Monday, February 23, 2009

Follow the Notes Upon a Journey to the Night Market

Sis felt ill on the morning on the 3rd day and declined to join us for breakfast (another bowl of Ah Chung mee sua!), so Fern and I browsed at the shops in Ximending and ended up blowing our money on facial masks (of all things!) at The Face Shop. The salesgirl was a good small-talked. She informed us that the day before, it was the coldest that Taipei had encountered in 20+ years (7 degrees Celsius), in all her years of growing up. We were "lucky" to experience the abnormality.

We met Sis on our way back to chuck our harvest back in the hotel room, then made our way down to Taipei City Hall again, this time to the famous 24-hour Eslite bookstore (seen the Welcome to Taiwan ads where Jolin Tsai lounges in a bookstore? That's the one!).



I spent about S$200 here, but not a single cent on books! There's a Sports b. store (opposite Starbucks on the 1st level), a line from agnes b., which cannot be found in Singapore (yet), so I got him a basic black polo tee and a charm key ring for myself. Then I spotted a distinctive Keith Haring barking dog picture in an art corner on the 2nd level of the building within the bookstore, and ended up splurging on a set of coloured Dancers wall stickers (shown below taken from the website) which I thought would look good around my ceiling light. *Happy*



After we applied for tax refunds on our purchases, we got into a cab to go to the Medical University Taipei (台北市信义区吴兴街 250号). The cab driver dropped us at the Medical Hospital instead and we wandered around for a short while near the wards before an aide came to our, erm, aid. She probably recognized us as tourists and was used to people asking directions to...

Mr J's Restaurant.



Opened by Jay Chou, this particular outlet is the only one in the line to feature the piano from his hit movie "Secret" (不能说的秘密, 2007). Decor aside, the food was value for money. I ordered the sliced beef carbonara set meal, and the carbonara came raw and so thinly sliced, that I could cook it using the heat of the pasta. The chocolate sauce that came with the cake was dribbled in the shape of a treble clef, which Sis apparently did not get. Overall, the dining experience was great. But it was time for more shopping, back to Wufenpu (忠孝东路/Zhong Xiao Dong Lu) again to complete the rest of the alleys we did not have the time to browse the night before.


Fern can really shop for accessories. She and Sis took soooo long choosing their purchases at a pushcart stall tucked away in a side alley, while I switched into screensaver mode at the back. The atmosphere was definitely better than Shilin's. Once, we walked by a store, and the very good-looking sales assistant called out, "进来看看吗？(Come in for a look?)". We all shook our heads but after a few metres on, we all huddled and giggled that we should have said "OK" to him, then stand in front of him to gaze at his face.

Eventually the biting cold forced us into a cab back to Ximending, and we settled into our beds for another night of Taiwanese and Korean dramas, Corner with Love for me, and Coffee Prince for Fern and Sis.

posted by Addy @ 5:45 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Cow Parade

Started off the day with some unmemorable beef noodles near my hotel. We landed up in a cluster of shopping centres called the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi at Taipei City Hall, browsing through a Cow Parade to commemorate the Year of the Ox. It was reminiscent of the Buddy Bear parade which I saw in Berlin back in 2003. There were some really interesting cows, like a colour-changing, heat-sensitive one (below, top row, 3rd from left), and a magnetic one which Sis and I formed Fern's name on using magnetic letters, much to her amusement. However the exhibition was rather small-scaled and we moved on to more shopping pleasures at New York New York, a shopping centre which is near to the Taipei 101 landmark.



Went on the obligatory touristy trip up the Taipei 101. Nothing much to report about it. Couldn't even take good photos. Maybe I was just bored after viewing the more beautiful night lights from the Sky Garden in Osaka. The more pressing matter for me was where to top up my local SIM card so that I could call/sms A3 throughout my trip. Help came in the form of Kelvin when we were trying to arrange a time and place to meet up; he suggested going to the shops at Warner Village, which is the building beside New York New York. It was there where we decided to try out this pasta restaurant's set meal for 2, which the 3 of us ended up sharing and still couldn't finish. We discovered something: Fern is actually a rubbish bin for food despite her skinny frame.




Since we were fit to burst, and it was very cold, we waddled out to catch a cab to another night market, 五分铺. Unfortunately it was quite late by the time we reached, and the shops were starting to pack up for the night.

posted by Addy @ 3:22 PM 0 comments

Roasted Cat, anyone?

"Mee sua!" I would announce to Sis for days before we left for Taipei. Well, I wanted mee sua, and mee sua I got, 3 times, from the famous Ah Chung Mian Xian （阿宗面线） in Ximending （西门钉） near our hotel (Hotel Rainbow). Out of my 2 objectives for the trip (shopping & eating), I managed to fulfil only the latter to my satisfaction.

The idea of the Taiwan trip was conceived nearly a year ahead, just after the Japan trip with Sis. Fern came into the picture sometime in mid Oct, but everything came together only in Dec, about a month before we were to set off. Sis planned the trip this time, with minimal input from me ("Shopping centre with the ferris wheel!", "Mee sua!"), and Fern was to be our translator. ^_^

After checking into our hotel in the mid afternoon, we hit the streets of Ximending looking for mee sua (how delightful in the winter chill!) and milk tea. Ximending was a smaller, more organized (and understandable) version of Shinjuku, with shops selling stuff similar to those at Far East Plaza. However, we had places to go, things to see, so we set off for the 1st stop.


Seeing Miramar was a big thrill. We took the train to Jiantan station (剑潭站) then the shuttle bus which dropped us off outside the shopping centre. However the shops proved too atas for our budgets. The place was less crowded than our Paragon on weekdays, and the price tags revealed why. So Sis and I amused ourselves by reliving scenes from Why Why Love at appropriate parts of the building while Fern looked on in amazement that we could remember so much. We also took a ride up the ferris wheel but the city's night lights were nothing spectacular. We managed to catch a glimpse of Taipei 101 though at that time, we had no inkling that building was the iconic landmark.



We made our way to Shilin Night Market in the biting night air. I was rather disappointed with the stuff that was on display; it was more like a Chinese version of Chatuchak market. The food was more enticing, the girls manning the stalls even more so. I kept whispering to Fern that the sellers at the stalls we went to were "so pretty!". Unfortunately I did not think of taking photos of them. Fern and I got a shock when we saw the banner at one of the stalls (below, top centre) which read "Roasted Cat". Turned out that it sold pancakes with red bean/pumpkin/chocolate fillings. We ended off the night with our 2nd milk tea of the day at a cafe overlooking the main road.

posted by Addy @ 9:51 AM 0 comments