nothing in particular

It's 26th June(past midnight of 25th) ..4 days before we leave Taiwan T_T, its also K's birthday today.

YH and YJ actually bought cakes to celebrate his birthday hehe~
We off the lights when he went to bathe and he came out with a O_O look while saying,"What?? What??"




There's K with his '?' birthday candle.."Happy Birthday UNCLE!"

The following day(still 26th June), we(k with me, YH with YJ) went separate ways to shop. Me and K went to Taipei main station underground mall. Seriously, there's nothing to shop there for people who do not play console games -.- BUT K being an avid gamer and nearly didn't wanna leave for Dan Shui. But K didn't buy any games in the end cos he concluded he had TOO MUCH games to play, with TOO LITTLE time -__-' *later back in SG he keeps regretting not buying it zzzzz~*

I had to literally pull him away and shucks we are still late in meeting YH,YJ,
And this resulted in LOTSA $$$ wasted in international calls.. f**k!




We took the 淡水 line and went to the very last stop, 淡水站．On the way there, there were several announcements on cable car services being terminated due to heavy rains..it was then we saw the huge downpour at Dan Shui area zzzz~ This is pretty bad considering we had night market, boat ride and fisherman's wharf to explore.

After meeting with YH and YJ at MacDonald's, something disruptive happened while we were waiting for the rain to stop.

YJ (the run-away poly student, who joined us on the trip did not tell me that school has started and she had outstanding FYP duties to perform) received an alarming sms from her teammates (on their FYP report being rejected by their FYP sup). As such, she had to find an internet terminal immediately to check her school email for more info and this nearly drove me up the wall >=0

*Back in SG, the bills incurred for checking her school email via K's hp thru GPRS was S$53 !!!!!!!!!!!* Ok I am still mad over this.

While YJ went to an internet cafe, we went to get the Ah Gei before it closes at 6pm. Eventually, we met up with YJ to share the Ah Gei and this lightened the mood for the rest of the evening, cos K got to eat the Ah Gei finally.




Nice view(Dan Shui Park) outside the Dan Shui MRT station although it was drizzling.



Starbucks occupies one whole building on its own! *Mac has one too*





This is Dan Shui's local speciality, 铁蛋 from the stall named 味来香．Several flavours are available like original, black pepper, spicy and 麻辣. There's two types of eggs to choose from, normal chicken eggs or quail eggs. The eggs are braised over long hours in the gravy, resulting in the egg whites being chewy and full of the gravy flavour, and the crumby yolk just tasting great.
*As you can see the above description is added by K*





Another special item at Dan Shui night market, the very tall ice cream.




K bought the 20cm version(there's 50cm version), its quite stable actually when you lick it. I thought it would be creamy and NT10 for a 20cm tall ice cream is damn cheap, but its not. It tastes like sorbet -.-''





Walked briefly around the night market and we decided to take the ferry to Fisherman's Wharf before its too late, cos the Lover's Bridge lights up at 7pm..but we were late in the end -_-'

On the way, two persons dancing on the streets caught my attention..wth is that? It turns out to be a service provided by shop, live recording and burning of YOUR music video into cd/vcd/dvd o.O ．．The two persons were singing to Jolin & David Tao's song(TV is showing the live recording) and acting it out XDDDDddd



We were puzzled as to whether to buy the ferry tickets and it turns out that youyou card will do the job.

We boarded the ferry with other tourists and it was a very very bumpy ride due to strong waves after the heavy rain. Everyone was either busy grabbing the poles or shouting in excitment/fear...as for YJ, she enjoyed the ride thoroughly and I think that was the best part of the trip for her since she stepped into Taiwan -_-





As we got nearing to Lover's Bridge..and its already 7.18pm! The bridge had lit up already =(




The bumpy ride finally ended.




Me and YH felt abit nauseous after the boat ride, so we decided to take a walk around Lover's Bridge first before dinner as we thought about reading some info on live seafood being available at Dan Shui.




Beautiful lights along the bridge.






But we didn't even find a single seafood restaurant on this part of Fisherman's Wharf..so K was disappointed cos his birthday turned out quite uneventful.




We passed by several eateries each selling foodcourt stuff until this restaurant...so I thought since its K's birthday, why not have something good?




Upon stepping in 水湾 (restaurant name), we were struck by the beauty of the restaurant located by the jetty.

Greek style deco, white washed walls with some cat drawings on the wall and a live band(only available on fri/weekends)




Up the short flight of stairs, the customers were sitting facing the windows that would have allowed them to watch the ships/sea view during the day.




The waiter ushered us to this sofa seats(at the 1st level) that was very comfy.





Water was served in this special glass bottle..
After looking through the menu, we decided to order one set of Kebabs， pork slices and beef.




The kebab set arrived and we were going "Wow~"
From leftmost to right: great chicken wings but too bad alittle small; prawns that were grilled with their shells..marvellous taste; mutton kebabs that were slightly spicy and most importantly not overcooked, texture was just right; grilled bananas; grilled cherry tomatoes and brocoli.




The waiter introduced the dip provided, coconut cream with dried jackfruit flesh..interesting~ To my surprise, the rice was butter rice, not pineapple and really great..loss of words to describe XD

The kebab was done very nicely, every item had the nice grilled flavour. The grilled bananas item was the one that had the most impact on our tastebuds cos we never knew grilled bananas + coconut cream dip would taste this great!




After splitting the kebab set into 4 portions, the pork slices arrived and presentation was great and so was the taste..flavourful stuff~





Then came the beef with garlic slices which was equally great, seriously I have no complaints for anything ^_^ and K was a happy man cos his birthday was celebrated with great food.





This is YH's expression at the end of the meal, "T_T the food is finished and it was fantastic" look. From the timing of the pics, we finished in 30mins time..talk about being nauseous at first from the boat ride -.-''' There's YJ's 'V' sign trying to vie for attention lol~




The waiter asked if we wanted desserts and K ordered this rose coffee latte which came with rose petals on it. K described the coffee's taste as the following:
"Coffee taste when it enters mouth..very smooth texture, with a hint of rose fragrance after taste"




We decided to call for bill cos the last ferry may have departed from the jetty! Shit~!
Luckily, the waiter told us there's a bus that operates till 11pm plus and it takes us back to Dan Shui MRT station *phew*

Bill came and was surprisingly cheap to us for a fantastic meal experience *expensive in Taiwan context though, since a 卤肉饭 costs only NT30*
Breakdown of bill:
1.) Kebab - NT750
2.) T-Bone steak (deboned) - NT300
3.) Matsusaka Pork - NT250
4.) Iced Rose Coffee Latte - NT170

No GST, only service charge =D
With 10% service charge, total came up to NT1617 = S$73.50
=> S$18.75 per person !!

After leaving the restaurant, we took a 5min walk to the nearest bus stop and headed back to hotel via MRT cos we have to wake up at 5.30am the next day for Hualien trip ~_~




Here's their namecard with all their branches opened near waters :)