April 16, 2009.
> 9:21 AM.
woke up only at noon? rushed to 西門train station only to realise at the gantry that i forgot to bring cash out. perfect. had weng walk back with me to the hotel to get it. today we were going to taichung 台中 to find wen~!
Managed to get ourselves on a bus to 一中街, a shopping district where we were supposed to meet. Wen came with a friend and our first stop was a bubble tea shop ^^
so what so special about it?
apparently they have coloured pearls which they call 彈珠. we were all pretty skeptical about it at first, but we decided to order two cups anyway. The queue was pretty crazy. we had to wait like 30 mins before our drink was finally ready? D:
the "sample" at the counter. looks kinda gross, really.
can you see the colours!!
better view~
soon after her friend had to leave but we entertained ourselves as we spotted...
i had nooooo idea who he was but both yijie and wen were like "oooooooh,
蕭閎仁" so i just followed, and watched, and snapped. the "event" was only to start about 30 mins later so we entertained ourselves with some snacks.
(my entry is beginning to sound like weng's, but then again, that's only correct)
i love the streets of taiwan! and thats the store we got the hotdog thing from. I sound damn cheapo but it's like 10NT more expensive in Taipei compared to Taichung.
it was actually really fun shopping in Taichung and i really regretted not buying more because the prices are so much lower than in Taipei! ): However, buying more would also mean feeling extremely guilty towards wen and her friend because they are riding scooters and all our loot has to be hung in front! D:
back to the "event venue" after making a quick round....
he is really not too photogenic :x he looks better in real life though...
after one song, it started raining. everyone took out their brollies (i had to leave mine in the hotel!) but i managed to snap the two with me with their hoods on (i also didn't have a hood... and all i had in mind was to protect my dear Jayden)
also, weng & I heard promos about him having "
法克 這個人" shirt and i thought it would be damn cute for boyf to be wearing it (AHAHHA bee i doubt you can read it?) but the sizes were insane so forget it.
then someone came up with the idea of buying brollies (because its raining) so we did.
we just kept walking around, weng & i both got a bag until it was about time that wen had to go off and visit her grandfather. she left us with a friend who was really really entertaining and was really good host :D
and i was taking this photo when they said "等一下有人出現“ i was like WTFFF?! then i got a shock -.-
if you've been observant you'll notice that most streets/shophouses have rows and rows of scooters parked by the roadside. Scooters are also free to roam within the lanes of shopping areas (the night markets etc) so you have to be careful even when you shop! It can be considered the main transport method in Taiwan, so naturally wen and her friend rode them too. It was weng's virgin ride on a two wheeled motor, and while she was scared out of her wits, i found the ride to be pretty enjoyable. *snigger*
first stop on the scooter:阿明師老店
i had planned to buy back sun biscuits, or 太陽餅 back for my grandma's side, my own family and wern's family. After tasting several brands, i still like the one that wen recommends best... which is this very store we went to! However, no one seems to appreciate it... and i had to hand carry the 30pieces back summore ):
jetted off once again on the scooter and this time to
wen's place!We were really surprised because the trip to her place wasn't planned! It felt a little awkward and paiseh to be turning up at someone's place as a guest without a gift ): and her mom was so nice to us she heard that i like the green mango so she prepared a huge bowl for us! It's all homemade.
and i love the miniature-grape looking fruit. they don't have it locally, unfortunately ):
again, wen knew that i've been craving for oyster meesua, or
蚵仔麵線 since i touched down and that weng has been really curious about smelly toufu so she sent her brother off to get some for us o__o
WAH THIS IS LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
and this is really smelly :x
camwhored and just talked and laughed until it was like 10pm++ and that wasn't just the plan for the night! Camwhored, before we left on the scooter again :D
zoomed off to a nearby 50lan, or 50嵐 bubble tea place. it's everywhere there! you might find it familiar cause they have franchised to Singapore as "KOI Cafe". It's wern and my favourite bubble tea store here now!
weng said the two looks like they are robbing the store (hint: helmet + mask)
Have i mentioned how it is so common that (almost) everyone wears masks there? even some shops devote a whole rack to just masks. metallic, cartoon, plain, printed, cloth... etc! Most people wear it when they're riding on their scooters, others when they're sick. I've always wanted to wear one in SG when i'm sick but i wear i'll just get worse with all those looks people shoot at me.
i got Vanilla Ice Cream + Red Tea 冰淇淋紅茶 in the end because that's what her friend recommended :D
then we headed to a night market -- 逢甲夜市 Fengjia Night Market. (neither of us have any photos! think we were too tired by then)
By the time we finished strolling and looking for food it was close to 1am? We rushed to the coach terminal and the earliest bus was 1.20am. The coach ride sure was costly! But the seats were comfy (think adjustable, massage, inclinable chairs) with blankets and personal TV and headphones. lol.
stole pics from weng's blog.
The entire journey back to Taipei was pretty long but smooth. We finally reached Taipei Train Station 台北車站 （the final station) at about
4am. Cabbed back to the hotel but didn't sleep until 6.30am somehow!!! I even skyped with boyf at 6am when he just woke up and was preparing to go to work!
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Day 5
Woke up quite late and headed to
Wu Fen Pu Shopping District 五份鋪. Most of the shops open at about 3am anyway :x There was hardly any customer service from the shops, and it certainly isn't as cheap as when i went there in 2006. Most of the clothings are imported from Korea now. Both of us left quite disappointed even though we tried damn hard to walk every lane and to find something we like ): I ended up with 2 pairs of shorts, 3 tops and 2 basics.
It rained today too and it's really really troublesome to walk around in a place in which you're not familiar with so we left for the hotel around dinner time. Went up just to freshen up before heading to a steak fastfood joint i mentioned i had wanted to go since 2006...
我家牛排.
our steak costs 220NT which is about SGD$10. Really worth it considering we were allowed free flow of drinks, salad and dessert!
Finally decided to turn in early for the night to make up for the lost sleep and to rest our aching feet D:
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Day 6
Only decided to head out because of the texts from wen. I was pretty relunctant and furthermore we were late but we went anyway.
"ok 沒問題“ - only because i dont like him? hahaha
Glad weng and I both had "equal" exposure. ; ) and of course thanks to DD the late bird if not we we wouldn't have been able to see anyone at all ^^
Bought dumplings 鍋貼 and headed to ... shit. i dont know? we alighted at some station after taking the train. Damn funny, you know how usually people approach the control station for directions? I just blindly followed weng while she walked to the man. then i heard..
"請問這裡有沒有鼎泰豐“ Excuse me, but is there Din Tai Fung here?
HAHAHAHAA OMG but they had it so who cares we squealed in joy like idiots then ran down the escalator, bwahahha!
i specifically told weng to take a photo of our bill because it is so freaking cheap.
330NT = SGD$15
Who pays $15 for a meal for two pax in DTF!? but then again its because we shared 10 dumplings right before entering the restaurant la but STILLLLLL. dirt cheap.
(yah yah i know my face looks damn bushuang here i duno why?)
oh and they have my favourite hot and sour soup in a one-man portion there and it's much tastier because Taiwan people generally eat saltier? I love DTF there!! ):
so after lunch i think we were at a lost of where to go for a while. We had plans to go look for xgui's shop, but we failed miserably. Really really didn't help that it kept pouring.
Decided to give up and head to Cheng Pin Bookstore 成品書店. They're everywhere, really.
Albert Einstein statue outside the building. No idea why he's there, hah.
Weng. Duno why she so emo. Maybe cause we can't find xgui's store? And it's raining? I have a feeling she'll like this photo though HAHAHAHA
Oh and I have to mention. Since its usually about 16/17 degrees there I'll choose a hot drink from Starbucks (which they call
星巴克, hehehe) and they still are using the OldSkool, somewhat method of writing your name on your cup upon ordering! I know they used to do that when i was young. Like when my sister was the one who was ordering a drink! Nowadays only a few Coffee Bean outlets do that... Starbucks doesn't even do it anymore!
SEEE!!! 姚!!! that's my surname!! hahahaha *cheap thrill*
Finally, we decided to brave the rain and head to some malls within a walking distance. Stayed for quite a while in Sasa (not much cheaper than SG, really) before we decided to seek help from Rachel and ask for
SFA's address. & We managed to find the place!!! Stayed for really long in there too but each of us walked out with new t-shirts :D
(picture credits to www.sundayfirstaid.com)
bought this in Female and Male sizes for Boyf and myself :D
Oh, and i got
outerspace tees for him and myself too but i forgot to blog about it.
Back to the hotel after that as we were kinda.. lazy and unsure of whether the nightmarket was in the vicinity.
We decided to be walkers! (gluttons) more like. and to just stop at Taipei Train Station and walk back to the hotel (and buy allllll the xiaochis along the way) :x
am totally loving and missing this drink! Look at the unique pearls! Plus we chose 愛玉, something damn common in Taiwan which i loveee so much so there's strings of aiyu in the drink, and plus the chewy pearls! i super feel like drinking it just by looking at this photo ):
my dinner for that night. Told you i ate it alot during the trip! :D
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Am tired and i want to DIY my nails now! Tata! Will blog again!
This entry is up for Sophia cause she's always asking me to blog! :D nah! For you!
