Day 1 - 8 July [Part 2]

Q Stay was our hotel. It is a tiny, new and clean Bed and Breakfast type hotel.
Located ideally at 台北市長沙街2段42號, which is 3 mins walk from the ever-exciting 西门町 and also 西门捷運站。

Though our room rate was approximately SGD 85 per room night and I'd know some of you would protest and contest that you could get a cheaper hotel; the room is reasonably-sized and clean and away from the noise. J knew me well, I could get over a super tiny bedroom but my toilet and bed must be clean! :) SO, I was very much, happy with the hotel cleanliness.

Here's the view from our room.

Here are the pics of our room.

Simple and no-frills.

Every room is also equipped with a desktop computer plus free internet service which doubles up as a TV so it's really convenient.

Here's our little raised bathroom! Bathrooms are usually lower than bedroom but ours is a huge step higher and I feel we were stepping onto a box every time I used it! Clean and very 'ikea'-ish.. I like!
Basic stuff like towels, hairdryer, shampoo and shower gel are also provided. What more could I ask for? *giggles*

Though they do not provide breakfast, they do have a pantry at the lobby, where there are instant noodles, bread, assorted cookies, fruits, coffee, tea and ice cream that hotel guests could enjoy free of charge and round the clock. The only items chargeable there are the canned drinks.

The management team is small, I saw only 3 young men manning the Reception at different shifts. I am guessing there are only 8-10 bedrooms in this hotel as the nice gentleman at the reception told us only Level 2-5 are guests rooms and the building is 6 storeys high with level 1 as the lobby, reception and pantry area. If you need advice on how to plan your route around Taipei.. the staff members are more than happy to help you with that too! :)

Hotel security is pretty good too. You'd need your room keys to activate the lift at all times.

The only complain that i have; there isn't any mini-fridge in the room so it was inconvenient if we had bought food or fruits that may require refrigeration during our stay.

If you are interested in clean budget hotels, check out their website http://www.qstay.com.tw/about.html

It was 3.30pm and we were ready to rock and roll at 西门町!!! FOOD!

I was very determined that we had to try all authentic 台湾小吃 this trip. We were walking around 西门町 but we could not find anything local. I was tired and hungry so we settled into a Japanese Curry Rice Restaurant...

My Beef Curry Rice at the back and J's Pork Cutlet Omu Rice! It was good and the meal cost us NT$470 (SGD21).. not expensive though not what I had wanted to eat. The strangest thing was, the moment we stepped out from the restaurant and made a turn.... all the local 小吃店 miraculously appeared! *boo!*

We walked a little more and I felt I was having blurry vision and drowsy. I need to 'recharge'. WE woke up at 4am in the morning so my 'battery' was flat. J let me take a short nap back in the hotel before we embark on our exciting 士林夜市 trip!

I concussed in the hotel. I didn't know what J did. It was 6.30pm when I woke up and we took the train at 7.30pm!!! *yeay*

From 西门捷運站, we had to take a train to an interchange station 台北车站.

台北车站 is a really busy station and it was huge too. I didn't know how J knew where and which train or platform to go to, it was really complicated! Here's a shot of how busy the station was! If one man stood still, the rest of the world simply zoomed by....

The platform at 台北车站 and we were going to 劍潭站 where 士林夜市 is located! 士林, here we come!!!!

士林夜市 was crowded when we were there. Streets after streets of cheap fashion, toys and pets were on sale! Oh, did I mention FOOD? J could not stop! He was all ready to forget about 'FAT' and concentrate on 'EAT'.

Here's him with a skewer of some yummy meat and vegetables! I took a small bite. It was good but I had wanted to have proper food! His skewer cost NT$20 (SGD 0.90).

Here's him with a huge 烧饼.. like the same ones we could find in Singapore where you'd have with 豆浆 and this was only NT$12 (SGD 0.50). Look at the size of that!

And what was this commotion? A long long queue! For what?
and can you see a familiar face? *lol*

J was very excited he finally found 鸡排 after walking around the entire night market. But it was really huge unlike those sold in Singapore, they do not chop them up so you could savour it by sinking your teeth into a humongous chunk of deep fried chicken! *yummy*

Everybody in the night market had some kind of food in their hands and mouth as you could see in the pictures.. I just don't understand, why are they, not at all, fat???

2 things I hate about these night markets; the motorcycles are still allowed to come through. It was stressful for me. I could not look around in peace as there was always another bike trying to wriggle its way around me. Upset. Why can't they ban the bikes so the people could look around freely?

Secondly, pets were on sale like fashion and food were! Those poor fellows looked like they were too young to be handled by people.. they looked like they have not gotten all their shots or were less than 3 months old. MEAN!! They could die of Distemper!!! Puppies are not supposed to be touched or mixed as we may give them the viral disease as they have not built up their own immunity. Well.. I hope they had all gotten their shots and were old enough. :(

Finally.... a place where I could sit and eat properly. J and I are so different. He was really enjoying just eating and walking while I needed to have a proper meal ... hot and soupy stuff!



I ordered 牛肉汤面 and J had 牛角汤 (beef soup noodles and beef dumpling soup). I have to say the soup was really savoury and flavorful! Good stuff! But... I realised my beef was missing. There weren't any beef in the soup!!!!! Then I read carefully... 牛肉汤面... but of course. It's Noodles cooked in beef soup! 牛肉汤面 and 牛肉面汤 are different. *faint*

it was a good dinner for me! I can still taste the soup as I am blogging now. The dinner cost NT$140 (SGD 6.30). And oh! THeir culture is also different; most of the food places do not sell drinks. Instead, you are free to bring in any drinks from any where.
After dinner we walked around more. I suspected J was subtly unleashing the 'shopping monster' in him again... the tail was slowly coming out.. it was only the first night.. so.. we shall see.

We took a NT$200 (SGD 9) taxi back to the hotel at about 10pm. I was exhausted! I believed I knocked out after shower.