Taipei snippets

I’ve been looking forward to my Taiwan trip but alas, the trip turned out to be quite a disappointment. Perhaps, it’s due to my own set expectations from the variety shows, plus how my colleagues and friends raved about the shopping and the food when they knew I was going.

As one always says, if you have zero expectations, more often than not, you will be in for a pleasant surprise. Yet, if you already set some expectations, you will be utterly disappointed if your expectations are not met.

It rained for the first two days when we were there.

Wet. Wet. Wet.

FY even considered buying raincoats just so that we wouldn’t be lugging our umbrellas in one hand while trying to carry our bags with the other.

First day was spent mostly underground at Taipei Main Station since we figured we would not want to be in the rain. Bought a pair of red shoes for approximately S$10.

Second day was the day tour where we visited the CKS Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum and a few other places of interest, including 九份and 北投 for a short hot spring session. The guide also brought us to this Tien Lu Handicraft Centre where the acclaimed 师傅 asked me to write down my name and then continued to tell me my “fortune”.

• I’m a kind girl by nature. **ah be den?**
• I’m very close to my family. **of course la!**
• I’m not a risk taker and prefer to take the tried-and-tested method. Therefore, work-wise, more often than not, I would play by the rules. **well, I dun really deny this… **
• I have many suitors and so, I have to take my time to choose carefully, lest I end up with the wrong guy. **is it? Dun seem to be so leh.. I dun even see a fly flying toward my direction leh… **

The night was spent at 士林夜市. Food was good, except we don’t really like the 鱼鲠 and the oyster omelet. FY nearly fainted when I wanted to buy a second 大鸡排。 We kind of loved the 大饼包小饼 (like wafer wrapped in pancake/popiah skin), 大肠包小肠 (sausage on top of glutinous rice), and 官材板 (starch, meat, pineapple chunks wrapped in thick toast). Most of their foods contain starch and we wonder why the Taiwanese still manage to stay so slim…

士林夜市

Third day was the day I was sooooo looking forward to… We were going to 五分铺！This was the place which everyone tells me that I must go because the place sells a whole lot of assorted clothes, bags and shoes at wholesale prices and of course, there’s a need for some bargaining skills to be applied here to get the best prices.

But, after we walked two to three streets, it was obvious that FY and I were getting bored and restless… Every shop was selling the SAME things at the SAME price… And I mean it when I said “EVERY shop was selling the SAME things at the SAME price…” The irony was 西门町 was also selling those same things at the same price too! Imagine my disappointment when I left the place with only a dress which cost me approximately S$25. Not exactly very cheap ya?

Went to 饶河夜市, where I bought the 胡椒饼, which FY said it was nothing fantastic but just a 小肉包。 But I quite like it – minus the fact I spilled the juice on my white blouse! How unglam…

Fourth day. We went to Taipei 101, since it’s such a famous landmark – in FY's words: “to show that we’ve been there, done that.” Nothing fantastic except that the building’s really so tall that a normal camera would not be able to capture the entire building in one shot. We have to walk quite a distance before we could do that…

Taipei 101

Next, we went to 淡水, where people tell us that we can capture beautiful sunset scenery there… Oh well, it was nice, but not exactly stunning… The scenery reminded us of one of those sceneries we saw in Hong Kong two years back and Hong Kong’s was definitely nicer… How anti-climax.

淡水

Saw some stalls selling ice cream – the ice cream was piled so high on the cone we thought it might topple any moment.. And sure it did – on my pink skirt! FY laughed at my clumsiness… First was my white blouse and now my pink skirt. But my wet tissues worked wonders – the stains actually came off! Clumsy but lucky me…

Fifth day was spent mostly in 西门町 shopping… Bought a blouse for approximately S$30 and a pair of cloth shoes for approximately S$12. Whoever told me that I can buy cheap things in Taipei?! Grrrr…

西门町

Some thoughts:

I’m impressed with how orderly Taiwanese behave – they literally keep to their right on escalators, leaving the left for people rushing for time. They really keep in line when boarding the Metro – there was this man who was the last in his line (to enter through another door), but the first if he were to enter from the door I was at. At that moment, I wondered if he would just board the Metro from my side. And, when the doors opened, imagine how my jaws dropped when he obediently followed his queue to enter the train through the other door! Amazing… Can’t imagine Singaporeans doing that…

Inside the Metro

Taipei’s signages are absolutely confusing. Either the signs were hidden by trees or situated at some obscure corners… During our 1st day, we walked up and down along one stretch of road trying to find a mall, but could not find it. When we asked the locals, they either pointed us to the wrong direction or that they were not very sure too or claimed we were very far from the place and pointed us to some place and asked us to ask from there… And then, there was one signboard in 忠孝东路 which read 第三段 in Chinese but 4th Blvd in English…

When FY was busy studying the map and I was looking around for landmarks in 忠孝东路 (our faces all black), my eyes met with a Caucasian’s. He smiled and came up to us. The irony of this encounter was… he asked us if we were lost.

A Singaporean and a couple other tourists came up to me and asked me for directions, when I was having this lost (and frustrated) look on my face and a map in my hands. Even some salesgirls thought I was bringing my friend around. I wonder if I should take that as a compliment…

And that ends my five-day trip in Taipei…