Day 3
Day 3 was a day of contemplation because I wasn't sure if I wanted to travel all the way to Jiufen or not. My initial plan I had sort of made the day before was to maybe go visit Da'an instead and just stay within the main part of Taipei.
But the more I sat on the idea of not going to Jiufen, the more uncomfortable I got because I knew if I didn't make the effort and go to Jiufen, I will regret my decision. I knew there wasn't going to be much in Jiufen for me, but it's the same idea as with the Taipei 101 Observatory visit, this is just something I had to do as a Tourist who is here for my very first solo trip in Taiwan, I needed to go and if it sucks, then it sucks, but at least I can tell myself that I gave it a shot.
My day started with breakfast at Starbucks
An Apple Tart and a cup of Carmel Macchiato Oat milk Latte, it wasn't a very substantial meal but that gave me hope for the visit in Jiufen.
I have done a lot of research about how to get to Jiufen and I think the most popular way for a lot of tourist on a budget is to take the High Speed Rail all the way to Ruifang and then take a bus from there, I'm guessing one of the main perks of doing that is that you do get to enjoy the views as your ride the train through Taipei, but because I am lazy and I also didn't want to spend $50SGD on a taxi ride to get there, I found out that you could actually grab a direct bus from Ximen that will bring you straight to Jiufen, so right after breakfast, I went back to the hotel to prepare and then headed over to Ximen.
This was the little line that formed specifically for the bus that is heading towards Jiufen, due to Xiemn being one of the first few stops, the bus was still relatively and it only slowly started to fill up as we headed over to the expressway.
The journey was relatively smooth, there was a small jam on the expressway, but it wasn't bad enough to cause me any sort of motion sickness, once we got out of the city, it became a very smooth ride all the way to Ruifang Station, that's when the bus started to fill up
Total time taken to get from Taipei to Jiufen via bus was about 90 minutes, the view along the way was quite nice, so the ride was relatively comfortable.
It's really weird to me that the entrance to Jiufen is so small. I feel like if someone didn't do their research on the place, they would just miss this alley completely on a quiet day like the day I was there.
I was once again quite early for my Jiufen visit, reached the place at about 10am and most of the shops were not opened yet, a few of them were still preparing but I did come across this particular store that is famous in Jiufen
It was way too cold to be having this in the morning on such a chilly weather, it is essentially peanut candy shaving served with peanut ice cream and some other ice cream flavour that I didn't bother to clarify with the shopkeeper, wrapped in this thin popiah skin. It's good, but it was too cold, and to be honest, I was still a bit overwhelm about what I wanted to do there, so I couldn't fully enjoy the food.
I was slowly consuming it as I explored this particular souvenir shop that I spotted, got a few pins for my family and pretty much stayed in that store until I was done with my peanut roll.
Took a walk around the area and came across this store that is also popular in Jiufen that specializes in Yam and Sweet Potato Balls in a green bean/ red bean soup.
There was a cold and hot option, I took the hot option because it's freezing and I just had that ice cream peanut roll, so I needed something to warm myself up.
My next stop was A-Mei's Teahouse, I know it's a tourist trap because of how expensive their tea set is, but I'm a tourist, I'm suppose to fall for the trap on my first visit.
Well, I got lost for a good 10 minutes, just walking around aimlessly until I decided to open Google Map to lead me in the right direction.
It looked like the photos I have seen online, so I went in and got a seat, unfortunately, all the seats that were along the windows were already taken up, so I had to sit in the middle of the restaurant and needed to look over the other patrons to get a full view of the hills and mountains, which were nothing short of fantastic.
There really is nothing special about the tea set, at $15SGD, all I got was enough tea leaves to brew about 10 -15 small cup of Oolong Tea, 3 preserved prunes, 2 really tiny sesame brittle, 1 peanut cake and 1 mochi.
It's a nice presentation, but the cost of those items combined can't be more than $2 - 3 SGD, I also ended up breaking the Peanut Cake because it was so brittle, the whole thing just broke apart when I tried to grab it with my fingers.
Stayed in the teahouse for about an hour because there was just so much tea to drink, I was actually full after this, all that water was making me feel bloated, I knew I was going to need to take a piss before going back because if not, my bladder will most probably end up suffering in the bus. It was a good experience, would make for a very nice spot to just chill and chat, but I will unlikely be visiting again unless I am going with a friend or family.
I then decided to take a walk around Jiufen to wait for the need to pee to kick in, got some Totoro merch for my Mum, had to get ones that looked the least fake because none of the Studio Ghibli items at Jiufen are actually official merch, they are all fake, but I got the least fake looking ones and then I got lost again...
... but I have to admit, getting lost in Jiufen isn't a horrible thing when you get to enjoy this type of views.
I did eventually find my way, got more souvenirs in the form of food, finally took a piss and then made my way back to Ximen, I was very lucky because the bus was only minutes from arriving when I reached the bus stop. The ride back was much faster because the bus driver was pretty much just racing down the mountain, it was quite exhilarating.
Took a break in the hotel and then headed out to my final Night Market for this trip, the famous Shilin Night Market...
I was very early as always when it comes to visiting Night Market, so most stores aren't open yet. I had a feeling this was going to be a disappointment like with the rest of my Night Market experiences and I was right, but more on that later...
First stop.
Stinky Tofu
I was really worried about this because I am not sure how bad it will be, they marketed their stinky tofu as "Fragrant Stinky Tofu" on the menu, not sure it's Fragrant as in not smelly, or Fragrant as in extremely fucking smelly, but I didn't smell anything bad in the store and the thing is, when I watch Youtube videos of Caucasians visiting Night Markets in Taiwan, they always claim they can smell the stench of Stinky Tofu the moment they enter the Night Market. There is literally no smell of the Stinky Tofu in any of the 3 Night Markets I have visited, I don't know, maybe it's because I always visit the Night Markets way too early, but even when I am in this Stinky Tofu store, there wasn't really any overpowering stench.
This is the Stinky Tofu, it doesn't stink as bad as I thought it would, I was worried it would reek like blue cheese or body odor, but it was a different stink, it was the same kind of pungency that kimchi has and I like kimchi, so this was actually quite nice. There is definitely a waft of garbage smell every time I put a piece in my mouth, but its not bad enough to affect my experience with it, I also put quite a bit of chilli to try and mask the garbage scent, overall it was really quite good. I would definitely have it again in the future.
Got Bubble Tea right after, it was some Brown Sugar Soya drink, I was avoiding tea because I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep later.
I saw this stand that was selling Squid, so I decided to get it as well.
It was a little disappointing to be honest, the squid wasn't very chewy, it wasn't as smoky as I would have liked it to be even though it's cooked with charcoal and it's about SGD8.00. It was quite a lot though, I took 20 minutes to finish this and by the time I was done with it, I had walked pretty much the entirety of the Night Market twice.
I also ended up getting this drink and it was surprisingly good, I assume it's a lime and orange drink, and this was the last item I had before I left.
After this Night Market, I came to realize 1 thing, I just do not like going to Night Markets, I tried 3 different Night Markets and I didn't have a good experience, I just don't like eating at Night Markets, it's too troublesome for me personally, I would probably have enjoyed it better if I could have just got all the food and bring it back to my hotel to slowly enjoy in my own personal space.
For my next Taipei trip, Night Markets will not be part of my itinerary anymore unless I really have nothing else to do, I just had such high expectations for all the Night Markets, so to realize that I just do not like the Night Market experience was a major disappointment for me. I gave it 3 shots at 3 different Night Markets and I left all 3 feeling somewhat empty, not in terms of being hungry but just the overall experience. I will definitely not enjoy it at night as well because when I just cannot handle crowded places.
Day 3 had a lot of travelling and I was just mentally exhausted from it all, I retied back to the hotel after this. I think I did visit Family Mart in the evening and got myself a carton of Taro Milk and a Blueberry and Cream Sandwich for supper, they both sucked that's why I don't have any pictures of them.
Day 4
This was my final full day in Taipei. I was up at like 4.30am, I have no idea why but I kept waking up super early, it was the same during my trip in New York as well, I just naturally got up at 6am back then.
It gets bright at 5am in Taiwan.
This is how 5.30am looks like in Taiwan. It's very confusing because it only gets bright in Singapore at around 7am, 5.30am is suppose to still be dark.
Anyways, I decided I was going to have Fu Huang again because it's so close to the hotel and since they open at 5.30am, I went to visit the store at 5.30am.
Here are the workers making the delicious fried stuff for us in the morning along with their Michelin Star plaques just hanging from the window
I decided to just get something simple and ordered a cold Soya Milk and Dough Fritters, that was all I needed and it was enough. The dough fritters were super crispy though, so I had to dip it into the Soya Milk to soften it and it was so good. If I had more days left in Taipei, I would probably go back again and order the same item, but have the Warm Soya Milk instead for dipping.
Just a random photo of the Temple near the hotel and the reason why the MRT Station is called Shandao Temple station.
Here is a photo of a toy I got from the Gachapon machine near Family Mart, I went there to get a cup of tea that my Taiwanese colleague had recommended, it was good, but it taste very similar to KOI Black Tea Macchiato, she had requested I get one pack back for her, but I didn't because I was worried it would just spill in my luggage.
Next up on the agenda was getting Pineapple Tarts from Chia Te, the store opens at 8.30am, I read that a long queue would always form at the store, so I figured I will go at 9am and maybe the queue wouldn't be so bad...
...this was the queue at 9.15am.
I was in the queue for 40 minutes! And of all days, that day had to be the day the weather decided to be on the warmer side, it was not air-con temperature that day, I could feel the heat of the Sun just shining down on me.
That same Taiwanese colleague had requested for me to get her this pastry from Chia Te as well, but when I was finally near the entrance, we were told that that particular item and the Wife Biscuits were sold out, it's nuts how quickly it sold out because the store has only opened for a little over an hour and things were already sold out.
By the time it was about my turn to enter, this Taiwanese grandpa who was standing behind me starting chatting with me, he asked me if I didn't have to work that day and I told him I was a tourist, he then complimented my height and ask me where I am from, he started talking about his history with the store, how he is friends with the original landlord who used to lease the space out to the bakery many years ago and then talked about how he is queuing up to get the Pineapple Tarts for his grandkids in America because they have requested for it.
I ask him how many Pineapple Tarts he would usually get and he tells me he will usually get about 3 to 4 big boxes, so that became my own personal gauge. I was seeing people coming out of the store with really large bags and I told myself I wasn't going to come out of the store looking like them because I still had to travel back to the hotel, I didn't want to be carrying so much in the train on the way back.
Since the grandpa usually gets 3 - 4 big boxes, I was going to just get half of what he usually gets and buy 2 big boxes, 1 medium box, 2 bags of nougats and 1 box of Sun Biscuit for my Mum.
I was finally in the store after 40 minutes of queuing, ticked all the items I wanted to get from the order sheet and when I saw how big the big boxes were, it was instant regret. I thought the medium size boxes were their big, bit nope, big is twice the size, and I got 2 boxes!
I ended up looking like the people who came out of the store with big bags, I became one of the kiasu people, that being said, there were also people coming out with cardboard boxes worth of food so those are even worst.
This was 5kg worth of items from Chia Te! Total damage was about SGD$140.
What's so stupid about this purchase is I have tried their pineapple tarts when one of my colleague brought it back from his Taiwan trip a late year and I didn't really find it special, but because of hype and that long queue, I still got so many. The milk and peanut nougat is probably my favorite item from them.
I also got Pineapple Tarts from a store in Taipei 101 called Sugar and Spice, they specializes in Nougats but also sold Pineapple Tarts, and after trying them, I actually prefer their Pineapple Tarts over Chia Te, but I do prefer the Nougat from Chia Te over the ones from Sugar and Spice, so I don't know what the fuck is wrong with my tastebud.
As I was carrying the goods from Chia Te back to the hotel, I really regretted ordering so many boxes because that meant I no longer had any space in my luggage for anything else, I was also worried I would exceed the luggage weight limit, but thankfully the hotel had a weighing machine, so I was still like 10kg away from the maximum weight limit capacity.
Took a short break in the hotel to decide where to go next because I literally had nothing else planned after the Pineapple Tart trip, so I did my research and decided to look for a place that I would personally enjoy going.
Dongmen / Da'an
I did enjoy the place, it had cafes and a lot of small gift shops, it's similar to Ximending, but not as crowded and busy. If Ximending was Bugis Street, then Dongmen/ Da'an was Tiong Bahru.
I had my first bowl of Beef Noodles there, it was decent but I was so parched because I literally only had a small box of apple juice after I came back from Chia Te, and this Beef Noodle shop didn't sell any drinks, so I was so focused on trying to finish the noodle as soon as possible so I could get a drink.
I had wanted to get 50 Lan bubble tea, but there was quite a long queue, so I just gave up and got a drink from 7-11, then I headed to this Soya shop that specializes in Soya desserts called Soypresso.
Got myself their Soya Milk Softserve and a bottle of their Soya Milk in Tie Guan Yin flavour, it was nice, the Soft Serve is very similar to the ones from Mr Bean, it's quite thick and is essentially just soya milk ice cream.
I was initially sitting at their outdoor bar area with my back facing the road because I thought that was the only sitting they had, turns out they had a proper dining space on the second level through their door that I didn't realize.
I decided to just head to the park to finish the rest of my Ice Cream instead of going upstairs.
After this, I went to one of the souvenir shops to see if there was anything I could get for my colleagues, specifically at the metal pins they had, they were SGD$5 each, I wouldn't mind getting for some of my colleagues that I am closer to, but then out of my 8 colleagues that I work with in the store, I am only not particularly close to 2 of them, if I got the rest pins but didn't get for the other 2, it would just look bad, but then I am also not close enough with the 2 to warrant spending $5 on them, so in the end, I just didn't get any for anyone.
Dognmen ended up being a pretty nice place to visit and a lot of that I think had to do with the fact that this was an impromptu visit, I didn't plan to come visit this spot back in February after I made my plane ticket purchase, so my expectations were not high. It will definitely be a spot that I will want to return to for my next visit.
When I went back to the hotel, I started packing because my flight was the next day and it was early! Like I have to leave the hotel at 6am and reach the airport at 7am early, so I wasn't planning on going out anymore, the plan was to just stay in the hotel and have my final dinner at Starbucks to use up all my credit, and then just rest until the next day.
The longer I sat in my room once I could pack as much as I could, the more I felt the need to go out because it was only 3pm, I still have half the day left in Taipei, sitting in the hotel room and wasting those last few hours I had left just felt ridiculous. I'm on a overseas trip, the whole point is to explore the city, not be cooped up in the hotel room like it's a staycation.
So I got up from the sofa I was lazing on, changed my clothes and headed out! I headed out to Zhongshan, the place I had accidentally visited on the 1st day when I got lost at Taipei Main Station. My plan going there was really to get a leather iPhone case from the apple shop there because I still had like TWD$12,000 of spending money left. (My Dad had given me TWD$8000 spending money before I left for my trip thus the insane extra amount I had).
Headed to the eslite Departmental Store first for a meal and decided to go for something that is more my style, western food and since I had money to spend, just go to a restaurant and enjoy the service.
....picked this store and got myself this...
I would honestly pick this over the food at the Night Market, those are really not my style, this is and I was very happy with the decision to actually come out for my final dinner for this trip.
Total damage was about SGD$25, typical price for this kind of food.
I then headed over to the Apple store which was located in another departmental store across the street and unfortunately, they didn't have the case I wanted, no service was rendered to me as well so I just left after looking around for like 2 minutes.
Took a walk around the mall, which had like 6 levels, just to kill time really, and then came across this bakery at the first level.
The Red Velvet looked really similar to the one sold at Lady M last time,(it has since been discontinued, which is such a pity) so I got a slice of it, thinking it will taste similar...
... it didn't. You could really taste the cream cheese here, which I didn't like and I guess that's why Lady M red velvet didn't do so well because their Cream Cheese flavor was lacking, which worked for my palette but probably not for majority of the people who actually like Red Velvet for the Cream Cheese Frosting.
I was very satisfied with the decision to go out for dinner and am just so thankful that the hotel is just so conveniently located and easy to get to all this places as I was trying to force the Red Velvet cake down.
It was only about 7pm when I got back, I still had time and I knew I wanted to leave the hotel at least 1 more time, not to go somewhere far, but just to take a short walk, and of course, the answer as to where I should go was simple... 50 Lan for 1 final cup of bubble tea.
I really wish I could get Tea, but because I wanted to sleep, I ended up getting their Yakult Lemonade, which was fucking sour...
...along with this little creature from the Gachapon machine, it's a lemon hamster, which is so fitting because I also happen to be having a cup of lemonade.
I then attempted to get some sleep, woke up at 2.30am and couldn't get back to sleep after that, the whole idea of that night being my last night in Taiwan just made me feel a little sad, it just felt too short, I mean I had been looking forward to this trip back in February, been talking to my colleague about it and now it's about to be over is just a bit depressing.
So I just streamed YouTube on the TV and watched the interview Xiaxue did with Dee Kosh, which was perfect because it was 1.5 hours long and it was long enough to keep me entertained.
When the Sun finally came up at like 5am, I took time to really soak in the views from my hotel room for one last time, looked at the school that I have been facing for the past 4 days, and then went to take a bath, packed all the remaining items and FORGOT TO PACK MY FACIAL CLEANSER THAT IS STILL FULL ! I even made sure to tighten the pump after I used it in the Shower so it wouldn't spill all over in the luggage when I packed it, but then I completely forgot about it and just left it there in the shower area niche, so that item is now still in Taipei, probably in the trash somewhere.
Anyways, my Uber came like 30 minutes early, I didn't really want to make him wait 30 minutes, so I checked out of the hotel 15 minutes earlier than I had planned to and went to look for the driver.
He saw me carrying a bag from Chia Te (I had to carry the Sun Biscuit by hand because it couldn't fit in the luggage and I was worried it will break if my luggage got manhandled by the airport staff) and told me in Mandarin that the brand doesn't taste good, he then recommended me the brand that the locals actually get at this shop called Pan's Cake Bakery, so well noted on that, will get that instead for my next trip.
The Uber driver was quite a friendly guy, he was chatty and asked me if I had visited Taiwan before, and was surprised when I told him this was my first time and it also happens to be my first solo trip alone in a different country, he then ask me where I am from and once again, he got pleasantly surprised because he told me he will be visiting Singapore in July.
We chatted for a while, but there was really still a bit of language barrier between us because he didn't understand English at all, and when I talk in Mandarin, I will usually thrown in some English words if I didn't know how to say it in Mandarin, he didn't catch balls, but it was nice while the chatting lasted.
I was able to reach the Airport at around 7pm, so the ride itself took about 45 minutes, which now that I think about it is roughly how long it takes to travel by train, which goes to show how efficient the metro system is and just how insanely convenient the hotel is located.
Check in took a while, there was a snaking queue at the check in line, it was actually a bit nuts, my check in at Changi for departure was done within 2 minutes of queuing, the one at Taoyuan took at least 15 minutes because there were different tour groups who were checking in.
Headed into the departure hall and it was a really long walk to my gate, food options at my gate area won't great, so I just settled for a plain bagel and tea, then just waited for boarding to start.
I was fucking lucky once again because Premium Economy was not even 50% filled up. I had 2 seats to myself, I had originally paid $30 to book the front row seat middle aisle for the extra leg space, but I am so happy I requested to switch to a window seat during check in because this is so much better.
I mean what are the odds? I got an extra seat beside me for both flights!
The only complaint I have about flight is that the movie choices weren't great, for my flight to Taiwan, I watched Puss In Boots, and than that was it, for the remainder of the flight I think I just listened to music, for this return flight, I knew there wasn't going to be much difference, so I downloaded an episode of a K-Drama I am currently watching on Netflix and just watched that for the first 50 minutes of the flight.
After that I just looked at the photos I had taken from the trip, tried to sleep a bit, which didn't work because I just cannot sleep sitting up.
I also took a photo of this two out of boredom.
Reached Singapore at around 1.30pm and as I went through Immigration, I get reminded of how horrible the service staff at Singapore truly is compared to Taiwan.
I didn't know you needed to fill in the SG Arrival Card for residents, so when I tried to enter the automated gantry, I was met with an error, this staff who was manning the gantry then ask me to go fill up the SG Arrival Card at the iPad across the hall, to which I told her I was local, and then she responded in a very impatient tone...
"Locals also need to fill up the form."
… once I filled it up and got pass the gantry, I could hear a security officer very impatiently instructing the Taiwan tourist about doing a body check or something.
It was the same when I came back from America, majority of the service staff back in Singapore just suddenly feel like they are extra rude and impatient. I feel bad for Taiwanese visiting Singapore because they will need to adjust to a lot of the service staff just being very unpleasant.
I got a Grab once I got beer from the duty-free shop for my Sister and collected my luggage and headed back home. And of course the weather is a fucking cunt, it was so fucking warm and humid yesterday, and today, it is even worst at 35°c, according to Google, it feels like 45°c, it's fucking nuts. If I had known there was going to be this insane heatwave for the first half of May, I would definitely have extended my trip.
Overall, I will say the trip was a huge success and I look forward to going back to Taipei again soon, maybe January next year when the weather will definitely be cold and it won't be up to luck like this time around.
No comments:
Post a Comment