#12daysintaiwan - Taipei! (Day 7 - 12)
The last 6 days in Taipei! Taipei totally drained our nights and screwed our body clocks! But we gladly let it be. Hahaha..This is a very long post ahead!DAY 7
The coach stopped at Taipei Bus Interchange which was just at Taipei Main Station (台北車站). Got a cab down to the hotel, which was very near (but took a long time because of the jam) and it was just a Ximending (西門町). (Yes! The popular place where the youths love hanging out.) The hotel was more like a motel/soho kind of concept, where it was located in a building and the hotel occupied 4th and 6th levels (okay maybe more but 4th was the lobby and 6th's where our hotel room was).
I'm glad fish chose the newly renovated rooms because we then realised the hotel was also kind of like a temporary spot for dirty stuff. Hahaha.. Well, we noticed that when we checked in, by the hourly rates of the rooms on the board and also judging quite a few old + young combination couple. Thankfully, these only happened on the 4th level's rooms because 6th were all/ mostly (or so I thought) tourists.
- Hotel: Ximen Hotel (西門大飯店)
- Rate: 90SGD per night
- Remarks: Considering the location it was pretty worth it. However, the room was small (but just right for 2 girls) and the fridge wasn't working. The room was made up pretty well though! Walking distance to Ximending and Taipei Main Station MTR. Probably a 3-3.5 stars out of 5. But then again, if you do not mind having weird couples in and out the lift (but only doing business on level 4, it's a pretty good stay!)
So on the first night, we went out for late dinner. I must say that Ximending has changed pretty much since I was there 3 years ago. Maybe the refurbished buildings, new stores popping up and old stores gone (for example the neoprint building where there were lots of neoprint machines on the first and second level!). Even 豪大大雞排 (Hot Star Large Fried Chicken) had their store there, brightening the cross roads of Ximending. There were more students performing / selling stuff to raise funds for school fees or funds for their school clubs/societies. However, do be careful of many teens carrying a big bag of stuff and telling you they're from some uni taking their art degrees and begging you to buy their stuff so they can earn school fees.
1) They are annoying and won't stop whining. 2) Their stuff are expensive. 3) Fish and I bought a stuff and regretted because it means we have S$12 lesser from our common fund.
Okay, partly because they don't look truthful, like they came up with a story to aim at tourists like us!
I can't believe we didn't have meesua at all this trip. Not like the much raved meesua is the best but it's a must-have if you're at Ximending (at least I had it everytime I was there for past 3 trips!)!
Ain't this Shiba Inu handsome?
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DAY 8
The next morning was planned for brunch at Jay Chou's cafe (as Fish is a Jay Chou fan if you know me well. Haha) and so we headed Mr J 義法廚房北醫店 (the Italian restaurant / his movie, Secret,-themed restaurant). It was located inside the Taipei Medical University (台北醫學院) so I thought it'll be exciting to have a look at overseas' university's compounds! As according to the map, the school was located in between Liuzhangli station (六張犁站) and Linguang station (麟光站). So I managed to figure out that the former station would be a nearer one. It was, however, a 15-min walk from the station. Thank god for google map, we managed to reach our destination.
Back to the shop, it was nothing much except limited edition Nike shoes and really expensive (and unreasonably priced) clothes, bags and shoes. Nothing in that shop really says "I'm a Jay Chou-invested shop". So don't bother stepping in, Jay Chou fans, unless you're shopping around in Zhongxiaodonglu. If you guys have heard of the song by 動力火車, we might have really walked Zhongxiaodonglu nine times because there were many lanes! And I managed to get 2 dresses from the shopping there!
- Nearest MTR: Zhongxiao xinsheng station (忠孝新生站)
I remembered my colleague, Eugene, showing me about a really good beef noodle stall which was recommended by JJ Lin (牛爸爸牛肉面) and so I googled which was near Zhongxiaodonglu! Happily, we walked over (which took 10 minutes at least) and to our disappointment, the stall had shifted since a year ago! Silly me didn't notice that the address on google was last updated as being the old address! So for those who really want to try the beef noodles, check out the directions here : http://www.beeffather.com/beefmap.asp
By luck (or not), we walked past Ding Tai Feng and decided to settle our dinner there! And according to my ex-colleague, we happened to be at the very first DTF store! After a long wait of 45minutes, we got our table and ordered the usuals we had in Singapore. The food's tastier albeit saltier!
Much as we were having food coma, the night was still young and being a friday we couldn't have missed out some night life. Clubbing was out because our dear Louisa didn't give us the club she recommended earlier, and when she did, the fun night was on a Thursday. As such, we headed down to EZ5 Life House, which was recommended by my boss. Lucky for us despite not having known the singers for that night, Huang Jia Qian (黃嘉千) was down to sing on that day (or I suppose every Friday). It was very crowded on a Friday and we couldn't get seats. So we settled for standing places and chilled with cocktails! The third and last singer was replaced by Lai Ming Wei (賴銘偉) and yes, lucky us again!
- 台北市安和路二段211號 / No.211, Sec. 2, An-Ho Rd, Da-an District
- Do make reservations if you want to get a seat! 886-2-2738-3995 (anytime between 7pm - 2am)
Crazy owls like us decided to drop by Eslite Bookstore (誠品) which had 2 branches that were 24-hour. Apparently I brought us to the other branch (yet again) which wasn't the one I went before on the previous trip. It was much smaller and didn't have huge range of books. There wasn't a multimedia section too. Didn't manage to get any books but only a magazine (with Rainie Yang gracing the cover) for my sister.
Upon googling and researching again, the one I went was the only 24hour branch.
- 誠品敦南店 / 台北市敦化南路一段245號
- Nearest MTR: Zhongxiao dunhua Station - Exit 6 (忠孝敦化站 - 出口6)
- 誠品信義旗艦店 / 台北市信義區松高路11號
- Nearest MTR: Taipei City Hall Station - Exit 2 (市政府站 - 出口2)
- Opening Hours: (daily) 10:00~24:00 / (public holidays) 10:00~02:00
DAY 9
Even though I've been to Taiwan for 3 times, not once have I tried the Braised Meat Rice (魯肉飯). Yes, I'm that lousy! So this time round, this dish is in my to-eat list. Yunli recommended me to Formosa Chang (鬍鬚張魯肉飯) which has a lot of branches around Taipei. So we planned for brunch.
As you can see from the map, there's a lot of branches! We went to the one that happened to be the very first store opened by the man (boss) himself. Apparently, the family business started in 1960 with a little stall/cart at Min Quan Xi Lu (民生西路口) and he got this quirky name from his customers as then he had little sleep from running the business which was booming from positive word-of-mouth. As such, he didn't have the time to groom himself and thus, had a significant beard which transformed into a nickname for him!
- 美食文化館 - Tel: (02）2558-9489 台北市寧夏路62號
- Nearest MTR: Shuanglian Station (雙連站)
- For the rest of the branches: http://www.fmsc.com.tw/retail.php
If you're heading to Wufenpu (五分埔) they do have a branch near to the Houshanpi MTR Station (後山埤站).
- 台北永吉店 (02）2788-8081 台北市永吉路533號
The gravy was good! and the braised pork literally melts in my mouth! Plus, they do sell instant packs for their braised meat and this means good news to fans of their food. That includes me because I bought myself 4 packets home!
While taking the train to where we had Formosa Chang, we overshot a station and alighted at the next one Yuanshan Station to take the rebound one. As it was a Saturday, I guess we were lucky and saw some bustling event just right in front of the station which was also their exhibition hall/ expo-alike. This was also one of the huge area of exhibition for their Floral exhibition back in 2010 (yes I was there for it!)
So after brunch, we decided to check the event out. Took a 15 to 20 minute walk from Ningxia Market (yes we really walk a lot!) and we arrived to learn that it was a "Farmer's Market" (臺北花博農民市集). Many vendors were farmers or at least direct distributors, and they were selling their own-grown products - such as pears, peaches, vegetables, etc. We didn't purchase anything but instead, got ourselves joining the queue of a talented man (in his 60s) doing silhouette-paper-cutting. He's really skilled at it and as part of the event and fun of it, he's only collecting receipts (I guess they could claim some kind of tax refunds with receipts!). Of course he hoped customers would buy a little plastic frame (which was NT100/SGD4.50). He does the cutting really fast and as a form of support, fish and I bought the frame each.
There was the other part of the area for flea market but we didn't explore that as we were hungry (boy, we do have efficient digestive systems!). Next in the plan was the other Mr J Cafe (Initial D-themed), along the same line as Yuanshan Station.
*Itinerary tips: Do manage places you want to go by researching on their locations and grouping them together wherever is convenient as possible. For example, referring to the MTR map would be the best as that would be your main transport. As such, do group places where the nearest MTR stations fall on the same line. This will definitely save time in changing platforms/lines. For me, I do have pretty much food places along the same line, however, if they do have other branches on other lines, it would be best because I could place them in another day. Otherwise I might have 4-5 food places to go in a day and just stuff myself to death. Lol.
Get down at Taipower Building Station (台電大樓站) and it's about 10minutes walk away. We reached the place at about 3pm which unfortunately they were closed for a break/rest for 2 hours! *Note: avoid 3-5pm!
Since we had time to kill, we wanted to just chill at a cafe. Stepped into a production-themed cafe, Film Studio Cafe (片場咖啡), for some cakes, drinks and social media time. I love the ambiance and I guess that's the best part of cafe culture overseas. Or at least in Taiwan and Korea (from photos and captions I've seen on friends' Facebooks) you could feel it in any cafes. Chill, is an over-rated word to use in Singapore if you have to queue to get a seat and table and getting annoyed with a noisy cafe. I'm not really a cafe person (since I don't go cafe hopping) but I guess everybody's pace is too fast to event catch-up on chilling session at a cafe.
Film Studio Cafe didn't have really great desserts, but it's a place we could really rest our feet and spend 2 hours there without feeling like we just took up a 4-seater and the-owners-doesn't-want-us-to-turn-other-customers-away kind of atmosphere.
Went back to Mr J cafe and got served by expressionless staff. Worst, the first thing that turned me off was being seated right outside the restroom which didn't smell too good. Or rather, might just turn my stomach upside down. The menu was pretty bad with not much choices and it was quite expensive for the kind of food presented and we could get similar food at same price but better quality at Itacho Sushi (lol). Service staff had a really nonchalant and slow attitude/service and Fish at this point of time, was already super upset and disappointed. Well, as a Jay Chou fan, she expected more.
The food we ordered was also disappointing. Much as it was labelled as the sushi designed/created by the superstar himself, it was not too pleasing. Dramatic fish was so upset she couldn't smile properly for the photo taken with the Initial D car! And her disappointment lasted for at least 3hours! We gave our honest feedback on the form and before stepping out, I heard the service staff discussing among themselves that they were sad with the feedback we gave and truthfully questioned themselves if they were that bad. (At least they took in the feedback open-mindedly) Honestly, Secret-themed restaurant's food is much better! This is rated 2 out of 5 in my personal opinion and experience.
Another random and lucky event we got to know was we were in time for their fireworks festival (煙火節) just a 10-minute walk from our hotel. After the early dinner (or I should say snack since we only ordered that much), we headed back to our room to rest (again) and went over to Dadaocheng's Yanping Riverside Park (大稻埕/ 延平和濱公園). We followed the crowd and found ourselves a good spot and by then, there were pretty much people gathering around already. There were snacks stalls around so the crowd could chill and have snacks while waiting for the fireworks show. The huge screen was showing some awards event at the same venue but at the end of the park. While the fireworks started, the orchestra at the event started their symphonies in tandem with the performance in the sky! Great experience with unlimited fireworks, unlike the short ones we have in Singapore!
Getting out of the park at the end of the event was the worst part because every one exited at the same time and the whole place was cramp - making it difficult get out of the park. As the event was a pretty huge one, traffic was also diverted with some road blocks. It was super difficult to get a cab and we walked for quite a distance (and might have even walked the same road twice) before we got a cab to Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市).
Pork ribs soup
Orh Lua - oyster omelette
Scallops in cheese/mayonnaise
The famous pepper-meat pastry
My bad memory told me Wufenpu (五分埔) it was a night shopping place so we walked there after late dinner. and it turns out to be the opposite. It was so dead quiet at 11pm that it's so different from what it is in the day (bustling with buyers and sellers purchasing and selling from this wholesaling area).
One of the To-Do in my list was to catch a movie in Taiwan (I love doing such stuff overseas to experience such a simple entertainment) and that night we caught The Conjuring! We must have been crazy to choose a horror movie in the middle of the night, with less than 10-15 people in the theater. But it was a good movie and a good experience definitely.
Cost of tickets: NT220 each (SGD10)
Cost of tickets: NT220 each (SGD10)
There's a "cinema street" along Ximending and there's possibly 3 cinemas on that stretch. So no worries on difficulty of finding a cinema!
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DAY 10
Since my parents were also in Taipei, we met up after lunch and took a train from Taipei Train Station down to Ruifang Station and then change to another train for our station at Pingxi (if you watched 那些年, that's where they filmed the scene of them putting the lantern up).
The train was packed (since it was a Sunday) and the train was moving so slowly. I have never been to Pingxi (平溪) or Shifen (十分) (the furthest I've been in that area is to Jiufen and usually it's by taxi) so I was excited to take the train up there this time round. But seriously, it was crowded and stuffy in the train I wanted to jump off the train lol. But a good experience though (finally taking the old train!)
The weird-tasting homemade icecream at Pingxi
Train is coming~
Taiwan has one of the best sausages!
We roamed about Pingxi for 1-2hours and even though I wanted to go down to Shifen, I guess my parents and Fish weren't too keen already so we decided to get down the mountains and to Jiufen (九份). *Note: FYI, these places are all up in the hills/ mountains. We decided taking a cab was a better option to squeezing in the train and slowly chugging down. I've always gone up to Jiufen whenever I'm in Taipei because it's a nice old street with nice food (Shifen is probably the same because we didn't go and went straight to Jiufen from Pingxi) but most importantly, I needed to get my all-time favourite Jelly!
If you're in Jiufen, do try the yam balls (芋圓) and Huangmama's Jelly (黃媽媽莒蒻 pronounced as Ju Ruo)! The best time to go would be reaching there at late afternoon, about 3-4pm and then taking your own sweet time walking through the street, and at the end, enjoy a good sunset view! Do note that most of the shops will be slowly closing at 7-8pm. We followed the same cab down to Taipei city which took slightly more than an hour due to jam (note!).
The sun setting at Jiufen.
Dropped off at Dan Shui Night Market (淡水老街) as my dad missed the fried squid so much for the last trip but unfortunately, the stall's probably closed or moved. Dan Shui Night Market is a pretty short street by the way!
Fish and I then moved on to Shi Lin Night Market (士林夜市) which has shifted to a new premise just across the old one. If I'm not mistaken, we alighted a station earlier, so the right stop to alight is Jiantan Station (劍潭站). The whole area changed a lot and since we were pretty late, by the time we settled a late dinner, most of the shops were closing. Hence we didn't explore the basement (which I heard is where all the food stalls have shifted to). And so we spent our time at the game stalls!
Seriously, Taiwanese are smart in creating such games at the night markets! This is only NT10 (SGD0.50) for 3 balls!
I seriously didn't know there was a crowd behind me and that guy beside me.
Being crazy girls, our night didn't end at 1am. Instead, we went over to Holiday KTV which was around Ximending, and this was on my TO-DO list too! (The other bigger KTV's Party World with a huge building just right behind Ximending) Holiday KTV is comparable to Party World's in terms of service, room layout (yes they have in-room toilets!) as well as rates. SO, we had a room to ourselves from 1.30am to 7am, but Fish couldn't take it half way through so I was technically having my own mini-concert. Hahaha..and we left at 5am because age is catching up on us.
KTV rates: varies with which time slot you go in and they do value-add with food and drinks for some packages. We spent about SGD15-20 each for the night!
DAY 11
I love random exploration like this and finding surprises - like how we found a good view of Taipei 101!
Unfortunately, it was closed when we were there and except for a few shots for momento, we couldn't taste the recommended food at 好。丘.
Of course, how could I miss going to have mala pot before I return to Singapore! We (,the crazy girls) reserved a table for 10pm at Ding Wang Malapot (鼎王麻辣鍋) for second round of dinner (but we were too full we only ordered a plate of tender pork). I loved the special taste of the mala pot which was really different from what we have here in Singapore. The spices used weren't as choking and the spiciness wasn't too much to handle either. What's more, I had my first try on Duck's blood! Yes, 鴨血! I guess there was nothing to lose (except bad stomachache which I didn't have) and life is all about trying new things. Surprisingly, the duck's blood, which came in the form of harderned/ jelly-like piece, was smooth and didn't taste fishy (which I expected) at all. What's more, there were many benefits of duck's blood - all the reason to have more! And it really helps when the restaurant does provide free-flow of duck's blood.
Another commendation, the service was really good! Can you believe for the first time I thought we were some royals, because whenever the staff served us, they gave us a 90-degree bow before and after the service? Anyway, I didn't quite enjoy the other half of the pot, which was 四川菜 and I felt it was too sour.
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DAY 12
Time to leave for Singapore after a typical breakfast with Soyabean milk and doughsticks. Not forgetting the Taiwanese egg "pancakes".
Oh yes, and a last-minute quick shopping at the sports store to get my Adidas shoes off the list! Loving this new pair of kicks to motivate me to run!
..It took me 2 months to finally clear this travelogue and I really miss Taiwan. It was a good trip with one of my closest friend and through this trip, I guess we learnt to 'tolerate' each other better. (And we really hope Louisa foong can join us the next time round.) Now, I travel with an opened mind - to try whatever I can and getting the best experience out of every day of exploration and adventure.
Thank you for being my travel partner!
She couldn't help thinking that there was a little more to life somewhere else. After all it was a great big world with lots of place to run to
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