benchmarc

Taiwan (29th Oct 2010 – 5th Nov 2010)

14 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment

by egomarc in food, Friends, holiday, interest, Just Updates, life, money, mood, Taiwan, Taiwan, whatever

The long awaited post is here. After so much editing, I think I deserve to blog one of the longest post in my entire life.

Anyways, here’s my whole Taiwan trip. Enjoy.

Day 1 – Touchdown.

Arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 1 at about 4:45am. Headed for breakfast alone at BK as the rest have not arrived. But then again, was made to rush and wait eventually when Zhencong was late. But still, we manage to board our plane safely.

Landed in Taoyuan International Airport at around 11:45am in Taiwan. The first look at the airport – not so convincingly an international airport that I would expect, but nonetheless, it still deserves to be recognised and discovered. But that is also not ruining my image of Taiwan. As I sat in the backseat in the cabby that was arranged to ferry us, I travel past the busy expressways of Taipei, with torn and tattered buildings that made Taiwan look like a city of yesteryears. And I always had that impression that Taiwan is still well-developed. But sadly it isn’t. That won’t spoil my image of Taiwan still, because ultimately, Japan also looks like that, just that they have cleaner air with nicer weather, though Taiwan’s raining and raining that whole period.

When we arrived at our accommodation area, I’m quite impressed at the type of room that I was given to live in. Though small, with 3 double-decked beds, 6 of us manage a cosier living style with everything everywhere in the room. With only 1 living room, there’s time for catchup sessions including Monopoly Deals before bath. A computer, with wireless, and also cable tv, it is priced at only SGD$125 for only 7 nights. Probably the best deal in the world. The hostel, TaiwanMex, is located about 5 to 10 minutes walk from the Taipei Main Train Station, which consist of their MRT as well as their Train Service.

The hostel is located at 66, ChangAn West St, at exit R4 of the underground shopping mall linking from Taipei Main Train Station to Zhongshan Station. Coming out from the entrance of the hostel on the right is Legend Bubble tea store, with a Tauhuay Drink eatery opposite the hostel. Good enough for breakfast, as I have ate there on the 3rd day. Good stuff.

We didn’t wait, so we moved off to sit the trains first. So we bought this concession card at $500NT ($400NT in train ride amounts, $100NT refundable after using up all the amount inside the card) and travelled throughout our whole Taiwan trip in Taipei. Nice eh. It’s like their EZLink Concession somehow. But it’s worth it. We went to shopping malls, Daiso, ate Mos Burger for lunch, which taste really good compared to Singapore. And we already contemplated at the purchase of a Porter pouch, but left it to the last day because it’s only the 1st day. LOL.

So after that we went to Sogo at Zhongshan Dunhua and Zhongshan Fuxing to have a look as well. They have 3 Sogos sanwiched between that area, and it’s not as small as you think it is. But it has a lot to offer. Brands like Nike and Adidas are presently there, G-shock, Puma, Porter International etc are all there too. It’s like our Takashimaya, less exquisite, because they are not offering big brand names like Chanel or at least Agnes B. After walking around, we decided to settle for Ding Tai Fung, since it’s around their area. Amazing thing is – the food is so much cheaper there than Singapore. We paid SGD$13 each to eat a portion that we usually eat individually at Singapore for about SGD$30 per pax. And the waitress are hell prettier than Singapore ones here. Totally amazing.

After that sumptuously cheap meal, we were wondering where should we go next. Then out of the blue, our random suggestion was to head to Shida Night Market since it was just around the corner. The next thing we knew, we were on the way there in the cab. Once there, it’s hell crowded but fantastically, it has so much to offer. Cheap clothes, cheap shoes, cheap food. What else can I say? There’s a MRT station along the green line, nearer than Zhongshan Fuxing. Take that one there. More accessible and faster.

Yup, and before you know it, we were heading back to the hostel to leave our stuff and get ready for clubbing at Luxy. The club, in all, is a great club with nice ambience and good people, just lacking one thing – atmosphere. It’s strange to know that the people in the club wanna head down to party but not knowing how to mingle, dance, or at least sing the damn song, which I’m not surprised to how they can’t actually sing it properly. But then again, it was a club that played probably underground music that I haven’t heard of. But the sad part is that I went one day earlier, because the next day was Benni Benassi and David Guetta. DOWN ON MY LUCK so to speak. Sigh.

Anyways, entrance fee is NT$600. But you can pay at like NT$5000 to get a table with drinks, if I’m not wrong. 1 or 2 bottles, I can’t remember, but definitely more worth it. The NT$600 is like SGD$25, cheaper than Butter factory.

Day 2 – Ximending. And only Ximending.

If you want me to elaborate on shopping at Ximending, then I will give you some tips on shopping smart in Taiwan.

Tip 1 – Check for shops that have Tax Refund.

Usually renowned departmental stores like Roots, Sogo etc do offer Tax Refund after spending more than NT$3000 in that departmental store itself. But as for smaller single shops like Adidas Originals, XLarge etc, they might not offer the Tax Refund, and the sales staff have no freaking clue that it CANNOT BE CLAIMED SIMPLY AT THE AIRPORT ALONE. Firstly, to identify if the company is registered as a tax refund merchant, please ask the staff. Secondly to confirm your doubts, check on the back on the receipt if there’s a blue chop with some chinese words in a rectangular box. That rectangular box is an indication that it is a company that is registered. So if you can, shop wisely to save some money back to buy Sun Biscuits at the airport.

Tip 2 – Don’t always Jiak, Pong, Gao (JPG)

Let me elaborate on the terms of JPG. Jiak = Eat, Pong = Coupled, Gao = Win. In the mahjong world, JPG is typically of those people that aren’t afraid to die in the game, but end up with a stroke of luck that could either steer them away from a big payout to their opponent or winning that round with big loads of shit ass money. In the shopping world, Jiak means you practically saw something you like. Pong means you decided to try it in the fitting room, or at least try the product out. Gao means you bought it without even thinking. In a nutshell, JPG is simply known as Impulsive Shopping.

Apparently in Taiwan, you can find many of the same things all over and over again, not usually pertaining to Ximending, but especially areas like Wufenpu and the other night markets, notably Shilin and Shida. So don’t just spend your money in a blind shade. You will never know what you can find in the next shop. But it’s also quite hard sometimes as the areas there are extensively messy. All importantly, just make sure you know when you are getting it, Singapore’s equivalent product has to be more expensive so that you feel that its worth it to purchase.

Tip 3 – Bring your cash, and credit card, to the right places.

You see, if you are shopping at the departmental store, if you don’t have the cash, the card is always the best friend. But if you end up shopping at smaller stores at Shilin Night Market, then you are in for deep shit if you don’t have the cash. Apparently, these smaller shops – not all of them – might not have a credit card machine for you to swipe happily. So please bring sufficient cash.

Tip 4 – Keep small change.

Importantly, because when you are hungry, you become a demon searching for food. But food is everywhere in the streets, just that you need to be mindful that giving such a big note wouldn’t guarantee you stomach satisfaction, because the auntie or uncle selling that sausage to you might not even have change to break it apart. And it’s good to get rid of coins at such places without touching your bigger notes like the NT$2000 note, which many Taiwanese haven’t really seen them till now, and they get all amazed by it.

Anyways, Ximending is one hell of an “Orchard Road”. Cool weather, very hip people, with Halloween in the fray, the mood is there. Young teenagers singing in the middle of the parade square a medley of Taiwanese Pop star hits that brought in an immense number of curious bystanders. Fun-goers displaying their costumes in all shapes and sizes. Friendly people with all due respect, were there to just bring up the mood in an already interesting place like this.

I bought a trenchcoat that is made in korea from this shop that has a wonderfully beautiful saleswoman. And yes, she was nice enough to entertain me. And boy she’s one hot lady as well. Don’t anyhow think, but she’s really very sexy indeed. But I love my trenchcoat more. LOL. I got myself an Adidas Fall/Winter 2010 collection Campus shoe that wasn’t out in Singapore yet. I was over the moon when I bought it, but when I went back to the place, they were actually selling it like NT$300 cheaper. I was cursing a bit, which explains Tip 2 in the shopping tips above.

Anyways, the food along the streets itself are already great. But wait till I enter Miaokou at Keelung, then I will know what is the real deal. The food and bubble tea there is really really very cheap, way cheaper than your food courts that you dine in Singapore.

After all that crazy shopping, we went to the BIGGEST Partyworld KTV I have ever seen. In Singapore, it’s like a large area inside a shopping centre. In Taiwan, Partyworld occupies ONE BUILDING. I think it reaches to 20 storey high. Imagine that amount of KTV rooms you have. You will never grow sick of singing because in one particular room for example, it has an LCD TV, a toilet for you, 2 microphones, and the best thing of all, their touch screen song selection monitor! Pathetically in Singapore, we are still pressing our remotes.

It was all good, even the food in Partyworld ain’t as bad as the one we had in Singapore. But it was great nonetheless! And yes, we took a cab home, because Ximending is actually only one MRT station away from our accommodation area. Not too bad though!

Some pictures of the day. =)

Day 3 – Wufenpu, Taipei City Hall, Rao He Night Market

At this day, we did a lot of shopping, and sight seeing for sure. But Wufenpu, rumoured to be like a mad shopping area for all, surfaced in many of our conversations. Apparently, it’s like Singapore’s Bugis Street – Just way bigger.

Shopping was crazy, but please note that if you have to go to Wufenpu, please take the MRT and alight at Houshanpi. It’s along the blue line heading towards the east. Once you alight, check out the map and you can make your way there. But do not forget to dine in at a eatery with a yellow signboard. They are famous for their braised pork rice, which is FANTASTIC by the way. I would recommend the Bittergourd Soup that the same eatery is selling. It’s not even bitter at all, and it was the right call because the other Ginseng chicken soup is bitterly nice. LOL

If you are going with friends, just split up and meet at the same point again because, like Bugis, it’s quite messy and all around is male and female stuff. Shopping there is amazingly cheaper than you think, just do not expect big brands to appear, but more of street fashion to be available at a cheap price. Bargaining is possible, so if you can, buy more and get cheaper prices!

After all that crazy shopping, we headed to Taipei City Hall, agreeing that we will chase the sunset. So we end up taking photos and walking a distance of at least 5 Ngee Ann City Civic Plazas before arriving at a carpark opposite Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world. It’s a sight to behold at night as well, though I was told that it was better to capture the day scenes. Then again, nightview was breathtakingly beautiful! Definitely higher than the Tokyo Tower for sure.

There’s shopping inside the Taipei 101 as well, but we aren’t exactly tourisy tourist, so we won’t go for those stuff there, because all of it are branded goods. But if you ever really wanna shop there, just don’t forget that they don’t accept Singapore Dollars at the foreign exchange counter. Apart from that, I wouldn’t recommend shopping there because the prices are more expensive than you can afford in Singapore.

After that breathtaking experience, we went back nearer to Houshanpi, where we were eager to try the famous mutton soup at Rao He Night Market, a night market full of FOOD. As for normal shopping like at every other night market, this is comparatively more incline to food than the other night markets. Sadly, the mutton soup was sold out once we arrived after such a long and deep walk into the night market. But of course, we didn’t give up. We end up buying many other food to try. Some of them are insanely overportioned till we somehow laughed it off and yet couldn’t finish. LOL

Day 4 – Hualien – The Gorges and The Gorging of Food.

And yes, we travelled down to the peaceful and serene east of Taiwan, where Hualien resides with all their mountainous gorges and valleys. So how do we get there? Actually the train tickets were bought earlier, but we needed to collect them the day before. Then again, please don’t go and buy the subway train tickets. It’s the other express train, but not the bullet train.

Anyways, we arrived after a 2 hour 45 minute train ride. The tour guide couldn’t make it on time, and hired a taxi driver instead, but we were really glad that it was him because he was really humble and nice to assist us in the whole tour, and it was really nice of him to dedicate his time even if he’s just a taxi driver.

Firstly, he brought us to this small eatery where he made us take-away set meals which he claimed that it’s one of their famous stalls, which I would recommend because it’s cheap and taste really good. So we reached the foot of Taroko National Park and we took many photos before reaching the museum area to have our packet lunch and a self-tour around that area to get to know the park better.

And we set off next to all the breathtaking and beautiful scenic gorges with bridges to walk, photos to take, and hills to climb. Such an experience away from urbanisation was greatly appreciated and I totally enjoyed myself hiking throughout with no hesitation and worries about the weather and work. Such a wonderful place to camp as well, as they have campsites provided with toilets and concrete areas!

After all that tiresome but fun times spent on the mountains, we head back to the city area, where food awaits us! We were told that this delicacy known as the “cong you bing” is so nice that it’s renown in the whole Taiwan! How good is that? Because it’s like prata, just that after it’s being fried, we had a sunny-side up egg placed between, folded with chilli flakes, and then there you go! One bite and the egg yolk comes flowing out. You know that kind of feeling? It’s STUPENDOUSLY YUMMILICIOUS! I couldn’t stand how nice this thing was that we all end up buying another after eating one of it!

But of course, the eating doesn’t stop here. We headed to their famously known wanton stall that was also popular, but when we were there, it’s quite empty, but at such a cheap price, we get like 10 wantons in a bowl for less than SGD$3? Totally worth it! After that nice wanton place, we head off to their well known stall that sells Xiao Long Bao, but apparently we were in for a shock. Why? Because we were expecting like DTF size of XLBs, so we thought we could just take 3 pieces per pax. But we were WRONG. Because the moment the woman opened the basket of dumplings, the XLBs are like…. Bs. BAOS I MEAN. The size of the XLB is like normal Baos. And it’s so nice, that like eating XLBs, there’s that sauce inside. WAH LAU, where got such thing one?! But it was out of this world. But we were really full to the brim.

Before heading back, I end up spending almost $40 on muahchees itself. LOL

Day 5 – Beitou, Danshui, Shilin Night Market

Amazingly, we decided to make our way to the hotspring city, Beitou. It was relatively far out, but we were in for that try out. While we kinda lost our way, we end up finding the place, and then we decided to go in even though it was only half an hour left, but it was too good not to try, and I was right because it is really too good not to try. It was sooooo warm, that every part of my skin feels tight and at the same time, small wounds started to heal.

The water is really from the hotspring because you can smell the strong smell of metal, or probably copper. And the hotspring itself varies from different temperatures at different pools. The best part? You pay only SGD$2. And you can soak for all you want. There’s bathing facilities, but note that the water you are bathing with is FREAKING COLD. Kinda like an after effect thing. But it’s so shiok, that I don’t feel cold when I got out of the hotspring pool.

After that half an hour of shiokness, we made our way on the train to Danshui, where it was famously known for their “Iron Eggs”. Iron eggs, basically, are like smaller and harder century eggs, in my opinion. But overall, I think if we can put those eggs into porridge, I’m sure it will taste as good. Heh.

But at Danshui, there’s so much food to offer along their “food street” as well. Like their famous sng muay, baked potato with cheese toppings etc. But most importantly, when you are at Danshui, you HAVE to try their seafood. There’s a seafood restaurant that is their most patronised for their popularity and it didn’t disappoint me at all because practically every dish taste damn good. The freshness, the abundance, and best of all, for a cheap price of SGD$80 plus for the whole table! And we have flower crabs, oysters, prawns, fish skin, vegetables, fried noodles, clam soup, fruit juices. How cheap can that go?!

Walking around the shops at Danshui makes my mind go back in time because of the things they sell. Reminiscing times in the shop wasn’t the way to go, but I had to because it’s too hard to resist things like spin tops, push pops, cola candies, flavoured ice sticks, glass bottles with marbles inside etc. I couldn’t list all, because there’s simply too many! How I wish I had a picture of the shop!

After all that walking, we decided to take a train to Shilin Night Market to have a “preview” of what it is like and yes, like every other market, it’s as hustling and bustling as the rest that we went, just that at Shilin Night Market, there’s such a big shop that sells mainly branded shoes ranging from Nike to Adidas to New Balance to Vans to Timberland to Puma to Keds to K Swiss to Asics etc. So many shoes. So many designs. So many colours. I wonder why I didn’t buy anything. But there’s a pair of Vans shoes that I almost bought just that the size is right but the comfort isn’t.

But Shilin’s shopping area is seperated from the eating area like a few metres away, although there are also street stalls that gather at their usual locations, providing ever tasty food and beverages for shoppers like us along the way. Ultimately, it’s such a wonderful shopping area that when I was walking on my way there, I saw Kim Swee! SUPER SMALL WORLD CAN. I didn’t expect to see a friend at like overseas and moreover, friends that I probably know at least for 4 years! Quite estatic actually. LOL.

Day 6 – Keelung, Shida Night Market

This is probably the place that you MUST visit. Firstly, Keelung, though at the northern part of taiwan, is raining excessively almost every time and day of the year, is like a wet city harbour with lots of stuff to offer. Especially food. They have a street, also known as the Temple’s Entrance (in direct translation) that hosts numerous stalls of splendidly sumptuous food that you can go eating the whole day non-stop. What’s more, it’s touted as the best food street in Taiwan. And I second that.

Apart from that, I manage to get my bubble tea as usual, and then I head for a haircut that was quite worth paying. Though at $13, the whole deal comes with a shoulder massage, a neck massage, hair wash, cut, wash, dry, style. Totally worth it. Love the hairdresser there, she’s cute. And she’s quite shocked that someone like me can speak chinese (okay after all I’m chinese, just not from China.)

I will probably let the pictures do the talking. It’s basically like Japan, looks really really gloomy because of the weather there. But the food made up for all the gloominess. =D

While at Miao Kou (Temple’s Entrance), we are trying to stuff ourselves with whatever we can. So we first tried the oysters, which is a MUST in fact. Secondly, you gotta try their Glutinous rice, Pig Liver’s Soup, Curry Noodles, Fishcakes, Meatballs in some Gooey paste, Pig Blood soup, Yam cakes etc. Simply, there’s too much food there for you to try. You can NEVER GET ENOUGH of it. Literally.

After the whole lovely ordeal there (I bought a gundam as well. Haha.), we decided that Shida was the way to go again, to finish up buying some stuff for people and ourselves, which is equivalent to more shopping. Hah.

Day 7 – Ximending, Shilin Night Market. AGAIN.

Ok, this was technically our last chance to do our last minute shopping, so we decided to patronise these 2 areas of Taiwan. Ximending being that we wanted to do some nice branded shopping, which we did. And to my amazement, I discovered a street full of camera equipments and shops. CHEAP. But without international warranty for Canon. Only Nikon has it. SAD.

Moving on, Shilin Night Market was the destination for steamboat sessions, which we had the intentions to go when we first arrived in Taiwan. And we manage to find one outlet after know asking the friendly people around. And boy, we were filled with satisfaction! At only close to $15, we had like steamboat plus a frying wok just beside it as well as frying ICE CREAM, for the first time. The food they serve were definitely more fresh and better than Singapore. Imagine them serving COD FISH instead of the normal fish we used to take in Singapore. It was totally an experience. And yes, we ate so much, we didn’t feel that full either. Heh.

Here’s a few photos for remembrance.

While at Shilin Night Market, we went to try this thing called Fried Milk. Yes, we are wondering in the first place how the shit do you fry…. milk?! But then again, it was all the essence of food over there as it made me swoon over the taste that till now I cannot forget. It’s such a wonderful masterpiece that I wonder how that woman actually did it. Totally out of this world. But I knew it will be the last time that I had that, or at least the last time for the trip that is.

Sadly, my trip came to an end and I’m back in humid Singapore. But nonetheless, I had one of the most enjoyable trip around and I couldn’t have asked for better company to be there. Spending wise, I think I hit the $2000 mark, but it’s just nice for me, because I saved A LOT on accommodation. It was a much needed trip, and I totally enjoyed my time there!

We all love how this trip is. I will be back there again before you know it. I just love Taiwan!