Taiwan Day 2

Day 2 Taipei (5/7/06)

We woke up at 8 am to pack our stuff and transfer to Rainbow Hotel. The hotel was only around 300 metres away and we unloaded our luggages at our new hotel rooms before setting off for our Taipei tour. The new rooms at Rainbow are much much better than Future Star Hotel. It costs us around $9 more per pax but we were all willing to pay extra for comfortable beds, closer rooms for the 9 of us, better service, newer and bigger rooms, breakfast provided, no odours and no mirrors overlooking the beds.

First, we headed to Longshan Temple via MRT. We got ourselves an MRT card with unlimited rides for NT150 with deposit of NT50. The MRT system is similar to Singapore's and the card we used is like EZ link card.


Ximending in the morning


Man-made waterfall outside Longshan Temple---------------------Longshan Temple---------------

We spent around half an hour there burning incense sticks and praying for our safe journey. We then walked back to the MRT station.

Nice scenery near Longshan Temple MRT

Some of us wanted to go Ding Tai Fung for breakfast and we took the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing station. We then followed the directions to Ding Tai Fung and walked a long way there. We had to ask the passerbys for directions as the restaurant is along a long main road and hard to find.


On the way to Ding Tai Fung along 4th Blvd

We finally found the restaurant after walking at least 1 km along the streets. We ordered 4 baskets of Xiao Long Bao, some noodles, some dim sum as well as some dumplings. We were satisfied with the good food and service and it replenished us with more energy for more shopping and more walking.


Ding Tai Fung Restaurant

The guys and gals separated for shopping and we arranged to meet again at Zhongxiao Fuxing station at 4.30 pm. We ploughed the main streets, browsed the shops and had a breather at a shopping centre arcade.



We played a game and it involves dropping a ball into moving target holes just for the sake of playing. We headed to the MRT station to go to a computer fair at Guang Hua Shopping Centre as Terence wanted to buy some cheap DVD-Rs. The price of recordable media there is indeed quite cheap and i got myself a 4 port usb hub.

We then met up with the gals at Sogo Departmental Store and we grabbed a bit of food there. Our legs were all quite weary of all the walking and travelling but we were still enthusiastic and ready to explore more.


At Sogo Dept Store

We headed to Houshanpi MRT to go to Wufenpu Garment Wholesale Area. It was like a trendy Bugis Village with much more shops and clothes with much more different varieties. Derrick got himself a flowery belt there.




Wufenpu Wholesale Centre

Next, we headed to Shihlin Night Market for our dinner. All of us had the famous Fried Chicken Cutlet at the hawker centre. It was indeed very very big and the serving is 3 times more than the imitation ones (Shihlin Street Snacks) in Singapore. The huge piece costs only NT45 ($2.25).


Shihlin Night Market

Most of us also tried the smelly beancurd and it wasn't as awful as i imagined. Not as tasty as i imagined also. Probably the stall we went to was not as good as some other stalls.


Eating smelly tofu!


At the entrance of the hawker centre beside Shihlin Night Market

After our dinner, we headed to the night market for shopping.


Shihlin Night Market

There were quite a lot of people there and we spent a few hours there browsing through the stalls and shops before taking cabs back to our hotel. We watched the soccer match between France and Portugal from 3 to 5 am next.