Taipei May-hem (Day 5)
Day 5 started out pretty slowly, but ended in a blur. I woke up on Day 6 not really remembering what happened on Day 5, but that's a story for later. By day 5, Elise had more or less recovered from her fever and joined us for the remainder of the trip. However, we were losing 2 members of our group today, because May & Kacey were due back in Singapore a day earlier than us :( We met at the metro again and went to another part of the city that we hadn't visited before. Xianxian (Kasey's TW friend) was bringing us there, if I could recall, because we asked her if there was anywhere to have tea at. But on the way to find a proper breakfast place, we walked across a convenience/stationery store, which could only mean more shopping for the girls (they are beginning to get a little predictable, huh?)
The stationery shops in Taiwan are unlike those in Singapore, they are really teeming with variety and also at rather affordable rates. I think it's because the TW student populace are pretty big on the whole trendy stationery thing. Could find just about everything ranging from stickers to highlighters to different brands of scotch tape there.
Mini art display along the Metro, but we didn't walk along it
May says/thinks she looks like an angel.
Yellow, how can I help you?
Their bookstore is no ordinary bookstore
THIS. HAHAHAHA It is such an unfortunate name!
We spent slightly less than an hour shopping for stationery, if that's actually possible for anyone to do, but we managed it effortlessly like a boss. We delayed the idea of having tea for a bit as we walked past a dimsum place which looked rather enticing. Sandra and I looked at the soup dumplings and immediately made a detour for the place! The food here was alright, nothing too memorable, but what was great was that there was so much steamed stuff around that the aroma wafted into our noses the moment we walked in.
Dimsum for lunch!
Minced meat noodles (??) Not sure.
The soup that came with our soup dumplings!
le dumplings~
After this, we headed straight for tea, which would be our dessert of the day. Turned around the corner into this posh-looking teahouse place, which was actually pretty much the most fancy teahouse we'd been in for the whole trip. The whole ambience of it was good, and we were brought to the upper section of the teahouse, which was more private. Immediately sat ourselves down, and like all good tourists, began to snap away on our cameras.
Le Poshe Teahaus
They had all sorts of tea here! EVEN BBT WITH PEARLS
The server (not pictured) on that day was in a damn bad mood, she was quarrelling with this other person for the whole time we were there. What a biatch.
Of all things, we ordered onion rings
Biggest. Mug. Of. BBT I have ever drank in my life. It took me concerted efforts to finish it.
Dessert: Onion rings, Aiyu & Japanese Mochi!
The taste was slightly salty but it was nonetheless top-notch!
May's favourite Aiyu :D
Fancy schmancy karp pond
Kacey pulled her usual 4-panel camwhore thing and took a series of "可爱四连拍" for us -_-
After that, it was a series of goodbyes at the Metro. First we had to say goodbye to Xianxian, then the three of us said our goodbyes to May and Kacey, who left on the other side of the Metro :(
Con te partiro :'(
We bade them farewell and proceeded to wrap up our own trip too. Firstly, we headed over to the SimLim Square of Taiwan because Elise wanted to find a couple of Japanese comics. Somehow managed to get lost there and we walked around in circles for a bit (it was also raining - pretty dreary weather that day) amongst alleyways of electronics, Lenovo, HTC and the familiar Applestores. There wasn't anything particularly nice to eat there though, most of it was just tech stuff after tech stuff that it eventually just blended into one macrochip of technobabble. Suffice to say, we were all drained from the early days and late nights to sufficiently enjoy ourselves that evening.
Taiwan's version of SimLim Square
Walked into a convenience store to ask for directions, bought some cheddar chips to eat and found an entire row dedicated to Yakult-like products!!
YAKULT-LIKE THINGS GALORE
I think they sell everything here in Taiwan
We found out after some prodding around and getting seriously lost that the store didn't actually exist anymore,and our quest for comics ended. Walking back as the evening sun set was a good experience, it felt like the trip was finally going to be over - a bittersweet kind of thing. At that point of time, I felt that it was really lucky of me to have been roped in on the trip, even if it was a last minute thing, and lucky of us to have met such great friends while travelling. I guess sometimes fate doesn't seem like such an implausible thing after all - maybe some of our paths are set in stone. Whatever it is, we all knew the trip was going to be over whether we wanted it or not.
Our final (or so we thought at that point of time) stop for the night was at Cafe Tamagoya - a restaurant we had been eyeing for quite a while in the course of our whole trip. It was a pretty fancy restaurant located near the XiMenDing complex and served a mix of Japanese/Western cuisine. Their prices were similar to that of SG's, but the difference was that the portions were a lot bigger, which goes to say how prices are really going to shit in Singapore, esp since Taiwan's customer service culture is heaps better than the black faces and bad attitudes you get back here. Anyway, the best dinner of the trip (imo) was here. Really awesome stuff and definitely worth a revisit the next time.
At Tamagoya!!
Nice ambience! On the second floor.
Entrée dishes
Corn soup!
Salad which I didn't eat :P
Omu-nomnomnom
Best meal here ever! Softshell crab with mushroom-based spaghetti, simply heavenly
The portions were huge!
Cheesecake dessert!
Sandra and Elise had brownies
H A P P Y
After our very fulfilling dinner, the girls went to look at skincare products and makeup nearby. Yet again, I was hitherto unaware of the ability of girls to spend long periods of time deciding which tone of blusher suited their skin the most. I made a purchase, however!
Shiseido lipstick for @Wong Su Ann!
Also went into a candy shop and bought some munchies. And then bought a bottle of Johnny Walker to wash the munchies down. This is when things got a little unreal. We got back to the hostel and Sandra and I were making toasts to our final night here, lazing on the couch and watching TV in the lounge. Sandra went back to her room to get something, and somehow in that short period of time, I had managed to identify and talk to a couple of Singaporeans who were also bunking in the hostel that night. When Sandra came back, I grinned at her and said, "We're gonna hit the clubs." Apparently the bunch of SGeans were there on their NUS grad trip and had been touring Taiwan for 10 days, they intended to wrap up their trip with a night in the clubs. Their friend had reserved seats and tables for them too, so it really wasn't half bad. What happened after this was was little fuzzy, but I will try to relay them to the best of my memory. There are no (existing) photos to document the happenings of that night :P
Sandra and I rushed to change and got ready in like, five minutes. Since everyone was late, we ran all the way to the Metro (I forgot my card and had to buy another) and took a train to wherever the club was.
The club we went to was Club Twiice, prior to this, I had seen a couple of adverts for it pasted around town. Ironically, it's situated underneath a church (kind of like an underground club), and we were joking about going upstairs to repent in the morning. Covercharge was about SGD 23 and access to both the bar, the house and R&B rooms, girls got in free. Met up with Tzu-Wen and his lady friend Venisha and we went in. It was a pretty good night and I must say that the Taiwan clubs were a lot more wild than SG clubs. There was an old Auntie there shakin' it also, but I think it's a publicity stunt by the management there, because everyone seemed to know and weren't too shocked. They also had paid dancers etc to come up to the stage at random intervals to dance and get the party-goers high. The music was pretty backdated (they're still hot on J-Lo and Pitbull) but the DJ was decent and not too shabby, the general crowd energy was there. The partygoers are also damn friendly and will talk to you if they know you are a foreigner. Singaporeans pretty much suck at that and keep to themselves, so it was an eye-opener to say the least. Drinks-wise, the stuff was all free-flow, you were issued a cup/glass and then you would just swap it in for shots and other alcohol, which was pretty neat. No retarded queue like freeflow nights in Butter, so that's really a plus side. Partied hard, but taking into account all that walking we had done earlier on, it was difficult not to give in to lethargy and fall asleep. A few of the guys also collapsed on the couches and I was doing all I could to not subject myself to the same unglam fate.
In the end, Sandra and I grabbed a cab back with Chin Huat (whom I'd never gotten around to thanking for settling the fare. Thanks Huat!) and I collapsed on the bed after washing up, sleeping off the 7 shots of tequila and JW. There may have been events that transpired somewhere in between, but of course my memory was too hazy to remember anything ^^;;
The stationery shops in Taiwan are unlike those in Singapore, they are really teeming with variety and also at rather affordable rates. I think it's because the TW student populace are pretty big on the whole trendy stationery thing. Could find just about everything ranging from stickers to highlighters to different brands of scotch tape there.
Mini art display along the Metro, but we didn't walk along it
May says/thinks she looks like an angel.
Yellow, how can I help you?
Their bookstore is no ordinary bookstore
THIS. HAHAHAHA It is such an unfortunate name!
We spent slightly less than an hour shopping for stationery, if that's actually possible for anyone to do, but we managed it effortlessly like a boss. We delayed the idea of having tea for a bit as we walked past a dimsum place which looked rather enticing. Sandra and I looked at the soup dumplings and immediately made a detour for the place! The food here was alright, nothing too memorable, but what was great was that there was so much steamed stuff around that the aroma wafted into our noses the moment we walked in.
Dimsum for lunch!
Minced meat noodles (??) Not sure.
The soup that came with our soup dumplings!
le dumplings~
After this, we headed straight for tea, which would be our dessert of the day. Turned around the corner into this posh-looking teahouse place, which was actually pretty much the most fancy teahouse we'd been in for the whole trip. The whole ambience of it was good, and we were brought to the upper section of the teahouse, which was more private. Immediately sat ourselves down, and like all good tourists, began to snap away on our cameras.
Le Poshe Teahaus
They had all sorts of tea here! EVEN BBT WITH PEARLS
The server (not pictured) on that day was in a damn bad mood, she was quarrelling with this other person for the whole time we were there. What a biatch.
Of all things, we ordered onion rings
Biggest. Mug. Of. BBT I have ever drank in my life. It took me concerted efforts to finish it.
Dessert: Onion rings, Aiyu & Japanese Mochi!
The taste was slightly salty but it was nonetheless top-notch!
May's favourite Aiyu :D
Fancy schmancy karp pond
Kacey pulled her usual 4-panel camwhore thing and took a series of "可爱四连拍" for us -_-
After that, it was a series of goodbyes at the Metro. First we had to say goodbye to Xianxian, then the three of us said our goodbyes to May and Kacey, who left on the other side of the Metro :(
Con te partiro :'(
We bade them farewell and proceeded to wrap up our own trip too. Firstly, we headed over to the SimLim Square of Taiwan because Elise wanted to find a couple of Japanese comics. Somehow managed to get lost there and we walked around in circles for a bit (it was also raining - pretty dreary weather that day) amongst alleyways of electronics, Lenovo, HTC and the familiar Applestores. There wasn't anything particularly nice to eat there though, most of it was just tech stuff after tech stuff that it eventually just blended into one macrochip of technobabble. Suffice to say, we were all drained from the early days and late nights to sufficiently enjoy ourselves that evening.
Taiwan's version of SimLim Square
Walked into a convenience store to ask for directions, bought some cheddar chips to eat and found an entire row dedicated to Yakult-like products!!
YAKULT-LIKE THINGS GALORE
I think they sell everything here in Taiwan
We found out after some prodding around and getting seriously lost that the store didn't actually exist anymore,and our quest for comics ended. Walking back as the evening sun set was a good experience, it felt like the trip was finally going to be over - a bittersweet kind of thing. At that point of time, I felt that it was really lucky of me to have been roped in on the trip, even if it was a last minute thing, and lucky of us to have met such great friends while travelling. I guess sometimes fate doesn't seem like such an implausible thing after all - maybe some of our paths are set in stone. Whatever it is, we all knew the trip was going to be over whether we wanted it or not.
Our final (or so we thought at that point of time) stop for the night was at Cafe Tamagoya - a restaurant we had been eyeing for quite a while in the course of our whole trip. It was a pretty fancy restaurant located near the XiMenDing complex and served a mix of Japanese/Western cuisine. Their prices were similar to that of SG's, but the difference was that the portions were a lot bigger, which goes to say how prices are really going to shit in Singapore, esp since Taiwan's customer service culture is heaps better than the black faces and bad attitudes you get back here. Anyway, the best dinner of the trip (imo) was here. Really awesome stuff and definitely worth a revisit the next time.
At Tamagoya!!
Nice ambience! On the second floor.
Entrée dishes
Corn soup!
Salad which I didn't eat :P
Omu-nomnomnom
Best meal here ever! Softshell crab with mushroom-based spaghetti, simply heavenly
The portions were huge!
Cheesecake dessert!
Sandra and Elise had brownies
H A P P Y
After our very fulfilling dinner, the girls went to look at skincare products and makeup nearby. Yet again, I was hitherto unaware of the ability of girls to spend long periods of time deciding which tone of blusher suited their skin the most. I made a purchase, however!
Shiseido lipstick for @Wong Su Ann!
Also went into a candy shop and bought some munchies. And then bought a bottle of Johnny Walker to wash the munchies down. This is when things got a little unreal. We got back to the hostel and Sandra and I were making toasts to our final night here, lazing on the couch and watching TV in the lounge. Sandra went back to her room to get something, and somehow in that short period of time, I had managed to identify and talk to a couple of Singaporeans who were also bunking in the hostel that night. When Sandra came back, I grinned at her and said, "We're gonna hit the clubs." Apparently the bunch of SGeans were there on their NUS grad trip and had been touring Taiwan for 10 days, they intended to wrap up their trip with a night in the clubs. Their friend had reserved seats and tables for them too, so it really wasn't half bad. What happened after this was was little fuzzy, but I will try to relay them to the best of my memory. There are no (existing) photos to document the happenings of that night :P
Sandra and I rushed to change and got ready in like, five minutes. Since everyone was late, we ran all the way to the Metro (I forgot my card and had to buy another) and took a train to wherever the club was.
The club we went to was Club Twiice, prior to this, I had seen a couple of adverts for it pasted around town. Ironically, it's situated underneath a church (kind of like an underground club), and we were joking about going upstairs to repent in the morning. Covercharge was about SGD 23 and access to both the bar, the house and R&B rooms, girls got in free. Met up with Tzu-Wen and his lady friend Venisha and we went in. It was a pretty good night and I must say that the Taiwan clubs were a lot more wild than SG clubs. There was an old Auntie there shakin' it also, but I think it's a publicity stunt by the management there, because everyone seemed to know and weren't too shocked. They also had paid dancers etc to come up to the stage at random intervals to dance and get the party-goers high. The music was pretty backdated (they're still hot on J-Lo and Pitbull) but the DJ was decent and not too shabby, the general crowd energy was there. The partygoers are also damn friendly and will talk to you if they know you are a foreigner. Singaporeans pretty much suck at that and keep to themselves, so it was an eye-opener to say the least. Drinks-wise, the stuff was all free-flow, you were issued a cup/glass and then you would just swap it in for shots and other alcohol, which was pretty neat. No retarded queue like freeflow nights in Butter, so that's really a plus side. Partied hard, but taking into account all that walking we had done earlier on, it was difficult not to give in to lethargy and fall asleep. A few of the guys also collapsed on the couches and I was doing all I could to not subject myself to the same unglam fate.
In the end, Sandra and I grabbed a cab back with Chin Huat (whom I'd never gotten around to thanking for settling the fare. Thanks Huat!) and I collapsed on the bed after washing up, sleeping off the 7 shots of tequila and JW. There may have been events that transpired somewhere in between, but of course my memory was too hazy to remember anything ^^;;