Taipei Day Three

Dropped by Wufenpu shortly to pick up some T-shirts for the Cow, hoping that I'll bump my way back to the shops I lost yesterday. Sadly I had to leave waving my white flag to the maze and empty handed without any bags.

Next stop, Ximending.
Picked up a cheap pair of jeans outside the Red House, ahhhh the Red House, the shops in there were just superbly zakka style (did I mention I love zakka?). The merchandises in there are pretty expensive, but every item is well worth the price. We came out with a bagful of items ranging from T-shirt to postcards, cell phone pouch and stickers.

Crossed the street and we've reached the heart of Ximending, overwhelmed with neon sign boards, eateries, hawkers and shops. Dishes we tried here, stinky tofu (臭豆腐), local pancake (車輪餅), local style kebab.

The stuff in the shops are reasonably priced, otherwise... cheap. Despite the low prices, bargaining with a bit of small talk, the prices dropped even further.

Once again, din't manage to grab any bags there, they are more for teenagers, PVC slings and haversacks doesn't really go for me. But I did bagged another pair of boots which is pretty cheap IMO, SGD 28.50.

Last stop, Shi Da night market.
Mainly food and cheap kawaii and girly stuff. Had high hopes for it since I've heard so much good reputation about it, rather disappointing in terms of shopping, but the food is pretty good there. We managed to try the cold salty chicken (鹹水雞), herbal duck vermicelli (當歸面綫), oyster omelette (蚵仔煎).

Taipei Day Two

Agenda of the day: Wu Fen Pu (五分埔), shopping arcades: NY NY, Neo 19 Shopping Center.

Started off the day trying to find the nearest metro so we could get to Wu Fen Pu for some clothes shopping. In our stumbling about trying to get to the metro station, we found Taipei's Suicide squad... investigation squad I should say.After a little confusion we made it there ok.So many shops to choose from and so easy to get lost. Mainly got boots and a few T-shirts and tops. Sadly only bag I wanted to get I couldn't find my way back to the shop once lost in the maze.

Rather than spend the whole day at 1 venue, we made our way to Taipei city centre to try find my beloved Daiso at the New York New York shopping centre. I've said before part of the fun of exploring a new holiday destination is the getting lost. As such we had a lot of fun making our way there. On the way finding out how to get to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world.

Cow decided to make a note of the showings of "Avatar" in 3D as hopefully we'll be able to catch a showing while we're here. Also while at it, managed to finally activate our prepaid WiFi card. just SGD$20 per month for unlimited and pretty fast internet access!

Had to make a move before midnight in order to catch the last train back to he hotel and rest up ready for another day. Well that was the plan but I guess the excitement of being here got the better of us and we didn't get to sleep till way past three in the morning!

Day One Part II

After ranting on day one of our trip, the rest of the evenings once we reached our hotel, there's hardly any energy left to blog. Hence apart from the first entry, the rest are post entries.

Day One
We were pretty adventurous, despite this is our first trip here, we opted for a bus and finding our way to the hotel rather than taking a cab. It was a pretty long walk (and aimless one as well) to our accommodation from the Taipei main station.

With a map in hand, the two helpless souls finally reached our destination. Well, not forgetting to snack as we wandered along. The night market outside the station served the best BBQ squid outta all the ones we tried during our entire stay (damn do I miss it).

Dropping off our bags at the hotel, the two of us (still with plenty of energy left) headed off for more food. Walked for half an hour and we landed at the "Zhong Xiao Xing Shen Station" (忠孝新生). Yes, the rest of the night would bore you, more food, more spending on random shit, which I'll spare you the details.

Day One in Paradise

Alighting the flight, it was like I've stepped into ghost town. The terminal was empty,... apart from my fellow travellers on the same flight. A sigh of relief after seeing another crowd waiting to fly out, other than that, occasional small number of staff at the DFS...

Took a bus from the terminal to town, Taipei Bus Terminal. The buildings that flashed passed seemed gloomy, cold, lifeless, drab.

While trying to figure out our way to the hotel, we landed ourselves with a nice bowl of mee suah (面线), stinky tofu(臭豆腐), BBQ caramelised squid (鱿鱼), corndog and a nice hot cup of almond tea. One word to describe the food,.... nice XD.

The roads here is relatively easy to figure out for newbies like us, though the traffic takes a bit of time getting used to, the swamps of scooters are pretty intimating at first, but that was ok.

Checked into the hotel and off we went again, more walking and more food as we walk some more.

Along the way, we adopted some ophans, fried chicken bits (香酥鸡)(no pix, the food was all gone before my hands can reach for the camera), zhu xue gao (豬血糕 pig's blood cake, with peanuts, shallots, ginger -- not that great), tea egg (茶葉蛋) from 7-11. Oh picked up a nice pair of boots as well.

As you can see, we've take the approach of eating which ever food that appears in front of us, pretty random. No room for main course, we just wanna try EVERYTHING.

Despite the cold looking buildings around us, I totally fell in love with this place. Reason? I love the people here, everyone I spoke to (be it asking for direction, salesperson, passer-by on the street) are so genuine, helpful and friendly. Even the gal who was giving her boyfriend a good tongue leashing, sounds pretty civilised lol.

The service level here is excellent as well, they don't push sales but are more than willing to answer all queries.

Side note, the temperature is around 17- 19 degree, alright for me. The only thing is that my immune system is still pretty weak, and great thanks to the cabin temperature on the flight over, I'm down with a cold. The drug I took caused drowsiness, but that is not gotta ruin our holiday, even if it means I've to walk with my eyes closed. Chao for now, more food awaits us.

Apologizes for the poor quality of the photos, its winter here (short daylight), and also we were more pre-occupied with what goes into our mouth rather than our view finder.

Cats on the Loose

My security canine had been busy on patrol before she left for her nanny's, now that she's not around, the annoying felines are on the loose.

All those noise, those cat fights, all the commotion just at our doorstep, just because Yumi wasn't around.

My head has been killing me since this afternoon, fingers crossed its not another ear infection or something, I've been downing loads of pills to help me nap over the pain, and the aspirin did help a lil, thou not a great deal. I'll be away for a couple of days, hope I can get wifi to upload pix for the Christmas holiday.

If not, then here's an advance Merry Christmas to which ever bored soul is reading this entry.

Ungrateful

She's gone, without even turning back, without even realising that I'm not beside her.

The ungrateful gal galloped off when her nannies took over her leash.
The ungrateful gal hopped into the back seat once the car door was opened.
The ungrateful gal didn't even look back when they drove off.

I'm glad she enjoys the company of her new friends, but can't change the fact that I'm a nobody to her... sigh.

Moulting

At the dinner table, Cow found Yumi's fur in his soup,... went to the washroom and he can easily pick her fur off his underpants.

Yes, I'm glad its coming to the end of Yumi's moulting season, no more tumble weeds hoovering across the living room. I'm quite certain that with the amount of fur I collect throughout each season, its enough to make another of her.

That's the thing about having a canine companion, I've grown too accustomed to her furiness, finding fur on my lips as I sip my morning coffee, in my rice, wallet, the magazine I'm reading, on my keyboard, you name it.

Sigh, side note, Yumi's nanny is dropping by tomorrow to pick her up for her vacation camp. Oblivious to it all, the canine is snoozing away, not knowing how much I'm gotta miss her...

This is why I'm getting fat (Dinner)

A month of MIA and now three entries in just one day... I'm finally getting back on my feet.