taiwan

I miss Taiwan!! The smell of a hotel and the need for a different culture. The feeling of living smack right in the heart of a major shopping district.

Ok I shall confess. I have been too lazy to blog. But here I am finally, typing something. It isn't just something, it's the somewhat secret 10 day trip to Taiwan. Everyone was saying I just disappeared quietly and reappeared suddenly. I take that as a compliment.

Apparently the photo stats stand at 3000 ++ for the entire trip with an average file size of 6MB each thanks to my friend's borrowed Canon DSLR just for the trip. Alright let's start the long journey of mostly words and the few accompanying photos.

DAY 1 - 16 Sep 11 Fri

Took a 4hr long SQ flight to Tao Yuan International Airport and was kinda lost upon touch down. Watched Source Code and X-Men Origins on the plane and was pretty awed by the former. It's somewhat Deja Vu but a bit cooler.

Anyway we managed to get a bus ticket to Taipei. It's more like an inter city coach where you stuff your luggage in the bottom compartment of the bus after tagging. Gotta admit I was impressed by their system as I didn't expect for a not exactly glamorous bus to actually account for luggages. But kinda pitied the driver as he had to come down at every stop and ensure people don't take the wrong bag.

So it was about 6 in the evening and it was dark already with a pretty comfortable temperature of 26 and we arrived at Taipei Che Zhan which is like an interchange between railway and metro. That's beside the point because we took a cab from there to Xi Men Ding where our hotel was. And I swore I would blog about the traffic in Taiwan. Yes their traffic is horrendous. After being to Thailand, and being able to say that speaks volumes. The drivers are impatient, the scooter riders swarm the roads and there seem to be no traffic rules. The cab ride was kinda scary but somehow I trusted the driver. Even though he was driving against traffic, being centimetres apart from the adjacent vehicle, stopping and starting every few seconds, honking away, visibly pissed off, he was undeniably skillful. By the end of the trip I was convinced 99% of the drivers are that skillful. They somehow know their ranking on the road, who's big and who's small. In the end someone would give way. Throughout the trip I only encountered 1 accident and that's really quite amazing. Back to Xi Men Ding, we had to drag our bags all the way in from the main road as the small roads are closed at night for shoppers to roam freely. It's like a gigantic Bugis Street, only better, yet like an Orchard Road offering cheap stuff. And so we checked into Rainbow Hotel which is really right smack in the middle of XMD. It's located at one of the major cross junctions which allows us to just wake up and step into shopping immediately everyday. We had the first taste of shopping in Taiwan on Day 1 night and did a rough survey of the prices to aid us in the buying decision making in the subsequent days.

Ah Zhong Mian Xian. Brilliant dinner.

DAY 2 - 17 Sep 11 Sat

Day 2 started off with us having a quick breakfast at one of the small shops selling noodles and rice. The speciality seemed to be the fish balls which had meat wrapped by a big fish ball. After that, we travelled to Long Shan Temple for some blessings.

According to my mum, the predictions from there are pretty accurate. And so each of us went to qiu qian and according to the qian I got, it was referring to my love life, which assured me that my marriage would be good, fulfilling and the first born would be a girl. As for now, patience is advised and I could even have met the person. Oh and also very unfortunately I would have pretty bad social networking and interactions, and ultimately, result in lack of wealth.. That's damn sad.

However, life still as to go on and we visited the quite famous memorial. Honestly I wasn't too concerned about the history and stuff but more of being there and taking some photos to show we've been there.

And I guess the highlight of the day finally came! We walked many many streets to finally find the Din Tai Fung outlet that was nearby.

As a rule for all foodies, always try the food where it originated and we weren't let down in this case. The food was splendid. And I have to give special mention to the service because it was pretty outstanding. They were extremely polite and always ensured they are the ones to end off with a thank you.

Sun Xie Zhi from 5566 promoting some show at XMD.

We went back to the hotel for a short rest before touring travelling to Shi Da Night Market.

DAY 3 - 18 Sep 11 Sun

Lunch at Zhong Xiao area, which is like the higher end shopping district ie. departmental stores.

The day's objective was simple. Shop, shop and shop. Wu Fen Pu, the commerical district that's well known for its cheap and wide variety of clothing. So basically we spent the whole day there and shopped till we drop.

Had snacks for dinner and adjourned to Taipei 101, the observatory tower and also the tallest building in Taipei. Yea if you've been to any similar tower, it's the same. And we weren't too smart to go at night. It was almost pitch black. The theme of the tower is the damper system which has this gigantic spherical structure at the centre of the building for stabilization since it's the tallest building and also tw is prone to earthquakes. Don't quote me on this, I was focusing on taking photos of the Damper Babies, their mascots. Hahaha.

Damper babies.

DAY 4 - 19 Sep 11 Mon

Dan Shui is this quiet place at the end of the MRT line. Pleasant place to just stroll through the streets where they sell food and mostly bags or toys. The main attraction of Dan Shui is the Fisherman's Wharf aka Yu Ren Ma Tou where there's this iconic bridge that lovers always frequent.

Tang Hoon wrapped in Tofu. It's really not bad, very tasty.

Stopped by along the way at Fort San Dominigo which is this museum like place just outside a university.

Walked all the way from Dan Shui Street to the harbour which is really quite far. Please be advised to take the bus if you happen to go.

One of my favourite photos for this trip.

DAY 5 - 20 Sep 11 Tue

Mao Kong isn't Mao3 Kong3 like when i first thought it might be. It's Mao1 Kong1 directly translated to Cat Sky. Mao Kong is situated in the hills next to the Taipei Zoo. There ain't Pandas or Cats but just a cosy lazy countryside hilly area where one is required to take the Gondola aka cable car up the hill.

Had our lunch at the eatery near the station up there and has a small quest to search for the tea plantations.

Ultimately, we had tea but the plantation wasn't opened to public on that day. Took lots of pictures especially against the sunset where there's this small lake with animal statues that mimics a countryside kind of life. There are really 'kampung-like' houses where animals are reared and people just sit in their houses and watch time fly by. With the nice cooling weather, it was an enjoyable trip up to the hills.

Took the train back to the Zhong Xiao area where the big departmental stores are for dinner. Perhaps it's under the influence of the Japanese departmental stores, even their food courts don't look like food courts.

DAY 6 - 21 Sep 11 Wed

Alas, we got kicked out of Xi Men Ding and moved to Jian Tan for the remainder of the trip. Sis had a room at Jian Tan Youth Activity Centre which is something like a hostel yet hotel standard.



Couldn't check in and we decided not to waste time and visited Di Hua Street where it is supposed to be overflowing with dried goods. Went there and bought 80% of NON-dried goods and came back. Oh and this is the part where i have to exclaim i love the Ji Dan Gao. I think it was the third time i bought a packet to munch on at Di Hua.

Trained back to check in before walking to Shih Lin Night Market for a sumptuous snacks dinner!

The famous chicken cutlet, humongous taiwan sausages, pau, squid etc. The chicken cutlet queue was insanely long. But i queued anyhow. I wouldnt say the cutlet's out of this world, it's just a very big piece of chicken cutlet and the drawback is that there's bones in it.

The famous chicken cutlet that got the tourists swarming from the tour bus and queuing. Heard it's coming to sg!

Crossed the road to Shih Lin Shopping District where it's another market selling mainly clothes and shoes. Bought a decent amount of clothing and shoes from there.

DAY 7 - 22 Sep 11 Thu

Hmm, Jiu Fen's an interesting one.

We had to take a railway train from Taipei Che Zhan to Rui Fang Station and take a bus to Jiu Fen which is like a village among the mountains.

The bian tang or lunchbox sold on the railway trains. Cheap and good.

The story of how the name came about is quite interesting. Long long ago, there were nine families who lived in that area. As the roads weren't developed yet, everything had to be shipped to the nearby harbour and a representative sent by the nine families would run down to the harbour to collect the supplies. He would say "Jiu Fen" every time to the sellers meaning Nine Portions for the nine families. And after some time, the area became known as Jiu Fen. As the years go by, someone discovered gold buried underground and more families migrated to exploit the land and eventually the place became more and more commercialized.

It's quite chilly up in the mountains especially when you are in the open. But as the shops are all built adjacent to one another in a long alley, it's quite cosy and nice. And here i am again, emphasizing the driving skills of the drivers, this time bus drivers. The road up to the top is very narrow and buses are travelling non-stop up and down the hill. Manual buses. Along the side of the mountain. One wrong turn or loss of concentration will result in an expressway down the side. Amazing rollercoster ride.

Took the railway train back to Taipei Che Zhan and had dinner above the underground station. The mall's concept's quite interesting. There are different sections of food courts. One section will have maybe 8 stalls selling curry dishes, another section will have 7 stalls selling ramen, another will have 9 stalls selling japanese food. And they'll all have this counter above their shop that counts the number of customers they had for the day. It's like a competition, but i'm not sure how exactly it's carried out. And just happened, that we were craving for some.. beef noodles!!

We tried a couple of stalls and they were equally good. The broth's nice, beef tender, noodles springy. Competition benefits society.

How can you miss karaoke in Taiwan? Cheap and insane quality. It's definitely extremely worth it if you go during weekdays before the sun goes down.

The price list for PartyWorld at Xi Men Ding.

A personal toilet.

I can draw some similarities between some newer Kbox outlets in Singapore compared to Taiwan's PartyWorld. But the disparity is still obvious. The service was top drawer, the facilities new and clean. Only original songs were in the selection list, meaning no pirated, no concerts only original MTVs. And it was only then that i realised i haven't been listening to new Chinese songs. It's a totally different chart list over there. Something special about their k is that instead of forcing you to pay some somewhat rights and cover charge, they make you pay (if i remember correctly) about S$30 to ensure you order anything worth that value in the menu. You have to pay more if you order more, but for that money, some real good food can be consumed. We had herbal chicken, fried chicken wings and wedges while singing at the same time. It's like a five star karaoke experience.

Day 8 - 23 Sep 11 Fri

It was time for some mall shopping and we visited this area which was like a Japanese mall district. There were 3 or 4 major Japanese shopping malls within close proximity of each other. Eg. Takashimaya and Shin something something, Xin Guang Shan Yue in Chinese.

Had lunch at a small restaurant in Xin Guang Shan Yue, and almost an immediate tea session at another tea restaurant.

Shopped at Taka for awhile but the prices weren't appealing. Bought some snacks and drinks from the supermarket and cabbed back to the hotel.

Sis had something on at night and we went to Shih Lin again for another round of shopping. We practically combed the entire night market.

Ji Dan Gao!!!! My new found favourite Taiwan snack.

Some promotion event for another drama serial.

Day 9 - 24 Sep 11 Sat

Last day!! Honestly, i wasn't that sad to leave. Because we kinda ran out of places to go. We actually had time to sit in the hotel to watch tv! But their channels are crazy. Almost 100 channels and it's 50% variety shows and 25% news throughout the day. It's a haven for people who are in love with their shows. I observed they are really very good at talking. They can talk non-stop for one topic and make a big fuss out of small issues. Their news can report things like someone's toilet bowl very dirty, someone fall off a motorbike, someone had a public argument etc etc. However, their shows are really quite entertaining. Those showing here are really just a handful of straws in a haystack.

The entrance of Jian Tan Youth Activity Centre aka our hotel, with the Grand Palace Hotel in the backdrop.

Anyways, on the final day, we went to this promising place called the National Palace Museum. It's like a must go for tourists where it showcases the artifacts that were shipped from China for safekeeping when China went to war. Somehow down the line, Taiwan decided not to return the artifacts and bought most of it and now displayed.

No cameras allowed and this was the only shot outside. I was bored to tears staring at random pieces of antique. That's one place that's a no no for me ever again.

Left the museum in glee in search for lunch at Shih Lin Station. And I finally found the renowned Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang.

Haha another story. Yong He's a place in Taiwan and there used to be a family living there who started to sell snacks, pastries and of course soya bean milk. There were just trying to make ends meet by setting up a small shop then and for the convenience of the working class, they operated from early in the morning till the wee hours. They were famous for the quality snacks but eventually closed down. Since then, a smart guy started using the name and reputation to create a franchise all across Taiwan. There are many branches all over Taipei.

As recommended, the fan tuan, dan bing and dou jiang. It's quite dry to eat all of those at one go. But the dan bing's not bad. Oh but i prefer the road side cong bing, like roti prata! haha.

Next up and the final destination, Grand Palace Hotel. It's an iconic hotel in Taipei and i don't think i'll ever be able to afford the stay. It's surrounded by a park and it's on a hill with a great view of Taipei.

Day 10 Sun 25 Sep

AND WE LEFT. At least for my mum and me. Sis stayed one more day for competition. We ridiculously booked cab at 3.30am to Tao Yuan Airport when the flight's at 7 plus. Reached at 4am and sat around for 3hours plus before finally boarding.

Window shopped in the transit.

Home sweet home.

Alrighty, here's the round up. I had an eye opener in Taiwan, Taipei. I didn't explore much but their culture in general is different and unique in their own way. Somehow, they are clean in general. Ironically they have very few rubbish bins, you can't find any along the streets, there'll probably be only ONE central big bin in a night market but if you patronise the stalls and shops, their service people will gladly clear the rubbish for you. The Taiwanese will hold their rubbish in the pockets, bags and clear at the MRT stations or when they see a bin.

Speaking of bins, Taiwan has a very very distinct toilet culture. In every toilet cubicle, there will be a bin. It ain't for making up for the small numbers in public, but to contain only one type of rubbish - toilet paper. You don't flush the toilet paper when you are done using it. You throw it into the bin. Yes, the one with the brown stuff on it. And not all bins come with a cover and not all bins are cleared promptly. Imagine. And that explains why the toilet can look so clean but smell extraordinarily. Before you say ewwww, the explanation for this practice is that the sewage system cannot support the tough fibrous tissue especially when it's soaked up with water. If you are a good tourist, you'll follow that practice. If not, you know when some day the sewage plant explodes, or toilet bowls start overflowing in Taiwan, i played a part. hahaha. (Come to think of it, maybe they really ran out of bins to put on the streets because all of them are in the toilets.)

The people there. Generally, the handphone culture ain't that advanced. People are still using non-colour phones, but most are using the nokia/ sony ericsson candy phones. You hardly see any blackberries or iphones. At least for the average dude on the street, not sure about the business class.

The young guys are mostly thin, despite the night market snack culture. Thin as in skinny. They do not have much emphasis on physical fitness in schools compared to sg. But definitely, basketball's the more hip sport there. The older guys are still generally thin with signs of typical male aging ie beer belly etc. I don't see many elderly dudes around in the streets. Perhaps it's Taipei.

The young girls are generally pretty. They love makeup, perhaps due to the influence of Japanese trends, they doll up when going up and look good but sometimes overdressed in my perspective. Like all girls in developing or developed countries now, they are obsessed with eye make up or just to make their eyes look gigantic. Having said that, even without make up, the school girls look pretty in general. They have this distinctive Taiwanese look which i believe, compared to Singaporeans who have this kinda failed hybrid look, are more visually appealing especially with sharper features and better skin. And also, 95% of the girls have long hair. Maybe there's a taboo regarding short hair? The women look good for their age especially the working class. And the 'aunties' are nice maciks, who seem to be the type that will take care of you.

I didn't notice carefully but there's an active smoking culture in Taiwan. There seems to be more smokers and i was kinda immune to the second hand smoke during my short stay.

Service standards as mentioned above are sky high. Almost every shop you enter, the sales girls would shout out "Huan Ying Guang Ling!!!" and they will have this trademark phrase if you are in a clothes or shoe shop. It goes something like this "man man kan wo, xi huan de hua ke yi na qi lai kan wo! ke yi shi chuan wo!" They will speak so fast, and in the high pitch sa jiao voice over and over again. Very passionate. Usually the street stalls won't let you try on, but the bigger shops allow. Instead of the lahs and lors, they have their version of wo, ma and the cutesy interjections. It's pleasingly sweet, but your hair will stand after hearing it non-stop.

Lastly, and perhaps the most important take away point. My Chinese definitely improved. After speaking mandarin for 10 days, i had the best oral preparation in my entire life. Visiting Taiwan just before your Chinese oral will definitely help you leaps and bounds. I was stunned to see how ugly my chinese characters were after writing some information for the receptionist. That shows how much i've been using my mother tongue.

I've put in lots of effort into typing this post, especially uploading the stubborn photos. But it's all worth it, for a place so pleasant and so missed. It's definitely somewhere I can live, with the seasons, with the culture (less toilet), and the entertainment! It's only Taipei but i've thoroughly enjoyed Taiwan. Will definitely be back to explore the rest!