29th November 2014, Saturday
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| My super big chicken cutlet |
We woke up at around 8 plus today and we were taking our own sweet time to prepare ourselves to go out. My friend was messaging her friend who is working in Taiwan on where to meet us later. We left the hotel at around 10 plus and made our way down to
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (
中正紀念堂). Bought the hot star chicken cutlet as breakfast...yum yum...The memorial hall is just outside the metro exit, which is very convenient. My friend was worried that her friend won't be able to find us as she didn't told her the exact meeting place but just told her meet at the memorial hall. We went up to the memorial hall but the front entrance was doing some repairs works, which we can't go in. Then my friend just sat on the stairs, while i was walking here and there. Then my friend was talking to her friend who managed to recognize her (they haven't seen each other for about 8 years). Then they were talking happily, and her friend told us we could enter the memorial hall by taking the lift from downstairs and there was exhibit hall too. The friend is working as a maid in a Taiwan family, taking care of 2 elders (both are around 80 plus years old). And she had working for the family for 7 years now and she is very happy there. She is the only one person i met that told me Singapore was a nightmare place for her...hahhaaa...She really had a very bad experience when she was working as a maid in Singapore.
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| Chiang's Official State Car |
So we went down, there was a post office, exhibit hall and a souvenirs shop (i didn't went down there when i went there on the first visit..hehee). There were many people around too, so i went walking around while the two friends chatting happily. On the 3rd level was a exhibit hall too, where there were some paper art displays. Then we went up to the 4th level, which was the memorial hall. When we entered the hall, the guards changing event had already been started (only managed to catch the ending). Didn't managed to watch the whole thing on my first visit too...this time also didn't manage to catch the whole thing...hahahaa...
After that and taking photos of the guards, then we were thinking where to have lunch as it was getting noon time too. So the friend was saying to go Taipei Main Station there to eat, so we made our way down to the the main station. Then we went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store basement and went for lunch in a Teppanyaki restaurant. It was quite good and it costs around NT$1200 plus for 2 set meals. But the friend treated us for the lunch...free meal... :P...
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| View from Top |
After lunch, we made our way to
Taipei 101 tower. When we came out of the metro station, i was surprised the tower was just above us (last time need to walk from outside to get to the tower). And most importantly i saw Ding Tai Fung!!...hohohoo...and of cos it was crowded with people. It seems like the inside had also changed since my last visit. Then we went up to the tickets counter and bought 2 tickets to go up to the tower. The friend said she will wait for us downstairs, as she had went up before and it was expensive too. So me and my friend went up to level 88, 89 and 91. The observatory is at level 89, we took our time to walk around and my friend bought a wooden postcard to send to her sister who is living in Germany. Then we went down to level 89, which the wind dumper is located and Chii Lih Coral is (to buy statues made of corals). Then we went up to level 91, we had climbed the stairs up...tiring...Level 91 is the open space where you can view from the top. Cannot see much of the view much due to the barrages covering the view.
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| Thick Thick Cucumber!! |
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| Mini Red Bean Baos (Nice!!) |
After that, we made our way back to level 89 again to take the lift down to the tickets counter level. We met up with the friend again when we reached the tickets counter level. Then we went down to the basement (not sure why we went down to the basement too), so i asked my friend want to eat Ding Tai Fung...hehheee...There were really many people crowded in front of the restaurant, we had to squeeze out way to the front to get a queue number for us.Our waiting time was about 50 mins, so we just walked to other shops to see the sun cakes and pineapple cakes. There's even Jasons Supermarket there and then we waited here and there. Finally our table was ready and we can finally eat dinner...(waited almost 6 plus). I ordered some of the usual food like pork cutlet fried rice, the cold cucumber (thick thick ones, i like it), xiao long baos. I also ordered mini red bean baos and prawns wantons. The mini red bean baos were so niceee...even my friend likes it. We even tabao another 4 mini red bean baos back for tomorrow's breakfast...hehehe...By the time we finished dinner (did i mention the friend paid for our dinner too? hohoho), it was almost 7 plus. Although it was late, we still made our way down to Tamsui (淡水). The friend wasn't sure what bus to take to go to the
Fisherman's Wharf (淡水漁人碼頭). Anyway, by the time we reached there, it was around 9 pm. So we gave up going to the wharf and just walked along the food and gifts shops near the pier. The friend was also telling us we could take the ferry to go to Fisherman's Wharf too. Saw a shop selling iron eggs snack, so we bought a few and made way back to our hotel as it was getting late. We alighted at Taipei Main Station to change line when the friend went on to take the train back to Taoyuan. Once back to Ximending, my friend went to the opposite 7-11 to buy some drinks...The yakult she bought back was big, not our normal small bottle...hohoho...
Hotel Stayed: Rainbow Hotel
Places Visited:
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Taipei Main Station
Taipei 101
Tamsui
