Taipei 臺北, Taiwan Trip (Day 7)

19th May 2018, Saturday

Today is a free day for us, which we had planned to walk around Taipei (just for shopping and eating). We woke up slightly late today as we had been waking up early for the past few days. After we prepared ourselves, S and mi headed down to You He Dou Jiang shop (recommended by her) to buy breakfast. There were already a long queue and full of people eating at the shop. We ordered a carrot cake, you tiao, dumplings and a roti-like prata. The carrot cake and you tiao was quite nice.

You He Dou Jiang (永和豆漿)

Breakfast

After breakfast, we headed out for our day walk. First stop we headed down to Dan Shui, which was the furthest away. When we arrived, we headed down to the old street to shop shop walk walk (without forgetting to turn on our Pokemon Go app so that we can collect the eggs back). I collected stamp chops as and when i could find in the shops. We also bought some souvenirs from the different shops we went. But the weather was really hot, was sweating quite fast. So i went ahead and bought an ice cream to eat along the walk. The twist on the ice cream cone was very very tall..and it was melting fast.. ^_^!....Ss also bought one when she saw mi having one...hahaa.. But we really have to eat quickly to catch up with the melting of the ice cream....

Seafood for sale

Fried Sotongs

Bubble gums from the old times

Cute Owls

We spent most of the day walking around the street of Dan Shui, i also managed to find Ah Ma Tien Dan which we bought a few packets home. Along the market, there were also tikam/lucky boxes machines where u can purchase the box for NT$100 and pray u will big prizes such as PS4 or xBox game consoles. I tried a couple of times with no luck, even got a toy cockroach which is kind of gross. After all the walking, we went over to the shopping mall across the street for lunch. There were multiple restaurants available in the mall, so we decided to go for Thai food. The waitress gave us a table with a nice view over Dan Shui and the sea. But i have to say, the food was not worth the price.

Nice scenary

Hello Kitty Shop

After lunch, we headed down to Taipei Main Station for the basement shopping area.  S bought us to the section where all the anime shops are located. There were really really a lot of shops selling all the anime toys and figurines, even Pokemon tettra. There were 2 Pokemon terra game machines around too but the people will have to queue to play with it. I also bought a legend pokemon terra card (too bad, it doesn't work with the version that SG machines are having...Sadz..). Think we probably spent around 3 hours under the basement walking all the toys shops. After that, i told them i want to find a egg pudding shop around in the train station. With their help, we did managed to find the shop (How Sweet Bakery). Woooo....so happy...the pudding is unique because it comes with the egg shells and it looks yummy.

Basement Shopping

Capsules Machines

Pokemon Tettra for Sale

So i bought a box of 4 egg pudding and we went up to look for a cafe so that we can rest our feet and try the puddings. We went in Mr Brown cafe and tried the coffee and chocolate, but it wasn't as good as the ones we had in Mr Brown castle. Anyhow, we tried our egg puddings...it was really good, smooth and eggy...i like it... ^_^...We rested there till 6 plus before deciding to head down to Taipei 100 tower.  When we reached Taipei 101, it was getting dark. So we just took some photos of the tower and headed to the shopping mall (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Place) opposite it. We spent the rest of the night shopping in the malls, where S wanted to buy her porter bag. Luckily there was a StayReal store in the same shopping mall, where i bought 4 teeshirts and a bag. I also managed to finally eat my favourite fried chicken chunks - 1983 Fried Chicken to eat for snacks (after so many days in taipei).

Egg Puddings in display

Set of 4 puddings

Hot Chocolate

After everyone was done with shopping, we headed back to Ximending where we had our late dinner there (as most of the shops were closing). We had korean meals as our last dinner there. S also went out to buy her instant noodles which she recommended to us too.  After dinner, we went back to hotel to rest and need to think of ideas to squeeze our goodies into our luggage...hahaa...

Kimchi Ramen

Places visited:
Dan Shui
Taipei Main Station
Taipei 101

Hotel Stayed:
VIA Hotel

Last Day in Taipei, Taiwan Trip (Day 16)

2nd December 2014, Tuesday

Rock Coco

Today was the last day of our trip and so we didn't plan to do anything much today. My friend still needed to buy sun cakes for her friend, so we got up at around 11 pm and got ready. When my friend was showering, i ate my doughnuts from Krispy Kreme...so nice...Then when  my friend was going to eat hers, she asked me what happened to my doughnuts...hohoho....Then we checked out and left our luggage at the hotel lobby. It was cold and cooling today...We walked to the end at one of the streets in ximending and checked out a shop selling sun cakes and pineapple cakes. It wasn't so nice when we tasted it. At first, my friend was saying that her friend wanted to meet us to have a dinner with the friend's boss family at Taoyuan area. But the arrangement like so troublesome for us to run here and there. While she was messaging her friend, i went to buy my pancake for the last time...hahaha...In the end, the dinner was cancelled. So there were more time for us now, and we went to Taipei Main Station to walk the underground shopping malls (maybe can find sun cakes to buy too). We just walked walked and see see when we were at the underground malls, nothing much to buy too...hahahaa....We walked until about 2 plus before we decided to go back to the hotel. Saw a shop selling sun cakes and pineapple cakes when we were walking back to ximending from the station, and bought a few boxes back.

Rice

Then we left our cakes in the hotel lobby with our luggage, there was when i received an SMS from Jetstar notifying that my flight was delayed for an hour. So we went to a nearby eating place beside the hotel to have some food (last meal in taipei...hohohoho).....We asked the hotel staff to help us to call for a cab when we finished eating...it was around 4 plus....The cab driver was very old, like around 60 plus already...he helped us drag our luggage to his taxi which was parked outside ximending streets. Then it was off to the airport....This time we still went for the check-in of luggage despite the flight delayed...but it was still early.. the counters were opening at 6.15 pm and there was already a queue for it. There was another queue for web check-in and there was no one queuing there. My friend went there to queue as i had already checked in last night. Then we were wondering why nobody is queuing here, does that mean no one using web check-in? hahahaa....So we just waiting until the counters were open....We were able to get my luggage checked in fast as we were first....After that, we went down to the food court as there wasn't any shops to walk and it was very cold. Had a soup with rice and a milk tea...not so nice...We just stayed there to wait for the time to pass before i can go in my flight's gate.....

Flight Delayed

I said bye bye to my friend when it was time for mi to go in (her flight to Philippines was past midnight)...so i went in alone...my first time to take flight alone....There wasn't much people after the customs....my boarding gate changed too....the shops were also very quiet...so i slowly walked to my gate as it was still early. And when i reached the boarding waiting area...it was sooo empty and cold...And i noticed the flight time had displayed to 10 pm on the board but there wasn't any announcement made on the changed of time...So i went to ask the airline staff, she said the plane was delayed on the other side and was already on the way now but estimated time to land in Taoyuan was 9.15 or 9.30 pm. So i just sat there and waited for the plane to arrive...it was very very cold...luckily there was wi-fi around, at least i still can watsapp my friend who was also waiting outside for her check-in counters to be opened. Finally the plane landed at around 9.15 pm, i only boarded the plane at around 9.35 pm....and when i was on the plane, there was a family group, so ma fan...trying to change the seats here and there....so that the whole family can be seated near to each other...The mother was waiting for the other party to board so to make arrangements....so noisy....and i got a teenager sitting with the mother beside me...and 2 boys sitting in front of me and another 1 small toddler sitting behind me.... -_-"...Luckily they didn't ask me to change my seat (which was a window seat)...hahaha....

The plane also took a long time to get off the ground, after settling all the passengers, the plane had to wait for 4 planes to land first before it could move across the path for take off....Finally, it took off...and from above i was able to see Taiwan with all its orange lights...very nice layout....and it was beautiful...I just kept looking on it....until we were up up into the clouds...And just when i thought i wanted to try to sleep, the food was being served out to sell...haiz....stomach so hungry....how to sleep?? And the mother kept chatting with her daughter beside...aiyo...no peace....So i just put on my earphones and tried to sleep...until by midnight, i woke up and the 2 of them were finally sleeping...But i couldn't get back to sleep...haiya...and i couldn't lower my seat  further as i think the lady behind who was carrying the toddler was blocking my seat from going down. Anyway, the plane finally landed in SG at around 3rd Dec 2.45 am..So i just took my time to alight the plane (let everyone else to alight first)...and slowly walked out of the customs and gate...hehee...going home alone anyway....so no hurry....bought a bottle of vodka and tiger beers with lemon too...hahahaa...Then went Burger King to grab some snacks...very hungry...also overheard a group of ladies talking about SG flats, one of them was questioning how come a foreigner/PR got approved on the application of a HDB flat when the foreigner/PR was already holding another house asset...something like that...and why the government can approved it....

Then i went to take a cab, there wasn't any cab around....so i waited, and so when this cab driver came by, he like very not happy to pick up customers...don't even want to help me put my luggage in the car's boot...He even signed very loudly when i told him my destination...Don't know why need to sign so loudly.....when reached my block, i just waited for him to take out my luggage from the car's boot lor..... :P
Being naughty.....and so my trip ended after 16 full days of fun....i will definitely miss all the yummy food i had there....and the cooling weather on my last 2 days too....hahahaa

During my trip in Taiwan, we collected a lot of the stamps in all the places we went too. Some are very cartoon too.  You can take it as part of your collection when you are traveling in Taiwan next time.

New Taipei City 新北市, Taiwan Trip (Day 15)

1st December 2014, Monday

Christmas Bears

Ahh...so fast is the last 2nd day of the trip. Today we were supposed to go to Jiu Fen, but we ended up sleeping until 11 plus. And by the time we 2 got ready to leave the hotel, it would be almost afternoon. So i told my friend don't go to Jiu Fen anymore, as it would be rushing for us too (still need to take train and take the bus, and then cannot really see much and would need to rush back to Taipei again). And i told her let's just go to Long Shan Temple (龍山寺) and then go Taipei Main Train Station to buy sun cakes. Although i had visited it before, but i still want to bring her go there to take a look. Then we just took our time to get ready and went out. When we first stepped out from the hotel, it was soooo cold and it was still so sunny yesterday. And then we 2 went back to the hotel to grab our jackets....kekeke....And so, we boarded the metro and when i saw the stations along the line, i saw a station named Banqiao. So i told my friend hey, that's the station the lady in Rock Coco who told us the tee shirt design was in. Then my friend said go there and check the shop out, maybe would be able to get the shirt. So we alighted at Banqiao station instead of Long Shan Temple....hohohoooo....Once alighted, we walked to see whether we can find the shop through wi-fi or maybe the shop was under the station. Though we didn't manage to get connected to the wi-fi, we managed to see a visitors information counter. So i went and asked the lady to help me google where is the shop in Banqiao. Luckily, the lady still managed to find it on the net. It was inside a shopping mall 2 blocks down and on level 6.

Transformer

So we walked from the station to the shopping mall, there was TSR, HSR and TRA trains in the station and later i realized this was the New Taipei City. When we came out from the station, there was a big square with merry-go-round and a big christmas tree. It was 17 degree celsius and it was very windy (finally..cooling weather). Then we had to cut through the New Taipei City Hall building, inside there was a yellow robot display. It was their new metro train, which can be transformed into a robot...hohohoho....Then we crossed the road junction, and reached the shopping mall. Once there, i was trying to look at the shop directory to find the shop but there wasn't any. But we still went up to level 6 to check, it was all sports shops and there it was, a small shop and it was Rock Coco. Then i went up to the shop assistant and asked her whether they still have the dragon design. She told me it was all sold out, i was disappointed but we told her that the ximending branch staff had told us their shop was still having the stock, so we came here. The shop assistant looked abit confusing and puzzled but she still helped us to look from their system to check. Then she told me there was 1 stock left and the size was XL. I was so happy that i told i wanted XL size. But later she told me it was red color, and she told me there was no more black when i asked her. Then she checked her system again, this time she told me she had 1 black stock left, 1 and only 1 and it was XL. I said ok...i take it...but she still said the stock was to bring to their shop from another place, which would be arriving at around 4 pm. So i said ok, i will wait for it. But my friend was asking me whether they can bring it to ximending branch so we can go there and collect instead of waiting here. The shop assistant told me she could only got back to me after half an hour time when i asked her. So we went around the area for shopping. Went looking for sports shoes and polo tees for my dad....we just kept walking from shops to shops slowly and to pass the time.

Gingerbread Man (From Krispy Kreme)

Snowman (From Krispy Kreme)

We shopped until it was about 3 plus, then we went back to the shop and checked with the shop assistant again. She told me that their goods had arrived, including that tee-shirt and they were just downstairs. And she was going down to pick them up. So we had to wait for it again. It took quite some time before the shop assistant was back. I was so happy that we managed to buy the shirt...and i kept checking on the size too. Can't believe it.....hahahaa.....Then we walked around abit longer, got a watch for my grandma too...Then we went back to the metro station and walked to see the shops there. Saw Krispy Kreme and dragged my friend inside. Bought a original glazed doughnut and she bought a don't know what flavor doughnut...hohoho...Then we just sat there and eat....ohhh...the original glazed tasted the same as the one i ate from KL...not like Singapore (super sweet).....This one was nice and made you want to eat some more. And so i did, my friend bought another 2 original glazed back for me....tomorrow's breakfast...hahahaa...We sat there until 5. 15 pm....played with wi-fi until we forgot the time. We were having a dinner reservation at the mala steamboat at 5.30 pm!!...So we quickly went to take the metro and went down to the restaurant as fast as we could. There were already people queuing outside the restaurant when we reached, luckily we still made it on time. Then we ordered the soup base and the pork...yum yum....the soft drinks were 1 bottle and there were veggies, crabs (which were gone once they were out for grabs), prawns, desserts (ice- creams and puddings) and they even have free flow of beers.....and we had only 2 hours to eat. Actually, 2 hours should be enough for dinner but not sure why, we were both rushing to eat our food towards the end...i didn't even have chance to finish drinking my sprite and they don't allow people to take their food or drinks out... :P....My friend had almost 2 whole crabs on her own...i had alot of the pork too...ohh..and their milk pudding was damn nice...smooth smooth....It was a nice dinner....hohohoho....and we were soooo full!!! Oh ya...and the staff came and asked us to pay for the meal when we were enjoying the meal in the middle. Think it was their practice....and the price increased on the 1st day of December but they were having promotion so there was some discount today too.......

Our Mala Steamboat Dinner

Pork!! Must Try!!

Fish and Prawn Pastes (Must Try!!)

Puddings (Must Try Milk Pudding!!)

After the dinner, we walked on the streets to digest first...Saw the price potato with cheese (which i bought from Shilin Night Market earlier) in an alley beside The Face Shop...then i dragged my friend up to an anime/comics shop....bought anime files there...then it was time to meet my friend's job agent who helped my friend to have a job in Singapore. We went to Starbucks, then my friend was telling me it was that lady standing in front lah...i asked her sure anot cos the 2 of them haven't met for like 8 or 9 years....hohoho...We didn't want to go Starbucks, so we went to a cafe opposite, called Rolling Cafe. It was quiet and lesser people. And so they started to chat, i just joined in to chat as and when....if the topic happened to be on Singapore...hahaha...The agent actually was a Singapore PR and even just renewed her PR too. And she had a company registered under Singapore and even have a flat there. But she is staying in Taipei for many years. She said she could manage to understand Mandarin and speak a little after many years but still couldn't speak it well...hehehee....And ya, of course to her Singapore is a very good country and she said every one in Singapore will have a roof under them but not in other countries. And taxes are much lower in SG than others.  She is a nice lady, had fun chatting with her too.... :)...We chatted until 10 plus, then she paid for our drinks. She went to our hotel with us, she said wanted to see how our room looks like....hohoho...And then my friend brought her to the lift and chatted there...i think...lol....When my friend came back....we just took our shower in turn and packed our luggage to prepare to fly off the next day.....

Hotel Stayed: Rainbow Hotel

Places Visited:
Banqiao

Taipei 台北, Taiwan Trip (Day 13)

29th November 2014, Saturday

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.

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...

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.

Thick Thick Cucumber!!

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

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