Taiwan Trip! Day 3 and 4! (Taipei)

Day 3: Taichung HSR --> South Island Homestay --> Ximending* --> Animate --> Shida Night Market --> 长城桌球 --> Ximending
Day 4: 永和豆漿 --> Taipei Medical University --> 长城桌球* --> Shin Kong Mitsukoshi --> Taipei Main Station Underground Mall (Y Area)

Day 3

So I'm not sure of any good breakfast shops within walking distance from my accommodation, but in the end we settled for some 包,馒头 and 豆浆 from a shop nearby and dabao the food back to our minsu to eat. After we had breakfast and also finished packing our baggage and luggage, we took a bus down to the Taichung High Speed Rail(HSR), where we bought a ticket for a ride towards Taipei.

We went up to the wrong platform at first.. but yup, this is the picture of the platform towards the North.

Our accommodation in Taipei was located near the Ximen Station, which was just one stop away from the Taipei Main Station. It is about 5-10 minutes walk from the Ximen Station and just a cross of a road away from Ximending! The price is very reasonable for its location as well as the quality of the room. Payment is made on the spot by cash and no deposit is needed. The room is very spacious and comfortable. They have facilities which includes - washing machine, dryer, air conditioner, wardrobe, hangers for clothes, hair dryer, water boiler, television, basic toilet amenities, free wifi. I will just let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

That is the 3-person room for our first night in Taipei, good and spacious enough, but I couldn't wait for the room that we were going to be transferred to from our second day onward! A 4-person room! Below are the pictures.

Pretty good right?! 

I paid NT 16700 for 8 days 7 nights, which is about S$103 for a night. 

You can contact them through email to book the rooms.

Email: island0928227066@gmail.com

After settling down, we headed to have lunch at the famous duck noodle store in Ximending!

Omm nom nom! Really miss the taste!

Headed to Animate just across the road from Ximending. For anime lovers, this is one place you must go! The store is huge! Too bad photos are not allowed to be taken inside!

Knowing that rain will continue to fall for the next few days, we wanted to make use of every sunshine to go to outdoor places and so, we changed our schedule and went to Shida Night Market! The night market is actually pretty small though.

Ate the 虾仁煎

Hahaha Ted!

Beautifully done mango snow ice!

Green tea snow ice with red bean

After visiting Shida Night Market, we still had time and so we went to visit a table tennis shop located near Guting Station! I was so looking forward to this part of the trip as the table tennis blade I wanted wasn't sold in Singapore! Unfortunately, the shop did not have the blade that I wanted as well, but knowing that they had another outlet at Banqiao, I asked and they helped me to check with the other outlet which told them that THEY HAVE IT!!! I was so happy hahahha. Anyways, I didn't want to waste my trip there and so I bought a Donic collared T-shirt and pants, as well as a sponge and solution for the rubber!

For table tennis lovers, you might want to check out the table tennis shop in Taiwan! Prices there are cheaper than in the Singapore stores! Do check out the links below! Both have 2 stores each.

http://www.tabletennis.com.tw/index_2.htm

http://www.akkadi.net/ 

Quite a good number of blades and rubbers to choose from!

 As we were walking back to the metro station, we stopped to see a cat outside its owner's shop! 

Unique fur colors

打滚~

Lastly we went back to Ximending to walk and shop a little bit, and we also ate the famous 阿宗麵線! This is a must try for those who are going to Ximending! The queue at 阿宗麵線 may be long but it moves quite fast, so no need to worry! 

Day 4

We had our breakfast at 永和豆漿 before heading back to our Minsu to get transferred to our 4-person room! As usual, there will be a queue there as their breakfast is really nice! 

Next, we wanted to go to Jay Chou's restaurant located in Taipei Medical University for lunch but to our disappointment, it was closed! A fire broke out in the restaurant a few days back apparently. So we went to another place nearby instead.

Lunch!

Then we went to get my table tennis bat! Nearest metro station is Banqiao Station!

Saw this on the way to the shop. Quite a few other places has these bikes for rents!

Yes! Best buy of the entire trip! :D:D

We went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi near the Taipei Main Station after that. The shopping mall is so huge! It has more than 10 levels of shopping with food both at the top and basement level! We were so tired just by browsing through most of the stuff and so we went to the basement food court thereafter to get ourselves recharged! I ate from a Japanese store selling udon and it was really delicious! Its a pity I didn't take a picture of the store, but I managed to find the name of the store online! Its called Marukame Udon(丸龜製麵)! I would highly recommend you to try this store if you do go to the food court of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi!

Wefie with huge policebear! Thanks for the photo! Hehe

This was sooo good!!

After we had our stomach filled with good food, we headed to the underground shopping street of Taipei Main Station. There are a few different areas of the underground mall that you can explore, some of which are linked to the next metro station. The one we went to was the Y area which is linked to Beimen Station. While walking towards the Y area, we came by a public performance! 自弹自唱! I thought that he sang and played really well! We came by this area a few days later and there was another performer performing! Another thing special about this Y area is that there is a row of shops selling anime figurines. If you are a anime figurines collector, this place WILL be a paradise for you!

That is all for day 3 and 4! :D

Go to the link to see what we did for day 5 and 6! http://musicmilktea.blogspot.sg/2015/06/taiwan-trip-day-5-and-6-taipei.html