Taiwan trip Day 4 and 5

Sorry for such long wait for the last post. have been stuck up with stuffs and settling some personal. Anyway it was the last 2 days at Taipei. There isn't much that we planned for but to purely relax and do some last minute shopping and stuff. So we woke up abit later and head to their supermarket to buy some local products back home.

This is the supermarket that is the nearest to where we stayed (which is Ximending). 

Head over to Mr Bown coffee for breakfast first =)

Pardon for the slpy face because i was really tired. 

And this is what we bought. seriously I know the instant noodles are abit over. BUT taipei instant noodles are really awesome! especially if you can eat beef. Their Beef instant noodles are superb. no kidding. You can look for these two brands, " Yi Du Zan" and "Man Han Da Can" And we bought some cuttlefish as well which was tasty too.  After which we head back hotel to leave all these stuff in the room before we head out for lunch.

Probably one of the must-go restaurants that everybody will recommend or the guide book would definitely mention. It is the toilet theme restaurant at Ximending. Right down below our hotel, such convenience! 

Cute right?!

This was shared between two of us. It was rather big potion, like a steamboat. 

Initially I thought it was a toilet bowl for pee-ing. No it is not i can assure you. It's their hand basin. cool right. If I didnt remember wrongly, the bill came to about NT 400 plus? pretty affordable and nice ambience I would say. After a fulfilling meal, we slowly head our way to our hot sauna.

Of course not forgetting to buy the bubble tea in Taipei that is the KOI in SG. 

And there we are at the Hot Sauna area which is at Beitou station plus a bus ride as well. 

two years back, I came to this with my sister and it was pretty good! But we decided to try other so to compare.

And we head over to that! I seriously regret choosing that although if you compare the price, it is cheaper than the one me and my sister had. Oh well, now we know which not to go. Im sorry there is no pictures for the sauna.

And our last night market before we say goodbye to Taipei =( SHILIN MARKET! this is the largest night market in Taipei if I am not wrong. and the last time I came here, it was totally different from what I saw then. 2 years changed alot. For your info, this is at Jiantan Station, it is more nearer to Jiantan than Shilin.

never to miss out the huge chicken cutlet in Shilin! forever long queue but trust me it is no where near the standard in SG. you never wanna eat SG ones if you had tried this.

This is one of my recommend too. Look for this stall, the bubble tea are real nice and in big big cup! and it cost NT45 only! We didn't shop much in Shilin for clothes, but only to eat and eat and eat. We walked few rounds to make sure we tried the food. I was too busy eating that I didnt snap the rest of the food. Sucks to have both eaters and zero photographer. LOL

So the next day we had to go back SG already, but we had a night flight so we still got some time left in the morning to do some shopping because seriously i didnt buy alot of clothes (which i regret because honestly taipei clothes are pretty nice and of quality as compared to bkk). we head to one of the shop in Ximending which is famous for their dumpling and had our breakfast there.

After which, I did some last minute shopping before we roam around our area for some sightseeing. I love their graffiti walls. Its amazing how talented and artistic they are to draw such beautiful pictures. I shall not caption and let you guys enjoy the artwork.

leaving taipei already! =( oh well, till next time I would definitely come back! We took a highspeed railway train to save time and money. If you want to take a cab to airport it will cost you NT900 - 1000. We took a railway train and it costs us only NT320 for 2 pax! save money! hahahha. plus the train is superb comfy, better than our plane seat seriously.

The bento that we have not tried! smell nice and taste even better. seriously how come they got so many nice food?!

BYE TAIPEI! and that concludes my taiwan trip 2013. till then!

for a peaceful heart

当爱情没有了热情 没有了了解
是不是就到了尽头

当曾经打开的心 现在换来的是伤痕累累
心死了

剩下的只是一颗空心
一颗不能被打扰的心

累了
哭了
伤了
 然后呢


I will be back, soon.

Secret

I was watching one of Kangxi episode and it got me thinking about this topic.
Secret.
Everybody has secrets, be it those that can be known or not.
So how do couples then say "wo men zhi jian bu hui you mi mi?"
And eventually realize that the other half is hiding some secrets when they found out something that they did not know of initially.
and there comes the mistrust and what not.
Is that really then called we have no secrets between us?
I thought... secrets are not meant to be said?


Everybody has secrets, isn't it?

Taiwan Day 3

Day 3 of Taiwan Trip

This was the day I went to heaven and hell. Lets talk about the heaven part. I suppose many would have heard of 鼎泰豐 (Ding Tai Feng) and that the more you should try them in Taiwan. So we woke up early and google for the nearest 鼎泰豐. I think we went to the branch near Shilin station (or one or two stop from Jiantan Station, couldnt remember the exact station opps) Anyway it was in this SOGO mall. You can ask the station service for direction when you reach the station as walking is required.

Pardon for my sleepy-just-awake face. Because we woke up slightly early and the weather was very cooling for sleep! I cant help it you see.

The masters behind all the good food thats coming up!

BEHOLD ALL THE AWESOME FOOD!

my all time favourite must order xiao cai. seriously you have to just order one plate before everything. Its seaweed and I heard its actually good for ladies. 

XIAO LONG BAO!!! omg. look at the juice and soup when you bite the XLB.  

I don't eat prawns but my bf say the prawns are super fresh and juicy. But the fried rice was fragrantly nice.

some dumplings

and their mini red bean pao! it is under their dessert category ok! 

Seriously this is one of the best meal I have eaten in Taiwan. It was really worth the price. I think we spent about NT 700?! about SGD 30 for all these? You probably only can have the fried rice, the xiao cai and XBL. PLUS the food is really so much better than SG. and Im not joking. Im serious about this. Not trying to ban SG outlet or sth.

after some heavenly food, we decide to go YANG MING SAN today too. The last trip that I went with my sister, we walked from the top down and it was really pretty amazing. The greens and flowers and the fresh air. And it was rather cooling. Not too cold as we had our jackets and jeans with us. So this time I brought my bf there to enjoy the very beautiful place that I have been.

You can take the metro to Jiantan station and look for these bus stand outside the station. These are the buses that you can take to Yang Ming San. We were so fated that we met my cousin again as his classmates and him were going up too on the same day! So they brought us to see some pretty flowers garden. OFF WE GO~

AND I WAS WRONG OF THE WEATHER! I thought it would still be cooling so a long sleeve and a fluffy vest plus pants would do. I WAS ABSOLUTELY WRONG. It was freezing cold especially when the wind blow. You literally shiver your whole body and... your teeth as well! Worst, I wore sandals up the hill. My poor cousin had to give me his jacket and he wear just a raincoat cause he feel that at any moment I probably will be blown away or faint because of coldness. My feet were all numbed because it was raining and the cold wind was blowing making it double worst! We had a distance to walk before reaching the garden and I already cant feel my feet. Just keep walking.

Finally the place......

Look at how cold it is that you couldnt really see the mountains!! We couldnt stand the cold and we need some shelter and warm food to warmth us so we headed to one of the restaurant there. A STEAMBOAT! awesome day for that!

some pumpkin soup that you can refill! awesome-ness. thou I dont drink pumpkins soup

We order some funny soup based. It was garlic chicken soup but the soup was filled with ALOT of garlic. and I really mean alot. I think there were a good 10 garlics or even more. After getting ourselves warm, we braved the wind and rain and set off to see the flowers!

Thats me in raincoat!

my attempt to be a good photographer =)

look look! very pretty right

and there is my cousin the scarecrow

we had the wrong clothing up here. seriously you see, it looked so beautiful with nice clothes and a whole field of fresh flowers. UNLIKE US, raincoat. 

in the end this is how the photo looked like. 

One last picture of the beautiful flowers and we were off to head down to eat as we had reservation for that. So bid goodbye to my cousin~

To one of Jay chou restaurant! I like the movie thats why we chose this. Because he actually has a few themed restaurants around i.e. initial D and Green hornet.
This restaurant is inside a University. Probably need to do some check and try asking passer-by for directions because we couldnt find them as well. Let the pictures bring you around!

Honest opinion. The food was only soso, but if you like Jay Chou alot and the movies, it is still worth the visit because it is quiet and pretty nice ambience.

Went for a walk around Taipei 101 after dinner. I didnt really think going up Taipei 101 is worth and the outside view of it is as good. Different people different expectation I guess =) But a walk down the street was really good. Very relaxing and cooling with lots of lightings.

The plan next was night market! whats a taipei nightlife without night market? This time we head to 师大夜市. Probably one of the night market the youngsters will hang around. I suppose it is around a university? LOL. Anyway, 师大夜市 is accessible by some walking after you alight at 台电大楼. I would say 师大夜市 is one of the night market where I got alot of good buys. Nice bags at NT280, clothes at NT 200 plus. Really love the bag shop that I went to. I bought like 2 bags for myself, One for bf and one for his mom. And I actually still want to buy more! Good quality bags with affordable prices. You really cant get any better. I guess my bf got pretty good buys as well because he say he like 师大夜市 too! Guess because it caters to youngsters, like us! hahah. And we were pretty much exhausted after one whole day of activities. Time to head back to hotel with some supper and thats all for Day 3.