**I’m combining the last three days in one post, because 17th and 19th are both very short posts, so I don’t see the need to have them separate.
Day 7 – 17/11/17 (Friday)
We left the lovely airbnb in the morning – after slurping down our last instant bowl noodles. The nice cooling weather had given way to a very hot day unfortunately. We were supposed to take bus 1026 straight back to Taipei, but the timing of the bus was SO erratic. I waited in the sun until I really had to go toilet (drank too much water in the morning). Yet I didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to miss the bus in case it came while I was at the toilet. But I really couldn’t bear with it any longer so I ran to the public toilet at the entrance of Jiufen… thankfully there was no queue when I was there! I managed to make it back to the bus stop, and guess what, the bus was STILL NOT HERE. Geez. I started to get quite irritated under the hot sun.
But thankfully the bus finally came, and we managed to get ourselves seats as well. It was a non-eventful ride. I was a little too hungry when we reached XiMenDing though, and I hadn’t got my coffee. So we quickly went in search of coffee the moment we alighted, heavy bags be damned. We googled a bit and decided to go 85c cafe. Their latte was bad (sorry for being blunt), but their Napolean cake was awesome! Light and fluffy, yet creamy at the same time. So nice!
After satisfying my tummy temporarily, we then head to Cityinn and since we were still a wee bit too early to check in, we threw our stuff back into our luggage and continued our day. I had wanted to find the REAL Taipei Main Station, where they have the line of counters selling train tickets, because I know there’s a lot of restaurants there. I just can’t believe I couldn’t find it a few days ago. So we went to Taipei Main Station again, and we finally found it, AFTER stepping out to street level. Geez, I really hate that underground mall maze thingy.
There were really a lot of restaurants, so we just wander around looking at the restaurants, before finally deciding on Ippudo. We wanted to try if it’s as good as Ippudo in Japan, or as bad as Ippudo in Singapore. *cough* I ordered their lunch set, which came with desserts and a side dish, while Bruno just ordered the ramen itself.
Verdict? It was okay. Wasn’t as good as Japan’s (expected), but wasn’t as bad as Singapore’s either. Decent ramen. I totally forgot what that side dish was though… but what I did remember was that the Ippudo pudding (Taiwan exclusive too) was AMAZING. SO SMOOTH. SO MILKY AND CREAMY. Oh my… every mouth of it was heavenly. Bruno kicked himself for not ordering the set when he tried some of it himself. Huehue.
After the late lunch, we went back to Ximending to buy the rest of our food souvenirs that we wanted to bring back to Singapore, before heading back to our hotel to formalize the check-in process, and unpacked a little, before heading to 永康街 (Yong Kong Street) to look for dinner. I have never been there, so I had no idea what to expect. It was literally one whole street of restaurants (not street food), but because we did not really do any homework beforehand to decide what to eat, we were just randomly walking and we realised we almost walked to the end of the street and still had not decide on anything. We then veered off the main street and into some small alleys, which we found a random chinese restaurant named 大来小馆 tucked away at a quiet corner. There was no menu, but there’s a lot of newspaper clippings on the restaurant that was pasted out on the front door. Feeling adventurous and brave, we decided to try it out.
It started quite disastrously for Bruno, when he realised that their menu is strictly in Mandarin and I refused to help (I was hungry and was also upset at him for not doing homework and expecting me to read everything up). I forced him to ask the waitress (an auntie) for recommendations, and he sounded so timid and his voice was almost like a little mouse squeaking. Even the auntie got frustrated and impatient because she can’t hear him despite asking him to repeat at least three times. At this point, seeing that he’s almost breaking down (and auntie almost ready to chase us out of the restaurant), I stepped in to help with the ordering. (DUH. WHAT’S SO DIFFICULT. JUST SPEAK UP.) The auntie got our orders in a jiffy, and left our table to hand the orders to the kitchen, leaving me glaring at Bruno, for almost screwing up my dinner.
Anyway, the food came pretty quick. We ordered 卤肉饭 again, one bowl each. Then we also ordered stir-fried potato leaves, stir-fried beef slices with mushrooms and ginger, as well as their signature omelette (which was all over in the articles that was pasted outside the restaurant). When the omelette arrived, we were both astonished at how round and how fluffy it looked.
You definitely won’t be able to find this type of omelette in Singapore, for sure.
All their dishes were surprisingly good! We were pleasant surprised by how good they actually were, and were glad that we stumbled upon this restaurant. All these cost about SGD30+ I think, which is definitely worth it!
After dinner, my anger was finally appeased (a hungry man is an angry man), and we proceeded to stroll the rest of the area. Bruno bought some packets of dried fruit slices back for his family at a random shop, while I bought interesting cakes from a… German bakery/restaurant. Too bad I didn’t take pictures of the cakes… was busy eating them when we got back to the hotel, lol. But I don’t really remember much about them anyway, so I guess it’s not that great.
Day 8 – 18/11/17 (Saturday)
Our last full day in Taipei! We really didn’t have much planned today. For my daily dose of caffeine, I picked this Cama cafe that I saw on Google Maps, so we made our way there after eating our breakfast at our usual haunt – 天天来. I was so fascinated by the hippo (I think?) mascot in front of the shop. It’s so cute! Turns out that Cama cafe also roasts their own coffee. Their barista was so friendly! She must have seen us snapping photos of the mascot before we went into the shop, she chatted with me while I was ordering, like asking where were we from, how many days are we staying in Taiwan, etc. Such a nice girl! And ohhh, their coffee was GOOD. Almost on par with the Louisa coffee that I drank a few days back.
Sorry for the blur photos – my Note 4 camera was struggling to focus since it’s sensor was whacked. And I also forgot what Bruno drank… oops.
After finally wasting enough time, we made our way back to the hotel, but we did not go back in. We actually went a few steps further – hopefully to be able to dine at Bruno’s favourite cartoon themed-restaurant: Alice Is Coming.
This cute little themed-restaurant was wildly popular, so we made it a point to reach just when it opens for business. We were the first ones there, so we took the chance to take many photos.
Face it, themed restaurants don’t usually have the nicest food. After all, food isn’t their main draw. However, I’d like to say that the food at Alice Is Coming is actually quite decent, and it’s not over-the-top pricing either. Their fried fish was very fresh, and their Japanese curry was on point. The omelette was quite nicely cooked too, and our only grudge is perhaps that the potato isn’t really seasoned that well. But other than that, we feel the food was surprisingly nice for a themed restaurant.
Alice fans, you really NEED to go there. I’m not an Alice fan, yet I was pretty excited about the whole place and their theme is really, really strong. It’s a very nice experience for me.
And since we don’t really have anything else to do, we decided to head to the Addiction Aquatic Development, a place which we decided to give it a miss a few days back.
All I can say is – it’s a tourist trap.
AAD is quite in the middle of nowhere, and it’s not easy to get there. Google maps will show you the way, but there’s really nothing else around there apart from AAD. And AAD itself – many articles say seafood is so cheap there yada yada – well I don’t really see how cheap it is. It’s actually still pretty expensive, even by Singapore standards. And the whole place was crowded as hell, with mostly tourists and some locals. Bad experience – meh. Here are some photos – they literally sell everything though. Actually it kinda reminds me of Pasar Bella at The GrandStand… it’s somewhat the same idea.
After the visit, Bruno apparently had in mind to just “wander around”, without telling me so. So I got very frustrated that he has zero plans and since we were out in the middle of nowhere, and with all the shops around AAD CLOSED, I really don’t see where we can “explore”. So again, I almost exploded with anger before he quickly made a decision and consulted Google Maps on what bus to take. While at the bus stop waiting for the bus, an EVA airplane greeted us and even stopped in front of us for us to take photos of it.
We then went up the bus which brought us to Zhongxiao Dunhua, but again he did not tell me what he intended to do there. I was really so damn pissed at that time. Then he said “let’s find a cafe to sit”. OK good, an idea. WHICH ONE? He had no idea. And he didn’t even bother to check on phone initially until my face was as black as charcoal. And bad luck for him, the cafe that he randomly shortlisted on the spot did not even exist when we reached where the map pointed us to. I basically exploded at him (I didn’t yell – but I did raised my voice). WHY must everything be planned by me? WHY must everything be researched and read up by me? Why am I PAYING for everything and I’m still being expected to do everything? Why can’t he just plan for half a day?
Then he was almost in tears, and said he thought I am okay with “exploring aimlessly”. Hell ya I will be OK with it IF YOU TELL ME ON THE DAY ITSELF THAT YOU DON’T HAVE A PLAN AND YOU WISH TO JUST RANDOMLY EXPLORE. You don’t expect me to READ what you are thinking. If you can suggest to go AAD on the day we don’t have anything planned, then I’d assumed you know where you want to go after that. Even if I put “FFA” or “F&E” in the itinerary, it doesn’t mean it’s literally RANDOM EXPLORATION. Even if you want to explore, you need to have a specific place WHERE to explore. WHICH PART OF TAIPEI. Geez.
After we finally came to a mutual understanding, we went back to Ximending for dinner. We decided to go for a nicer restaurant for dinner, and we picked Watami Restaurant. They have branches in Singapore too, and my experience with them wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. Decent Japanese food with huge variety.
This Taipei outlet blew us both away though. Prices are cheap and portions were huge, AND THE FOOD WAS DAMN GOOD.
I’m running out of phrases and terms to explain how good the food is (and also I’m getting sleepy – trying to finish writing this ASAP), and the pictures are not really doing it any justice – but damn, just believe me when I said it’s damn good ya? GO EAT IT IF YOU STAY IN XIMENDING. It’s really worth it.
After the filling dinner, we went back to the hotel to pack up as we will be going back to Singapore the next day.
Day 9 – 19/11/17 (Sunday)
We checked out of the hotel, and Cityinn kindly booked us a cab to bring us to the Bus Station at Taipei Main Station for us to catch a bus to the airport. Even though we were 3 hours early, the check-in counters don’t open until 2 hours before flight, but we still queued up nontheless. Good thing we did, because by the time the counters were opened, there was a loooong snaking queue behind us. And not just that, even after we checked in and went directly straight to the customs, the security check queue was HORRENDOUSLY LONG. After about 45min queue, we got through the immigrations and decide to find some food to eat. The food was really forgettable and expensive, so um, I guess just avoid the airport food. On hind sight, we should have just gone to the lounge to eat instead…
Flight back was uneventful… and this will be our last trip together for some time. I told him he needs to find a job soon, as I’m running out of money to keep sponsoring him overseas trips. He understands too, so no more overseas trips (at least not together) until he finds one and manages to save up again. No trips planned for year 2018 (was initially planning a short Finland trip but it’s seriously not worth the $$$ to just go there for less than a week…).
I’ll see how it goes…
Links to the places for the last few days of the Taipei trip will be added in when I’m free… as with photos on Flickr. Don’t expect them to be up anytime soon though…
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