Adventures of KS in Taipei, episode 3!

I wanted to blog about this last night, but couldnt upload pictures into blogger! AHHH!! So I'm doing it now!

On the third day, we decided to take the Taipei Metro (commonly known as the MRT) to explore the city!


Those are the metro tickets.



Inside the station!



Our hotel was closest to the 西門 station!


Our first stop? Taipei 101! It was not exactly within walking distance from the metro station, especially not with the rain. But there was this shuttle bus (they call it 接驳车) from the metro station to Taipei 101. Can't remember which station it was actually.. haha paiseh.


Anyway, that's how the interior of Taipei 101 looks like! It looks prettie grand! A bit like Raffles City, but a larger version. I mean, look, Raffles City is not 101 stories tall alrite?



I was wearing this winter trucker cap and earrings that I bought juz the day before. HAHA my mum says I can't leave the stuff I buy alone for one minute.. the minute I buy stuff I will wear them immediately!

WAH liddat machiam look very stylo hor!? I oso thot so. Then I realised, a lot of the Taiwanese were staring at me... shit.. I think this is not how the regular Taiwanese in Taipei usually dress. So I abandoned the look the next day.


We didn't stay too long at Taipei 101. There was nothing much to see there la... OK I mean, to be fair, there were many many shops. But none were affordable. Alrite.. maybe affordable... but then I'll have to scrimp and save for the next few months. Makes no sense. Especially when they are selling mostly winter stuff.

So we moved on to this shopping centre they call New York New York! It was within walking distance from Taipei 101! Actually, the things there were not really cheap as well. But at least, cheaper then Taipei 101... roughly within the comfortable price range.

I got an Abercrombie top from that place!


New York New York was really quite small, and there was not a lot of eateries around. Plus it was really close to lunch time, and most are quite packed. Since we are desperate for lunch, we decided to move on to another place!

That's what the Taipei-nese call 太平洋崇光百货, Singaporeans mostly just call it Sogo. In this case, it's called, Pacific Sogo. See that clock?? It's one of the highlights of that place. I think when the minute hand moves to 12, there will be some elaborate performance done by the clock. Wahahaha I dunno man! I saw it somewhere!


We finally found lunch there! In some eatery in a 美食街!

The Taiwanese like to call food courts or places with lots of restaurants clustered together 美食街. I remember there was once these Taiwanese tourists came up to me and my then colleagues at Far East and asked us where was the 美食街 there? And we were like... HUH???

So now I know.. 美食街=food court.

Anyway, back to this eatery or restaurant or whatever... they had these set meals.

So we each ordered one.

Each set meal consisted of a soup,


a main course, (I happened to choose spaghetti.. but it was not really nice. Taiwanese do it too cheesy. I prefer slightly spicy.)


dessert, a pudding in our case, and a drink, choice of coffee or tea, served hot or chilled! All for just NT109, which is like, about 5 or 6 bucks in Singapore currency!? That's HOW CHEAP!


After a really filling lunch, we went on to bring down 忠孝東路! Haha don't be cheated by this picture, this road sign was actually found in this tiny alley beside the main 忠孝東路.

OK to be truthful, there was nothing much to see along 忠孝東路, unless u venture into those shopping centres. Pacific Sogo was one of them.

And Pacific Sogo was where I eventually found Wendy's MUAH CHEE after searching HIGH AND LOW everywhere! That girl told me u can find muah chee "ALL OVER TAIWAN"! That's what she said. KNS! I searched everywhere the past few days I was in Taipei, can't find a single crumb of muah chee! @#%@#%!! Then I asked the tour guide, she say muz go all the way to Hua Lian! WALAU I was thinking... die die die.. later tell Wendy dont have she sure dont believe.. cos when she came it was being sold all over Taiwan. Then when I finally found and bought and came back, that darling told me "sorry, forgot to tell u only can find in the Airport." #@#$$#$#@!!!!!!!




So finally, after loading ourselves with muah chee, we went on to 五分埔, which is wholesale place. It has helluva lot of nice stuff! At DAMN CHEAP prices!!!! OMG! They have all these Levi's, Vivienne Westwood, Abercrombie, Hollister, Juicy Couture, Agnes B, Naturally Jojo, Playboy, and many many more unheard of brands in Singapore... and all selling at wholesale prices! And they are all genuine! Ok one or two might be last season.. but walauuu... I don't care cos it's jus soo damn cheap!




Bought a helluva lot of stuff over there, to be chronicled fully in some later entry. Cos it's now still in a pile in my room. Too high a pile to be arranged neatly in one day. SIGH!


Anyway, next we went to this night market called 饒河夜市. We went to three night markets in total... there are just so many of them in Taiwan! Other than this, we went to Shihlin and this other night market called 華西街夜市. That last one.. walau that one was gross. Will talk more about it tonight.


Anyway, this 饒河夜市, got helluva lot of stuff to eat! Check this out! Guess what this is?!




Hmmmm kinda looks like tau hway rite?! YES! It's CHOCOLATE-FLAVORED tau hway!! So shiok rite?! My brother got the milk flavored one, and my parents got this mixed flavor one! So special!


Then another special treat was this! Fried milk! OMG! It tastes really not bad! According to the lady there, they solidify some milk, made using milk powder, into cubes, and then when a customer places an order, they dip the cubes lined together on a satay stick into this container with some thick milky substance and then dip it into the frying wok.


This was another special thing! Check this out! this is the latest pet trend in Taipei!


What are they?! HERMIT CRABS! OMG! They came in all sorts of prettie shells and sizes! Really quite a sight to behold! U gotta really respect the Taiwanese for being able to exercise their creativity everywhere, even these also they can make pets with! Click on it for a larger view!


After one whole day of walking here and there and here and there.. walau tired ah! So we went back to our hotel! Before going back, though, we had some carrot cake, Taiwanese style! WOOHOO! Really not bad! Though try not to take too much of that sauce.. it's oyster sauce and a tad too salty.


Ok stay tuned for episode 4 later tonight!!!! Hope I can upload pictures!