TAIPEI 台北
After lunch our driver sent us to Taichung's High Speed Rail Station (THRS Taichung Station). The ticket to Taipei costed 700 NTD (~S$32) for a reserved seat but there's up to 35% early bird discount if you book your tickets way ahead of your trip. We didn't do that though because it was quite hard to estimate the time. The journey to Taipei took less than an hour, and I would say it's a really convenient way to travel between the cities. The train was really clean and comfy, but if you're lugging a huge baggage with you it might be squeezy onboard.
That night we went to Shilin Night Market! The best way to get there is to take the train to Jiantan Station and leave from Exit 1, then cross the street diagonally to enter the night market.
Shilin Night Market 士林夜市
No. 101 Jihe Road
Shilin District
Taipei City
Taiwan 111
I thought Shilin was pretty... underwhelming. Hahaha. It can be a bit confusing to walk through that area and the food stalls were a bit hard to locate. There's a whole underground area where there were a lot of stalls selling the same thing: seafood and oyster omelettes. But the crowd was alright; longest queue was prolly the one at the Hot Star Fried Chicken store. It actually tasted like the ones in Singapore, but I saw a lot of Singaporeans queuing for it, including me. Haha!
Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園
No. 167-1 Kantung Road
Yehliu Village
Wanli District
New Taipei City 20744
I think this place tops my list of favourites from the trip. Despite the crowd!
The driver we engaged for the day (just for this day because we were heading out of the city to Jiufen and Shifen) told us that youngsters love to drive near the coast because the strong waves would splash onto the roads and it can be quite thrilling. Would so love to go on a road trip like that!
I could just sit and stare at this the whole day.
When we went in the morning it was so cold! I was freezing and had to borrow my sister's parka for a bit. The park was also filled with people, mainly tourists. It was so hard to get a good picture of the famous Queen's Head rock and all the other funny looking rocks when there were people loitering in the background like tiny ants, so I didn't bother.
But the crowd didn't spoil the beauty of Yehliu for me. The swirls of red and yellow and splashes of blue created such a calming sight that I could stare at, the entire day. There's nothing much to do at this place, but if you love the sea you'll definitely love it here!
We were then headed to Shifen to release our wish lanterns. Ricky (our driver) brought us to this stall manned by some young men with super good photography skills hahaha. I didn't take note of the stall name but it was on the right lane, around the mid-front. It was near a store selling fried ice-cream (which was closed on that day, I'm so sad 😭), and one selling lantern keychains.
Up, up, and away!
Single-coloured lanterns cost 150 NTD each, while multi-coloured ones (four different colours on each side of the lantern) cost 200 NTD each. I'm not sure if all the stalls sell the lanterns at the same price, but the service at the stall we went was really good! The first lantern we released actually got stuck on a nearby roof and caught on fire(there goes our wishes hahaha), but they replaced it for us without additional charges.
It's quite funny when the train was passing and everyone scrambled away from the tracks. Anyway the guys even helped us to take a picture with the passing train. Crazily nice! Would so love to go back during the lantern festival.
Shifen Old Street 十分老街
Pingxi District
New Taipei City
Taiwan 226
On our way to Jiufen, we passed by the Golden Waterfalls!
Unfortunately it was a very gloomy day, with intermittent rain and dark clouds looming all over. When we reached Jiufen it was drizzling; when we left it was a cloudburst! Jiufen was sheltered at some parts but the rain still spoilt our experience a little as we couldn't walk down the stairs/slope to explore the "Spirited Away" part of Jiufen. Hence we also didn't get to dine at the tea houses.
Still beautiful, nonetheless.
We walked through the kinda sheltered street and thankfully all the food stalls on our itinerary were there. Except for one, which was closed on that day.
Zhuang Ji Traditional Fishballs (No. 23) — pig blood curd, cold chicken, fishballs, minced meat noodles, cold tofu with century egg
Yu Wan Bo Zai
Curry fishballs!
A Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll (No. 45)
Lai Ah Po Yu Yuan (No. 143)
There were many food stalls along the entire stretch in Jiufen (and even more down the stairs where we didn't go!) so it's definitely a place you'll leave with uber satisfied tummies. Hopefully the next time I visit, the weather won't dampen the experience again.
Jiufen 九份
Ruifang District
New Taipei City
Taiwan 224
I think it'll be very convenient to have a driver especially if you're travelling with four or more people. Our driver, Ricky, was super nice and interactive. He gave really good recommendations and didn't charge us extra even though the engagement lasted longer than 8 hours (5000 NTD, ~S$230).
Mr Ricky Han
+886 926-009-812
He uses Whatsapp, Line and WeChat, but I'm not sure if he can speak English.
Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang 永和豆浆大王
No. 102, Section 2, Fuxing South Road
Daan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 106
Directions: Take the train to Daan Station and leave from exit 5. The walk to Yong He is about 6 minutes.
Yong He Dou Jiang is a super popular breakfast spot in Taiwan, and it isn't overrated at all. Best youtiao ever! The soy milk comes in a huge bowl so I think it'll be wise to share a bowl among two or more people. They also have the salted version which tastes like steamed egg. There were also many other food options like their famous egg pancakes, and radish cakes.
And for the best hotpot buffet ever:
Mala Hotpot Restaurant 马辣顶级麻辣鸳鸯火锅
NEO 19
No. 22 Songshou Road
Xinyi District
Taipei City
Taiwan 110
Directions: Take the train to Xiangshan Station. The walk to NEO 19 is about 8 minutes.
It's like Hai Di Lao but the super worth it version. I mean, the service at HDL is unbeatable but there's free flow Häagen Dazs and Mövenpick ice creams here! And it costed just 600 NTD (~S$30) per person. They have various outlets but the one at NEO 19 was less crowded. I'll just be hopeful and patiently wait for the day they open an outlet here... hahaha.
Taipei 101
No. 7, Section 5, Xinyi Road
Xinyi District
Taipei City
Taiwan 110
If you don't wanna pay 600 NTD (~S$27) just to see the view, reserve a table at their Starbucks at least one day beforehand to go up to level 35! You'll have to spend at least 200 NTD (~S$9) per person but at least you'll get food and drinks! And seats! Enter the building from door 7 and you'll see a Starbucks staff who will issue you with a ticket, which is needed when you're ordering your food and drinks in Starbucks. I think the Starbucks was slightly cheaper than Singapore's, so we ended up ordering a lot of cakes to take away in order to hit the minimum cost per person.
Love their mille crêpe cakes!
The area around Taipei 101 (Xinyi District) is filled with shopping malls so it was a really good place to walk around after stuffing ourselves at the hotpot restaurant and Starbucks. If you love books, visit the Eslite Bookstore! It's like Kinokuniya but way bigger. For shopping, go to Zhongxiao Shopping District. Apart from international stores like Zara and Mango along the main road, there are also many small, independent boutiques in the back alleys.
Zhongxiao Shopping District
Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road
Daan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 106
Images by my sister.
Chen Jia Liang Mian 陈家凉面
No. 19, Lane 123, Section 5, Nanjing East Road
Songshan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 105
This noodle store sells bombass cold noodles in peanut sauce. Super good!
We basically walked around the hotpot restaurant to Taipei 101, Eslite, and the shopping district, then we took a cab to the cold noodle restaurant, so I don't have the directions to these places. But cabbing was cheap anyway!
Img by my sister.
And of course, another night market. I personally prefer Raohe to Shilin. The food stalls here were all concentrated along the short stretch of road, which means that it's a lot easier to find a particular food stall and that you will not get lost trying to figure your way around. Downside is that... there were way too many stinky tofu stalls. I think I held my breath half the time I was there. 😑
Rao He Night Market 饶河夜市
Raohe Street
Songshan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 105
Directions: Take the train to Songshan Station and leave from Exit 5. The market entrance is right across the street next to a colourful temple.
When we entered the market we were bombarded by the snaking queue of the famous Pepper Bun stall. We queued, duh, and got our buns, but honestly I wasn't very impressed by it. Thought the skin was a bit too tough to chew through. The filling was good though.
Things worth eating at the market: taro balls with salted egg yolk filling (near the end of the street) and fried milk on a stick (炸鲜奶, at the end of the street, on the right).
Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產
No. 18, Alley 2, Lane 410, Minzu East Road
Zhongshan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 104
Directions: Take the train to Xingtian Temple and leave from Exit 1. The walk is about 15-20 minutes.
A place I would go back to: the seafood market! The walk there was actually alright for us because we stopped by a supermarket on the way, and were later distracted by other stores, and a cute dog. Hahaha. We obviously took much longer to reach AAD. It can be a bit confusing if you google the walking directions there because the facade of the back of the building seemed very dodgy and old. But AAD was actually very new, clean, and modern looking. The place didn't smell fishy at all, too!
The first section sold live seafood, with gigantic crabs of different species. The other section sells sashimi (super fresh uni!), sushi, desserts, and also cooked food. The place reminded me of Emporium Shokuhin (in Singapore, Marina Square).
My parents really loved it here. The price point is a lot higher if you would compare to the typical Taiwanese fare but considering the quality of the food I think it's well worth it's price tag. I can't really remember the prices of everything, but that box of uni was about 30 SGD. Still cheaper than what you'll get in Singapore!
Instant noodle galore!
What's really special about the instant noodles in Taiwan is that they contain actual chunks of meat in the sauce sachets!
Ximending 西門町
Wanhua District
Taipei City
Taiwan 108
Directions: Take the train to Ximen Station and leave from Exit 6.
When in Ximending: gotta get Ah Zong Mian Xian. Verdict? I prefer the ones in Singapore. Oops. Of course, like everything else, it's up to personal preference. I prefer my vermicelli with oysters and lots of black vinegar. My sister prefers the one at Ah Zong, with pig intenstines. Ah Zong's vermicelli is also more garlicky.
Old school cookie and coffee store.
Ximending seems to be a good place to shop for shoes because there were damn a lot of Nike stores there.
Yong Kang Beef Noodles 永康牛肉麺館
No. 17, Lane 31, Section 2, Jinshan South Road
Daan District
Taipei City
Taiwan 106
Tasted like the instant noodles!
Remember to get some of these onion pancakes from the store located at Yong Kang Street. It's in front of this store selling pho. The one with egg was major yums.
Light-filled apartment.
(AirBnB is actually not legal in Taiwan but there are a lot of apartments you can rent on the app so... *shrugs*)
Other than food items, facial masks are cheaper in Taiwan as compared to Singapore, especially for brands like Dr. Morita, Naruko, and For Beloved One, so stock up if you can! I got my masks from Cosmed, which offers tax refund.
One website that I find to be really useful when I was planning my itinerary is
http://guidetotaipei.com. The directions were accurate and super helpful since they even included which exit to leave from the metro station. Download the subway map that is available on their website because it'll be super useful when you're trying to plan or find your route!
I'm really thankful for the good weather throughout the week, except for the day I went to Jiufen. Many people told me about the rainy weather in Taiwan so I think I really lucked out. Taiwan is such a wonderful country, with yummy and highly affordable food, considerate and courteous people, and generally comfortable weather. I wish Singapore has a better balance of both rural and urban areas so that once in a while we can escape away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but then again, travelling about on this small island is so, so quick and convenient. Gah! Can't have the best of both worlds.
Till the next time, Taiwan!
x
No comments:
Post a Comment