Taipei 台北, Taiwan Trip (Day 12)

28th November 2014, Friday

Our Breakfast

Today, we will be going to Taipei (arrghh...so fast)...so we woke up and got ready to the train station. We had bought the tickets for 10:00 am train, as most of the trains were full. This was a slower train, which need about 3 hour plus to reach Taipei. I went to the 7-11 shop in the train station, to buy breakfast to eat on the train. Got hotdog breads, and a milk tea for my friend and calbee snacks. Then we went to the platform to wait for the train as there were many people today. The train looked super old, the doors were still those spring type and the walkways were small, very hard to push our luggage through. Finally we got to settle down on the seats and had our hotdog breads. The milk tea i bought from 7-11 was nice too, not too milky and it was a little sweet. Then we just slept on the train until it was about time to reach Taipei. Bought a lunch bento on the train too, it was quite nice too. We reached Taipei at around 1.44 pm, then we took a cab to Ximending (cos there were so many signs to TRA trains, HSR trains and Bannian Line which was the blue line of the metro). As the cab driver wasn't sure where was the hotel really located, we got off and i tried to find the hotel based on my long long time memory (when i first visited Taipei in 2009). We did manage to find the hotel in the streets, so we went up to our room to rest first. The room was smaller this time, it was bigger the first time i stayed in the hotel.

Our Lottery Tickets

After resting, we made our way to Wu Fen Pu commercial area. Saw some new shops around Ximending and the famous Hot Star Chicken Cutlet was just beside our hotel. Saw 1973 Fried Chicken stall too (just outside Ximen Station exit 6) and many people were queuing for it too. We went to the metro station and bought a 3 days pass to use for the next 3 days. So we bought the single tickets to Huoshanpi station.Upon reaching there, we walked the wrong direction to Wu Fen Pu. We passed by a lottery shop and went in to buy 2 tickets for the 8.30 pm draw today (NT$50 for 1 ticket, 3 matching numbers min to win NT$400). But the further we walked, i told my friend i don't remember it was so far away from the station. So we walked back to the station and there, we saw signs direction to Wu Fen Pu....heheee...Then we just walked around the commercial area, bought sausages and corns and also bought a very cute cat tee-shirt. We walked until 6 plus, by then we were both tired. My friend thought i wanted to walk there some more, so she didn't ask me whether wanted to go back. Until i told her let's go back...then she was like soo glad that finally going back...hohoho....

The Red House

My friend was making noise saying she wanted to eat steamboat in Taipei, so we went back to Ximending area and we came out from the opposite exit, which leads to the Red House. So i brought my friend to check out the red house. The first time i visited i wasn't able to enter the house and looked inside. This time the red house was still opened, so i was able to look the inside of the house. After that, we went looking around to find steamboat. A lot of Japanese restaurants around the area too, we came across a mala steamboat restaurant, where there were a lot of people queuing outside. I asked the staff what is the available time, she told me after 9.30 pm without reservation. I was thinking it was sooo late, by then we both were be damn hungry...but the soup base really smelled very nice and the people were really eating very happily. So i went back to the staff and asked them can i make table reservation. As tomorrow and the day after were weekends, so they were fully booked. But she gave a slot which was on next Monday, 5.30 pm, so i said ok. And then, we went back down the streets to have our dinner. Just beside Uniqlo, there was a building with some restaurants on the 4th floor. So we went up and take a look. We decided to go for a Japanese steamboat instead but we also need to wait until 8 pm before we can eat.So i left my name there and we went out to walk walk first. We went Uniqlo to check out their sales, the fleece jacket which was having heat tech was on sales. The collarless ultra light down jackets were also on sales (NT$690 or NT$790)....There were ultra light down jackets with parka designs too but it cost around SGD$129 (which i don't see it in sg stores when i came back)......

Our Dinner

Nice Looking Pork!!

After spending our time in Uniqlo, we went back to our dinning place to have our dinner. There were 4 soup bases to choose from and 2 of them needed to top NT$50 for it. The soup was tasteless at first, but the more we cooked, the soup got more tasty. The food was quite nice but it was a bit limited in the choices. The pork was still the best...thin thin and very nice to eat. After eating, we walked back to our hotel to rest. We checked online for the lottery winning numbers when we reached our hotel room. No luck, got 2 numbers only....haiz....

Hotel Stayed: Rainbow Hotel

Places Visited:
Wu Fen Pu Commercial Area
Ximending
The Red House