So its been almost 3 weeks since I got back from Taiwan!
All in all, it was a lovely experience! The weather was great, the people were friendly, the food was a-mazingggg but the shopping was meh. I assume its becos we went during their Winter season (Dec/Jan) so all that were available were coats and boots and all the winter-ish stuff.
I decided to be more specific about this trip because this trip was self-planned and while I was doing all the necessary research, such blog reviews were of great help so I kinda wanna return the favour/pay it forward and contribute as well.
So yea, hope it helps those who might chance upon this space when they plan their Taiwan trip.
The link below is the document of the itinerary that I planned. We were quite flexible during the trip itself and there were a couple of places we didnt go so yea- we didnt follow the itinerary that strictly. Especially on transport expenses. We only took their metro (our MRT) and taxis so transport and food expenses were wayyy higher than expected.
Click this to have a look at the itinerary : Taiwan Itinerary 2011/2012
6 of us went on this 7D7N holiday.
There's YL, me, SJ, SS, J & YF.
We reached around midnight and were quite disappointed to see that their arrival halls were pretty much completely under renovation or something... All covered with white boards :(
Took a cab straight to our hotel where we stayed at Novotel Taoyuan.
Pretty spacious, BRIGHT(yay!!) and VERY clean. The toilet was just as good!
And we played with the magic mirror abit hahaha. The window by the bathtub can be switched between opaque and transparent... kinky! ;)
On the following morning...
Was greeted by this sight:
If you look closely you can see aeroplanes on both the right and left sides of the picture!
For breakfast, we took a cab down to Taipei & went to eat Taiwan's famous Lu Rou Fan!!! (Cab from Taoyuan to Taipei was NT1000, ~SGD$44)
HEAVEN IN MY MOUTH! Its minced meat rice and its super delish!
The best part of this shop was that we just hopped onto the cab and asked the driver to bring us to a lu rou fan stall that the taiwanese people go to. We ended up there and in my opinion they serve the best lu rou fan that I've tried throughout the entire trip. Its such a pity that I forgot to take down the address/name of the shop.
You can try doing the same thing I did and ask the taxi driver/locals. This shop is about 10-15mins walk from Taipei Main Station and it supposedly has some decade long reputation or something.
To top it off- each bowl cost approx 80cents SGD. Heaven or heaven?!?
After brekkie, we walked towards Taipei Main Station for the famous underground metro malls~
On our way there we saw this:
It reads - Zhu Xue Gao : Pig's Blood Cake.
My first thought was :"Haiya come holiday might as well be daring and try all these snacks!" So I bought one and made some of them try it as well...
& I regretted.
It was disgusting!! I could feel my lu rou fan coming all the way up my throat!!
They first steam the cake and once somebody orders then they will coat it with crushed peanuts and parsley(I think) :
I dont quite know how to describe the taste becos some asshole of a friend(I forgot who) was beside me going "OMG CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PIG BLOOD IN YOUR MOUTH NOW? BLOOD!! YOU ARE DRINKING AN ANIMAL'S BLOOD MADE INTO CAKE!!"
-.-
So after that we reached Taipei Main Station and found ourselves walking through spaces like this:
We reached around 12noon and it was still quite sleepy, not much activities, not much people, not much shops even. Only around 2PM+ then the place started getting busy.
Honestly if you ask me, I wouldnt go there to shop. Its supposedly a huge underground mall (4 malls all interlinked actually) and they have cheap clothes and shoes and all that. Yea definitely. But the standard of their clothes is similar to clothes I would find at Lucky Plaza. Shoes...I think one can definitely find nicer ones at the basement of Far East Plaza. Maybe im prejudiced becos of the environment(refer to above pic) but personally I wouldnt go there again.
The only redeeming part was probably their departmental stores. If im not wrong they have a couple of departmental stores there. All of them are fine but they sell more upmarket stuff like VANS and Ed Hardy etc. It was also at one of those departmental store that Me and SJ managed to try 'Yofroyo'!
From what I read online, its a popular yogurt chain among the taiwanese. Again, just hop by your nearest YAMI/ frolicks- its the same thing.
From Taipei Main Station, we took the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing for SOGO departmental store!
(Do note that there are TWO SOGO stores there)
This is the SOGO store that you want to go for NARS!
For those who are unaware, NARS is a brand of cosmetics. Something like MAC.
This brand is not available in SG so if you want their products then you'll have to either order online or buy it overseas.
From what I know, the more popular countries that SGreans go to that carries NARS is Australia, Bangkok and Taiwan. Im not sure of Bkk's prices but between Taiwan and Aust, Taiwan sells them cheaper!
Nars is known for their blushers and I already have the hot favourite which I absolutely love to death- 'Orgasm'. So I got another one called 'Deep Throat' and a 'Gilda' for germs.
Orgasm is a really shimmery peach colour. Some call it a universal blusher(?)- which means it suits almost all skin tones. I love this but it is really a little too shimmery sometimes.
On the other hand, Deep Throat is slightly more subtle. Its also of a peachy shade-with shimmers as well, just not as intense as Orgasm. (haha stupid pun)
And for germs, Gilda is fine for her but too orangey for me. She's of a darker skin tone & she likes it without shimmers so yea, suits her I guess.
(All the colours that I posted are not exactly accurate- try searching online for the swatches if you're really interested.)
Like plenty of beauty bloggers, I highly recommend their range of blushers. For reference, Im a NC25 and both Orgasm and Deep Throat looks gorgeous on me. Its very pigmented and looks really natural. I love it! Definitely my go-to blusher now.
Available at Zhongxiao Fuxing's SOGO Departmental store. Blushers priced at NT1000 which is approx SGD$44 each.
Right! So after getting NARS, we asked around for directions to the Hello Kitty themed cafe!
Idk why but the moment I reached I thought of how Angie would love this place.
This Hello Kitty Sweets is within walking distance from SOGO. About a 10min walk or so.
Unfortunately, it was quite crowded when we reached and they turned us down the moment they heard that we didnt make any reservation :(
So for those who are thinking of going... Do make a reservation before turning up! (Ask the hotel concierge to do it for you if you can.)
We ended up just taking some miserable pictures outside just to show that we've at least been to the entrance hahaha.
Settled our lunch at some random restaurant down the street before heading over to Taipei 101 for the New Year Countdown 2012!!
Okay I MUST talk about this.
Taipei 101 is at the Taipei Cityhall Station. Once you leave the station, you can just follow the crowd and walk towards the 101 building.
On our way there, we saw plenty of street vendors selling balloons, scarfs, food, etc. Of course, silly SS couldnt resist getting her pooh balloon.
We reached the concert venue at around 5pm-6pm and we managed to get relatively good spots. We were within 100metres of the main stage so from where we stood, we can see little figures hopping around on the stage.
Our view from where we stood and random concert pics:
Looks nice right?
NO.
NOW NOW NOW... IF you're thinking of attending future Taipei101 Countdown concerts... PLEASE LOVE YOURSELF MORE, LOVE YOUR FRIENDS MORE AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
IT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE WORST COUNTDOWN OF MY LIFE.
First of all, that place gets more crowded by the minute. Apparently there were 800 000 people there for the countdown that day. For SGreans, you have NO IDEA EXACTLY HOW HORRIBLE IT FEELS TO BE SQUEEZING WITH 799 999 PEOPLE!!!! You spend the entire time squeezing and taking care of your belongings and nothing is quite worth going through that trauma. Not the concert, not even the fireworks.
Second, besides just squeezing, you have to stand for 7hours. STAND AND SQUEEZE FOR 7FREAKING HOURS. No room for you to stretch your stupid aching legs damnit!!
Third, the atmosphere of the concert is really bad. Unlike what you see on the TV, everybody in the crowd is just frustrated and angsty. Yea we heard Mayday perform live, sang along to some random songs, saw some other taiwanese celebrities and all that but as a whole, the concert was just bad.
Fourth, Show Luo was supposed to be there but he turned up SOLELY for the countdown. Like LITERALLY for the last 10 seconds!! Nothing else!! He didnt even perform a single song!!! SERIOUSLY!! I mean, im not a fan of his and I know nothing but his name but c'mon, I stood for 7hours. At least let me see an international celebrity perform damnit!!!
Finally, the fireworks at Taipei101 was beautiful but in my opinion, fireworks is just fireworks la. In SG we see them in the sky but at Taipei101 we see them coming out of the building. It is a different kind of experience and it was really beautiful but this still wont change my opinion regarding the countdown.
If any of you really wanna see the fireworks of Taipei101, I suggest you have your own little gathering at some nearby bar/cafe or even the roadside instead of wasting time and energy at the concert.
Yea. Point is : Please think VERY VERY carefully about attending their countdown concert :(
Taipei101/ Fireworks:
After squeezing through a HUGE crowd, we rushed towards a taxi we pre-booked and on our way there... we saw Free Hugs!
Only me and SJ took a pic tho. The rest were whining about their aching legs...
Another noteworthy info nugget: Its IMPOSSIBLE to get a cab after the countdown. You MUST pre-book your taxi. We booked the same driver who took us to Lu Rou Fan in the morning. For the 7 seater toyota wish, the trip back to our hotel from Taipei 101 was NT3000. Thats SGD$132. Granted, our hotel was in Taoyuan not Taipei, so its definitely already pricey but still, its SGD$132 on a stupid taxi ride after a traumatic experience. Words completely fail to describe how I felt that night.
For the second night, we stayed at Holiday Inn Express Taoyuan. We were extremely lucky to even get a hotel for that night because we only booked our hotels a week prior to our holiday and more than 20 hotels that we called were all fully booked. It was so bad we even considered roaming the streets for that night hahaha.
Fortunately, Holiday Inn Express Taoyuan turned out pretty good!
We got a twin sharing room and it was fairly spacious. Brightly lit and extremely clean as well. Toilet was a little small but not a problem.
(Shower on the left of the pic)
Yep so that concludes Day 1 of our Taiwan trip.
I know this entry is ridiculously long and you are probably bored by now but well, at least I managed to hold your interest for a little while!
Upcoming entries about Taiwan wouldnt be as long tho cos the remaining days-especially towards the end was generally just us shopping so there's nothing interesting to blog about.
Note: Taipei's temperature that day was approx 12degree celcius
Okay out x
2 comments:
did you bargain for the prices of the taxi? because they will raise the fare if they know you are a tourist and if you all were speaking english then yeah, that's a major giveaway.
Anon- nope we didn't. But we didn't bargain only because from the various blogs Ive read, the prices I was quoted was the average price that others paid as well. Except the 132$ one tho- nobody talked about the fares that they were charged but I thought it was reasonable because Taoyuan is a separate area of Taipei and it was after countdown so I guess it'll definitely be pricey. Furthermore 132$ was shared among the 6 of us so it's about 20$+ each- not too bad right? ...
Post a Comment