Taipei May-hem (Day 2)
Day 2:
This is our hostel!
We started the day rather energetically (the first few days we awoke at almost 9 am everyday, but our endurance gave in eventually) and headed out for breakfast after meeting May & Kacey at the MRT station. The great thing about Taiwan is that the breakfast there is always fantastic. I would say that most of my best meals in Taiwan were eaten at breakfast-time. We headed into a cafe-like place before the WuFenPu market, which was situated outside the MRT station. The ambience was pretty good and quiet. We were the only customers there, ostensibly because we came at such an early hour. Kicked off the day with a good variety of toast and some dim-sum!
Dream Cafe
They have a very wide variety of toast here, breakfast here is damn awesome
But the downside is that Taiwanese srsly cannot do coffee. All of it is terrible and sweet, so the only acceptable ones are from the convenience stores
Thankfully the convenience stores were aplenty and situated around almost every block, so it wasn't too bad and my coffee fix was always around the corner! After this, we attempt to visit the WuFenPu market, only to find that it opens sometime around noon, giving us an excess of an hour or so. Walking back to the MRT station, we find that someone had fallen onto the tracks, effectively closing down our touring path. With nowhere to go, we idled around for a while, walking to and fro, until the doors of the first early shops were opened to us.
Needless to say, the markets of Taiwan opened only to an almost exclusively female market, which meant that there was close to no male apparel which could be worn in the streets without looking like a total blingslut. However, we endeavoured, and managed to purchase a few pieces of clothing. On the flipside, there are plenty of footwear stands which sported quite a few nifty shoes
This, I suspect, would be a haven for some people.
Their bubbletea. Srsly endless menu, this is like half, there's more stuff at the top and side.
This guy walks around selling Oyster Omelettes and screams in Hokkien at the top of his voice.
GALOSHES
We shopped around for an excruciatingly long time. Today was the day of broken promises, for every time one member of the group agreed to stop shopping, they would break it about five minutes later and flit into another shiny stall. This symptom repeated itself at least 20-odd times throughout the whole trip (Yes, I too was guilty of this :( ) But finally after we were all spent, we decided to settle down and grab a bite, defintiely not a choice to be regretted, because lunch today was positively delectable! I cannot stop emphasising how cheap yet delicious the roadside stalls are!!
Proof:
This stuff is the mead of the gods and costs only like 50 cents.
Post-meal shot!
Orange juice yakult in copious amounts from a vending machine! Taipei is tres amazing
After this, we headed to Taipei 101 to check out how awesome the view was, but prior to this, we had to wait for the shuttle bus to come, so we toured their Uniqlo outlet for a bit. They didn't allow for photo-taking though, so I didn't get any shots of inside the shop
We wait under the sweltering sun for the Taipei 101 shuttle bus
I wouldn't say that the whole of Taipei 101 was amazing or anything, it wasn't really worth it to pay that much to go up, and the whole place stank of tourist trap. Nonetheless, the area still was pretty fun to tour and posh enough. Reminded us of Singapore's shopping malls, except ten times larger. They really can afford tons of space here, the shops and boutiques can go up a couple of storeys! To our disappointment, the open-air roof was closed, so we were only restricted to the lower floors where there was an art exhibit going on, and could only enjoy the scenery (although I must say it was pretty breathtaking!!!) from glass windows
There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing, but Taiwan certainly doesn't lose out either
I had to literally lie down on the floor to take this shot -.-
A great many jumpshots were taken that day.
Just like home!!!
Truly breathtaking night scenery (:
Also breathtaking scenery ^^
After taking 23812948213 nightshots, my camera died and ran out of battery, so the rest of the photos are taken from Sandra/Kacey/May's camera (this was a looooong night.) We stayed in Taipei 101 for a pretty long time and at some point of time I had a beer float. The whole place was pretty pandered towards tourists though, so there was nothing novel to see here anyway.
We took the shuttle bus back over to RaoHe Night market after this (I swear, we have toured a record number of night markets for the whole trip) where we looked at even more shopping items! Also grabbed plenty of food like the tian bu la and ai yu jelly (not pictured)
Marketzzz
I was pretty much done by this juncture, and so was just about everyone, but we didn't really want the second night to end so quickly, and pushed on swiftly, shopping through the entire street. Grabbed a cup of really bad bubbletea coffee (have I mentioned that the Taiwanese make really, really bad coffee?) and sat at Rainbow Bridge for a bit (Again, not pictured) before taking a cab over to Party World KTV.
I think the place is a crazy haven for people who love karaoke, they have 8 (E I G H T) floors for karaoke and the rooms are like palaces. Nothing compared to the normal karaoke buildings we have here in Singapore, Taiwanese people are absolutely hardcore. Pretty sure we had our money's worth there, although I don't sing K at all hahahaha
I don't think these photos do it justice, but that's most of what they had
Ended the day stumbling back to the hostel at 4am in the morning. Crazy shit, because we were set to go to an amusement park tomorrow. I'd have thought we all were crazy, but we still had the energy to run wild the day after.
Next entry: Day 3: Leofoo Amusement Park!! :D
This is our hostel!
We started the day rather energetically (the first few days we awoke at almost 9 am everyday, but our endurance gave in eventually) and headed out for breakfast after meeting May & Kacey at the MRT station. The great thing about Taiwan is that the breakfast there is always fantastic. I would say that most of my best meals in Taiwan were eaten at breakfast-time. We headed into a cafe-like place before the WuFenPu market, which was situated outside the MRT station. The ambience was pretty good and quiet. We were the only customers there, ostensibly because we came at such an early hour. Kicked off the day with a good variety of toast and some dim-sum!
Dream Cafe
They have a very wide variety of toast here, breakfast here is damn awesome
But the downside is that Taiwanese srsly cannot do coffee. All of it is terrible and sweet, so the only acceptable ones are from the convenience stores
Thankfully the convenience stores were aplenty and situated around almost every block, so it wasn't too bad and my coffee fix was always around the corner! After this, we attempt to visit the WuFenPu market, only to find that it opens sometime around noon, giving us an excess of an hour or so. Walking back to the MRT station, we find that someone had fallen onto the tracks, effectively closing down our touring path. With nowhere to go, we idled around for a while, walking to and fro, until the doors of the first early shops were opened to us.
Needless to say, the markets of Taiwan opened only to an almost exclusively female market, which meant that there was close to no male apparel which could be worn in the streets without looking like a total blingslut. However, we endeavoured, and managed to purchase a few pieces of clothing. On the flipside, there are plenty of footwear stands which sported quite a few nifty shoes
This, I suspect, would be a haven for some people.
Their bubbletea. Srsly endless menu, this is like half, there's more stuff at the top and side.
This guy walks around selling Oyster Omelettes and screams in Hokkien at the top of his voice.
GALOSHES
We shopped around for an excruciatingly long time. Today was the day of broken promises, for every time one member of the group agreed to stop shopping, they would break it about five minutes later and flit into another shiny stall. This symptom repeated itself at least 20-odd times throughout the whole trip (Yes, I too was guilty of this :( ) But finally after we were all spent, we decided to settle down and grab a bite, defintiely not a choice to be regretted, because lunch today was positively delectable! I cannot stop emphasising how cheap yet delicious the roadside stalls are!!
Proof:
This stuff is the mead of the gods and costs only like 50 cents.
Post-meal shot!
Orange juice yakult in copious amounts from a vending machine! Taipei is tres amazing
After this, we headed to Taipei 101 to check out how awesome the view was, but prior to this, we had to wait for the shuttle bus to come, so we toured their Uniqlo outlet for a bit. They didn't allow for photo-taking though, so I didn't get any shots of inside the shop
We wait under the sweltering sun for the Taipei 101 shuttle bus
I wouldn't say that the whole of Taipei 101 was amazing or anything, it wasn't really worth it to pay that much to go up, and the whole place stank of tourist trap. Nonetheless, the area still was pretty fun to tour and posh enough. Reminded us of Singapore's shopping malls, except ten times larger. They really can afford tons of space here, the shops and boutiques can go up a couple of storeys! To our disappointment, the open-air roof was closed, so we were only restricted to the lower floors where there was an art exhibit going on, and could only enjoy the scenery (although I must say it was pretty breathtaking!!!) from glass windows
There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing, but Taiwan certainly doesn't lose out either
I had to literally lie down on the floor to take this shot -.-
A great many jumpshots were taken that day.
Just like home!!!
Truly breathtaking night scenery (:
Also breathtaking scenery ^^
After taking 23812948213 nightshots, my camera died and ran out of battery, so the rest of the photos are taken from Sandra/Kacey/May's camera (this was a looooong night.) We stayed in Taipei 101 for a pretty long time and at some point of time I had a beer float. The whole place was pretty pandered towards tourists though, so there was nothing novel to see here anyway.
We took the shuttle bus back over to RaoHe Night market after this (I swear, we have toured a record number of night markets for the whole trip) where we looked at even more shopping items! Also grabbed plenty of food like the tian bu la and ai yu jelly (not pictured)
Marketzzz
I was pretty much done by this juncture, and so was just about everyone, but we didn't really want the second night to end so quickly, and pushed on swiftly, shopping through the entire street. Grabbed a cup of really bad bubbletea coffee (have I mentioned that the Taiwanese make really, really bad coffee?) and sat at Rainbow Bridge for a bit (Again, not pictured) before taking a cab over to Party World KTV.
I think the place is a crazy haven for people who love karaoke, they have 8 (E I G H T) floors for karaoke and the rooms are like palaces. Nothing compared to the normal karaoke buildings we have here in Singapore, Taiwanese people are absolutely hardcore. Pretty sure we had our money's worth there, although I don't sing K at all hahahaha
I don't think these photos do it justice, but that's most of what they had
Ended the day stumbling back to the hostel at 4am in the morning. Crazy shit, because we were set to go to an amusement park tomorrow. I'd have thought we all were crazy, but we still had the energy to run wild the day after.
Next entry: Day 3: Leofoo Amusement Park!! :D