Overall the Taipei trip is a good one. Our hotel in Ximending is convenient, not sleazy. It's just round a corner of Ximending itself, just not right smack in the middle like Rainbow. My sis was telling me, her colleagues told her Rainbow hotel is haunted. Ximending, the youth belt, is still very much the type of place, my sis n I, are comfortable with and the stuff here suits us. We were unimpressed with some of the commercialized areas with shopping malls cos those malls resembled the ones in SG too much. The retail range revolves around things lime branded bags, cosmetics, clothes. Too sterile an environment and too reminiscent of SG. Ximending has a bit of the night market food, some food stalls that are cha chan ting style, some that are cafes that look real shabby on the outside but when one goes in, it leads to a big inner sitting area with cool furnishings. There are good food in Ximending (Ah Zhong Mian Sian, 3bro n sis dessert, lots of cafes and restaurants that didnt try) and many of the small shops are interesting (comics, idol, plushies, hair salons) They even have movies theatres and a pub lane which we stumbled across while exploring the place at night. Think it's really a nice place to be staying. You can get a better sense of the way of live. Though the place is really so big that many lanes still weren't explored, like the US street, the Cosplay street, and others. There were many many blocks and grid of shops that just radiated out in every direction from the centre of the main Ximending area. So really still not fully explored.
The memorial halls that we visited plus the Kong Zhi temple are really straight out of those ancient wu xia show esp the Kong Zhi Temple. All are built to commemorate these people and they stuck to very traditional chinese architecture. The Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kar Shiek Memorial are really huge ass buildings and the compounds are huge. So big a space that one can't help bit feel small when walking around the compound. The Long Shan Temple is another
one where really there are numerous devotees. Xiang huo hen wang.
The handicraft centre is another impressive place - 3 storeys of Chinese art, handicraft, ornamental displays and local produce. It's really an all-in-one with everything, for those who appreciates Chinese art and wants to decorate the home with such displays. Too bad house no space otherwise tempted by some stuff. We bought cheena ceramic coasters for family members.
The common local gift to buy back seems to be pineapple tarts, tai yang bing, zhong tong bing, yu tou su. Then different confectionary shops have their own specialty: I bought Green bean ping that is very refined tasting green bean (yellow) bar with some tou sa inside. Then the tea is another common local produce. The green tea powder is much cheaper than back in SG. Now know why so thin. If after every meal drink good tea, flushes out the oil. I should do that too.
The Jap influence is quite obvious, from the brochures having Jap, to seeing Jap fashion inspired styles dressing and accessories, to numerous sushi, Jap food but we didn't eat due to the nuclear contamination issue. Decided not to eat sushi and my sis avoids beef so no wagyu beef BBQ buffet.
Quite satisfied with the food I ate though I didn't have enough stomach to eat everything and anything. Worth mentioning are the Orh Jian, mango shaved milk ice dessert, Ah Zhong main sian, honey milk tea, fen yuan with ru hui, pork cutlet, chick cutlets, pasta. All good. Though most of the shops we only ate there once, cos we wanted to try diff food, I ate at the dessert stall 3 times, twice mango shaved ice, once is a warm soup with ru hui, fen yuan, dumpling and yu yuan. The accidental discovery of that niu jiao crossiant also is very nice, the Ginger tea near the Confuscious temple. The fruits bought from a street vendor in Ximending also all very tasty and sweet. The strawberries all red n sweet, juicy cheery tomatoes, chewy guava and one which I dunno the name. All good, definitely must try.
Retail wise, buying the complete set if the Angry Bird at a steep discount compared to other shops in the Ximending area is a good deal. Also I did buy some souvenirs for myself from the toilet restaurant, keychain from memorabilia shop, a jing nan from this Chinese craft shop we went into, a new scarf cos I dirtied my diaso one from having s phlegm cake attack.
Spending wise is not uncontrollable. I calculated all in: $1748, inclusive of flight, hotel, new luggage bag, alcohol and spending money. Flight and hotel plus insurance was already $1030. So its the more expensive flight but it is in comfort in SQ instead of Jetstar. The total amount spent is about the same as the 3D2N stay in Hong Kong and Macau but I spent it over 6D5N. Didn't go crazy over the food nor spending. Pure spending after buying quite a bit of gifts and confectionary is about $585. (I was re-looking through some old travel posts to Bangkok twice and HK, my spending money ranges from $550 to $750, excluding alcohol. Usually I buy alot of alcohol but this trip I spent about $65 only on 2 Absolute vodka and 2 tiger classics) So compared to HK and Macau, I feel Taiwan is cheaper if you dont buy branded clothing, bags and shoes and stuff. Based on food and transport and even confectionary gifts, Taiwan is affordable than Singapore.
Overall a nice trip. Don't mind going back cos there are still so many areas haven't covered, plus can go a bit of the outskirts, gondola rides, theme parks. Definitely try to eat more of their night market stuff.
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