D3 | Taipei

Continuing with Day 3. We didn't have anything planned. Max suggested Wufenpu 五分埔 because it seems to be the best shopping area for tourists and things should be dirt cheap as it's a wholesale market.

Wufenpu is around 5 minutes walk from Houshanpi 后山埤 station. 

We reached Wufenpu around 10AM and none of the shops are open! So we looked for breakfast instead. Walked almost 45 minutes around the area and cannot find any decent food.

After an hour, we finally passed by this little stall that sells mantau with vege and pork.

Peanut is yummeh! But right after I finished the peanut and left with shredded pork then I threw it away  because pork is kind of dry without any sauce.

Since we have no idea when Wufenpu opens, we decided to take the bus from Wufenpu to Taipei 101. Bus ride is less than S$2 and only takes around 5-10 minutes. Bus driver is very friendly! We didn't know we only need to pay the bus fare before we alight the bus (in Singapore, you pay after you board the bus), but bus driver told us politely when to pay and asked us where we want to go. We said Taipei 101 and the bus driver actually told us which is the correct stop to alight, and reminded us when the bus reached the stop. So nice!

Kevin bought the 1 day prepaid data mobile from 台湾大哥大. It's around S$15-20 with unlimited data usage.

Agnes B cafe! I wonder when they're coming to Singapore?

We had lunch in the Taipei 101 basement food centre. I ordered none other than 滷肉饭 with 猪扒. Told you that's what I eat the whole time in Taiwan. I really really really really really liked 滷肉饭. Penang's 古早味  滷肉饭 and 盐酥鸡 is pretty good too. I missed that a lot!

Kevin's sotong with fried pork cutlet. Everwhere is deep fried chicken and pork cutlet!

Inside Taipei 101. Nothing much to shop around. It's like Singapore's ION or Pavillion with only the branded stores.

We wanted to go up to Taipei 101 observatory but the outdoor observatory was closed due to bad weather. What luck! It's NT$450 per person and people still queued for the indoor observatory. We think indoor is quite potong stim so decided to forgo it instead.

Didn't manage to go up so simply take a photo with the wall paintings. Better than nothing right.

Dark, rainy, gloomy weather. The sky was grey the whole time we're in Taipei.

The wind is crazy. You can probably tell from my hair. Like lion ok!

Nah. This is after I combed it nicely but then when I whip out the camera the wind became crazy again.

Walked around Taipei 101 area and lots of street deco. They even still have the Christmas trees up at that time! 

Back to Wufenpu 五分埔 around 4pm. Spotted a black pig dressed, waiting for its owner outside a store! 

The guys bargaining for cheaper shoes, and got scold crazy because they tried to bargain it lower hahah.

To be honest,  五分埔 is quite a let down. The area is huge, with tops lesser than NT$100 and dresses lesser than NT$300. But the fashion is quite outdated and quite ah lian please. I'm already very ah lian yet I couldn't find anything to buy. Ended up buying 3 pairs of socks. The socks are sooo soft and comfy!

Halfway through wufenpu,  I had a sudden urge to pee. We looked around wufenpu but couldn't find any toilet. My bladder almost burst! We saw YMCA and figured they probably have toilets inside. That YMCA is not the usual hotel YMCA,  but it's a tuition center. They have a toilet on the 4th (or 6th?) floor.

So now you know. If you're in Wufenpu area near to YMCA, there's a toilet there ;)

After walking around for 1 hour, we decided the place is not for us and probably wouldnt be able to buy anything even if we continued. We left, and stopped at this cafe on the way back to Houshanpi 后山埤 station. They say coffee is good.

We left the cafe around 6 and took the MRT to Shilin 士林夜市. We alighted at 剑潭站. There's already a huge crowd at 6PM.

Max saw this and we ordered 2. It taste a little weird, but cooling and sweet. I asked him what is this and he said he has no idea. Then we pass by another stall selling the same thing, and the stall wrote 青蛙下蛋 (frog lays eggs) with pictures of frog and egg (!!!!). Both of us looked at each other and instantly felt nauseated. We threw the drink away ahahaha. So not sure if its really frog egg? Or just plain Ai Yu??

Our first snack. Fried squid?octopus? leg. We ordered this everywhere we go. Nice and crunchy.

PeiShan has already warned me against this 豪大大鸡排 but we decided to still try it since we're already there. Not sure why we queued since they even have franchise in Singapore.

It's OK lah not too bad I actually think it's pretty crunchy. We're supposed to share but I'm the only one eating. They didn't even take a bite!

Bittergourd everywhere!

Lots of different kinds of pearls for different kinds of tea/milk tea.

I was excited to see 可丽饼 (crepe) again and I ordered the same butter and cheese again!

Saw another stall on the way back to the station and this stall has an even longer queue! I really wanted to try this but nobody want to share with me =(

We left Shilin night market after 1-1.5 hours. We only had crepe, fried sotong leg, frog egg drink wtf and fried chicken cutlet. THAT'S IT. I ALSO CANNOT BELIEVE WE ONLY HAD SO LITTLE THINGS!

We took the MRT from 剑潭站 to 龙山站. Longshan Temple is still open. Does the temple even close? I think local (SG and MY) temples closed after evening. Our Taiwanese co-workers told us this temple is one of the oldest temple and it's a must visit because it's very 灵. The temple was built during Qing dynasty. We were pretty lucky because we were just in time to buy the joss sticks before the counter closes. 

The people there are quite friendly too. We didn't know where to start, and which follows which. So the locals told us which to start. At 8pm, there're still many locals praying.

After temple, we proceeded to Snake Alley. It's just right down the street from Longshan temple. Snake alley has a couple of restaurants that serve snakes (duh!). We were disappointed we didn't see anyone ordering or slicing open live snakes, but they do have a few big snakes on display. Those restaurants also serve turtle soups. I kept persuading Max to try it out but he didn't dare. The shop owner was on a speaker and he kept shouting at us "TRY THIS DONT WORRY SO MUCH IT TASTE LIKE CHICKEN" haha.

Next, we walked over to 花西夜市which is just right beside. We sat down at this stall which sells red bean soup and green bean soup with mochi. We tried it with you tiau and chatted with the girl for like 15 minutes. She's really cute, and she's only 23. Her little brother is even cuter!

By then, I already cant feel my legs. It seems like they don't belong to me anymore. My flats are not comfortable at all and it's not meant to be walked in for the whole day. It hurts so much! 

We walked all the way from 花西夜市 to our hotel at 康定 road. It's a 20-30 minutes walk! I almost died. Kevin already went clubbing and only Max walked with me back to the hotel. He tried to talk to me about any and every thing we see along the road but I'm so exhausted so I gave him the super tulan face the whole time haha. I honestly briefly considered buying the uber comfy boots which is S$400 wtf. Can you tell my legs really hurt like a bitch?