Hey Hive/Steemit!
So if you didn't catch last week's post, we started on a brand new journey to Taiwan! This was back at the end of 2016 and was the second new year we spent overseas together! It was also my first time visiting Taiwan and I was really excited so here we go!
28 December 2016. Wednesday.
We started our day a little late since we were kinda tired from our flight the previous day and we were out until like 1am exploring our neighbourhood and having supper.
We decided to walk around for a bit and really see the city now that it was daytime.
The weather wasn't too great that day since it rained in the morning and was still very cloudy but it was alright.
Unfortunately, I can't remember which part of Taipei this is exactly. But there were plenty of shops nearby and the station wasn't too far away either so that was good.
Then we came across this noodle shop on the street and since Taiwan is famous for street food, we decided to give it a try. There were quite a few tourists in there too so it must be pretty good right.?
It was a pretty classic-looking shop; kinda like those traditional-style coffee shops we have in Singapore, with the open white tube lights and the stainless steel crockery.
We were kinda hungry since we hadn't eaten yet and since it was cold out, a hot bowl of noodles was just the thing we needed.
It was steaming hot when we got our noodles. Good thing the stall was half open-air so the cool weather would cool it down a little bit.
I can't remember exactly what kinda noodles it was, but it seems like meatball and chicken noodles. I think it was kinda average. I mean, it was alright, but I wouldn't say it's spectacular. But regardless, it filled our bellies with some nice hot soup and that was all I craved in the chilly weather.
After that, we headed to the station and came across quite a few shops in the train station basement!
Apparently this is quite common in Taipei's train stations. Like some of those in Tokyo, the stations are lined with stalls selling all sorts of merch and stuff; it's like they have their own little shopping streets!
And instead of the pasmo or suica cards we normally use in Japan, we used these tokens to pay for our train rides!
Initially I thought you had to slot these tokens into the station gantries but nope, you just scan them like you do with the cards and the gates detect them and open automatically!
You do have to slot them into the machine when you exit though.
We took the train and about 45 minutes later, we arrived at our destination - the Taipei 101 station! We figured since it was my first time there, that was the place to visit first.
The first thing we saw at the station was this really cool blind person massage!
This feels like the sort of thing youtubers would do. But I thought it was really cool to have blind masseurs. Definitely makes sense; I think blind people would definitely have a more in tuned sense of touch so they'd be able to feel your muscles better.
But since I'm not a fan of massages (or strangers touching me to be specific), we didn't go for that. And it was also kinda pricey.
So we made our way into the "shotengai" (shopping street) at this station!
And man, this one was so much longer and had so many more stalls and stuff to see than the one near our apartment. I guess since it's a tourist spot and all.
They had all sorts of shops and stalls; even crane machines like this one that had these cute Pusheen plushies!
I'm pretty sure they were knock-offs but they were really cute nonetheless. And it reminded us of our first Christmas together in 2014 when we gave each other Pusheen plushies and ended up with so many of them!
Sorry for the quality; you can tell this is old.
Anyway, we came across so many different shops! The shopping street seemed endless.
One of the shops we saw had these PVC pokemon figurines that looked like the ones my brothers collected long ago.
More plush toys!
After going through this Nike store, we finally found our way out to street level.
And came across the biggest Din Tai Fung I've ever seen!
I think this was also the flagship store in Taipei, and maybe the biggest branch there too but I'm not too sure.
But anyway we made it to Taipei 101!
So Taipei 101,
formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a supertall skyscraper and was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2010 completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. Apparently the elevators are also super fast, capable of traveling 60.6 km/h (37.7 mph) and used to transport passengers from the 5th to 89th floor in 37 seconds! (Cr: Wikipedia)
We did think about going up to the top but the weather was miserable and we figured we wouldn't be seeing much so we decided against it and settled for looking at it from below.
It did look really tall, and had this nice Christmas tree outside:
And this nice LOVE sign too:
It was super windy and cold out because it was drizzling at the same time so we headed inside to explore and warm up. And there was a fancy digital Christmas tree inside!
And this cool fireworks board:
And man, the mall inside Taipei 101 is huge. And full of luxury retail stores, which is definitely not our scene.
All the shiny marble everywhere already made me feel so out of place. It definitely gave off the "rich people only" vibes.
So since there was nothing much for us to look at here, we decided to head back out.
And we headed back to the station since we were going to visit another famous tourist spot that I've heard and read about for the longest time. It's only open at night and since it was just past 6pm, it was the perfect time to go. Can you guess where? 🤔
When we arrived back at the station we found this photo booth! And since we always take purikura in Tokyo, we figured we'd try it in Taipei too! But it was occupied at the time, so we decided to be on our way first. We'd probably come across another photo booth at another station anyway.
Anyway, we took the train a few stops down and after walking for a bit on the street, we came across a couple of stalls. Like this one that sold grilled seafood on skewers:
And this one that sold sponge cake! Commonly known as Castella cake, this is a famous dessert in Taiwan. With a soft, pillow-like texture, it is said to be very jiggly when it comes out straight of the oven.
Anyway I'm sure by now you've figured out where we are; we're in the very famous Shilin Market!
I'm sure if you've been to Taiwan you're familiar with Shilin Night Market but in case you aren't, it is one of the largest, most popular night markets in Taiwan with regard to food, and also one of the most popular points of Taipei's night life among visitors. The maze of alleyways is filled with a variety of stalls selling local, traditional, and international merchandise that attract locals and foreigners alike (Cr: GuidetoTaipei).
This was probably the #1 place on my to-visit list because I've read about it so many times online. I was most excited to try all the different street snacks I've heard people rave about so we made a beeline for the food section.
And man, there were so many stalls to choose from!
I
felt like trying everything so I'm glad Sean was there to hold me back.
There were also some interesting stalls like this one that sold fried
milk.?
We did, however, cave in eventually after smelling the delicious aroma of grilled meat, which came from this stall:
I remember these grilled meat cubes being one of the top foods to try
at Shilin Night Market so we were quite eager to give it a taste
especially since it smelled so good. [I also wrote about this a while
back on tasteem if you wanna check it out here.]
Since the shop offered both pork and beef, we decided to get a mix to see which one tasted better.
And we got to watch them grill it on the spot! It was truly a sight, and made me all the hungrier to taste it.
About 5 minutes later, we got our meat! We could choose what
seasoning we wanted and we didn't really know what to get so we just
picked the popular one which was Himalayan pink salt!
The meat actually tasted pretty good! But the beef was definitely
better. The pork was little too chewy and fatty for our liking.
After that snack we continued walking around and came across a lot of shops selling apparel and we saw some funny ones:
The Superrich and Superangry shirts got me. And there were some cute ones too.
We continued exploring, in search of more snacks and came across this pau/steamed bun stall!
We were pretty hungry and I knew they'd be filling so we decided to
get 1 each. Not only were they really big but they were pretty cheap for
how big they were!
But they were steaming hot so we couldn't really walk and eat.
Luckily, we found a seating area indoors where we could relax and eat
our buns slowly.
I think I got a normal char siew pau (steamed pork bun) while Sean got a tau sar pau (steamed red bean paste bun):
They were pretty good buns, and definitely did its job of filling us up. I was pretty satisfied after finishing my bun.
But Sean was still craving some snacks so after resting for a bit, we went off in search for more food!
We tried these fried squid balls, which had some pepper and spice on it and was pretty tasty!
And we also bought this chicken cutlet which was huge:
It was bigger than Sean's hand!
We also bought some drinks that I unfortunately didn't take a picture
of, and after all those snacks and drinks, we were pretty full.
So after walking around the food side of Shilin Market, and seeing
some of the other shops, we end with this shot of us under some nice
lights:
Anyway, that's all for now! Sorry for the long post but since last week wasn't much I thought I'd make up for it this time.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #78 (Taiwan): Taking off To Taiwan! 🛬
