Taiwan Trip - Day 2

Ximending
Woke up late. Supposed to set alarm for 6.30am to catch National Palace Museum at opening, but turned out nobody did. Reshuffled the schedule to go Toilet Restaurant at opening instead.
Our breakfast of egg and ham sandwich and fruit juice hanging at the door.

It's still breakfast time, so I suggested looking for the recommended 桃源街牛肉面 nearby. It was then we realized that we stupidly forgot to take a map at the airport -____- Remembered to apply for YTC, but forgot about the most important thing lor! No maps at the hotel either. The receptionist advised us to take from Ximen station. So we tried to find 桃源街 based on my fuzzy memory of the hotel area on Google Maps, but got lost. Even asked a food shop, but they also didn't know where! Win liao! Gave up lor.
Our hotel. Our room is on the second storey, windows on the left.

Looking at the strong sun, I thought I could tahan the day with my can-fight-the-Singapore-cold outfit, but apparently strong sun -> hot day rule is not universal. Had to send my brother back to the room to retreive my jacket.

The streets resembled that of Chinatown, or more of KL, as my brother put it. The pavement is generally smooth, save the mini-speedbumps between units. No speeding, elseI would be flying.

Making a decent living.

Garbage truck that plays Beethoven's Für Elise when it arrives.

The empty streets of Ximending in the morning. Perfect for cabbies looking for a snooze.

Ximen Station is so well-equipped! It has a Visitor Information corner stocking all the offical maps and brochures about Taiwan in different languages.

Didn't see any Ezycard vending machine. Had to trouble the sianed guy at the station control. He didn't offer me the half-priced handicapped ticket :( But their metro is very cheap already lah, nevermind.

Destination Toilet Restaurant @ Shilin! So we headed to Jiantan Station, changing train at Taipei Main Station.

Taipei Main Station is HUGE! It would have been more straight forward if we were taking the escalator, but alas, the lift was a distance away. Gone were the days when changing lines meant walking 10m to the opposite platform. The lift doors were SLOW, took 10s to react to the close button!

So many commuters pass through this station that they have a whole level dedicated to Lost and Found LOL!

People queue up to enter the train. One even offered my brother a seat even though he obviously doesn't need one. So nobody sat down in the end lah, so awkward lor.

An unmanned shop in Jiantan Station.

Free bicycle parking outside the station. What a cool idea!

Toilet Restaurant
My sister was supposed to research everything regarding the Toilet Restaurant, but apparently, she didn't know the next step after the metro part lor. But no worries, I knew, because I didn't think she would research into such detail :P But my detail also not very detail lah, just find the right road, orientation, and keep walking until we see it haha!

Shilin's streets were even narrower than that of Ximending's. Shops everywhere, but not the kind that would catch our attention. Anyway they were mostly still not opened. Found that dustbins were non-existent. Do Taiwanese hold on to their trash forever?

We were walking for a really long time, long passed the KFC we were supposed to see, until it seemed we were reaching the end of the row of shops. WHERE?
Found it!

11am already, but still not opened lor! Had to rot outside. Damn sian. What a bad start.

The colorful and cheery deco.

Behind the cuteness, this restaurant had the worst ergonomics I have ever come across. With the deadly combination of substituting the table with a sink and having an unmovable toilet bowl as a seat, I could not put my legs under the table. If I sat up straight, I would be too far from the table. If I bent forward, it would strain me soon. Argh.

Hot tea served in a toilet bowl (glad it isn't urine, or else the source is really ill), cold drinks in a urinal. The urinals are huge! The drinks are delicious.

My pasta. Ok lah. The soup was all starch and milk, so I didn't waste my calorie quota on it.

Curry rice for my siblings. Looks like puke.

Our GIGANTIC desserts. Constipation and bloody stools. But the ice below don't have syrup lah. Never knew the 小曼头 biscuit go very well with ice-cream.

The lunch cost NT855. Targeting students.

Kobayashi Optical was screaming "up to 50% off for its anniversary celebration", so we popped in to find cheap contact lenses. There were, at 34% cheaper than Singapore for Acuvue! The staff served us tea and even gave my sister a free degree check. Now, that's service!

It was only after we stepped out of Kobayahi that I noticed the street was full of optical shops, all screaming discounts.

There was a large lottery shop on the same street, must look!
Our bet by quick pick, for the uninspired. Came with the angpow.


国立故宫博物院 National Palace Museum
From Google Maps, National Palace Museum looked close to Shilin, so I suggested taking a cab there. During the journey, there would be a warning about approaching speed cameras. Wonder what cool system that was! Sure enough, the journey was only NT135, worth it since our boarding and alighting points were both far from the metro station. The tickets to the museum was NT80 per head, half-priced with Youth Travel Card.

We went through every single room to get our S$4 worth. Strangely, the highlights - 翠玉白菜 and 肉形石 were enjoying peace. Totally different from my mental picture of rowdy China people surrounding them. Good lah, I can admire longer!

Clean and modern, just got crowded when groups came along. Very handicapped-friendly, with spacious lifts serving every floor. A really economical leg, even drinks are free! There were water coolers dispensing hot and cold water, but on the ground floor only. Actually, we couldn't get other drinks even if we wanted to, because I think the other places with drinks were the restaurants and cafes already.

The exhibition halls closed at 5pm, so it's time to take a look outside. It's sunny, the kind of sun that would melt us in Singapore, except it was very windy and the wind was FREEZING cold (by my standards). Wonder if it's the remnants of the sandstorm or what, sand got into my eye :\

People practicing 法轮功 on one side...

And lady taking glam pictures on the other side.

Lots of space and China-China buildings. That brown "vase" is a dustbin.

Time to go. No taxi-stand in sight, so we asked the customer service. I don't know why, but we were communicating in English. Her English was ok, but I wished we were using Mandarin instead as it would be easier for her (and us). When she realized we could speak Mandarin, we had a good laugh about it. We wanted to ask for a number to call for a cab, but guess what, she offered to call one for us, and it's free! Our cab came, but the cabbie was grumbling that he should have been told that there's a wheelchair because his boot might be too small. Anyway, it was fine after some securing.


天母 shopping
Tripadvisor described 天母 as a district with cheap shopping and international dining.

The cab dropped us off at 中山北路7段， 天母新村 roundabout at my request. We walked back down the road that we came up from. Objective is to stop at any shop that fancied us. We walked... and walked... but the place looked quite dead ley... sure got shops or not? Supposed to have factory outlets lor... The pavement also very bumpy due to the old trees' roots wreaking the area.

Unexpected find - P.S. Bu Bu, a car themed restaurant featured in 流星花园. But heard the food so-so only, so didn't try.

Here's how a Taiwanese parking ticket looks like.

Finally reached our first shop!
This was featured on Mediacorp's 省钱王. At first it looked like a kids' wear shop, until we started digging... and spent quite some time in it. I found a BCBG Max Azria top (which I later found to be brittle and requires dry-cleaning) and a Polo Ralph Lauren top. My sister got a thick jacket, which I would later wear for the rest of the trip. Blew NT1530! My brother was appalled. First shop only, later how?

Spotted a bird's nest. So crowded.

Entered a few more shops, but didn't buy anything most of the time. The designs were not suitable, price-quality-design do not correlate, or can find in Singapore. The sky fell dark and it's time for dinner. Now we had a problem. We couldn't recall seeing anything we wanted to eat. There's Swensen's, Haagen Daz, Diamond Tony's, some unknowns... but don't know why just don't want to eat. There was supposed to be a famous 宋江馅饼 at 天母北路2号, but also cannot find?! Argh. But anyway, we couldn't be having that for dinner. Passed by a Hello Kitty shop and my sister insisted on going in to find someone a gift. It's a shop I wouldn't want to be caught dead in, and spending your holiday looking for a gift? That's silly.

So in the end, we settled for a Shanghainese restaurant a few units before the Hello Kitty shop. Of course we checked the price before stepping in hehe.

We don't usually order greens in Singapore, but we now we must prevent constipation on holiday. I decided on 豆苗.

We got a shock when this was served. So different from the taugeh-like thing I associated the name with, that I asked the waitress if this was indeed the correct dish. Taiwanese 豆苗 is huge lor! Don't know what kind of bean! A very oily dish, dripping oily.

My brother's fried noodles.

I'm so cold that I must have soup noodles. The noodles' texture not so good ley, felt like they were melting. The serving was so big that I couldn't finish it.

My sister ordered something that sounded dry, but got served soup noodles instead. The waitress confirmed that it's the correct dish and my sister got grumpy. This dinner was really full of surprises.

铁板豆腐 Our must-order if it's on the menu.

Complimentary dessert. Probably because it's nearly closing time. It's so sweet, it must have been evaporating in the pot since morning.

Walked more after our dinner. The disciplined Taiwanese sorting their trash in those blue containers. Can Singaporeans do that too?

Went into this shop selling cream puffs.

Many different flavors, like chocolate, chestnut... but so-so only lor, like normal cream puff with some flavor haha., nothing wow. We found one of the puffs empty, so the boss gave us another free. Then we realized that the filling was actually in a corner, deep below... :X

Then we hailed a cab from the street to go back to our hotel. The cabbie told us that in Taiwan, not only there's no booking charges, you even get discount for calling a cab! Hey how come Singapore cannot! He took us down 忠孝东路, where we saw the bridal studios and shopping belt. They look happening even when they were all closed. The trip was only NT310. I imagined it to be more as I thought the distance would be long.

After a day of drinking from a water dispenser without any ill effects, we figured Taipei water is safe. We shall consume the boiled water waiting for us in our room every night from now on.

The moment we stepped inside our room, my brother smacked dead a mosquito. When we were about to start bathing, we found the bathroom window open. Wa luckily we saw it lor...

Bathed... channel-surfed and slept.