bookmark_borderIn Taiwan – Day 15 & Day 16

Day 15, the second last day in Taiwan, practically. We assigned it as shopping day. Though we, as in my friends, bought some souvenirs along the way, we didn’t buy much as we needed to keep our luggage (or backpack) weight in check. Besides, we assumed that we could get most of the souvenirs in Taipei itself.

Sogo

Our first stop was Sogo shopping mall. It is somewhat similar to the one you see in Malaysia, but it is way bigger. The purpose of us going there was to get some Taiwanese delicacy biscuits. As usual, we skipped our breakfast and so, we had our brunch in the shopping mall itself. There was a mini food court which sells quite a lot of food.

Beef Rice

Not knowing what to eat, by looking at the picture and with rough identification of words, I ordered some beef rice meal. It turned out pretty good actually. The meat was juicy yet tender while the black pepper sauce was good. I have got to give credits to them (Taiwanese) for knowing how to cook beef meat properly. After our meal, we looked for that particular booth which sells the biscuits we wanted to buy and we spent more than NT$5000 in total just on the biscuits.

List Of Shops

At about mid-noon, we left the building and headed back to our hotel. We didn’t go anywhere else as we had to put the biscuits in the room. We can’t be carrying them around, anyway. There were lots of shops around our hotel area. So we figured that we might be able to get some souvenirs from these said shops. But before the ‘shopping’ spree, we took a short rest in our hotel room.

Street of Ximending

Throughout our stay, we didn’t have the chance to stroll around Ximending, or at least around our hotel area. We only been through 2 streets and that’s only because we had to use it to get to the MRT. So, that day was our chance to see and feel how it’s like to be in Ximending during busy hour. Besides, we need to get to our souvenirs too.

Street Of Ximending

The streets were very busy from day till night. All walks of life were on the streets minding their own business. Young kids in school uniforms, older generations with proper attire to the hip and trendy looks of teenagers were all there. I wouldn’t say it was a cultural shock to me. Fashion in Taiwan (or at least in Taipei) somehow resembled to the ones in Japan. The way they dress and their hairstyle is similar to those you normally see in Japanese TV shows.

Red Building

I actually told my friends that the were lots of Hello Kitty in the shops. Let it be stickers, soft toys, stationaries and etc., they were literally everywhere. Don’t ask me why. There were shops that sell branded goods and there were ones that sells non-branded ones and not forgetting food outlets too.

Band Performance

At times, the streets of Ximending were so lively that there were live performances. Let it be day or night, there were people performing according to their own specialty which attracted quite alot of viewers.

Risotto Signboard

We strolled quite a while before we went for our dinner. After a numerous lookouts, we settled for this shop. Its speciality was risotto. Yes, of all places, my first risotto has to be in Taiwan.

Risotto

I ordered mine which was risotto with bacons. The taste was quite alright. Not too creamy/starchy yet not too bland. But I’m sure there are better ones out there. The only downside was they served in small portion, which I think they should be in the first place. However, having said that, risotto should normally be served as starters instead of main course. Not satisfied at all, we headed back to TGIF for another round of food. Haha.

Starbucks

It was pretty late at night when we finished our second round (of dinner). However, the day was not over. My friend managed to coax us to visit Starbucks for the last time. And off we went to the nearest Starbucks which was located opposite of our hotel. We chatted quite a while before we called it a day.

7 Eleven

On the next day, we woke up early. As early as 5am because there will be a cab waiting for us at 6am to pick and send us to the airport. IIRC, we paid approximately NT$1200 for a van (with driver, of course). The photo above is the last photo I snapped before we left for the airport.

bookmark_borderIn Taiwan – Day 14

It was our third day in Ximending. Getting bored and and tired, we decided to take our own sweet time. We woke up quite late in the morning till the point we skipped our breakfast which was provided by the hotel. At about 11am, we left the hotel and headed to the nearest noodle shop to grab our breakfast.

Green Noodles

Dry Green Noodles

The choice of the shop that we picked was rather a bad one. The noodles weren’t as tasty as those we ate throughout our stay in Taiwan. Somehow, the colour of the noodles didn’t look appetizing at all. Besides, the soup was just bland. I didn’t finish mine so as my friends. The only thing that I ate without complaining was the meat dumpling.

Xinbeitou

After our meal, we went back to our hotel room while deciding what to do for the rest of the day. One of the options (and we picked it) was to pamper ourselves with a visit to the hot spring. There were plenty of locations which offer these facilities and one of them was Xinbeitou. Apart from its easily access location, Xinbeitou is pretty famous for its hot spring.

Xinbeitou Train Station

Without bring out our cameras, we left the hotel at about 4.45pm. It took us quite awhile to reach to Xinbeitou as it was a little far out from Ximending. Do note that at 5pm, the clouds were a little dark already as opposed to what you normally see in Malaysia.

Xinbeitou City

As usual, we referred to the guidebook for its recommendation and best deals.  It took us quite a while to decide before we made up our decision on which to go for. We spent close to 2.5 hours in Xinbeitou before we left for Ximending for dinner. At that point, we were deciding whether we should go back to Shilin Night Market or to some restaurant near to our hotel.

Modern Toilet

And that was our choice. I guess we had enough of night market food. The restaurant was unique as they had this toilet theme. If you google them, you will know how ‘unique’ they are. Unfortunately, they only served dessert as they ran out of stock. Depressed (well… not really), we picked TGIF as our food source.

TGIF

During our visit, it was Halloween period. The staffs dressed in famous characters and one of the most significant character was The Joker (from The Dark Knight movie). The atmosphere was great compared to the ones in Malaysia as the staffs were cheerful.

Burger

I have forgotten the name of my meal but I ordered a burger. It was probably the most delicious non-Taiwanese meal I ever had. Hehe. I ordered a starter too which was……

Quesadillas

We didn’t had the chance to enjoy our dessert as we were rushing to catch a movie; Tropic Thunder. Well, we picked the right movie as it was uncensored. Fuck Vulgar words and brutality were all intact in the movie, unlike the one in Malaysia. That shows how lenient the government were. We called it a day after movie, which ended at midnight.




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