Bangkok Trip

Just returned from my short Bangkok trip yesterday night and I will say it was as successful as my Taiwan trip. I guess going for these solo trips forces me to create an itinerary in order to fully maximize my time there. 

For this trip, I took Scootplus and unfortunately I was not able to have 2 seats to myself like on EVA Air because this is ultimately still a budget airline, so the flights for such carriers are usually packed.

There were very few empty seats in the Premium Economy cabin, just not the seat next to mine, there is also no in-flight entertainment, so I downloaded a few shows from Netflix and Disney+ to help keep me entertained. 

This was my set-up, I was surprisingly able to fit my iPad on the table despite also having to allocate space for the food and drink. The meal was surprisingly decent, but because it was served 20 minutes into the flight, and this being only a 2 hours journey , I didn't actually have a lot of time to finish my food before the flight attendant had to clear my tray to prepare for landing. 

I did enjoy this set up though, when I flew EVA Air, I barely used their in-flight entertainment for anything other than listening to music because they didn't have any good shows to watch, so downloading shows on my iPad is definitely the way to go for future flights. Also my own earphones are a million times better than the airplane headphones,

This was the view from inside the airplane.

This is the view after the flight attendant had to clear my tray to prepare for landing.

I have been to Thailand multiple times when I was younger for family vacations, and it was one of those cheaper travel destinations for us back then, so my memories of Thailand has never really been very positive because it was always the "budget " country to visit as compared to Korea, Japan and Australia. Thailand was also where I developed a great disdain towards donuts during my younger years because I had Dunkin Donuts once there (food hygiene 2 decades ago there was horrible, there were literally flies just flying around the donuts) and ended up projectile vomiting in a restaurant due to food poisonings, I have since gotten over that disdain and have started consuming donuts again. 

Anyways, I landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport and this is one of 2 airports that is available in Bangkok, the other one being Don Muang Airport, my decision to come to this trip was very dependent on which airport I would arrive in, if I had to arrive at the latter, it would have been a no-go and it almost became a no-go because when I attempted to book this trip of Expedia, the only premium economy option they had for a budget carrier was Air Asia Thailand, and that carrier only lands at Don Muang.

Scoot was the only other budget airline that I was willing to take but they didn't have the premium economy option on Expedia, I thought they didn't have a premium economy seat until I went to their official website and found out they do, then immediately got my tickets from there whilst I was at work one day and proceeded to also book the hotel from Klook.

The reason why I wanted to land in Suvarnabhumi Airport is because there is an Express Train there that will get me to my hotel within 6 to 7 stops, with one transfer, but if I land in Don Muang, there isn't any Express Train there and I will have to take the regular train, which is 19 stops away and includes 1 transfer. 

Taxi is out of the question because I know how bad traffic can get in Bangkok, and the fact that I landed at around 5pm Bangkok time meant that it was evening peak hour, the jam is going to be abysmal, so arriving in which airport was extremely important to me.

Anyways, once I landed, I had to pee really badly, but then had to fight the urge to go pee first because I just wanted to get out of customs and soon as possible, that was not a good decision because I was literally swaying back and forth in the queue, just so everything will stay in, the queue wasn't slow, but the fact that I was going to burst made it feel very slow. I manage to get through customs dry, rushed to the toilet to get everything out of my system and headed for the baggage belt, collected my SIM Card and then went straight to the Train station. Literally do not even want to consider the taxi as an option.

Bangkok has 2 train system, 1 Underground Metro and 1 Sky Train, both have different operators, so if I wanted to get a metro card, I will have to get 2 different ones, which I thought is a bit dumb if I am only going to be there for 3 days, so I had to keep buying my tickets from the kiosk every time I wanted to go somewhere. The ticketing machines were easy to use so it was only a minor inconvenience. 

Here is my POV whilst I am on the train with the Sun literally glaring right at my face. It took me about an hour to get to my hotel using the train, which I would like to believe is faster than taking a taxi and potentially getting stuck in the jam and potentially suffering from massive motion sickness. 

I booked my stay at Solaria Nishitestsu, it's located right next to a Skytrain and very close to an Underground Metro Station, so getting around Bangkok was a breeze, there is also a huge shopping mall called Terminal 21 right next to it, which meant if I were to be feeling lazy to travel anywhere too far, I could just pop by the shopping mall for a meal.

Can I just say as well how lucky I am with my hotel room because I was given the top floor and the view I got from my room is this, I also forgot I booked the deluxe room instead of the standard room, so I also had a bathtub...

... it's such an amazing view! This was taken on the second day because by the time I reached the hotel, it was already night and the moment I got settled down, I headed straight out and took the train to Jodd Fair Night Market to officially start my trip.

It was very busy despite being a weekday night.

I needed a drink, so I headed over to the fruit juice store with the famous store owner. She is the one is white, and there were so many people just taking videos of her preparing the drinks.

She also speaks Mandarin, so she was able to converse with a lot of mandarin speaking tourist very easily.

Got myself a Mango Smoothie from her store, this was 160 Baht, which I later come to find out is very expensive compared to the other stores that sells the same stuff.

The great thing about Jodd Fair is that they have communal tables for people to sit down and have their food, which is something I don't remember seeing at the night markets in Taiwan and one of the reason why I didn't enjoy my Night Market experience there, because I really do not like to walk and eat, especially when my goal is to try as many food as possible, there is only so much food I can hold with both hands. 

This is what I got, a takoyaki with a very generous amounts of octopus as well as one of those coconut crepe things that were delicious. I found myself a table and could slowly take my time to enjoy the food, I thought I would be full after having the takoyaki and the crepes, but I still had space for more food, which made me very happy.

So I aimed for desserts and got myself a tanghulu, which was something I saw a lot at the Night Markets in Taipei but never bothered to get them. Well, I got the Shine Muscat Tanghulu and it was really quite nice.

Then had to get another drink because I was really thirsty, but decided to get from another juice store instead and this was less than half the price of the one I got from the first store. 

Then came the final Nightmarket food of the night, the one to end it all. 

Insects.

I just had to get one, and I figured, if I was going to go for an insect, I should go for the nastiest looking one.

So I opted for a Scorpion.

Also because for the rest of the bugs, I assumed they sold them in weight, and I didn't really want to have a dozen worms to have to eat through, so might as well just get one chonky monster instead.

I honestly still don't know how to describe my feelings when I was eating the scorpion, the claws and the head was easy to eat because they are mainly crunchy, but when we get to the main body, that was when I found it a lot more difficult to follow through because that's where all the different textures started coming in, it's not just crunch there, it's all the soft parts and I was just imagining all the innards squeezing it's way out of the scorpions' abdomen and into my mouth as I bit into it. It was gross, but at least it didn't taste bad, there was a bit of liquorice taste to the crunchy bits. 

After that, I headed back to the hotel, but first, made a quick stop to Terminal 21 to get a Lush bath bomb just so I could take full advantage of the bath tub.  Nothing like soaking in a bubble bath full of glitter after a sticky night out. There was a lot of glitter in the tub the next morning when the water finally dried up.

There was an Aunty Anne Pretzel stand next to the Lush store, so I got a sausage pretzel and a strawberry lemonade for supper.

On the second day of the trip, I headed over to one of the street food stand to get a cup of Ice Coffee, I have seen videos of this street vendor before on those YouTube videos and I was very happy it was located within walking distance from the hotel, so I decided to try it out, and getting drinks from this type of coffee cart is something I have always wanted to do.

I also got some bread from a bread shop from the train station on the way back to the hotel because I couldn't find any decent street food that I wanted on the way back.

Coffee was 35 baht, bread was 40 baht for 2. So my breakfast was only 75 baht, it was cheap! The total cost was less than the Mango smoothie I had at the night market. 

I tagged the coffee vendor on my insta story and she actually reposted it, so that was a pleasant surprise. 

After breakfast, I just chilled out in the hotel for a while before heading over to Jim Thompson House Museum, honestly didn't have much interest in Jim Thompson, but figured it would be a good visit anyways just to kill time. 

You can't actually walk around the place alone unless you go for a paid tour first and it was okay, I am literally one of the only few Asian tourist there, majority of the other tourist were Caucasians.

I was the only Asian in my tour group, everyone else was American and we were taken on a guided tour around the complex, it was a little humid that day, so I could just smell the scent that this Caucasian guy in front of me was emitting during the tour, it wasn't BO level stink, but it was close to it, like once he cools down somewhere and his shirt fully dries, it will develop into BO.

The tour was a little boring to me, I have to admit that, there was also nothing that interest me in the souvenir shop, everything was just a bit too expensive and not items that I would personally use on a daily basis, so I skipped those and just left right after the tour was done. My plans to actually have a drink at their café also didn't come to fruition because by the time the tour was over, the café was packed.

So right after that, I headed over to Sarthorn Pier, which is a few train station away from the museum, and took a taxi boat over to IconSiam.

I could have taken the Sky Train, but why take the Sky Train when you have the option to reach there via boat. I knew there was the express boat and then the regular boat, and I did my research online before my trip, so I knew I had to go to the Ferry Terminal and not the Boat Express Terminal because the latter is the more expensive option.

Turn right. Not left.

Here is a POV of me in the boat on the way to ICONSIAM. It was a very small boat compared to the rest I saw on the river, and when I got on the boat with 2 other Chinese tourist, the boat was shaking really violently because I think the driver lost control of it for a bit, I thought I was going to get wet because the water was so close to entering the boat from the excessive swaying.

It was quite a good experience nonetheless, here is a photo of the boat that I arrived in. It's probably the smallest taxi boat they have in their fleet.

When I got to ICONSIAM, I knew I wanted to get lunch at  Thipsamai at the 6th floor of the shopping mall, it was a very nice restaurant and I had to join a small queue, but was able to get a seat within 10 minutes.

One item that was a must order from what I read online, aside from their Pad Thai, was their orange juice. This orange juice was full of pulp and it was nice and sweet, it also cost more than the Pad Thai but I was able to get 2 cups worth of it from 1 bottle.  

The Pad Thai was also quite good, I got the cheaper option because I didn't really want to spend too much on Pad Thai. The juice ended up costing more than the food.

After that, I explored the mall a bit, walked to Takashimaya to see what they had to offer, was contemplating to get a swimming trunks so I can take advantage of the pool at the hotel, but spending $20 bucks just to use it once seems a bit excessive, so that idea was thrown out the window. I couldn't find any souvenirs as well because whatever they were selling were items I could probably get back in Singapore, it just seemed a bit pointless. I did contemplate getting a Squishmallow toy at Takashimaya though but none of the designs they had there were particularly nice.

My final destination was the indoor floating market at the basement and when I first entered the space, it looked alright, but when I finally stepped into the food stalls area,  it was suddenly so crowded. I was immediately turned off, and this is on a weekday afternoon, it was also off peak hour but it was still so packed.

I walked around for 10 minutes, didn't even bother thinking of getting anything to eat there because all the tables were occupied. I did manage to get some snacks for souvenirs home but after I got those, I was out.

This is how pack it looked as I was taking the elevator up, all the tables were taken up and there is literally no seats available. 

I headed back to the Pier right after, paid 10 baht for a ticket and this time, was assigned to one of the regular sized taxi-boats.

We were waiting for a while when the boat arrived because they had to wait for all the incoming passengers to disembark from the boat before we could enter, but then there was these 2 tourist who were taking their own sweet time taking photos as they were slowly walking up the walkway, and the person who was manning the gate eventually had to shout at them to tell them to stop taking photos so we could move things along.

Some people just really lack common sense and consideration for others. 

Anyways, the trip back was much smoother, but everyone who boarded the boat decided to sit on the left side of it because the view was better, I was actually worried that the boat will start to lean towards the left and capsize once it started moving, but thankfully, all I ended up getting was a few splashes from some large waves.

It was back to the hotel after that, but before that, I went to Terminal 21 again to get some snacks and chose to get a Cinnabon and Thai Green Milk Tea.

I didn't have to queue for this Cinnabon, but I am looking forward to try the one in Singapore soon, I read that the one at Terminal 21 is actually not a good representation of the product because they don't make it fresh there, and it was indeed quite hard, but the flavour is still good, so I can only imagine how much better a fresh, soft and fluffy one would actually taste like. 

I got the Thai Green Milk Tea because I'm in Thailand and getting a Thai Milk Tea just feels like a necessity.

This is my view as I took my time to snack on the Cinnabon and sip my Thai Green Milk tea, this is honestly one of the best hotel view I can ask for, I just like the juxtaposition between the peace and quiet of my hotel room and the hectic traffic that is happening outside.

I just lazed around in the hotel room for a good while blasting Taylor Swift's new re-release album on Spotify.

After a few hours of just updating my Insta-story and then just doing nothing in the hotel room, I headed out to Terminal 21 for my dinner, I had wanted to go to Siam and explore the malls, but figured it was probably going to be crowded as fuck after my experience at the ICONSIAM floating market, so I save that for the next day in the late morning when I know the crowds will be minimal.

I was in the mall at around 7.30pm because I had assumed that was when the dinner crowd will start to dissipate, I mean that is usually the time the dinner crowd starts dissipating in Singapore, so I thought the same will apply in Bangkok, but I was wrong, it was still crowded as fuck. I didn't even bother to try looking for a space in the food court because the line to just get the cash card for the food court was already a snaking queue.

This is one of the downside of solo-travelling, I can't have someone "chop" a seat for me while I go get my food. 

Decided to just explore the mall properly, I mean there are about 8 stories to explore, so I went up and down the mall probably 4 times...

... got myself a milkshake and then just sat at one of the benches that's around the mall and tried to wait the dinner crowd out. It didn't die down, I was so tempted to just go back to the hotel and wait in my room, but decided to just stick around in the mall because I had already been stuck in my room for hours prior.

After a while, I tried to explore the mall again and seeing how the foodcourt was still insanely packed at 8.30pm, I tried to look at one of the restaurants and came across CoCo Curry because it was one of the few places that had no queue.

It feel so weird having Japanese food in Thailand, but here I am, having CoCo Curry for dinner. It was a decent meal but I was a bit upset that I didn't have Thai food.

After that, I headed to the super market at the basement level and got more snacks to bring home, came across their fresh juice area and got myself a bottle of orange juice to see if it would be as good as the one I had for lunch at Thipsamai.  

It wasn't as good, it was equally pulpy and very fresh, but there was also this really weird wok hey taste, it's really really odd.

I also did something that's a bit out of character for me, I went to visit the roof top bar at the hotel and it was a very nice experience. Got myself a Singapore Sling and had a free serving of yam chips. I am not much of a alcohol drinker, so the drinking part itself was not a good experience, but being able to enjoy the Bangkok night sky was really really nice. 

It's would have been a perfect spot to hang out with a close friend and just chat the night away, but alas, I was alone, so I left after I finish my drink, which I did take my time to slowly consume.

This is the view from the other side of the hotel, it's facing a river, it's pretty nice as well.

On the last day of the trip, I was planning to go back to the coffee cart again to get another cup of coffee, but as I was heading over, I was also thinking about what to get for breakfast, then I came across a café and decided to just have my breakfast there instead.

I ordered Caramelized Banana French Toast and an Oat Milk Café Latte...

... I got Bacon French Toast and Regular Café Latte.

The waitress got both my orders wrong, even though I had pointed to her the item I wanted directly from the menu, was literally pointing to her the picture of the items I wanted, I knew my order was fucked when I saw the barista pouring fresh milk into a cup, (flashback to when Starbucks did that to me twice)  and then seeing that cup be brought to my table, and when I saw the bacon on my French toast, I started to question if I was the one who had fucked up, but it definitely wasn't me, and I honestly also cannot be bothered to correct her mistake when she got my food out, figured since they had already made it, I will just eat it, plus with the language barrier that was happening between the waitress and myself, it would only make things more difficult.

That being said, I will admit I am quite happy with the Bacon French Toast mistake, it is nice to have a bit of savory in the morning, the coffee was alright, I would have preferred Oat Milk over regular milk. 

After breakfast, I went back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading over the Siam again to do some shopping, spoiler alert, I'm not much of a shopper so I didn't get anything. 

I visited 3 different malls, Siam Discovery (pictured above)...

...Siam Centre (pictured above) and Siam Paragon (which I didn't take a picture of), there was nothing to get. I did start contemplating whether to get a Squishmallow again when I was at Siam Paragon though because they were selling it at the departmental store, and I was choosing one of the medium size one when this Caucasian kid came over and started playing around with it. That was when I realize I was too fucking old for this and left the section out of embarrassment.

I also didn't have space to store the Squishmallow because the luggage I brought over was way too small to squeeze the Squishmallow in and bringing in on the plane is just embarrassing, especially because I know there will be another person seated right next tome. I might end up just getting one from Toy'R'Us in Singapore though because it's so nice to hug.

Before I left the mall, I knew I wanted to get some more Thai Crepes before I ended my trip because the one from Jodd Fair was so good, came across this atas looking one and ordered 6 salty option to try out since I already had the sweet ones at the fair.

It's not nice. 

The sweet ones were so much nicer, and there are too many things happening with the version from this store. Expensive doesn't always mean good and in this case, I feel like it was just over done, if this had been my introduction to the dish, I would have hated it.

The hotel check out was suppose to be at 12noon, but I was given a free extension until 1.30pm, so I just relaxed in my hotel room until about 1.20pm as I struggled to finish all that crepe as well as the orange juice I got the night before, and then officially checked out.

The hotel staff was very automatic and asked me if I would like to store my bag with them until I was ready to actually leave the area, so I gladly told them I would like to come back an hour later to collect my luggage and headed to Terminal 21 again for my lunch.

The foodcourt was still crowded as fuck and because I was still so fucking full from forcing myself to finish the Thai Crepe, I knew I could only have something light, like a salad, and I knew there was one in the mall somewhere, so I went to look for it and found it at the basement.

So this is my last meal for the trip, Duck and Arugula Salad with a Watermelon Smoothie. 

I hated it.

I have eaten Arugula before, so I am aware that it leaves a bitter aftertaste, but the bitterness from this Arugula salad is next level, it was so fucking bitter, and it was also super peppery, not because there was pepper in the salad but because the Arugula itself also left a very spicy peppery aftertaste.

The balsamic vinaigrette did fuck all to mask the horrible after taste, I had such a difficult time finishing the salad. I would literally choose to eat the scorpion over this salad, that's how bad it was.

The watermelon smoothie was good though.

Didn't really have any time to do anymore walking around after that meal, so I headed straight back to the hotel, got my luggage and made my way to the airport via the metro.  Taking the taxi in Bangkok just didn't make sense to me because of bad traffic is, it is sometimes so much faster to just take the train, plus it's also much cheaper. I spend about $200 on this trip, and this wasn't me trying to be on a budget, I was just buying what I wanted to buy and it only cost me $200, if I got the squishmellow then maybe it would be $250, but overall it was really very affordable.

Here is the POV of me at the Airport Express Train line, waiting for the train, it was really humid that day, very much like Singapore.

I was able to reach the Airport within an hour, checked my luggage in, and didn't have to join a long queue because I am on Scootplus, so that meant I had the Priority Check-In. This was not present at Changi Airport though, check in at Changi Airport was so fucking slow because there were so many passengers and no priority check in for Scootplus.

Headed into the departure area soon after, had to queue up again to officially enter the departure hall, there was a lot of noise pollution happening because there were a lot of PRCs, it wasn't the most pleasant queuing experience.

Before I headed to my Gate, I got myself a slushie from Dairy Queen, would have preferred to get a Blizzard Ice Cream but I was still feeling really jelat from the Thai Crepe I had that morning, so I went for the slushie. 

As I was waiting for the Gate to open, I was approached by someone whom I thought was trying to sell me stuff for charity because I saw she was wheeling around bags of little pouches with her and carrying a clipboard, thankfully all she wanted was for me to help her with a survey about my trip in Bangkok, so I did the survey because why not, and she ended up giving me a free pouch for it.

It's quite a cute pouch, I will be able to use it to store my electrical cables for future travels.

After a while, the gate was opened for us and everyone headed in to wait for boarding. As someone who got Scootplus, I was expecting to get priority boarding, because that's what I got at Changi, Scootplus passengers were asked to board first.

Well, when the airport staff opened the gate for us to start boarding the plane, they did tell all Scootplus passengers to board the plane first, but because some dumb fucks who aren't Scootplus passengers didn't listen, they started to swamp the gate and for some reason, the person who was checking the ticket to let the passengers in didn't bother to enforce the priority boarding.

I didn't bother to join the queue that had formed, I just cut into the front of the line because I had priority boarding and I felt like an asshole doing it even though I had every right to. 

It's like they are only offering just one of the 2 Priority that Scootplus Passengers are entitled to and you just need to see how lucky you are whether the airport staff decides to enforce them or not.

When I am coming to Bangkok from Singapore, they don't have Priority Check In for Luggage, but they have Priority Boarding.

When I am going back to Singapore to Bangkok, I get Priority Check in for Luggage, but don't get Priority Boarding.

Sigh.

I knew I wasn't going to get 2 seats to myself on the return trip as well because I had already checked the flight seats online prior, but the flight itself was pretty smooth sailing. I was able to finish my meal on time this time round because I ordered the ragout, which took significantly lesser time to consume.

A view of the setting Sun on my way back home.

Overall, I would rate this trip a great success. It wasn't a long trip, so I didn't have time to get attached to the country and was able to avoid getting the post travel blues, it did however help scratch that travel itch that I got after returning from my Taipei trip 2 months ago.

 

If I were to compare the 2 countries, I still very much prefer Taipei, but Bangkok makes for a fantastic last minute travel destination and I much prefer the street food that Bangkok night market has to offer. The main thing I hate about Bangkok is just the insane crowd and the scorching heat and humidity, but everything else is pretty awesome.

Oh, and the fucking Arugula Salad.

Update 19/7/2023 : I realize I was on the coffee vendor's YouTube livesteam because she does livestream everyday and my gawd, I look so lanky and awkward in it. Also because my posture was so bad, I just look like that spongebob meme when I was walking away from the store.

 It's funny but also mortifying.

That also explains why the vendor was mumbling to herself a lot because she was constantly greeting her livestream viewers through a mic that she wore on her apron.  

Just Resigned.

I have officially tendered my resignation early last week and will be starting my new job mid July. It was a good run while it lasted, but it is time to finally say goodbye to my Visual Merchandising career with my current company and return back to the Interior Design industry, 

Hopefully the Interior Renovation company I have decided to join will be able to offer me a better career moving forward. The role that I have gotten is a design position, so I am not expected to do sales nor am I am expected to do project management, although I think I will probably end up doing a bit of the latter at some point, this role is exactly what I am looking for in an Interior Design position, the only downside is that I will have return back to a Monday - Friday work schedule, no more "3 days work, 1 day off, 2 days work, 1 day off" retail schedule anymore. The last time I had a Monday - Friday schedule was when I was working for my Dad, it has been 7 years since, but being in an office beats being in a retail environment for sure. 

The new ID company is relatively small, so I don't think I will have a lot of "work friends" like I did back at ID4 and like I do now at my current company. My social circle at work will probably return to the state that it was in when I was working at my Dad's company, which is essentially non-existent and I think because of that, when I start work at this new company, the lack of colleagues to chat with will definitely make me miss my current colleagues. 

I had about 2 weeks worth of Annual Leave and Public Holiday Leave to clear and had initially thought the company would choose to encash all my Leave so I could stay for as long as contractually possible to help out in the store, or at least that's what my Manager and most of my colleagues thought would happen, but the company decided not to because it's too expensive, so my 1 month notice period has now been reduced to 2 weeks, which also goes to show how lazy I am in general to actually use up my Leave.

I have 1 week of work left and will have another 1 week break before the new job starts, so I figured it would be a good idea to make full use of that 1 week break to go for an overseas again, another solo trip. I was thinking of going back to Taipei just because I am now familiar with the country, but because both my Sisters and Mum will be going there separately next month, it just feels a bit excessive for almost everyone in my household to visit Taipei in July because that would mean that at any given time, there will always be someone in our household who will be in Taipei during that month. The amount of Taiwanese snacks that will start to accumulate at home because of that just sounds a bit excessive.

I knew I wanted to go Overseas because I got hit by the travelling bug after my Taipei trip, but I wasn't sure where. It has to be somewhere that's far enough to warrant a plane ride but not too far so I can justify only spending 3 days there, and it also had to be cheap, so after putting some thought into it, I decided that the perfect destination for my next solo trip will be Bangkok Thailand. 

It will be a very short 3 days 2 nights trip, I decided to splurge a bit and go for Premium Economy again, but this time on a budget airline because the flight will only be 2.5 hours long. I know I wasn't going to just settle for the Economy cabin on a Budget Airline, it has to at least be Premium Economy because I tried a budget airline before back in 2011 and that short 1 hour trip to Phuket was horrible, there was barely any leg room, the seats couldn't recline and there wasn't any form of entertainment on board to make the time pass by faster, it genuinely sucked! 

All in all, the flights and accommodation for that 3 day trip has set me back by about $780 because I did end up also booking a decently nice 4 star hotel, I will probably bring another $300 for food and shopping, so it will not even cost me an iPhone 14 Pro. I don't think I will like Bangkok as much as I enjoyed Taiwan, just because I have been to Bangkok multiple times before in the past for family vacations and it has always been quite meh, but hopefully this trip will be enough to scratch my travel bug itch until my plans to return back to Taiwan again in January, if my new job will allow me to take a one week break to do that. 

Taiwan Day 3 -5

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 

I didn't actually do my research where all these stores were, I just happen to chance upon it as I was walking through the alleys, so I ordered 1 piece and the shopkeeper was really automatic as he placed the food on the plate and asked me if I wanted to take a picture before he wrapped it up like a popiah / burrito.

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.

The texture of the balls were nice and chewy and it's green bean and red bean soup, which I liked, so it was nice, but it also felt a bit boring at the same time. I knew there were 2 different, but equally famous stores that sold the same thing, one is supposedly sweeter and had less serving and the other is less sweet but had bigger serving. I ended up running into the other store as well when I got lost later during my journey trying to find my next destination, didn't have any appetite for more of it though so I didn't try the other store as well.

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. 

This is a screenshot taken from a video, so not the greatest example of the actual scenery, but the view is really nice. Initially at the start, there were a few of us there who were on our own, but as the tourist groups starting coming in, I became the only solo diner there, everyone else had friends and family to talk to whilst I was just sitting alone, in the middle of the restaurant, nursing the overprice Oolong Tea.

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.

This is the queue at 5.45am.

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.