day 2 (continued part 2) - taipei to hualien

we took a public bus to jiufen, which was once a mining town located up in the hills of northern taiwan, and is now rather touristy, but still cute in the old, rickety-streets sort of way.

we had lunch in this little tea house. you can see weariness etched all over kristy's face. we were all tired, cranky and hot.

we shared these dishes, and they were all rather scrumptious. the portions were tiny though, the bowls were significantly smaller than my palm.
clockwise from the top middle dish: fried soft beancurd with sauce and parsley (i think), noodles with minced meat and sauce in the top right corner, fried vermicelli with minced meat, fishball soup, tofu with soy sauce and century eggs, and lu rou fan, which is like braised pork on rice. the noodles, lu rou fan and vermicelli are must-tries.

went to 7-eleven after lunch to cool off in the air conditioning.
there are 7-elevens EVERYWHERE in taiwan, even in the most remote areas. the taiwanese seem to love and adore convenience stores. besides 7-eleven, they have OK mart, family mart and hi-life. in the major cities, you'll probably encounter one such store with every 5 steps you take. anyway, this is liyan acting cute with her tea drink beside some hot dog machine that has the taiwanese boyband fahrenheit plastered on it. speaking of which, i kinda liked seeing all my favourite taiwanese celebrities' advertisements splashed around the cities and stores.

ooh look! gourmet pringles! i guess i can understand the love for convenience stores...they sell the cutest, funniest things! and they have a bigger variety of snacks and drinks than the stores here. i LOVE their drinks. oh, i didn't try them gourmet chips.