WHAT TO EAT IN SEOUL: SAMARKAND IN DONGDAEMUN

 Hi readers!


If I have spare time, sometime I guided people. Like what I did two weeks ago. But it always challenging to me if they ask me what food they can eat ( Most of time, I cook in dorm). So, since we were fasting, we should eat a delicious food and ofcourse match to our dietary rule. Then, I chose SAMARKAND! Before I heard my friend that she ate in Samarkand together with her Uzbekistan friend and it was really good. I became so curious since then and decided to invite two Indonesian fellows to dine there.

We were actually exhausted after had a walk in Gyeongbuk (click this link) . But we still have energy for finding a good restaurant. For you who want to eat in Samarkand, copy this address in map.naver.com (서울특별시 중구 마른내로 159-21)

Wedding attire are displayed on the wall

interior inside. 

For food, since I did not do prior research (lol) so we just followed the recommendation. And compared to other foreign restaurants, here is cheap. They do not differentiate  lunch and dinner price. We bought three two main dishes and one bread.

My favorite one, Samarkand Plov.  for 10000won

chicken soup for 7000 won

Bread :) for 3000won

We thought we need to pay 20000won but the cashier just asked me 19000won. What a lucky day hehe. Overall it's good! Enough for us. But I recommend Indonesian to add salt and chilli powder in chicken soup. Will I revisit this restaurant? Of course! I want to explore the other yummy Uzbekistan food~

See you in next post!

FROMSOLOTOTAIWAN:TAIWAN NATIONAL GEOPARK YEHLIU

Hi readers and travellers,

Have you read my travel post before about Taiwan ? check the first and second part here:
Taipe part I
Taipe part II


TAIWAN NATIONAL GEOPARK YEHLIU 
(2017-8-21)

 Have you ever heard?

Actually when I observed where to visit in Taiwan, I told to my self to go to geopark. Since last time I went to Indonesian National Park Baluran Banyuwangi, I feel I should visit at least a geo park or national park of each country I visit. Then, I asked my friend whether she wanted to accompany me to Yehliu. She said she never been there so agreed . Hooray!

After we put our bag in baggage service around Taipe main station ( I wrote the details in Taipe part II), I bought my everday milk tea. They have Coco Milk Tea franchise in terminal (btw the bus terminal for Yehliu) is behind the Taipei main station. Milk tea was 35 NTD

How to go to YEHLIU PARK?

Bus 1815 tp Yehliu in peron number 3

1815 bus

Inside our bus

I suggested you to bring your lunch. Especially if you do not like seafood. I did not see any fast food near Yehliu. Only saw a family mart.  Well taiwan family mart is unique tho. They sells boiled egg and other Taiwanese foods. Bus in Taiwan also allowed you to eat your dinner inside the bus. We smelled bunch foods during our trip and it tortured me ( i wanted food too hhahah). Ah ya, one good thing to about this bus, you can charge your phone :) so dont need to worry of running out battery.  Since Yehliu is located in northeast of Taiwan, we had to take bus for one hour and a half. Take bus number 1813.  It costed 96 NTD. So for round trip ticket it was 192 NTD.

Is it free or the entrance fee is expensive?

I did not even search the entrance fee before visiting Yehliu. And it was not free. You need to pay 80 NTD.  The ticket for entering the whole -1700 meters - park.  For more information about the geological background, you can check their website. First , Yehliu is a popular tourist place for Taiwanese people especially for school study visit. Second, for me 80 NTD is a worthed price for observing the natural creatures.

But What is the popular site of Yehliu?

I only can desribe with a brief explanation. Yehliu park is well known with the natural creatured stones. Through years, the wave shaped the stones. The famous one and you can see in their entrance ticket is the queen stone.

What if I visit Yehliu in summer?

We did it! yeah it was so schorching. If you visit Yehliu in summer, put all your sunblock and bring your sunglasses. Plus wear a softball cap or bring an umbrella (but the wind can break it easily). Oh do not forget to stay hydrated.

Here is my story in Yehliu

Public bus stop in Yehliu is not that close to the park. We had to walk about 20 minutes or less. And we stopped for lunch. Most of restaurant sells their food more than 60 NTD. We chose random restaurant and we waited long time for it (wrong choice maybe). Anyway I ordered seafood noodles soup and steamboat which I had to spend my 220 NTD. (noodles soup :60 NTD, Steambot: 160 NTD). I loved the steambot taste.

noodles soup for 60 NTD. This was just so so


my delicious steamboat.  Stupid thing is why i didnt just order this one . 

 It was kinda ginger and garlic tasted steamboat for me. My friend wondered how did I like it. haha and I took it home cause could not eat all in once. As a good traveller, please mind do not waste your food, take it home when you feel enough to eat. Because before it was ready in our table, the cook needed to prepare many things and for me, the cooking process is a daily art. At least (even we pay the food), we need to appreciate the every single process to make food too.

Well, after walked again and reached the entrance (where already full of tourists). Before bought ticket, since I have told you we did not realize if we need to buy ticket until stepped our feet there, my friend went to toilet first. Then, we bought two tickets for adult. Each was 80 NTD.

Our first stop was souvenir shop. Haha. Fyi, I really like post card and collect it like a crazy fans. So when I was looking for the unique postcards from Yehliu, I saw the post it wall.  And decided to write a post it letter ( wonder if my post still hanging there).

I think i spent 200 NTD for cards (well, in National Museum, I spent the same amount to buy postcards; Thats why i called myself crazy). After wrote and hung my letter in board, we continued our walk. It was already around 12am something so the sun was so bright and shiny. We took some pictures near the stone that first we thought it was the queen stone. It was not. It was cute princess ....

Huh.. we walked again after a short rest. It was windy and sunny. Yehliu park, especially in stones area is open space. there is no surrounding trees ( they tried to plant palm tree actually). Hot hot summer . Below are some pictures we took in Yehliu Park .

my friend was too tired so she avoided the sun. She took this one from 15meters. Can you find me?
Behind me was mushroom stones area

Me with natural shaped stone. Well i called this one Whale tail stone

It looks normal photo right. But if I told you that we waited for 20 minutes for taking two or three pictures (and it was only for 1 minute). The reason why EVERYONE wants a photo there is the queen stone. Right behind me a beautiful queen (stone) was staring to another side.
Queen stone is included to mushroom rocks, the famous one.
Btw according to their official website:
"The mushroom rocks may turn into various kinds of shapes in a progressive manner as they are chronically eroded by wind, sun and rain. They may involve into neckless rock, thick rock, thin rock and even the broken-end rock eventually. The top of the thin rock may fall apart if the neck of the rock contains incomplete sands and thud accelerating the formation of broken-end rock


Ocean Erosion Pothole

And yeah after two hours and half walking to observe sun and burn our selves in sunlight we decided to go back. Anyway, we were so exhausted. Once human is  exhausted and dehydrated, we became grumpy. So we went to family mart to buy some drinks

A wrap photo for our Yehliu trip 

Wait, Before finish this post, I want to show you the track to walk in Yehliu. It is important to know where are all the rocks (if you are only looking for stones) and to estimate your time 

  Good luck and see you in the next post :)

Next post , I am going to write about Tainan !

FROMSOLOTOTAIWAN:TAIPE (PART II)

Good morning!


In case you have not read my part I story, clik here

After had my lunch, I need to wait my friend until 4pm since she did not get bus in the morning and somehow bus stucked in traffic jam. So I laid myself in bed and gave direction to our guest house.  She said after getting off from bus , she was totally confused to find a way. I understood cause taipe main station is so big and they have so many exit doors

But , in the end she found our guest house. She booked another type of dorm which is mix one. It was uncomfortable but cheapest price there. We did not waste our time and we went to National Dr Sun Yat sen memorial hall, the famous Taipei 101 and had dinner in Ximen market.  Why we went to all these places in a day? cause the day after we had to go to Yehliu (but at that day we went to Changkai Sek memorial hall first) and after that we had to take bus to Tainan.

 Tips: They called their transportation card as "Easycard". For a comparation to Korea, each line has its own fare. And it is not free for transfer. Unlike in Korea, when you take a subway and you can get free transfer to bus, here also doesnt work. You need to pay the bus.

top up machine. I topped up 200 NTD

1. NATIONAL DR SUN YAT SEN MEMORIAL HALL

How to get here: From Taipei Main Station just need to take subway to Sun Yat Sen memorial hall station (blue line)
What you can learn: Inside the memorial hall, you can learn about Taiwan history and Sun Yat Sen's efforts to lead Taiwan. And it was my best spot to take picture with Taipe 101

When we were taking photos, a Taiwanese man greeted us and helped us to take a picture. My friend said Taiwanese people are super friendly to tourists. So we let him to take our photos.

 the photo was taken by friendly stranger

I found something an interesting fact here. Mostly young Taiwanese use this hall to practice their dance. Some of them are dancing in a group but also some were just solo dance. They brought speaker too. It reminded me to Hongdae somewhat.

And when I finished looking around the gallery (actually it was historical timeline gallery), the security asked Esta in Chinese. I was just smiling. Esta answered bu i yang which it means it's not the same. Later i found out the security was curious about us cause even we are Indonesians but I am wearing Hijab and she does not.

it was my best spot

2. TAIPE 101

Before Korean has One o one (원어원) boyband, Taipei already famous skycraper 101 (Taipei 101 was the highest skycraper till burj khalifa surpassed it)

Since Taipe 101 is quite close, we just walked. We went up to the observatory ticketing hall and found out that the price to go up is quite expensive. We did not want to wait the line and paid that price so we ended up just did photo box there.

When you tried your best to get a good shot but it turned so awful 

memories left :) 70 NTD

and ice cream for refreshing our mind

When we came out from tower, we saw a small night market. We were so exhausted and decided to eat an ice cream first to recharge our energy. Next, we decided to go Ximen to have dinner. But the stupid thing, we should have got off in Taipei main station and transferred to nearest station but we stopped at Taipei main station and walked long way to Ximen night market. lol. For me it was okay but for my friend since she just arrived that day to Taipei it was so tiring .

3. XIMEN NIGHT MARKET

Welcome to Ximen

Coco bubble tea (35 NTD)
My friend said this is the famous one

a view of night market

What you can find there? if you want to buy souvenirs and have dinner, Ximen is one of recommended place. After walking around, seeing things and watching street performances, we felt hungry and looked around for restaurant.

seafood risotto and a bread for 180 NTD

Finally, we finished our dinner and went back to guest house. My friend needed toilet asap so she stopped at mini market. She said mostly she use toilet in mini market for emergency. For first time, I took a city bus for going back.
                               

inside city bus

I spent well a day in Taipei with memories. Even after almost one year, I still can recall what I did there through photos lol. The next day, we had to check out from our guest house. I found a place for keeping our bags a day. And amazingly I searched and found it in naver blog.  But before I gave you more information about that, lets checked what I had for breakfast. We went to McD (near McD here you can find innisfree shop XD) and got pancakes. Since my friend treated me, I didnt write the price of pancakes set in my book xixi.

A mural wall in guest house

 it was 55 NTD. I saved the bill

three pancakes with honey sauce

Done eating in MCD we walked ahead to Taipei Main Station. and stopped at post office (located in the corner) so my friend could withdraw her money.  When we were there, an elder woman talked loudly sounds like she was angry. Some people tried to calm here and she finally went somewhere. Well, we just ignored it and continued our walk.

The baggage saving place is near the parking hall and it called as Taipei Station Baggage Service Center

finally..

Our bags

I think since so many Korean used this service , they put notice in Korean xixiix

It costed around 70 NTD since i did not write in my book but for a day (one bag). They counted our bags as one cause esta bag was so small :). So finally i could walk without bringing baby behind lol. Really helped traveller, especially for the one who need one day service. Why we did not save in a locker in station? the locker system is based on hours and it will be expensive cause Yehliu park is quite far and we could not estimate our time.  Since the baggage service center opens till 8pm we thought we had enough time.  After being happy without bags, we headed to Chiang Kek Memorial hall. Actually we wanted to go yesterday but we ran out of time.

4. CHIANGKEK MEMORIAL HALL

How to get there: From Taipe Main Station, we did not need to transfer and took one time subway (red line).

what a beautiful

sunny day

It reached 39 C when we reached this memorial hall. Still remember there was a japanese men who asked my friend, Esta, to take their picture. And after that, becasue we started to get dehydration, we decided to go back earlier and searched for a bus to Yehliu. Well, my Taipe story ended here but not my Taiwan travel story. From Yehliu, we took bus at night to Tainan. Another city in Taiwan where I spent money most for their awesome food :)

FROMSOLOTOTAIWAN: TAIPEI (PART I)

Hi readers~~

I will keep post every city I've been touched to you. Last summer, I went to Taiwan
I decided to go Taiwan to meet my two friends and to learn many new things there.
Btw I have my travel book who helped me to record my expenses and for stamp book too.
What you need to know before going to Taiwan?
1. VISA
Check whether you need any kind of visa or not. For China mainland citizen they need a permit too to enter Taiwan. For me, since I have Korean allien card so I got permit to go Taiwan by applying travel permit in their immigration website!

2. Book a guest house ! I recommend you to book guest house near the main station cause it will be easy to reach any famous place. I booked Here and there Hostel for 840 NTD (two nights) for female dorm.

TAIWAN (2017-08-20)
Taipei day 1
I arrived in Taoyuan airport around 12 at night. I took bus 1819 to Taipe around 1am (from Taoyuan it takes 30 minutes) so almost at 2am I arrived at Taipei main station. I was alone and it was  suprisingly  different then what I expected. No body in station at that time (compared to Seoul station even at 1am you still can see people ). I just saw some taxies but since my guest house just across to the street, I just walked. I tried to find the sign but could find anywhere till I saw a man who went to mart. He helped me with his internet and said that i was in right direction and voila I found out my guest house sign is soooo small. Well I thanked to him and went to elevator to check in. When i arrived, there was a woman who actually look so sleepy but she still received and counted my money well. She showed me where is my bed and the bathroom.  So for me Taipe at night especially in main station area is super quiet. Only McDonalds and mini market open 24 hours.

Taipei day 2

I woke up quite early even just arrived at 2am. Taipe is one hour late than Seoul. My friend came around  evening so I have free time alone in the morning. I checked all Taiwan national museum. I really like it and found many interesting jades (especially the green jade). Ah before entering the museum, I met a girl who took my potrait photo (and I took for her). We talked for a while about museum and I praised her hospitality.
possible place and I found

Next to museum, there is a park. I think it is a peace park. You can have some photoshoots or just walking. The weather at that time was so hot and I brought my handy automatic fan from Korea. 

Looks like a temple

It was sunny day but i loved the sky :)

After minutes, I decided to have my first meal. Following recommendations from friend, I decided to buy Taiwanese omelette and of course , bubble milk tea. Do not worry if you cant read the menu book. Even some words are weird but still understable. The name of the francise is show want. I spent 80 NTD for bubble tea and omelette

Here is the show want shop. It is easy to find

The menu book

my bubble tea (45 NTD)

Omelette (35 NTD)

I did not eat the omelette in the shop cause it was so uncomfortable. They just have one table and I prefer to eat in guest house while waiting my friend's reply. If you go to Taiwan, prepare your money for food. Cause they have so many delicous food, but if you have some restriction, please mind they have lots menu with pork and other meats so make sure twice if the food contain any meat or not. I preferred to not eat any meat here . Next, when my friend came, we went to some famous spots in Taipei but i will write in next part. click here. See you