Thursday, July 19, 2012
1st January, Sunday (Taipei)
We woke up kind of late after having a tiring night. So, we went to 龙山寺 to try to 求签. When we went to Penang previously in July 2011, we went to 求签 at the Sleeping Buddha temple (though it was through an electronic machine lol). Poor Gary got a damn cui 签 so we wanted to see what kind he would get over here in Taiwan.
In the end, we spent quite a bit of time like some lost sheep and still didn't manage to find out how to 求签. So we decided to move to the next destination, 故宫. We chose to go on the 1st because it was a public holiday and admission was free.
We took a bus from the nearest MRT and walked up to the place. The walk up was already very nice. The architecture along the way could already give one a preview of what was to be expected on the main grounds. We found out that there was an temporary exhibition at the other building and when we arrived, we realised this exhibition was not free on public holidays and it was quite expensive to enter (about 20 plus bucks SGD). So we just decided to go to the main building. (My other friend, Kay Siong, entered all parts of 故宫 for free since his Taiwan buddy's mum worked there. So good.)
The last time I went there, Kay Siong's buddy's mum gave us the explanation for all the artifacts and I found it very interesting. This time, since we were on our own, it felt a bit boring, especially since we did not get the audio guide too. We spent about 3 to 4 hours there. Nose and Gary were quite bored and were enjoying themselves by entertaining themselves. Gary was trying to act like a cultured man and was pretending to understand the Arabic text and other foreign unintelligible languages.
By the time we left, it was late afternoon already and we can go ahead to 士林夜市 already. The famed destination for food lovers visiting Taipei. Before the trip, I realised that the 士林夜市 that I visited 2 years back was actually a temporary market and the temporary market was actually in place since 2002. And the new market opened on Christmas Day of 2011. We were really lucky to be able to go for the new one.
For the new one, the basement was entirely devoted to all the 小吃 stalls and the ground floor had some game stalls and other random stalls. The neighbouring buildings also had some random shops on the ground floor. Frankly, the only stalls worth visiting are the stalls in the basement and all the other food stalls in the vicinity. There are probably more food stalls in the vicinity compared to those in the basement.
The basement was a nightmare. owing to the fact that it was New Year's Day and the market was newly opened. It felt like a concentration camp. All the walkways were damn congested. And curiously, we noticed that there were many replicates of the same stall. Maybe they were trying to gain more exposure against their competitors. I didn't remember much about the food here, partly because I was too disturbed by the amount of people there. When we got out to the streets, things got much better, especially the food.
Along the way, we tried a lot of food. Ham was very obsessed with 炸牛奶. We found a stall there that was supposed to from Singapore but oddly, it had a weird address with two road names inside it. Beside that stall, we ordered 金桔柠檬 from a Taiwanese who has just completed his National Service. He was chatting with us about the unique lingo of Singaporeans and his experiences as a driver while working with Singaporean NSFs during overseas exercises. Singaporeans are always recognised overseas when they start talking.
Overall, it's worth visiting in my opinion. There is a lot of good food all in the vicinity. I think the shopping area of the place was not completed yet. The previous time I went there, there was a long shopping district and a pet street too. The food is probably enough to attract visitors.
2nd January, Monday (Taipei)
It was a day for venturing to the northern parts of Taipei, 北投 for the hot springs and 渔人码头 mainly for the view. Both turned out to be quite disappointing as I did not find out more about the places we were visiting beforehand. Both places were closed on Mondays. What luck. So, important thing learnt from the trip is that for visiting attractions on Mondays, prior checking is a must.
At 北投, we spent about half an hour trying to find the 温泉拉面 shop, called 满来拉面, that I visited in my previous trip. We scaled up the hill and went down again to ask more from the staff in the 便利店. When we finally reached the place, it was closed. And we were hungry. And we were already disappointed when we found out that the 温泉 museum was closed on the way up the hill. Thankfully, some food outlets were open still and we settled at a noodle shop, which was just outside the entrance of 地热谷.
The shop owner had a handsome dog called 小黑. it was very well-behaved and the other customers were also playing with him, apart from us. At least the lunch was decent. Either that, or we were damn hungry from all the searching.
After lunch, we took a slow walk towards the hot spring area (which thankfully was still open on Mondays). Nose, Gary and I decided to try the hot springs. The last time I went there, I didn't join the rest inside the hot springs as I forgot to bring my trunks or any extra underwear. And I was sick then also.
There were 4 different pools, each of different temperature ranges with 3 hot ones and one cold one. The cold one was really cold, especially since it was winter. Just dipping the feet inside was enough to make us jump away immediately. The hot ones had temperature ranges of 2 degrees Celsius each, starting from 37 degrees till 43 degrees. Obviously, we went for the 37 degrees one first. Inside that pool, there was an overwhelming majority of the elderly and led us to comment that they must have a strong constitution.
After washing our feet with the water from the pool, we gingerly made our way in. And I can only think of 2 words that can describe us accurately: 丢脸. When we stepped inside the pool, the water level was above the knee level already. The water was damn hot and when I turned to look at Nose and Gary, their expressions were showing a mix of pain and discomfort. We moved extremely slowly to one end of the pool where we could lean against the wall. When we tried to dip our bodies down into the water, we jumped back up quickly. Now, I can totally imagine how comical we must have looked to all the others in the pool.
We repeated that process several times and suddenly, one old lady opposite us smiled and said to us, “快点下去。” Embarrassed, we dunked ourselves in, to much more discomfort and soon, itchiness. We were inside there looking very awkward and uncomfortable when 2 guys entered the pool. They were obviously Singaporeans (partly because one was wearing OCS shorts). So, we decided to watch how they would react to the pool.
They appeared slightly uncomfortable too. However, they left the pool about 10 minutes before us. We were commenting that they are weak, given that we were inside there for a longer period of time. I think we were just trying to improve our self-esteem. xD We left soon, since we were not supposed to stay inside there for extended periods of time. Although, the uncles and aunties were still inside enjoying the hot springs.
On the way back to the MRT, we visited the library nearby. Its exterior was that of a wooden house and it is a "green" library. The last time I went to 北投, we only walked past the library. If I was travelling alone, I would have spent some more time there. But ah well, we were moving on to 淡水 to see the 老街 and 渔人码头.
And what luck. 渔人码头 was largely closed on Mondays too. No wonder when we arrived, the whole place looked like a ghost town and there were almost nobody there. We visited a few shops which were thankfully still open and ate some of the local delights. We played a while at the arcade there and enjoyed the view from the upper deck of the place.
On the way back to the bus stop, when we were crossing the Lovers' Bridge, we saw a street performer sitting about 100m away from the end of the bridge. There were two huge speakers flanking him and he was singing very beautifully. At least it fitted well into the mood, with the whole place being very peaceful and quiet. We bought some Meiji ice-cream from the shops nearby and took the bus back to 老街.
淡水老街 is quite famous and consists of many streets of 路边摊 and shops. Some of the famous food here are the 阿给 and 阿婆铁蛋. And I like neither of them. Haha nothing special in my opinion. Also, there were many stalls there selling those kind of extremely tall ice cream cones. Irvin got one and it didn't really taste very good. We walked around a while more and tried a bit more food. When the sun set, we went on the MRT and left for 西门町.
And just like how I remembered it to be, 西门町 didn't have much to see for me. Occasionally, there were some street artists busking. They were mainly dancers and I must say they were really good. There was one who actually danced to 胡夏's 那些年 and was actually dancing out the lyrics of the song. I was mesmerized. Haha never thought the song could be danced out. The main attraction here of course was 阿宗面线. We took quite a bit of time trying to find it and when we reached, we bought two bowls to try. To me, it wasn't very impressive. Haha. Maybe it's because of the expectations.
That night, we moved from Purple Garden Hotel to Cityinn Hotel Taipei Station Branch III, which was just one street away. This arrangement came about because we booked our Taipei accommodation pretty late and there weren't much availability in many places. Cityinn is a boutique hotel that had a new branch near Taipei Main Station and we decided to book it in the end. It wasn't very spacious but I personally loved the themes of the place, mainly quite cartoonish. We joked that certain features of the hotel would appeal to Ham more since there was a few TV channels with R-rated content and each room was given a free condom. Any inferences that you may make from here is purely up to your imagination.
3rd January, Tuesday (Taipei to Kaohsiung)
Once again, we were back at Taipei Main Station, this time to take the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung. Finally, we could buy the cheesecake and we woke up earlier for this. Haha to prevent a repeat of previous events. It tasted quite good and reminded us of the cheesecake from Fiesta in Singapore.
Before going down to the gantries, we bought some 火车便当 for lunch on the trains and this time, we bought from the kind of more "authentic" stall, which was operated by the train company itself. This time, one of the two boxes we bought tasted so good. I think it was some pork chop set. The vegetables inside also tasted damn good. I almost forgot about the existence of the other. =P
The HSR was really very fast. Looking out of the window kind of made me feel kind of disoriented, since the normal trains we take are significantly slower. But still, the view was pretty awesome. Well, HSR isn't really very cheap and we bought about 3 weeks before departure I think. It's really quite good to buy early since the discount can be quite significant. Ours was 30%, which is quite a lot given that the ticket was pretty expensive to start with. This early bird discount applies for bookings more than 2 weeks in advance. Good way to save on the transport.
We reached the HSR station in Kaohsiung, which was called 左营 and then, took the MRT to 三多商圈 station. Our accommodation, La Villa de Sweet Heart, was supposedly near the MRT station. We followed the address given and was looking for the building numbered 2 on the street, which was a very long one. After walking all the way down the street and back up, we went inside the Starbucks of one of the shopping centres to ask for help. We managed to borrow the laptop of a very nice and helpful staff member of Starbucks and realised to our horror, we got the address and the phone number wrong. It was building numbered 21, not 2. And the building was just across the road from the shopping centre. We took more than one hour to find it and everyone was a bit sian by then.
We booked two rooms, with different themes. One was the ballet room and the other was the comic room. Stupid Gary chose the ballet room for us without seeing carefully. Lol the comic room was much better. Shelves and shelves of comics and there were quite a lot of movie DVDs. Our room had a wide range of classical music and of course, a make-up table that looks just like those you saw in the movie Black Swan. How nice. Hahahaha.
By the time we got settled in, it was pretty late in the afternoon already. We took a walk to the 海洋公园 nearby and also to the 85 大楼. There really wasn't much to see or do. Lol. Along the way, we saw a bike station near the entrance of the park. It turns out to be part of a project from the government for residents to rent the bikes and cycle around the place. I had heard about this system in place for Taipei and it sounds pretty good. I guess it would help in solving traffic congestion issues.
At night, we went to 六合夜市, which was the biggest 夜市 in Kaohsiung I think. And sadly, it was quite below our expectations. The 夜市 spans across a very long street and has a total of 170 stalls. I guess maybe it's because there were a lot of stalls selling local specialties and they didn't appeal much to us. Near the entrance, there was a stall which is very famous for their 木瓜牛奶 and was visited many times by 马英九. It was decent. Hahaha we didn't have a good impression of the place in the end.
After going back to the MRT station near our hostel, Gary and Nose said they wanted to go check out the "casinos" nearby. They were kind of like entertainment outlets because I think casinos are illegal in the country. Ham went back first and I went to explore the 诚品 in the mall. The 诚品 here was quite big and spanned across the whole floor. Also, the design of the place was quite unique I find. I quite enjoyed the place and spent quite some time there.
Turns out those two didn't go inside any of the entertainment places so we just went back to enjoy the rooms. Oh ya, forgot to mention that Gary had a odd habit of sleeping on the sofa facing the TV screen. So, I get the whole bed to myself! Haha, one of the benefits of sharing the room with him.
4th January, Wednesday (Kaohsiung)
Woke up rather early today somehow and everyone else was still knocked out so I went down to walk around the place to see if I can source for some breakfast. About 2 to 3 streets away, there were a small group of food vans/motorcycles. There was a rather wide variety for me to choose from and I took very long to decide, in line with my indecisive nature. It took me many walks around the vehicles to finally decide on soya milk and porridge. The porridge was nice and tempted me to buy another bowl the next day.
Day trip to 旗津 island. Kay Siong told me about this place and he wasn't really impressed, partly because it was quite crowded when he went. We had to take a ferry there from 鼓山渡轮站 and in the area, we saw quite a few shops that were selling 芒果冰 and other kinds of shaved ice. Popular food in summer one would expect and though it was winter, we still was thinking of trying. We decided to come back at night later.
Near to the port area, there was this interesting drinks vending machine which was advertised as selling bottled drinks that could undergo quick freezing. I have never seen quick freeze in action before and I think it was the same for the rest. So, we bought one bottle of coke to try. It was really cool. Irvin unscrewed the cap and took a sip. When he closed it back, a bit of freezing started to occur. When the bottle was overturned, the liquid inside froze instantaneously from bottom up. Really cool. Anyone wanna see the video can ask me for it. Haha.
The ferry ride didn't take long and when we came out from the port at 旗津, there was a bike shop right in front of us. We read up and found out that riding around the island would be the best. There were some people peddling their bikes to us already on the main island, outside the MRT station. But, we were thinking that renting on the island itself better.
In 旗津, there are mostly scenic spots for tourists to visit and as for food, the place is well-known for its seafood. We took the route that went around the island in an anti-clockwise direction. First stop was the 炮台, which was a rather good location for photo-taking. It was quite a walk up the hill but the view up there was quite worth it. The place reminded me a bit of Fort Canning Hill. One can get a bird's eye view of the surroundings on the island up there. It appeared to be quite popular with couples too. Lol.
After walking around the place a bit, we went down and continued cycling along the edge of the island to the next destination: 风车公园. It was quite a long journey and along the way, we stopped at a market to get a drink and maybe some food. Here, I found a stall selling 弹珠汽水 and I was quite tempted. In the end, I bought one to try for fun. I don't think I tried it before. The drink is nothing special. Haha it's just that the design is unique. There is no cap for the drink and in place of it, there is a marble. When the marble is pushed down, the pressure is released and you hear the fizzling of the drink. And don't worry, the marble is too big to come back out of the opening. So, no worries about swallowing the marble. Haha.
We slowly cycled on and along the way, there was a van that drove past playing some Hokkien song on the loudhailer mounted on top of it. Turns out it was some election campaign van for the local candidate. Still come up with song. Lol. When we finally reached the 风车公园, it was quite near sunset time already. I quite like the whole row of 风车 spinning to the wind. I could see why Kay Siong didn't like the place much though. Quite artificial in terms of the place having a very touristy and man-made feel. Ah well, cannot compare with Hualien for sure but it was quite decent still.
It got pretty late so we cycled back to where we came from and returned the bikes. After asking the boss about nice food nearby, we went to some seafood shop and ordered quite a bit for dinner. Ham is not a great fan of seafood so he went to look for a bakery, his favourite place for food. Lol.
We went back to the shaved ice shop that looked pretty famous, based on the number of autographs in the place. xD Ordered the strawberry one. That shop had a special bowl that serves 30 people. It looked really huge and kind of reminds me of the Vermonster in Ben and Jerry's.
After going back to the MRT station near our hostel, we decided to explore the basement of the shopping mall. We saw a supermarket and went in to raid the place for snacks. Haha I bought a mini bottle of vodka for my brother and the most memorable food we bought was a pack of 沙琪玛. Memorable not because it was good, but because it was so bad nobody wanted to eat it. It ended up following us back to Singapore where it was given out as gifts. HAHA =P Nose went to check out the SOGO store upstairs as he was considering if he should get the Marvel character t-shirt that he saw the day before. In the end, it was closed. That shirt was nice, but far too expensive.
When we went back to the hostel, we indulged in our next favourite TV show of the trip. After Stephen Chow, now we have....... Spongebob Squarepants in Mandarin!! I can't remember exactly when did we start to take notice of that show. Probably in Cityinn or when we got to Kaohsiung. It was quite fun to watch, especially when during the opening songs or when the main characters started to sing during the show. Nose and Gary soon started arguing who was 派大星 (the Chinese name for Patrick the starfish). Lol there was some stupid song that was sung by 派大星 and Gary kept singing it. -.-
5th January, Thursday (Kaohsiung)
We didn't really research up much on Kaohsiung before the trip. So, we only decided where to go when we were there. On this day, I kind of convinced them to go to the National Science and Technology Museum. Haha, we had lunch at the Mcdonald's and I had McGrill. Wow, it was really nice. Nose told me that Singapore had McGrill too. Never knew that. But it's expensive in Singapore mah.
The museum is supposedly the largest in Asia and consists of two buildings separated by the road in between. One of the buildings is only used when students come for workshops or other programmes. The main building consists of many floors and has an IMAX theatre too. I thoroughly enjoyed the place and seriously hoped for more time there. Based on the science and tech museums that I've gone to, I realised the science part fascinates me much more than the technology part. Haha really a pure science person then.
What I liked about this museum is the highly interactive nature of the place, especially the physics exhibits. I'm not a huge fan of physics but the exhibits really made those concepts they were trying to put across more interesting. At the chemistry area, there was an exhibit that displayed the phenomenon of magnetic levitation using superconductors. Too bad we missed the demonstration time.
The other three looked horribly bored at the place most of the times, apart from the few occasions where there was some fun game which was entertaining for a while. Haha. We also contemplated watching an IMAX movie but decided against it as it wasn't really cheap. So, we decided to go back in the end.
The best part of the day has yet to come. Haha we were looking for a dinner place and thought of the BBQ place we walked past the night before. The name of the place is 逐鹿炭火烧肉 (http://www.mydeer.com.tw/order.htm). From outside, it looked quite nice and we went there a bit too late the night before and was closing already. We asked them for the price of the dinner buffet and it was NTD495 for 3 hours.
There was a lot of meat on the ala carte buffet menu and on top of that, free flow of Haagen Daaz and Meiji ice cream. Trust me. That was our best meal in Taiwan. Ham said that place was the saving grace of Kaohsiung. Hahahah. For 3 hours, we had a lot of prawns, mussels and meat. The design of the place was pretty cool too. The seating around the BBQ pit kind of resembled the Japanese tatamis and one row had about 3 pits. The shoes were all placed at the side and most of the time, we just sat there and ate and ate and ate. That night, our appetites were superb. Even after all those meat, we still had the stomach for about 4 rounds of 3-scoop ice cream desserts. Completely worth the money. My top recommendation for anyone going to Kaohsiung. Ham was commenting that 逐鹿 was the saving grace of Kaohsiung. Lol.
All full and satisfied, we went back for more of 海绵宝宝 and 派大星. =p
6th January, Thursday (Kaohsiung)
Our 4th and final day in Kaohsiung. The main reason we had so many days for Kaohsiung was because we expected that we would have much to do over in Kaohsiung since it was the second largest city in Taiwan. It turned out that our research was far too insufficient. So, this day, we decided to follow some food guide in our hostel rooms that gave recommendations on good food in the 左营 area, the vicinity of the HSR station.
Kaohsiung in general is far less populated than Taipei but 左营 is worse than that. It looks like a ghost town. The area has several scenic spots and has a rather huge lake, called 莲池潭, with quite a lot of temples around it. People usually cycle around the lake and visit the places. We were too obsessed with finding the food places on our guide. Therefore, we went on foot to find the food outlets.
In the end, most of the places were closed and we only managed to find one of them. So, we settled down there for a rather long lunch, while deciding what to do next. Kay Siong recommended me to take some tourist shuttle bus that was available in the 左营 area where people could hop on and off at designated spots. It was a pity that we did not take that, or we could have explored the scenic spots of the area.
We did not realise that during our hunt for food, we wandered off quite far from the 左营 MRT station. Since the plan for the night was to go to 瑞丰夜市, we found a way to take a bus to 生态园区站 and we could take the MRT down to 高雄巨蛋站. From there, we can then walk to 瑞丰夜市. We kind of wasted the day already, since by the time we reached the 夜市, it was near nightfall already.
All we can say was this area is the second saving grace of Kaohsiung. 瑞丰夜市's layout was highly different compared to that of 六合夜市. Where 六合夜市 is along a long stretch of road, 瑞丰夜市 has many rows of stalls, all very compact in a relatively small area. And there were so many things here we could stuff our faces with. There was also a rather huge LED signboard with the words 瑞丰夜市 in big print.
The first stall that caught my eye was one selling churros. Imagine my surprise, churros in Taiwan. And the stall was operated by one Chinese lady and a Frenchman. I decided to 打包 it when we were going to leave. The place was rather crowded and we had to weave our way through the crowds. Sadly, I can't remember most of the stuff we had there already. The first half that we walked was all food and there was another half of shopping. Occasionally, there would be some game stalls in the shopping area. I was just amazed at how many stalls there were because from the outside, it didn't look like a very huge 夜市.
When about to leave, we still bought quite some stuff. We bought some juice, some cheesy snack and my churros. Ham went off earlier to a bakery again. Lol, one of his favourites in Taiwan. 85度C cafe. It has outlets overseas too, in China, USA and Australia. But as per most franchises overseas, I heard the Sydney one is horrible.
When we met up with Ham, I spotted the first ever 贡茶 outlet in Taiwan. And I found out that 贡茶 started out in Kaohsiung, which explains its absence in Taipei. While ordering the drinks, we were chatting with the counter staff about the differences in 贡茶 between Kaohsiung and Singapore. In Kaohsiung, they have more flavours and also two sizes for the drinks. Weird that we only have the small one. Even Koi has two sizes for the drinks. I ordered 太妃奶茶, which is toffee milk tea. Silly me thought Singapore doesn't have that flavour. It tasted just like caramel milk tea though.
7th January, Friday (Kaohsiung to Taipei)
Finally going back to Taipei and this also signals the final leg of the trip. The HSR took us back to Taipei and the 便当 this time was awesome too. Haha thankfully. The rest was pretty much asleep most of the time. I was sitting beside the window, reading 那些年我们一起追的女孩 and listening to my iPod. I always cherish the time I'm on my iPod when on a trip, simply because iPod time is drastically cut whenever I'm on holiday. Haha. I remember this part quite well. The whole scene reminds one of some cliche TV drama. The book, scenery plus music.
We quickly checked in back at Cityinn and immediately set off for 佳德糕饼, which is the shop selling top-notch 伴手礼 in Taipei. Sadly, we took the bus in the wrong direction and spent quite a bit of time getting there. It was really quite hard to find and it seems they do not want to have more outlets. Haha.
There was an interesting episode that unfolded outside the shop where some Malaysian lady, who was a tourist, kind of took an interest in Gary. Dunno what was she high on. In the end, she got his number and actually called him later at night. Creepy. Usually people goes there to buy their pineapple tarts. But after the trip, Ham let me try the green bean cake from there. Oh my, it was beyond awesome. The pineapple tarts pale in comparison (partly because I didn't really like the tarts in the first place).
Down the alley, there was 几分甜 bakery, which Ham and Nose went to in Taichung. This time we bought the 太空面包 again and since it's fresh, it tasted really good. Ham bought some of their bite-sized pineapple tarts too. By the end of it all, we carried a lot of stuff. Really a lot. So we decided to go back to the hotel to put down our stuff before departing for the last 夜市 of our trip.
We took the MRT to 后山埤 station and started to walk towards 饶河夜市 and 五分埔. The night before, Nose and I were trying to find one place that sold nice 鲁肉饭, supposedly frequently visited by Jay Chou. Dropped by it en route to the 夜市, the name of the place is 胡须张鲁肉饭. All members of the staff wore a T-shirt with the words Formosa Chang and 胡须张 printed in bright pink and yellow on the back. We ordered a small bowl of 鲁肉饭 each and shared some dishes.
The 鲁肉饭 was damn awesome. Serious. The other dishes weren't spectacular, maybe in comparison bah. Although I must say it was quite oily, but it was really super nice. I was seriously considering having another bowl but we still had the 夜市 to go to after that. So, we decided that we may come back for more if our stomachs were not filled to the brim. Haha. When leaving, I saw that the shop was selling their 鲁肉饭 in packaged form. 1 packet of 1kg rice and 3 packets of the condiments. Ham was commenting that he'll be scolded for buying rice back when it can be readily bought in Singapore. Well, the rice looked kind of special and in the end, I found out it was Japanese rice and could really be bought in Singapore. Ah well, anyway, Nose and I were considering buying it back so that we could eat it in Singapore. Either way, we KIV-ed it to the end of the night.
We walked past 五分埔 but there wasn't much that we wanted to look at. To me, that place is shopping heaven for girls but not really for guys. The place gave me the Bugis street feel but this is much larger. Anyway, we just moved on to 饶河夜市. But the sian thing was that it started to drizzle a bit.
Thankfully, it never developed into rain but it was kind of sian to walk the place with water splashing on your feet. Meh. We didn't really buy much food since the weather kind of turned us off. One of the last stops was at a teppanyaki shop and that was probably the more impressionable food we had at the 夜市. I really think the 鲁肉饭 was too good already. Hahaha.
No surprises there when we walked back to 胡须张 for seconds. Each had another bowl of 鲁肉饭 and Nose and I bought the package home. Happy happy. And I must say that was one purchase I never regretted. Cooking it myself also gave the same taste (then again, it was pretty idiot-proof). Hahaha the condiments pack just needed to be heated up and I just needed to adjust the water amount for the rice carefully that's all. Haha.
I can't remember exactly but I think this was the night that Nose and I went to collect our Uniqlo jeans too. When we were in Taipei previously, both of us each bought a pair of jeans there. It was quite cheap and amounted to about SGD40. We sent them for altering and would collect when we were back there again. I'm sad to say that even though the jeans fit me very well, the issue of its colour leaking is highly annoying. Stained my shoes when it rained and anything else stainable that I put in the pockets. Tsk.
8th January, Friday (Taipei)
The last day. Meh. Sad that the trip was ending. We kind of slowly took our time haha. Decided to go to Taipei 101 to try out the 鼎太丰 there as we thought the DTF in Taiwan was awarded the Michelin star too, like the HK one. Only after queuing then we realised that we were wrong. But ah well. We ordered quite a bit, in a bid to clear out NTD. Hahaha. It tasted pretty much about the same as the Singapore ones. The interesting thing was how we paid the bill. It came up to about NTD2100, which we paid with...... a lot of coins. =D hahaha. I felt genuinely embarrassed when we had to pay the bill.
After that, we went upstairs to spend some time before going back to check out and depart for the airport. We saw an outlet of PageOne that was almost not noticeable from outside as it was undergoing renovation. There was a small area outside that was selling bargain books at very very cheap prices. I bought 2 Agatha Christie books I think. The interior of the shop was still very nice. I had a great time walking around the inside and browse through the books. There was this book I saw that was about the Story of Science. It wasn't cheap as it was an English book. PageOne and Eslite in Taiwan sell Chinese books at very cheap prices but not the English books. I took a photo of it and was planning to borrow it from the library back in Singapore. In the end, I bought it off online for about only SGD13 since it was so rare in Singapore (only Kino had it, according to my research).
And then, the last walk back to Cityinn. Checked out, got on our cab, back to airport. The funny thing was as our cab started moving to the airport, to our horror, we saw a 夜市 just two streets away from our hotel. Faints. Hahahahahah. We never walked to that area. Damn. Maybe next time. On the cab, they paid me for all the accommodation in NTD. Dear me. Now I'm stuck with quite a bit of NTD. Those going to Taiwan soon can come find me to change money. Hahaha. The flight back to Singapore was a bit sad but ah well. It had to end. Nose and I were just sian when we arrived back in Singapore as there was a freaking long queue for taxis and it was in the middle of the night. So tired.
Conclusion (finally!):
I'm highly ashamed to say that I took more than half a year to complete this. HAHAHAH. I promised myself to writing a bit of it daily during the last semester. Failed so badly. This is a prime example of my level of procrastination. Near the end of this whole blog entry, I had to rack my brains to recall things that happened so many months ago. Thankfully, I started to note down the highlights of our daily events on a piece of paper when I was in Kaohsiung.
So here u go. The efforts of 6 months and about 8 days I think. (Completed this on 19th July) I cannot remember since when it started when my friends gave me the -.- look whenever I said this post is near completion. I always hear "我听你讲很久了咯！" xD I hope whoever is still reading this won't find this too long or what. This is mainly for my memories' sake and if anyone wants to use this as reference, feel free to clarify any doubts or any queries with me thru the chatbox I guess. I know it's full of spam but yea. Not comfortable sharing my contact details online haha. That's all!!! Thanks to all my friends for harping on my procrastination and thanks to Ham, Nose and Gary for the awesome trip!
rotted-1:20 PM
