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                                               

Taiwan trip! Day 1 and 2! (Taichung)

Hello! My mum, brother and I went to Taichung and Taipei from 190515 to 280515. One thing I learnt from this Taiwan trip was that, there is a rainy season in Taiwan that usually last from May to June, also known as plum rain. It just happened that our second day in Taiwan was the start of the plum rain. Thus, changes had to be made to the itinerary that I had originally planned out, which you can view here! In the end, we still went to most of the places that we wanted to go, just that in a different order!

Here is our last minute adjusted itinerary for day 1 and 2!

Day 1: Tao Yuan Airport --> J&I HOME --> Fengjia Night Market*

Day 2: 来来豆浆 --> 天马牧场 --> 鼎王麻辣锅* --> Carton King --> Miyahara --> Yizhong Street

Day 1

One of the first few things that we had to do at Tao Yuan Airport, other than having lunch (we reached there at about 2pm), was definitely to get prepaid cards for each one of us. Getting these cards will help you A LOT especially when you are on a free and easy trip and require using the google map for navigation and direction. Also, there may be times where you need to make sudden changes to the itinerary due to unforeseen circumstances and require the internet to get the information you need. Other than that, you might want to get the prepaid cards if you want to stay updated on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

The three notable telecommunication companies in Taiwan are 台湾大哥大, Chunghwa Telecom as well as Fareastone. 台湾大哥大 seems to be the most popular option, as you can see from the longest queue, but in the end we settled for Chunghwa telecom as the queue was much shorter and we felt that we did not need the 4G services that 台湾大哥大 provided!

Bus 1623 from UBUS Services

After settling our lunch, prepaid card and easy card at the Airport Terminal, it was time to go to Taichung! The bus had comfy seats and TV with the volume adjustable and sound coming out from both sides of the head rest! The ticket cost NT 230 each and the bus ride to Chao Ma Station was only about 1 hour 40 minutes long! 

Wefie Time!

Took a cab after alighting at Chao Ma Station and finally arrived at our accommodation!

Themed room!

Lepak before going out~

We stayed at this place called J&I Home, just 5 minutes walk from the famous Fengjia Night Market! The facilities they provided included - refrigerator, television, hair dryer, computer, water boiler. They also provided free wifi! When booking this accommodation online, there is an option to add an additional bed to this 2 person room for NT 400, and that was what we did! Although it was very inexpensive this way, I would not recommend anyone who is travelling in threes to choose this accommodation as adding an additional bed caused the entire room to feel really small with little space to maneuver about! However, for those who are travelling in pairs and have a tight budget, you can go to their website @ http://www.gotosleep.com.tw/index.html to book it!

After settling down and relaxing for a while, we headed down to Fengjia Night Market! Below are all the photos taken there.

I did not take this photo for free ok! I had to buy their smelly tofu........... ok just kidding, please feel free to take any photos!

Had to take this photo!

So crowded opposite the road!

Yummyyy~

Scallops!

Long queue must mean that the food is good right? Tried it! It was pretty good!

And that is the end of day 1! Thank God everything went smoothly so far! A good start to a trip is a good sign for the rest of the trip! Right?..

Day 2

This was a day I was looking forward to, exploring the different parts of Taichung. Since we were staying in Taichung for only 2 days and this was the only full day that we had, and also Taichung is not as accessible as Taipei, we pre-booked a cab for the whole day at the price of NT4000. Initially, I contacted Miss Lee as I found out online that she seems to be quite popular. Unfortunately, she already had a customer on that day and so she recommended her friend, Mr Chen (陈先生), to us. Mr Chen is a very nice and friendly guy. He is very professional as he reached our appointed time on time and would also come to pick us up when we finished visiting a place within a few minutes after calling him. Last but not least, he also prepared some fruits for us beforehand and he said that he would usually do that for his customers. All in all, I would recommend him to anyone who is interested in booking a cab in Taichung! Below are Miss Lee's and Mr Chen's contact number. You can just drop them a Whatsapp message in Chinese. :)

Miss Lee - +886 932 518 438

Mr Chen - +886 911 797 115

First stop was breakfast at Lai Lai Soybean Milk Shop (来来豆浆) recommended by Mr Chen.

来来豆浆！

A good variety of food to choose from! I think there is more in the menu!

Doesn't look like much but it was so so filling~

Next stop was 天马牧场! Okay, I was really excited to visit this place and interact with the animals there. Unfortunately, we had to meet with a heavy rain as well as strong winds, making this visit not a really pleasant one. Well, at least I got to saw the alpacas!

There is an alpaca at the back braving the rain and not moving an inch o.o

Lunch was next! Initially I had planned for lunch at Lai Xin noodles shop, not knowing that they sell beef noodles (my mum doesn't eat beef). Thankfully Mr Chen pointed that out to us and brought us to another shop, 鼎王麻辣锅. To me, this restaurant that we went to was really the highlight of the day! The service was top notched, atmosphere was great and most importantly, the food was excellent. Drinking hot soups on a cold day really did bring warmth to our body. Not only that, the refreshing soup was one that I could drink on and on without getting sick of it. 喝不腻！The only meat we ordered was the chicken meat, it may not look like much but I tell you, it was sooo tasty!!! I reckon the other meat would taste just as good, but it's okay! Our stomachs were already satisfied. :)

Unlimited supply of rice hehe

Yum yum yum!

The legendary chicken

Initially, we felt quite strange that they kept bowing... okay I think we still do haha! 

I would highly recommend people to come here! The branch we visited was the first ever branch to open in Taiwan.
鼎王麻辣锅
Address: 台中市精誠路12號
Or you can view the other outlets at this website http://www.tripodking.com.tw/

After lunch, we went to another of Mr Chen's suggestion, the Carton King (纸箱玩). It is not bad a place to visit! Other than admiring the place filled with products made of corrugated paper, there are also many souvenirs and packaged food that you can buy!

Oink!

BEES!!! RUNNN!!!

Beautiful shop

Yet another beautiful shop 

Next up was Miyahara (宫原眼科). We weren't planning to go to the restaurant on the higher levels of this building, so we just stayed at the first floor. Miyahara is a beautifully designed building famous for their dawn cakes, pineapple shortcakes as well as their ice cream. Probably less than one hour and you are done exploring the place. Worth a visit nonetheless. :)

Welcome to Hogwarts!

Drinks for you?

Waffle ice cream with 2 scoops and 3 toppings!

After visiting Miyahara, our last place to go was Yi Zhong Street! I did not take any pictures there, but the street is mainly food and shopping, a great way to end the day. We had our dinner there, I bought a small bag, and once we were done, I called Mr Chen and he drove us back to our minsu promptly and safely. :)

To see what we did in Day 3 and 4 in Taipei, click here! http://musicmilktea.blogspot.sg/2015/06/taiwan-trip-day-3-and-4-taipei.html

End of year~~

It's nearing the end of the year again! I just want to thank God for guiding me and bringing me through the year, from the difficult times in the army, to adjusting to the work and the culture in the new unit, and to being able to take leaves and enjoy the civilian life. Many things have happened, whether good or bad, I thank God for putting me exactly where He wants me to be and letting me go through all that He had intended for me to go through. For "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13) The lessons that I have learnt this year through the good and the bad will prepare me for the future times! 

Thank God for all the awards and achievement I have received in the different phases of my army life which gave me the encouragement to press on and do a better job in NS. 

Chief of Artillery Coin~

Best Commander of the Month of July 2014~

I thank God for the people of so many different traits and character that I saw in army. It is really quite interesting to see how every individual in the unit connect and interact with each other, especially when every individual is so different in so many ways.

I thank God for giving me the heart to want to bring my mum to Taiwan, seeing things that we will never see back here in Singapore, as well as living the Taiwan lifestyle and learning their culture. It was a really good experience planning the trip! Initially, there was fear and uncertainty about going free and easy, but after the trip, I realized it was not too difficult to plan and to follow according to the plan! Of course, I believe God has placed the people in my life for a reason, and at that planning phase, many of my friends who have been to Taiwan gave me so much help and so many useful information, making the trip so smooth and easy! ;)

KFC at Ximending!

Yummy~

Beautiful view at Jiu Fen!

When the cold wind blows~ at Dan Shui

View at the top of Taipei 101

Me and my favorite car!

Lastly, I thank God for all the friends that has continued to stay in my life! These are the people whom I can share my laughter, smiles, troubles and sadness with. Most importantly, these are the people can accept me for who I am and I for who they are! :)  

FAT is the way to go

Fat is the way to go! I have always wanted to gain some weight but unfortunately I am an ectomorph and thus it is difficult for me to do so. Reason being ectomorphs have really high metabolism which prevents them from gaining fats easily. That is why being fat is great, because it is easier for a fat person to lose weight than a skinny person to gain weight. :D

OK.. Maybe what I said above isn't really that true.. It probably takes an equal amount of hardwork and sheer determination for both a fat person to lose weight and a skinny boy like me to gain weight. The amount of time someone has to run, exercise to sweat it all out is probably comparable to the amount of time I have to spend in the gym doing intense workouts. 

Well.. actually being an ectomorph isn't that bad.. I can get to enjoy various kinds of food without having to worry about gaining the tummy. Controlling my diet and limiting the food I can eat is never a problem that I have to face. Ectomorphs are also super lean. ;0

The reason why I am posting is because I fractured my hand a few months ago and could not go to the gym during this period. One day someone told me I was getting skinner and I looked in the mirror and felt that I was really damn skinny :/ So now I starting to train up again! My wrist is still pretty weak from the injury, but training a little is better than doing nothing! I have to start somewhere right? Hahah all the best to everyone in staying fit and achieving your dream body ;D

Birthday!

 My new cutie pie toy dog called Jie En!

Mint and chocolate cake at home!

Lunch at Osaka Ohsho was so good!

Cake in camp with the army guys!

I always feel blessed to have great friends and family on my birthday! So.. the pictures above are basically what I got and ate on my birthday! Thanks to everyone who made me feel special on the day, to those who got me presents, cake and fooood! And thanks to every single one who wished me on my birthday! :))

Playing with my phone and my guitar

  just doing this for fun. Played the chords wrongly at the end btw ><