Taiwan 2012 - Day 3.

I got punked real hard today.

A few weeks ago, Max told me that he had wanted to surprise Vivi by suddenly just showing up. I was thinking of ways to surprise her via whatsapp. I didn't want to impose on her but to make it more realistic, I had to stay with her. And then I would ask her to make a detour to the airport as needed to collect something from a friend. And wala, surprise ! Right ?

Wrong.

I overslept today. I then got woken up abruptly to the smell of delicious cooking. I panicked and prepared as fast as I could as Vivi's mother prepared a scrumptious lunch to welcome me. The food was fantastic. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but I didn't because it would have seemed a little bit inappropriate.

Once we were done with lunch, I tried to hurry Vivi as I knew that Max had already landed. So we finally left home to head to the airport. It was approximately a 20 minute drive to the airport from her home, so it weren't that bad. As soon as we got there, I hurried into the airport searching for Max. I couldn't find him and then I looked over at the smoking corner and spotted him there. It turned out that Max had already told Vivi a few days after telling me as he couldn't keep it from her. They had even planned to stage a quarrel to scare me, but Vivi couldn't bring herself to. DOH.  All this planning only to get pranked !

So Vivi had planned to take us to danshui for the day. She explained that it was hard to get parking there and suggested that we take a train from shilin and that's exactly what we did. I had already been there the first time I went to Taiwan, but I didn't mind as I found it a lovely place.

So we started walking. The first stall we came across was the sugar cane stall which was perfect as we were dying of thirst. This has to be the best tasting sugar cane I've ever drunk, honestly. I tried taking a picture of the stall, when Max decided to be retarded.

And here's the cup of pure awesomeness.

We walked further down, and there was all this mini game stalls. They played this shooting game where you had to clear all them balloons, which I just thought was impossible. They did pretty well to be honest, but some of the shots were blanks. They ended up winning a blow up angry bird hammer toy.

And here's one of my awesome photo taking skills.

And then the sun began to set.

We didn't have much to munch on today, because we had already planned on having mala steamboat today. Woooo, authentic Taiwan steamboat. I was so looking forward to this !

So we were just about to leave when Vivi spotted a Porter shop. I told her that I desperately wanted to go you see. I dashed into the shop all excited, but I was disappointed as nothing had caught my eye. I walked up and down the aisle in hopes that I had missed out a few bags, but still, nothing. So disappointingly, I bought myself a wallet and a passport holder to console myself. I had wanted to get them the previous year, but I didn't. So yeah, 2 items from my want list cleared.

We then headed back to taoyuan. Vivi then brought us to her favorite steamboat restaurant. It was totally full. Luckily for us, we managed to grab the last table. Steamboat has always been one of my favorite, but this was next level. Best I've had in a while ! If I had 4 thumbs, I'd give it 4 thumbs up. Oh my, and the sauce that Vivi made for me was just awesome. I wish they had the same thing in Singapore.

You know what's the other thing I love about Taiwan's steamboat ? It's the fact that they have duck's blood there. I totally love pig's blood which has been banned in Singapore for a long time now, and this is as close as it gets.

And here's our fully loaded steamboat.

After dinner, I knew I couldn't eat anymore, but I just had to try the dessert. I have always loved the Japanese egg pudding, and they had an ice lolly version of it.

Well, we're now back at Vivi's place. Good night once again from Taiwan !