Taiwan day three to Yilan

So..continuation of my Taiwan trip. Day 3.

Winnie and I bought a lemon yakult at some shop in ximending while waiting for le cousins to arrive one fine day. Yakult is like Vitagen. Just different brand, I assume. I'm just used to seeing Vitagen in Kuching and Yakult in Taiwan.

Grandpa used to buy Yakult by the box every time we go back to Taiwan when we were kids. So we ended up drinking Yakult as water instead. Can't be bad eh. Supposedly healthy right?

But I digressed. We bought a lemon yakult because Kuching don't have.

NT 50 for this large glass. Not bad. Quite worth it. She poured two bottles of Yakult into this plus some lemon juice and a lot of ice. Nice.

We were bright and early so the shops were mostly still closed at Ximending. Rare sight. Ximending is always bustling with people, busy, noisy and packed. Even when we come down looking for supper at midnight, there are still vendors selling food, and people walking around. Not exactly empty.

Mum and Winnie.

My turn with mummy.

Our cousin brought us to Yilan county. The plan was to go to the glass house restaurant for dinner at 7pm and go exploring other places in the day time.

We had lunch at this shop at Yilan. Cousin ordered this: 18 days beer.

What was special about this beer was it expires in 18 days. It is made fresh and you have to drink it within 18 days. Makes sense? It tastes good definitely.

Btw, unrelated but did you know in Taiwan, they take drunk driving very seriously (unlike Kuching). If you drink even one can of beer, and drive, you will get a very heavy fine. I only knew this because my cousin's husband was watching us (rather gloomily hahah) drinking but he can't drink, being the driver. Poor thing.

From Wikipedia (don't know how accurate this is): Over 0.05% but under 0.11%: TWD 15,000 to 60,000 fine, and license suspension for 1 year.

Why do I always digress? Back to topic.

That's my aunt in the background.

And that's our cousin in the background.

We had peking duck but the roll was different. I wasn't paying attention when they said what was different. Probably some type of vege inside. Just know it tastes good.

After a very hearty lunch, we went to...a...museum. Thank God it was closed. Haha sorry Yang Zhe Hong. I know you love musuems but we are secretly glad its closed. :)

That's the closed musuem. Lucky us.

So we went back in the car and went to a farm. It was good experience for the kids.

Cute place.

The kids get to feed piglets (they stink!!!), ducks, and goats..

Winnie and I just strolled around taking photos and found a cool spot to sit down..until le couin came to scold us for being lazy and can you please go feed the turkeys and ducks?

So we did.

I was afraid the ducks would peck my legs or follow me everywhere..

And I was also afraid the goats would try to pull my bag or camera or what. You read too many stories like this ok. From novels, comics and news. Too many accidents and idiotic people. But no leh.. goats keep to themselves and eat their own grass.

Couldn't even get a photo with Billy here.

Later on we went to have tea at a fish farm. The area we were in seems kinda deserted. Or so it seemed. Just farms and the odd houses here and there, and lots of empty spaces.

Oh yea, I had the henna tattoo on still. It looks good. I want a proper one.

Finally it was 7 pm and we went to have dinner at the glass house restaurant. Our cousins made this booking 3 months in advance. Apparently its very hard to make a booking. On weekends, it was all full. This was on a Monday night.

The thing about this restaurant is, they have no menu. You just choose from (I think) NT 800, 1,000, or 1,200 per head (customer) and tell them how many people are in your party, then they prepare the dinner for you. This way, your meal is a total surprise. You have no idea what could be served to you. Cool eh?

Mum, Winnie and I with le cousin. Its thanks to her and her husband that we could go to these places (by car), and clubbing and what not. They treated us to alot of stuff as well. Thanks babe!! I wish they can come to Kuching again so we can repay the favor.

Anyway. We had the NT 1,000 per person meal. I think there were 13 courses in total and needless to say, we ate till we were about to burst!! Waaaayy too much food.

This is a sashimi platter like no other. The waiters had to make two trips to our table to bring all of it. Just look at how huge it is. The same height as me! Not really but you know what I mean. 

Spot the fish on top.

I like this. Some lobster soup thingy in a bowl.

This was some type of Mexican roll. Says the waiter. Nice.

There were a lot of seafood that night. Too much food and not enough guys. Only 2 men on our table. And 3 kids btw. So no wonder we can't finish everything.

I forgot what was this. Soup soup thingy with prawns I think. Btw, if you want to go to the light house restaurant, Google it. It helps if you read Chinese. I don't that's why no link on this post.

We each have our own desserts too. Awesome.

And since we are on the subject of food, I might as well post more food. These sushi below can be found everywhere in Taiwan. We had this near the Taipei main station.

Everything else unpriced costs NT 10/RM 1. Why so cheap?!!

I wasn't even hungry, but I picked out this platter above. RM 4 total. Crazy cheap, right? Taiwan is affordable people! In terms of food lah. But actually transport is cheap too.

Not cheap but like Malaysian standards. Shopping is cheap and they have soo much more varieties than us. Alcohol in 7-11 is cheap. Alcohol in the clubs though, another matter.

A bottle of beer costs NT 200/RM 20. Ours costs about RM 10/11. One fine night, le cousin brought us out for a beer drinking session, and our bill for 4 people came to NT 4k plus. I was shocked!!! Eyy it was just beer, how could it cost RM 400?! Can open a Macallan already!

But she was quite nonchalant, like its typical.

 Btw unrelated, but my salary is the same as her Philipino maid. When I heard, I was like wtf!! She was even more shocked, and offered to raise my pay and asked me to work for her. HAHA!!

Actually I'm not sure if she asked me to be her maid or general worker in the shop, but yea hopefully worker. Not maid.

Apparently, its expensive to hire a maid in Taiwan. No wonder its hard to find an Indonesian maid in Kuching these days. They would earn so much more working in Taiwan or Hong Kong.

OK abrupt end. Bye.