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| New Year in Taipei |
We left for Taipei after work on Friday, the 3rd of Jan, so we got to the hotel way past midnight. We stayed at our favorite hotel in Taipei, City Inn Plus in XiMenDing. You can read all about our last stay here.
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| Since we arrived technically early morning, we just bunked with my dad in his Luxury Room. |
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| City Inn Plus really knows how to make basic rooms more interesting with the use of paint. Our room came with a Mona Lisa, and painted furniture. |
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| They even help you with the counting sheep visuals. |
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| Just like before, we normally buy breakfast when we wake up, then re-group at the basement pantry before heading out for the day. |
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| The hotel still offers free coffee, hot chocolate, sweet or salty popcorn, and this trip we even had free doritos! Red Bull is for sale. |
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| My first stop for breakfast was XiMenDing to get the Pork Intestine Misua I've been craving for. |
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| I got a little bit side tracked by the Mahjong Flashmob at the XiMenDing intersection. |
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| I'm not sure if the passers-by are also included, but the expression of the guy crossing looks fierce! |
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| I was so tempted to borrow this extra costume I saw for a photo-op. Hahaha. |
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| Along the way, you see all sorts of character merchandise. Imagine, you can match your bag with your dog! |
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| I also realized that some stores never remove their sale signs, or change their window display. |
Taipei is actually one of the cities where places start opening late. I think my favorite noodle places only opens at 10am.
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| I was so excited to get my noodle fix. |
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| When I arrived, there were already a lot of people standing around, slurping up their bowl of noodles. They only serve one dish, in a big or small bowl. |
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| You can choose to have a big or small bowl of Maki, with your choice of noodles. I opted for none. |
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| My attempt at a TRA compliant breakfast. I just had half the misua, Maki for protein and veggies, and a banana. |
Our first stop was the Taipei 101 area for some shopping before we had lunch.
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| Taipei 101 is the iconic building which looks like it has food containers stacked on top of each other. |
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| We normally go to the Mitsukoshi Department store near by at A11, so I could get my Nespresso fix. So many new flavors to try. |
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| This was my coffee hoard. The capsules were so good. |
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| The area around Taipei 101 and Mitsukoshi is full of street performers. |
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| We normally end up at Din Tai Fung in Taipei 101 for lunch. |
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| I really exercised control and I just had spinach with beancurd skin to go with my Trimshake, but I prepared a plate for my breakfast the next day. |
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| One of Sofia's favorite stores is right beside DinTaiFung in Taipei101. Toy World has some cool toys and this trip yielded us a mini donut store, and a Talking Vendo Machine. |
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| This is the XiMenDing intersection at night. |
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| The main road is purely a walking street and gets really busy. |
All the vendors also come out at night, though there are some that are there during the day.
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| This pancake stall looked so good, except I don't like beans. |
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| Fruit stand. The fruit in Taiwan is excellent! |
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| I used to love the Roti Stand, but I stayed away because of my diet. It's super yummy with egg and bacon. |
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| I was also intrigued by the gyoza but I behaved and also did not try it. |
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| But I didn't resist the quail egg bbq. Yummy! |
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| Just be careful because the vendors start running away when they see the cops. You don't want to be in the way of their hot food carts when they are rushing. |
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| I didn't realize there was also a big branch of Hot Star Chicken in the main street of XiMenDing. They had quite a big selection too compared to the Shilin Market branch. |
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| There's also a duck place I am intrigued about, but I am not quite sure I want to eat duck that's packed line sardines in a bucket. |
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| We had a really good dinner at Bear1 East All You Can Yakiniku Grill and Hot Pot. This deserves a separate post. |
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| We were all so tired that it was nice to soak in the tub. Our hotel now even gives away free Bath Oil. Hooray. Hahaha. |
Our next day started early because we were picked up by the driver my aunt arranged for, to take us to Yehliu Geopark, and wherever else we wanted to go.
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| I had the Din Tai Fung leftovers for lunch. I just popped it in the microwave and it was still as good as I remembered it. |
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| Our Yehliu and Jiufen visit was so much fun. We even found a Customs Warehouse Shop, but that also deserves a separate post. |
For our dinner on the second night, since it also happened to be our last night in Taipei, we went to Shilin Night Market.
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| I was happy enough with the XXL Chicken Chop, I can't go to Taipei and not eat this. |
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| The Basement looks and smells like a wet market more than a modern food court. And they even had places serving steak. Go figure. |
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| Sofia did Press a Penny for her collection. |
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| And she was also able to do some shrimping. I think you pay a certain amount (ie 100 NT) for x number of shrimps, then you catch it, then they grill it so you can eat it. I bargained for Sofia to pay for one. They sent us away when she couldn't catch any, but I didn't pay. Hahaha. |
The next day was our last day in Taipei. The only thing left on our To Do List was to eat at the Modern Toilet Restaurant (again!) because Sofia really enjoyed it there and just do some last minute shopping.
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| For breakfast, I had another XXL Chicken Chop I bought the day before, and yummy Pork Floss Onigiri, which I recently discovered. |
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| I bought rust pants on sale from Uniqlo because they went so well with the top I was wearing. |
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| I couldn't resist Muji's decorate your own gift station, even if I just bought a set of mini markers for Sofia. |
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| And our winner find of the trip was really cute washi tape designs, from a stationary store selling them at wholesale prices. |
Sofia really enjoyed our lunch at the Modern Toilet Restaurant.
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| Sofia and her lolo share the same toilet humor. Since I've eaten here before, I just opted to have Trimshake for lunch. |
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| While waiting for our order, Sofia and her lolo even had a drawing competition. We had to do secret voting to decide on the winner. |
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| Of course, Sofia won. But Lolo was able to get 1 vote. Hahahaha. |
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| Sof wanted to do another round but Lolo didn't want to play anymore, so she drew "1 Step Forward" the sign Lolo said he saw at the urinals in Yehliu. Our guess is, people were missing the spot when they peed. Hahaha. But the funny thing is Sofia just overheard her Lolo telling Gammy about it. |
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| Finally the food arrived. They ordered the usual favorites, Hot Pot, Au Gratin, and Nuggets for Fi. |
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| Each order comes with shit shaped free ice cream in a urinal, and black or green tea. |
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| If you go to Modern Toilet, and need the toilet, it's best to go to the third floor as the second floor has a Squat Toilet. This one even comes with translations. This will come in handy in Japan. |
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| Since I thought I didn't really buy much, I gave in and bought Skull Shoes for 100NT (Php150 or SG$4.30) from a store in XiMenDing. Needless to say, I've never had an occasion to use it. |
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| We even had to buy batteries for this! I should have just bought it at the Customs Warehouse. Hahaha. |
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| The Mini Donut Shop. We even made Play Money. |
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| Time for our McDo fix. |
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| I really love the beef prosperity burger, so I just coverted mine into a triple patty half burger which I ate with salad. The Nice Green Salads are really good (also available at the Food Court). |
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| I even packed food for the flight, since it would be 5 hours after my last meal. Another attempt at TRA compliance. |
Over-all, it was a really good weekend break, even if I mostly behaved and attempted to follow my diet. Hahaha. just saying.
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