Taipei, Taiwan Trip

Travel Duration: 27-Oct-07 to 30-Oct-07
Jetstar Flight: SGD297/pax
Accommodation: Taiwanmex Hostel Qian Hui Economy Hotel

Day One
the flight isn’t fully pack, the seat beside me was empty, so we have more room for movement.. emma and pauline even shifted to the back seats to sleep..

it’s super easy to transfer from Taoyuan Airport to our hostel, saved cost of cab fare from the airport to Taipei Main City, which is like NT1400 (SGD65).. but by taking the bus is only NT125 (SGD5.80), which is like 11 times cheaper.. but the bus terminate at taipei main station, so we have to take the MRT to Zhong Shan Station, which is only 1 stop alway costing NT16 (SGD0.75)..

we’re suppose to stay in Taiwanmex Hostel but they gave our room to others, who requested to extend for a night before we arrive, argh.. but anyway, the lady boss of Taiwanmex found another place near Zhong Shan Station, an economy hotel, better, more privacy at a slightly higher price, for us, which is Qian Hui Economy Hotel..

at Taiwanmex, we ate our sushi, bought some instant noodles and bubble tea.. sat in the living room watching tv, surfing net, chatting with our new friend michael and erica, who stayed there in Taiwanmex.. michael is a teacher in Taiwan now, angmo teach english in Taiwan.. hrm, erica wanted to club that nite too, so we brought her along with us.. it’s illegal to fetch 5 people on a cab, but for a living, they tried to take us..

we headed down to LUXY, their famous clubbing place, before 11.30pm it’s FREE entry.. in there, Taiwan girls are very daring to strip.. happen to be halloween night, so some dressing quite weird, got cinderella, wolves, etc.. haha.. cute.. and their drinks cheap, beer at LUXY is only NT150 (SGD7).. hehe, jess yan-fu-bu-qian, got 9 guys surrounding her, dancing..

they don’t have midnight charge for cab, so its like NT140 (SGD6.50) for the distance between LUXY and Qian Hui Hotel.. but we took some time to look for a cab driver who is willing to take 5 passengers.. we sent erica back to Taiwanmex safely as shes only 18, korean girl, who came to Taiwan all alone to study and she learnt chinese herself in Taiwan, woo.. haha, after that we walked back to Qian Hui Hotel, at 2am..

sorry ladies for being a bad tour guide, make you girls walk quite abit of yuan-wang-lu.. as i thought i’ll remember how to move about in Taipei like that time but kind of forgotten how..

Day 2
quite tired in the morning, we woke up early, go back Taiwanmex to collect our luggages to Qian Hui Hotel.. ha, we simply love their ham 蛋饼, jess and i will yell to have 蛋饼 as our breakfast.. visited the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.. easily, we took their MRT (jie yun) there.. they happen to have a food fair, so we had 猪血糕, 烤花枝, so yummy..

jess and i was busy stamping the Stamp Book that we bought from the gift shop in Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.. the booklet consists of history of Taiwan.. we have to go around the hall, to collect all the stamps, filling all the empty spaces within that booklet.. emma and pauline laughing at us, saying that we’re like small kids, collecting stamps, running here and there, between the east and west hall..

thereafter, we headed down to Zhong Xiao Dong Lu, had our 东区粉圆, so yummy.. not much to shop in Zhong Xiao Dong Lu for us, so we went down to Xi Men Ding and we saw their 议员 having some protesting over there.. we had our 阿宗大肠面线, 泡菜年糕, 烤 moji, 香香鸡 at Xi Men Ding.. bought 3 pairs of shoes, jess 4 pairs, all at NT390 (S$18.00).. my boots cost only NT480 but when paying the lady boss say NT450 (SGD21) will do, so cheap.. pauline, emma, me wore same shoe size, what a coincidence..

jess and i got very excited when we saw 臭豆腐 but emma and pauline will run very far away from us when we queuing to buy 臭豆腐.. incident; illegal 小贩 selling 臭豆腐, ordered a stick of 臭豆腐 from uncle and paid him NT30 (SGD1.40).. 5 secs later, police came..

臭豆腐小贩: (off lights on his cart and ran off) SIAM AH SIAM AH..
me: @.@
jess: ah, wad happen? police come?
emma: u pay already ah?
me: ya lo..
pauline: wahaha, next time don’t pay so early!!

we headed to the shop where they sell 鸭舌头, never try before, we bought a pack NT450 (SGD21) and share among ourselves.. the moment we step out of the shop we saw a familiar face..

emma: uncle, u owe us a stick of 臭豆腐..
臭豆腐小贩: oh ya ya ya.. (start bbqing our 臭豆腐)

phew.. wahaha.. we got back our 臭豆腐.. carrying those heavy stuff and headed down to Shi Lin Night Market, it’s Sunday, weekend, so crowded, making us very pekchek.. but we continued to have our 豪大大鸡扒 there, NT45 (SGD2.00), super long queue but the queue move quite fast, yummy..

spent NT5800 (SGD270) on day 2..

Day 3
simply love their dan-bing (ham + egg prata), morning must have that.. early in the morning we went to 淡水, 40 mins of travelling via MRT.. the sun, the mud, the sea.. nice!!

sunny Monday.. we took the ferry to 八里, look so different from last year, after that we took the ferry to 渔人码头, the Lovers’ Bridge / the romantic Fishmen’s Wharf.. the wind there can blow you away!! every step you move, you’ll realise you’re shifted by the strong wind.. had their nice nice 猪血糕, huge hotdog..

back on 淡水 mainland.. we had 花枝烧, 炸金针菇, 烤花枝, low calories ice-cream, tako pachi.. hohoho, our tako pachi, 3 for SGD2.00, theirs 6 for NT35 (SGD1.60) @.@ yummier also.. chose the wasabi flavor, so nice..

went back to the temple where sasa, sis and i go pray pray last year.. jess and i offer joss sticks and i gave some donations, NT100 (SGD4.70), not much, but 意思意思.. pray heng heng for the four of us, can safely come back Singapore, enjoy ourselves there, and am back there to say thank you to 保佑 sasa, sis and i catch the flight last year, haha..

jess and i didn’t give up on our trying of all kinds of 臭豆腐, we tried the kim chi one, wa, really smell.. we both almost vomit, wahaha but at least we tried 3 types of 臭豆腐.. we headed down to Wu Fen Pu.. we shldn’t go on Monday, as it’s their stock-up day, so it’s their busiest day of the week.. thus, they kind of don’t really entertain customers who make small purchases but we still get to buy our stuff, as there’s still nice shop owners..

had my o-ah-mee-sua, so yummy at NT35 (SGD1.60).. my back aching, my heels aching, my right shoulder numbing, haha, too much shopping.. took cab back to hotel, NT170 (SGD7.90), reasonable.. back at the hotel rest awhile, we went downstairs to have dinner.. thought that we won’t spend on anything anymore but we saw those road side illegal 地摊, we can’t resist, we just walk over and i got myself another pair of shoes and jess got 2 pairs, wahaha..

we had dinner at TMK, a western restaurant, something like Swensens.. emma had curry rice, jess had bake pasta, me had a green tea red bean cake, pauline just milk tea.. pauline planned to have 一度赞 instant noodles again, because really nice.. i planned to have the 卤味 illegal cart stuff just outside TMK.. like that cart as i want to have the stick of bacon match with 金针菇 or tomato but before i could reach that cart..

pauline: remember don’t pay until you get your food..
me: i know la.. (walking towards the cart happily)
卤味摊贩: (running towards our direction)
police: (riding motorbike into the small alley)
me: *sad*
pauline + jess + emma: WAHAHA..

am so upset, wanted eat that then see them run again.. back to Taiwanmex building FAMILY MART (7-eleven kind of shop) to get some instant mee and milk tea.. while walking back to our hotel, saw this 卤味 illegal cart again outside TMK, as if i saw an angel glowing infront of me..

*excited*

pauline: faster go order before they run away again!!
me: OK OK!!
emma: auntie you run very fast hor?
卤味摊贩: =)
me: i want this bacon with 油菜 and that bacon with small sausage..
pauline: (point to a stick) there, this is call 七里香..
卤味摊贩: (pick up bacon with 油菜, bacon with small sausage and 七里香 to BBQ)
jess + emma + me: what’s 七里香?
pauline: 鸡屁股..
jess + emma + me: eek..
pauline: nice ok..
me: how much ah?
卤味摊贩: 屁股 30, 其他 40 40..
jess + emma + pauline + me: WAHAHA, 屁股 30..

paid NT110 (SGD5.10) for our 3 items and went back to our hotel, enjoyed our meal.. we chose 大辣 for our bacon with 油菜, super spicy but NICE!! love the bacon with small sausage, sweet, nice!! we tried 七里香, not bad.. makan, bathe then 倒头大睡, hohoho..

Day Four
last day at Taipei for pauline and me, 美好的时光, 总是过得比较快.. we still woke up early to do some very last minute shopping.. morning, we went to Carrefour, which is just next to Miramar shopping mall.. same, we took the MRT to Jian Tan station and change to a public bus.. as the free shuttle bus provided by Miramar shopping mall only starts at 10:25am, we took the public bus, Red-3 to somewhere nearby Miramar and walk over..

at Carrefour, we bought alot of instant noodles and eggy puddings.. 9 dozens available, so pauline emma jess each took two dozens and the greedy me took the last 3 dozens.. as we are carrying too many things, so we took a cab back to our hotel.. after that, we headed down to Xi Men Ding to have 香香鸡, 烤 moji, bubble tea, 阿宗面线 and buy 鸭舌头.. raining, haha, last day, Taiwan also shed tears for us.. we even took 大头贴, had lots of fun!!

we rushed back to hotel and pack up.. took cab to Taipei main station at NT75 (SGD3.50) and took the bus at NT125 (SGD5.80) to airport.. on the way to the airport, pauline and i saw rainbow, so nice.. so huge, huge rainbow.. checking in our luggage..

mine: 20.4kg
pauline: 20.0kg

overweight 1kg will be NT300 (SGD15), phew.. went into the DFS to shop for makan, bought a few boxes of yummies for my dearies.. when boarding, my sasa big bag too bulky gana check in for free, so taught jess to hand carry heavy stuff and check in her 29″ luggage..

so on the 5th day,

jess: 18.6kg
emma: 16.8kg

back in Singapore.. sis appear infront of me at T1, at our gate!! as she’s working at Changi Airport, so she got staff pass to come in, hehe, so happy.. sis push the trolley for us, sweet..

that’s all..