Interesting Kids' Snacks Found So Far

Look what I found at the supermarkets! Chocolate Cheerios at Jason's Marketplace at Taipei 101! If DD saw that, I don't think I could have gotten out of that supermarket without the chocolate Cheerios! I've not seen this item sold in Singapore yet.

At CitySuper, a supermarket chain in Hong Kong which carries a good amount of imported products as well, I found Panda Pocky sticks and Oreos which are soft like a sandwich, rather than crunchy like a cookie. How interesting!

We Made it to Taichung too!

25 Nov 2012
We visited more places in Taiwan on Sunday, 25th Nov, than on an average month during the 6 months spent in Taipei in 2008. Hehe. We attempted to go up Taipei 101, then lunched at Din Tai Fung before making a quick trip to Jason's Marketplace, also at Taipei 101. Jason's Marketplace is not unlike the Marketplace chain of supermarkets in Singapore, which sells lots of imported products.

We then headed to Taipei Main Station to catch the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Taichung. It took us about 50 minutes to get to Taichung, which is roughly 140km from Taipei. We spent over 1.5 hours in Taichung, having a bite at McDonald's in Taichung station, before taking the HSR back to Taipei.

Thankfully, DD took a nap during the train ride back to Taipei, which allowed us to head straight to Shilin night market from Taipei Main Station. If she didn't, we'll have had to head back towards our hotel for a quick dinner before putting the kids to bed.

Isn't it amazing the places we visited, all in one day? I truly felt like a tourist that day! :)

DD's Favorite Christmas Tree

Look at the color of this Christmas tree outside Uni-Hankyu department store, which is right beside our hotel in Taipei. It's pink! This is the biggest pink Christmas tree I've ever seen! Naturally, DD loves it, since pink is one of her favorite colors! ;)

P.S. If you are wondering why there's no one taking pictures beside the tree, it's because it was raining. If you'll remember, it rained 5 out of the 6 days we were in Taipei. Thank goodness for these shopping malls which are either connected to, or just across the road from the hotel. At least I managed some retail therapy! :)

Taipei 101…again :)

25 Nov 2012
DS couldn't remember his trip up Taipei 101 when he was 3 years old, and was really keen to visit it again. We decided to go on Sunday, the only sunny day out of the 6 days that we spent in Taipei. Guess what? Every tourist in Taipei probably had the same idea too!

We were there at 11am, but the waiting time to go up to the observatory at the top of Taipei 101 was over an hour. That's not even including the time queuing up to get the tickets. Not being patient enough to stand in a queue for too long, we headed over to Din Tai Fung for an early lunch instead. Taipei 101 will have to wait for the next time we visit Taipei again!

Here are two pictures of Taipei 101, one taken during the day and one taken at night.

Din Tai Fung

25 Nov 2012
We made it to Din Tai Fung at Taipei 101. We were advised by well-meaning friends to reach there before 11am, which we did, and got a table immediately. After 11am, when the restaurant opens, there would be long queues of people waiting to get a table. This restaurant comes highly recommended as a "must-try" in Taipei and is apparently quite different from the Din Tai Fung chain of restaurants in Singapore.

We ordered 4 different types of dumplings, beef brisket noodles, some appetizers, drunken chicken and fried rice for the kids.

In terms of variety, there are definitely many more dishes on the menu compared to Din Tai Fung in Singapore. I would say that the quality is definitely better too. Having said that, I would say that I didn't taste a huge difference between the dumplings made in Singapore and those here. A small difference in quality, yes, but not a big one.

Nonetheless, we had a good meal at Din Tai Fung and would eat there again if we visit Taipei 101.

W Taipei

We decided to stay at W Taipei. It's a hotel that's 10 minutes away from Taipei 101, right next door to Uni-Hankyu departmental store (much like Takashimaya with a food court and other food stalls in the basement), Eslite (an entire building that's a bookshop), above the City Hall MTR station, and right next to the Xinyi shopping district, which stretches for kilometers both above and underground. There's another shopping centre opposite the hotel with a small supermarket in it, but I don't know what it is called in English.

In the picture below, is this the bed in our hotel room?

No! It's the "sofa" at the lift lobby which brings us up to the rooms. W Taipei has quite an interesting layout. The concierge is on Level 1 (ground level), but the reception and the lifts that bring us up to our rooms is on Level 10. The swimming pool, which is open only during the warmer months, is also on Level 10, just beside the lobby bar.

Cathay Pacific

22 Nov 2012
Something really struck me about Cathay Pacific. Below are pictures of the plastic cutlery for the regular meals and child's meals. I don't know if this is true for all Cathay flights, but on both sectors travelled today (SIN-HKG and HKG-TPE), the cutlery were plastic! How environmentally unfriendly! I'm sure these cutlery will not be washed and re-used by Cathay, but tossed away after one use. :( I certainly hope they are at least recycled.

Taipei, here we come!

22 Nov 2012
Finally, school is out for Casey and we are on our way to Taipei. After spending 5 days in Taipei, we head to Hong Kong. :) DH will be speaking at a conference in Taipei, and doing a poster presentation at a conference in Hong Kong.

This is also the first time that I'm traveling on Cathay Pacific. Cathay flies direct from Taipei to Hong Kong, so it's much cheaper to fly via Cathay on all sectors. Unfortunately, Cathay doesn't fly direct from Singapore to Taipei, we have to transit in Hong Kong first, before heading on to Taipei.

Below are some pictures taken at Changi Airport and some in the airplane. There's a picture of DD trying to show us the wart on her toe, which is going to drop off soon after it was burnt off a few weeks back.

NZ Vacation Day 6 (Part I) - Queenstown

We spent the morning at Skyline, taking the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain called Bob's Peak and having lunch at the cafe there. Queenstown's Skyline gondola is supposed to the steepest lift in the Southern Hemisphere (not that there are many countries in the Southern Hemisphere anyway, haha!). At the top, there are also observation decks for visitors to get breathtaking views of the lakes and mountain ranges.


This picture was taken from the cabin of the lift on our way up. See how steep it is!


We were almost at the top of the gondola ride when we spotted a protruding ramp for brave souls to do bungee jumping! The ramp is 400m above ground level and according to the Skyline website, jumpers can even choose to jump off the ramp on a skateboard, bike, snowboard or in-line skates. Unfortunately, we didn't see anybody doing a bungee jump when we were there.


Finally, at the top! The view was simply breathtaking! I think besides Milford Sound (look out for my blog post on Milford Sound later on!), the next nicest scenery was at Queenstown. Unfortunately, we couldn't take more pictures of the beautiful scenery from another angle because the sun was shining right at us.


Grandpa brought a pair of binoculars along but didn't get his turn at using it! The kids were hogging it and taking turns to "admire" the scenery with it. I do wonder what they were looking at through the binoculars.

NZ Vacation Day 5 - Queenstown

Today was the day we had all been waiting for - the long journey (330km) into Queenstown. Back in the days of the year 2001BC (Before Children), travelling 330km would have been a piece of cake to us. We toured New Zealand's north island then and could stop whenever we wanted to, or drive on for as long as we liked without stopping if we didn't need to. Now, with young children in the equation, making a long drive would be impossible without strategic planning. Packing enough snacks (and it has to be those that the kids love eating), being able to entertain the kids when they got bored, planning our pee breaks (basically no one is allowed to stop for a pee break unless one of the kids need to go!) and having the driver step on the gas and driving as fast as safely possible to cover as much distance as we can as soon as DD dozes off, are all part of the battle plan.

Here we are, at an unscheduled pit stop. DD was getting annoyed as she was tired but couldn't fall asleep, and couldn't get out of her car seat. When she wasn't interested in snacks or songs anymore, and nothing could distract her from crying, we knew that we had to stop. While I nursed DD, the males got out to enjoy the scenery and to empty their bladders.


Here's the little stream where I presume the boys had a pee. I certainly hope there were no guided tours somewhere downstream with the tour guide encouraging tourists to take a drink from the "pure" mountain spring water.


After coaxing DD back into her car seat, we drove on for about two more hours before finally getting our first view of the beautiful scenery that awaited us as we neared Queenstown. Behind us was probably Lake Hawea, and the next picture, Lake Wanaka. We weren't sure if we were identifying the correct lakes as we drove pass them.


Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka lie beside each other, with a small strip of land called The Neck (1000m wide) separating them both. These two lakes were supposed to have been excavated by huge glaciers more than 10,000 years ago!


It was past lunch time, so we decided to stop at the Puzzle Cafe in Puzzling World, Wanaka, for a quick lunch before heading into Queenstown. Puzzling World in Wanaka is a tourist attraction "specialising in puzzling eccentricity". It has a maze, rooms with optical illutions, "eccentric architecture" and other oddities. The cafe has several puzzles to keep diners occupied during a meal too.

The picture below shows the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, which appears to have been pulled out of the ground, balanced on one corner of the Tower and leaning at an angle of 53 degrees to the ground. Even the Leaning Tower of Pisa only leans at an angle of six degrees to the ground.


Here's a picture of the family using a Roman-style toilet, which were just holes on a "bench" with running water under the seats. Apparently, the Romans used to carry on them a brush as part of their personal toiletries, to be used in place of toilet paper! In the picture, DH was pretending to use his handphone while sitting on the toilet. Oh, and me pretending to have a stomachache.


DH again, this time pretending to be severely constipated!


After lunch, a quick 30-minute drive and we were at Villa Del Lago, where we stayed for 3 nights. This self-contained house, built slim and tall like many houses in Queenstown (it had 3 floors - top floor had one bedroom, middle floor was the main level with kitchen, living and dining area, and a "basement" with 2 bedrooms. As you can imagine, we had lots of exercise during the 4 days we were in Queenstown, especially with chasing the kids up and down the stairs!), had a magnificent view of Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables mountain ranges. The view was so beautiful, and the house was so clean and tidy that we had a very pleasant stay at Villa Del Lago. It was great waking up to beautiful scenery, or coming home after a tiring day out to enjoy the view we had.


The beautiful scenery once again, taken from the balcony.

NZ Vacation Day 4 - Fox Glacier (Part II)

After a satisfying lunch at Matheson Cafe (at Lake Matheson), with great views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, we headed off to do the Fox Glacier Valley Walk. We were supposed to be able to see the terminal face of the glacier after a 25-minute walk. Unfortunately for us, the walk was closed due to the bad weather.


In the picture below, the glacier can be seen (just beyond where the men were standing). You can also see the heavy fog blanketing the mountains that day.


The outflow from the glacier forms the Fox River in the picture below. Large blocks of ice can be seen in the river.

Since we couldn't do the walk, we spent quite a bit of time in the rain admiring the views in the area. The kids, warm and dry in their water-resistant winter jackets and water-proof rain pants, kept themselves entertained by searching for pieces of unique-looking rocks.


I guess we'll have to come back to Fox Glacier, since we weren't able to see what we wanted to see today - the terminal face of the glacier and also the "mirror" effect of Lake Matheson. Nevertheless, we had a lovely and relaxing day. We were going to end the day early in preparation for a long drive into Queenstown the next day.

NZ Vacation Day 4 - Fox Glacier (Part I)

We only spent one night in Hokitika as that was meant to break up our journey from Christchurch to Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier was an easy 160km from Hokitika and along the way, we stopped to see Lake Matheson, which was just 5 minutes' drive from Fox Glacier's town centre.

Lake Matheson is supposed to be a photographer's dream. The waters of Lake Matheson are dark brown in color, due to the natural leaching of organic matter from the surrounding forest floor. On a calm day, the dark-colored waters create an ideal reflective surface, much like a mirror. Reflections of New Zealand's highest peaks, Aoraki (Mount Cook) and Mount Tasman, can be seen in the waters.


Click on the picture of the map below to enlarge it. (This can be done for all the pictures on this blog too). We took a 10-minute brisk walk to Jetty Viewpoint for our first glimpse of Lake Matheson.


Here's my dad on the Clearwater River suspension bridge, which we had to cross while walking to Lake Matheson. The Clearwater River drains off the lake and the water is supposed to be brownish under the bridge but quickly becomes clear thereafter. We forgot to see if that was true as it was so windy and cold! We had just focussed on walking quickly to see Lake Matheson, worried that the kids might get too cold.


And finally, here we are at Jetty Viewpoint, to get our first view of Lake Matheson. And boy were we disappointed! There was nothing spectacular about the lake and no mirror image to speak of! Of course, that was because we were not there on a "calm" day. :( Instead, it was windy and raining, so the "mirror" effect was totally gone. You can see Lake Matheson behind us. (We quickly took this shot of ourselves instead of asking my dad to take a picture of us as we were worried the kids might fall into the water if they were unsupervised! The viewing platform was right by the water's edge!)


Lake Matheson once again, this time without us blocking the view. :P


But I know how beautiful Lake Matheson can be, from pictures seen on the internet and also from these picture-perfect shots taken by Uncle Soon Leng just a week before we visited Lake Matheson. Look at the mirror image of the trees and mountains on the surface of the water! It's too beautiful for words!


Another shot taken by Uncle Soon Leng. Thanks for letting me use your awesome pictures! :)

NZ Vacation Day 3 - Heading to Hokitika

We woke up feeling quite refreshed after a good (and much needed!) night's sleep, eager to start our drive cross-country towards Hokitika. The vehicle we rented was the largest (if you don't include mini-buses!) available from Hertz. It was a Toyota Prado, an 8-seater 4WD. Here's what our Prado looked like from the outside.

And here's what it looked like on the inside. We had DD and me on the 2nd row, and DS beside all the luggage in the 3rd row. As DD is still rear-facing in her car seat, all you can see of her is her leg sticking out.

We started off from Christchurch with the weather very nice, sunny and warm. Almost reaching 20 deg C, I think. But along the way, it started to rain heavily and the temperature dropped to the low teens. The men (DH and my dad) were pretty ill-prepared for this low temperature, wearing only their fleece jacket above a t-shirt or shirt. Hehe. They totally did not expect the change in weather given that Christchurch was warm and beautiful! The kids and I, on the other hand, were warm and toasty. :) The picture below shows the dark clouds above as we were driving along.

We finally found a nice restaurant where DH spent quite a while in front of the fireplace drying himself off. The men had earlier stopped for a pee break and had gotten quite damp running from the car to the toilet and back under the rain. The picture below shows the 4 of us in front of the fireplace, trying to get some warmth!

The kids, being very much into Power Rangers (for some reason, DS loves the show very much), started doing their so-called "Power Ranger poses". This picture below is blurred, but you can see DD doing some weird pose!

Another picture with silly Power Ranger poses!

We finally arrived at Annabelle Motel in Hokitika at 3.30pm, 5.5 hours after leaving Christchurch! The distance between Christchurch and Hokitika was only 250km, so we didn't expect to take so long. We had to slow down driving through Arthur's Pass (lots of winding roads up and down mountains), especially in the heavy rain. We should also have started our trip earlier in the morning, rather than at 10am. But I guess that could be forgiven since we were all so tired from the day before!