Taiwan Day 2

23/5/2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVERBOY! 

I took a lot of videos for today because I was getting lazy taking so many photos so please bear with my amateur vlogging. 

We were too tired the night before so he went to check out my birthday post for him in the morning instead :) 

Took the MRT (I think they call it MRT too) by ourselves to 忠孝復興 (Zhongxiao Fu Xing) station because JP wanted to find this street that has a lot of street wear shops. 

After searching for maybe almost an hour or more, we finally found the place. 

It's 大安 (Da An) District at 忠孝東路 (Zhongxiao Dong Lu). 

It is also quite a big place to shop, although it may not be as popular or well-known among tourists as compared to the other shopping places like 西門町 (Ximending) and 五分埔 (Wufenpu) because the shops there are more towards street and high-street so the prices are a bit more expensive. However, if compared to the same brand in Singapore, some are actually cheaper. 

We didn't manage to go to 五分埔 (Wufenpu) this trip because JP had been there before and he claims that a lot of the stuff in the shops are similar and he don't really like the shops there so we didn't go. As for 西門町 (Ximending), it's kind of like a cross between our Bugis Street and Far East Plaza. There are also street wear brands but you gotta be able to dig them out because these shops are hidden in the corners of corners and the entire place is really huge. 

According to JP, 忠孝東路 (Zhongxiao Dong Lu) is popular among people who are into street wear, 五分埔 (Wufenpu) is popular for cheap bargains and 西門町 (Ximending) is popular for all the mainstream stuff. Lol. 

Found a StayReal Cafe just when it was about to rain! :) 

 For those who don't know, StayReal is actually a clothing line by Ashin from MayDay and this cafe is an extension of the brand. 

Tsk. JP really just suck at taking "human pictures". Look at how fat I look :( 

I kept on teasing him on how he is only good at taking scenery and food shots, while he is completely bad at taking any form of human shots. 

Managed to get a seat at where we think is the coziest corner of the cafe. We were seated at the corner  on top of a platform, and instead of chairs, we had a sofa! :)

They had a promotion that day where any order by one person is entitled to a free cake. So even though I only ordered a drink, I was entitled to a free slice of cake too! Wow. 

Smoked duck salad waffle! It was really nice. 

Ordered Hazelnut Latte while JP ordered Matcha Latte (if I didn't remember wrongly) and his was nicer. 

Free slice of cheesecake :)

After spending around an hour or so in the cafe, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. 

Super dope caps for dancers! 

Stopped by a cafe again because the rain was getting heavier and JP wanted to find the Stussy store so we thought we could use the Wifi. In the end the shop didn't have Wifi but the staff are so nice they went the extra mile to get us the information despite already telling us the way. They said that in case we got lost, we can show people the address and ask for the way or call the shop. 

We decided to head back to the hotel to drop our stuff because we were carrying too many bags. The Aape stuff we bought are from 西門町 (Ximending). They are located in I.T on the 3rd level in the Chocoolate store right beside 西門 station. 

After taking a short rest in the hotel room, we went out again to visit 士林 (Shihlin) Night Market. 

Saw the Nike Tiffany shoes that JP is dying to have but he already bought his Nike Air Flight. Hahaha. 

I was super embarrassed at the shop selling sausage in dick-shaped bread. They have other dick-shaped food products too, like ice cream. 

The taxi driver who took us from the airport to the hotel advised us not to go Shihlin because it's a tourist spot, and usually tourist spots have higher prices for the same things you can get elsewhere, at a lower quality some more. For example, 蔥油餅 (Cong You Bing) in Shihlin may cost a bit more than those sold in other night markets, yet they don't taste as nice as those that are cheaper. 

After the trip to Shihlin, I feel that if it's your first time, or if you are not familiar with the market, it'll be really hard for you to navigate around the market to find things that you want. We couldn't locate the food area of the market and it took us quite some time and asking some stall owners to finally find it. Yes, it is definitely the largest night market around Taipei, but the disadvantage of being too huge is that you tend to not buy stuff because you don't know if you'll see something better. And if you wanna go back to the store after walking for some time to get what you had wanted previously, chances are you can't find it again. 

Shopping wise, the stuff there are not really for me except for the cheap socks. Or maybe I was too tired and couldn't be bothered to take a look at most of the shops after judging on first impression. Lol. 

Loots of Day 2:

JP's Nike Air Flight 

The number of caps he got for himself. 

Shopping King in the making. 

My haul.

Do you spot Chopper? Hahaha. But no JP didn't manage to catch it. We played up to the amount where they sell it (TWD250) and then the machine kind of "switched mode" I think so the guy asked JP to play the last time for free and the "giap giap" thing of the machine had a stronger grasp as compared to that in the video. Sigh. So not only SG's machines play cheat lor. 

Best buy of the day.

Got it from StayReal and I love it so much. 

Love how I can achieve a different look simply by folding the top down. 

After we came back, JP told me he showed the picture of my shoes to 2 of his colleagues and they kept on saying how dope it is. Hehehe. Definitely my proudest buy. ^^v

How we relax every night after a long day of walking. 

Actually I have a few more videos that cannot be processed by Blogger because the file size is too huge :( 

I would say Day 2 was rather fulfilling and the sense of satisfaction after a productive shopping day is just...immense. I'm so glad I have a boyfriend who is as much a shoppaholic as I am. In fact, I get tired from shopping even before he does, which is unbelievable because I'm one of those few amongst my friends and family that can shop the longest without getting tired. However, the downside about shopping with him is that we will both overspend because anything I see that looks nice on me, he will say "If you like it, just buy", and vice versa. Lol.

It's so rare that we have an entire day to just shop and I really treasure this day very much. 

Here's to finding more hidden shopping gems!

X

Taiwan Day 1

22/5/2014

Finally the day we have been counting down to has arrived - The day of our flight to Taipei, Taiwan. 

My family sent the both of us to the airport, had supper with us, and watched us walked through the departure gate at like 5-7am in the morning. Super grateful for a family like this :)

Getting ready for takeoff!

After a grueling 4 plus hours of flight with uncomfortable sleeping positions and painfully blocked ears, we arrived in TaoYuan Airport!!

Supper shagged face with no makeup on. 

Took a cab to our hotel in Xi Men but it wasn't time to check in yet. Left our luggage with the hotel and went to grab lunch. 

Walked past this pasta shop that had dogs at the door and decided to just quickly settle lunch here. 

Walked around Xi Men Ding for a bit and it's time to check in! 

We were staying at InHouse Hotel (薆悅酒店 in Chinese) and it cost about TWD1,000 to take a cab there from Taoyuan Airport. 

I was stunned when I set foot into our room for the next 6 days. 

Are you freaking kidding me?!

Even the toilet is super pretty! Everything is so sleek and cheek and I just wanted to stay in that place forever. The bathroom does not only has a tub, it has an overhead shower AND a normal shower too (the kind where you can use your hand to hold).  

And the best part...

A freaking heated toilet bowl with washing functions!!! 

Told JP we definitely need this in our future home. We would just sit on it every time we feel cold even though there was no "urgent" calls. Super shiok maximum. 

Perfect lighting in the room for selfies. 

Washed up, changed and decided to spend the rest of the day in Xi Men Ding area because we were pretty tired from the flight, and it would take quite a bit of time to travel to other places and it was already like 4pm. 

I kind of forgot what series were the shoes on the super cool display. Was it all Air Jordan white series? 

Hahaha, this shows that I'm not an avid basketball shoes fan. I mean I see something that is nice, that's it. I don't know how people know every single model across like a hundred series for like ten brands. It's crazy. 

Capturing dance-y slogans.  >.<

Stumbled upon this street with lots of graffiti and street wear shops and decided to take an OOTD shot here. Efforts to make the whole picture look artistic fail terribly. Lol. It was raining and I couldn't touch a single surface, and half the time I was actually worrying if someone would suddenly appear in the windows because the insides are actually accessible. 

I was getting a little lethargic from all that walking because Xi Men Ding is really huge and it was getting late, so quite a few shops are closing and we would have to come back again eventually so I was getting restless at the idea of more shopping. 

Until I found this....

Can you see Going Merry? Omg I miss her so much. 

I think it's supposed to be Going Merry anyway, or maybe it's Mini Merry. 

Entire shop modeled after Thousand Sunny! How I wish I could enter those doors and go into Sanji's kitchen. 

And my wish sorta came true. 

Cutie Chopper that took away all my tiredness!

It'd be really cool if I can meet Luffy for real. Have always admired his willpower and optimism. 

Was pretty disappointed they don't have a life-size model of Zorro tho. My next favorite besides Chopper and Luffy. 

Which reminds me, I have yet to catch the recent episodes of One Piece. 

I was totally recharged after walking through the 2-level store. Hahaha. Started skipping down the street being really hyper and bouncing around JP after we exited the store. 

Damn cool please. Why don't we have something like this in SG?  T.T

Went back to the hotel to rest for awhile before heading out again to get late dinner. 

More dance-related slogans that sometimes do not refer to dance. (It was for a spa lol) 

IP Dance Skool that we wanted to visit but we presumed it was closed already. 

Dabao-ed food back to the hotel to enjoy while watching Taiwan shows on TV :)

Bought back 大肠包小肠, 卤肉饭 & 葱油饼 (which is actually different ingredients wrapped with prata). It was my first time trying 大肠包小肠 and I was so surprised and how well the 2 different sausages go together. It's damn nice ohgodsavemenowIwannagoback. 

Loots for Day 1. 

Immediately opened this product to use and it was really good. It's super effective in removing impurities and oil control! 

It's an exfoliating gel so I used it with my moisturizer before I sleep and I woke up to brighter, smoother and softer skin! It was crazy. JP used it too and he was super happy when he woke up. He had felt 2 pimples emerging beneath his skin the night before and just after a good night's sleep, the bumps were gone! 

I was actually "tricked" into the sales pitch by accepting the free sample on an eye mask but after the demo, I was pretty convinced and now I'm really glad I bought 3 of them. Gave one to my Mum so she can have beautiful skin too! :)

Wanted to get this cap so much but I don't know whether SG has the same design. Well hopefully SG does because I gave it up in the end :/ 

Taiwan Beers I've contemplated trying but didn't. 

After just 1 day, I fell in love with Taipei. Everyone, and I really mean EVERYONE, is just so friendly and no matter how we know it's a sales trick, we just can't seem to be able to outright reject them. I don't understand why they are not the "Land of Smiles". Everywhere we go we are greeted by people with wide smiles on their faces. It's a really nice place to be in and the people restore my faith in humanity. 

It was only Day 1 but we wished we could stay there longer already. 

X