D1 | Tai Chung

Hi Lovelies!

I just came back to Singapore and recuperating at home while catching up with the work emails. The trip to TSMC was planned 2 weeks before I had to fly, hardly had time to prepare and buy any warmer jackets.

I was back in Malaysia until the 2nd of Jan, and flew off on the 3rd. Nothing much to pack because my mum took most of my thicker winter clothes to Korea, so I only brought a few cardigans and jackets. Boy, do I regret it! Taiwan turns out to be a lot colder than what I expected. It's only 14'C but with gusty wind. 

It was a work trip so I did not bring any camera along. Below are some random shots I took with the phone.

6am breakfast in Changi Starbucks. Ordered the 'Perfect Oatmeal & Honey' with hot tea. I'm trying to eat a little healthier so I can eat all I want in Taiwan! The other reason is because I wouldn't have ordered this if I had to pay for it myself! Who pays S$6 for oatmeal? PLAIN oatmeal ok.

Shopped around in Changi but bought nothing.

Went with 2 of my favorite co-worker. I'm so blessed they accompanied me for my first trip because they're quite playful and OK with anything. If I were to go with boring nerds it would really suck. Plus I was quite anxious to work with TSMC because we all know TSMC folks are all hardcore smart and extremely hardworking. And worse still, they all speak Mandarin! Usually during teleconferences I can hardly catch what they say because they use Mandarin for all technical terms.

Pretty disappointed with SQ. Why is the roll not warm??!!!! Roll and butter is my favorite inflight meal but why is it cold and hard =(

Touched down around noon. Hotel van picked us up at the airport and reached HsinChu within 30 mins. After checking in, we ventured out straight to Watsons and the supermarket to get some essentials, and they bought instant noodles.

Went back hotel to freshen up, also for some selca.

Hotel room is pretty decent. As it's not in Taipei, it can be considered a business hotel as most of the people there are in suits, and the hotel is pretty near to the industrial areas. 

It's only around 2pm, so my boss suggested we take the high speed rail to Tai Chung. It's only less than 30 mins away. Anyway, after that, our Taiwanese counterpart told us we should have taken the bus for a little less than S$10 round trip and it also take almost the same time to the  逢甲夜市 night market, claim to be the top 3 biggest night market in Taiwan.

First stop was the famous 大肠包小肠. Then 盐酥鸡 and fried sotong leg. My cravings were satisfied. That's all I wanted! 

I also bought Fried banana with honey. They say I'm probably the first one to come Taiwan night market and buy such 冷门food. 

We bought lots and lots and lots of fried food. Then we passed by a row of hawker, so I went in and ordered 炸猪扒饭.

Our boss belanja us this dessert. Looks like leftover from other desserts all thrown together! Surprising it's quite nice with soya and pearl and sweet potato and tang yuan and brown sugar.

Pretty crowded for a Thursday night. We expected way more people because a lot of people told us we had to squeeze our way around. Probably need to thank the rain to shoo people away. It was raining the whole time we're in Taiwan, but its a littttttttle like mei yu, the kind of rain that you wouldn't get all wet in, but it just goes on and on non stop.

Deep Fried 臭豆腐. I did not dare to try, like how caucasians feel of Durian.

Lo and behold, the best snack I had in the night market, out of all the Fried Chicken Cutlet, Stinky Tofu, Fried Chicken, Fried Sotong, 煎饼. Surprisingly turns out to be a cheese and butter crepe. We're all extremely disappointed with the night market. Food OK but nothing fantastic! Whats with all the good words about how good Taiwan street snack is? If you say we don't know which stall to buy from then I beg to differ because we tried almost every single one. We tried soooooo many things but nothing was up to expectation.

This street is the most packed with people queueing for fried chicken.

So I also bought one. Took few bites and threw the remaining away. Not spicy enough not crispy enough not salty enough.

Took the high speed rail back to 新竹around 11, getting ready for work!