Day 6 - 13 July

Why why why????? Why does every holiday ends so quickly and work week never ends and reports and documents never seem to end?????
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Today we must pack and leave our paradise and jump into reality! We are going home!
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We left our luggage at the care of the hotel at 11.30am after checking out. We are going to have our brunch at the Toilet! Yes you've got it right! - The Toilet!
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This is a popular and famous toilet-themed restaurant serving casual western food. It opened at 11am and we were one of the first few customers. We were welcomed and led to our toilet-bowls (to sit on). Some themed-restaurant looks nice but serves borderline food but this Modern Toilet serves pretty good food, at least, no-nonsense.
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While waiting.. we played! J voluntarily posed as if he was using the toilet.. doing what men does best! Reading papers while doing their business and exposing their 'ass' to germs! *eeuuukkk*
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His meat baked penne with meat balls actually tasted great and was served in a bath tub!
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Here's mine.

My pork cutlet set with rice and soup. Very crispy and freshly made!
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Our brunch also came with dessert and made the saying so appropriate - Life is so full of SHIT so eat it!


Can you imagine 2 30-somethings having fun snapping corny pictures there?? Haha! We did just that! The meal cost us NT$440 (SGD20). So worth it.
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After the fun lunch, we had a mission to get a yummy local snack for our parents and J googled and knew there was one branch at 台北车站。 We took the train there and found the shop pretty quickly.
We bought some pretty good and expensive local biscuits back for our family.. go see their website and get their stuff!! http://www.ijysheng.com.tw
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After that we stole a couple of minutes to sip coffee.. I meant, I sipped the coffee!

The man exhibiting the reluctance to end our holiday... boo hoo....

We made our way back to 西门町 for the last time! It was a rainy day and we spent our time inside 万年商业大楼 which houses lots of tiny stores and feels alot like our Queensway Shopping centre. It is not a huge mall and the shops sell mainly toys, figurines, comic-related and cute stuff and very little fashion. Though so, J still managed to get 2 t-shirts from here.
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After 万年， we went into 西門新宿 which is also known as Shinjuku Plaza. The building is not outstanding or obvious and you wouldn't notice it's there if you are not there specifically for it. The shops inside the black and sleek building sell japanese fashion or japanese-inspired fashion paying special attention and incline towards japanese youth culture and their accessories too! The shops are small and are ran by independent designers and stylists in their rights. As most know that Shinjuku is a name for a district in Tokyo that is well-known for the shopping and nightlife. The plaza is popular with shoppers ranging from their teens to 30s and J and I felt the things on sale there were pretty expensive.. so we see-no-touch!
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Both 万年商业大楼 and 西门新宿 are located within walking distance from 西门町 and our hotel.
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We took reluctant steps back to the hotel at 3.30pm to collect out luggage and took a taxi to 台北车站again to look for buses back to the Airport.
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The taxi fare was NT$85 (SGD3.9) and we were there at the bus station at 4pm. We bought our tickets to the airport for NT$370 (SGD16.8) and boarded the coach at 4.20pm and we arrived at the airport at 5.15pm... goodbye Taipei city!

Here's how the coach looked like and we didn't get to sit together as it was first-come-first-seat.
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Here's our last meal in Taipei, at the airport cafe.
My once-again 牛肉面汤 and his 炸酱面。 We had a cola and a coffee. All for NT$370 (SGD11.4).
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Our flight was at 7.30pm without delay. I watched The Karate Kid on J's iPod Touch and as sad as we were... J has to work the next day...
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So there you have it, our 6 Days 5 Nights Taipei Chill-Out Tour! Stay tuned to our trip conclusion and photos on what we have bought and the detailed breakdown of our trip, financially.

Day 5 - 12 July

Today... it got worse! I woke up late and we only left the hotel at 12pm.. lol.. but I saved us breakfast! *lol*
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J said we'd go further today to a mall far away - where there is a Ferris wheel!!! Miramar - 美麗華摩天輪 here we come!
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We took the train to 忠孝复兴站 to change to their LRT-alike to 剑南station on the 内湖line.

Here's me fooling in while waiting for the train!

A ride on their LRT-alike.

Miramar is a huge mall with hotel that has the Ferris wheel. I heard that all the cabins on the wheel are individually air-conditioned and the ride would cost NT$200 on weekends and NT$150 during weekdays. Did we ride it? No. *lol*

The whole place kinda feels isolated like it is situated a tad too far from the city thus we did not see crowds at all - it was pretty empty, while I was super hungry!
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We went to their foodcourt to 'heal' the hunger.



I had 宫保鸡，黑胡椒牛肉 set for NT$158 (SGD7.20) and J, he had his favourite 小笼汤包 for NT$130 (SGD5.90) with my coffee and his Iced Tea at NT$75 (SGD3.40). It was ordinary foodcourt standard food but we were fed pretty good.

He enjoys food I could do without and I love food he'd rather not eat! *lol*
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There was nothing much in this huge mall but I managed to get lots of craft items for my scrapbooking use - rubber stamps, ink pads, acrylic and I even got myself a lifetime membership with their little craft counter!!! *satisfied* I spend NT$6133 (SGD278) replenishing materials for Simply Princessy and I am happy with my buy.
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At Miramar, they provide 接驳服务. you don't know what that is?? Free shuttle bus service. We took the shuttle bus to 剑潭. Do you remember what's in 剑潭?? 士林夜市！！！
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Yes! J wanted to go there again and we did!
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It started to rain when we arrived there. Feeling a little bummed, we went to a cafe - Ikari Cafe, while we wait for the rain to stop.

Here's my little travel journal where I meticulously jot down what we did, what time we did them and how much we'd spend doing them!

We shared a tea and pretty waffles with ice cream.

It took a while and when the rain stopped, we walked over for some shopping at 士林夜市. J bought a couple more stuff and me, I stocked up on my contact lens again!!!!
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A couple of hours in the crowded night market, I wanted to sit and eat. We found this little steak house and settled in. Though there were only some customers in there, they didn't allow us to have a whole table to ourselves but made us share with others.. apparently this seems to the the culture here as I slowly realised many seated together were strangers!

We share a Chicken and Steak combo with spaghetti at NT$240 (SGD10.90), over-priced but it was okay.
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After that, we walked over to the 士林 food market.

We saw a huge and long queue from afar and we went nearer to see what was the commotion about.

We did not queue for this today. Haha, because they have another store in 士林夜市 which J bought his on the first night.

We went in to explore this food market as J has not found some of the local snacks we read about and we finally did!
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He was searching for this... 官财板。 A local snack made of toasted bread and filled with yummy fillings of your choice inside like a coffin, as the name suggested.

Each coffin is NT$50 (SGD2.30) and yes, the man enjoyed his find.
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Then it was my turn!!!



My happy-yellow Mango Ice cost NT$90 (SGD4.09).
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J managed to get more stuff tonight as this is the last night in Taipei and he had looked through other places. So I must say he was, overall, a happy and fat-isfied man! *lol*
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It was still early, the man took me to another tiny night market 宁夏夜市 that was NT$150 (SGD6.80) cabfare away. We only go there to look for this little ball!!! I read about it and I had wanted to get my hands on some!
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This little power ball is called 蛋黄芋饼 and it was prominently visible in this tiny night market as there was a queue. I think people flocked over to buy these and they ordered in huge quantity. As I was not too hungry BUT merely wanted to try it, I bought only one! how stupid of me! All the way there I should have just ordered 2!!!!!

Aromatic and crispy fried yam balls with meat floss and a salted egg yolk! Are you kidding me! So much work for a little ball I would flock to buy toO! It was really good! Somewhat like the 芋角we often get to eat at dim sum places but in their authentic way and no meat but floss~ Yummy! NT$20 (SGD 0.90)
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We took a tax there for NT$150 just to get one of these,, damn I do regret!
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We then took another taxi back to the hotel for NT$100 (SGD4.55) and we were in the hotel by 8.35pm.
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Do we have round 2??? You bet!!! How could we not have since this was going to be our last night.. alittle sad and lost we were.
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We left the hotel at 9.20pm and managed a night shot of 西门町， the hip place everyone must go to if they visit taipei.

We took it easy for this last trip to 西门町at night and however, his stomach did not take it easy.. he was on the prowl for more snacks and prance at anything that looked interesting.



He wanted one of this 葱捉饼 - prata-like abd pan-fried with floss and lots of onions! He enjoyed this for NT$45 (SGD2.05)

We picked up a couple more stuff and decided to boy some instant noodles home since their soupy food are so good. These 2 cost NT$51 (SGD2.32).

We called it a night and was back in the hotel, with me half-dead and sad, at 10.50pm.