Hello Everyone,
today I am going to continue blogging about my trip to Taiwan.
For our itinerary, Baby and I initially planned it as such: 3 days of shopping, 2 days of sightseeing (places that are pretty standard in Tour Packages), and 1 day of just tying up loose ends. At the end of our trip, it was more like 6 days of shopping instead. This was because on the 2 days that we planned to sight see, we were told that there was going to be an incoming storm and moreover, it was raining really heavily; thus we didn’t have the chance to visit the Beitou Hot Spring and the Taipei Zoo. Oh wells, the next time we visit Taiwan next year, we will definitely be going to the places that we missed out on.
For today’s entry, much of the trip is focused on the following areas of Taipei:
Ximending– a rather happening shopping area selling lots of trendy clothings, shoes and accessories. If you’re planning to catch a movie in Taipei, you might want to consider watching at this place. Not only that, there are tons of hair saloons around; so if you’re planning to cut your hair, dye your hair, or do anything that is hair-related, you should visit this place too. Just so you know, Ximending is a place that’s filled with lots of youths [because the local schools are situated nearby] and that means you can expect to buy the latest trendy clothes at a rather affordable price.
Shida Night Market– a night market that’s not as bustling as Shilin Night Market but offers a wide variety of shops selling clothes, shoes, accessories and etc. In fact, we felt that it was pretty similar to the other night markets that we’ve been to.
Shilin Night Market– it was our 2nd time visiting Shilin Night Market this is one night market that you must visit because its filled with the latest fashionable clothes and accessories. Not only that, there’s lots of food to eat and many things to shop for. Besides eating and shopping, there are also carnival games available for you to try your luck and test your shooting skills.
Baby and I decided to venture out for our morning breakfast and as such, we settled our breakfast at the nearby street-stall selling noodles.
The Street-Stalls Nearby Our Service Apartment
Dining @ The Street-Stall Selling Noodles
The Menu
Maggi Mee with Pork Meat
Udon Noodles with Pork Meat
[Seriously, the noodles were very good! The soup base was tasty and really appetising and in fact, contains no MSG. Furthermore, the soup contains herbs and it is indeed nourishing. If you ask me, I kinda miss the noodles already and I really wish they have this in Singapore.]
[So after our breakfast, we headed straight to Ximending]
[as you can see, the place is really crowded and is comparable to Orchard Road, except that the price here are much more cheaper and you can even bargain too]
[colourful billboards everywhere]
[an art expert doing spray painting]
[one of his works which costs only SGD$5]
[I guess the Caricaturist is only available during the weekends because when we went back to Ximending subsequently, we didn’t see him there]
[Baby and I wanted to have our portrait drawn but then there were too many people in the queue]
[and so, we decided to walk around and try some food at the various street-stalls]
[as we didn’t got the chance to try the peanut shaved ice anymore, thankfully, they have a street-stall selling something similar!]
[Jumbo Hotdog!]
[Traditional Japanese restaurant which uses the train-convoy belt to serve food dishes. In fact, Baby and I dined here on a separate day and I would blog more about our dining experience at this restaurant in the upcoming blog entries]
[Starbucks Coffee occupies the whole entire second level of the building!]
[Baby and I caught a movie at this Cinema but that was on a separate day, so I will probably elaborate more on our experience in the next few blog posts]
[they even have a 4D movie thriller cinema. Those kind where the seats will shake violently and etc. more like an amusement ride.]
[and yes, for less than SGD$5 for a 4D movie ride with a wide variety of movies to choose from]
[a dog-friendly restaurant]
[an interesting shop selling lots of caps/hats]
[having a short break at Ximending’s Macdonald]
[Map of Ximending area]
[@ Shida Night Market and well, shopping and eating again]
[The place where we had our dinner @ Shida Night Market]
[The duck mee sua is quite good too because the duck meat does not have a strong meaty smell]
[This Oyster Egg Omelette is seriously way better than Singapore’s]
[As we found that Shida Night Market doesn’t offer anything much, we quickly took a cab back, put down our shopping bags, and went for a quick foot massage nearby our service apartment. The massage shop is worth mentioning because the therapists are visually-impaired. Thus, by having our tired feets massaged by the therapists there, we are contributing towards a good cause for them to earn some money. After the massage, we took a cab and went to Shilin Night Market for more eating and sight-seeing]
[more eating @ Shilin Night Market]
[A store that sells cheesy mashed potato served with corn]
[the cheesy mashed potato that Baby said was nice]
[couple shoes that we bought]
[couple slippers that we bought]
[the footwear that I bought]
And with that, this concludes Day 3 of our trip in Taiwan. =) 3 more parts to go, so stay tuned!
