot Spring Valley 地熱谷. Very hot indeed.

Managed to find a hot spring venue with reasonable prices after a long uphill walk back and forth. I have no idea what the place is called, but I only know it’s no. 105 and it looks like that.

Set off to Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf 淡水漁人碼頭.

At Lover’s Bridge 情人桥 this time with a lover! Lol.

Like I mentioned, sunset watching failed. Loti’s wide angle lens also WTF-ly failed all of a sudden here D: So we could only rely on GoPro for an evening shot.

The two must-eats of Shilin Night Market 士林夜市 – cheese potato and XXXXXL chicken chop. Stuffed ourselves with lotsa random food along the way.

Despite being very very full after settling down at our hostel, I half-jokingly said I wanted supper and Loti steadily agreed.

Ended up at the 24hour Yoshinoya near our hostel. A warm bowl of curry beef rice with egg at 2am is just shioknessss.

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