28 Jun 2013, Friday
Last 2 days in Taipei! Having mixed feeling as I'm happy that I can finally get back to Singapore but at the same time, I know I will miss Taiwan very much. I bought a lot of souvenirs from the Panda Souvenir shop at Taipei Zoo, and I decided to wear some of them out today. I doubt I can wear like this in Singapore without getting weird stares from the public. Ahhh Singaporeans, can you guys be more open?!
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| Breakfast: Tuna Sandwich with Hot Red Tea |
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| Panda Accessories |
Today's plan was to go National Taiwan University (NTU) at Gongguan Station but I was too lazy to make my way out of the hotel before noon. So I skipped the campus and headed to Taipei Main Station for underground mall shopping. Snapped some pictures of Ximending while walking to Ximen Station from my hotel.
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| Ximending in the hot hot afternoon |
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| Ximending |
Saw this Italian restaurant, 79 style, at the underground mall (Eslite) and it's almost full-house so I decided to give it a try.
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| Nice milk tea but so-so soup of the day. |
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| Okay tasting pasta |
The meal only costs NT142 (SGD6.20) but the only nice thing is the milk tea, which can be found everywhere in Taiwan. Lol.
I wanna try to take bus straight to the airport from Taipei so I walked to Taipei Bus Station to check out the rate and timings. However, when I inquired about it, the staff told me to walk out of the station to some bus stop for the bus to Taoyuan Airport. The weather was super hot (38 degrees) so I decided to just take High Speed Rail from Taipei (Taipei Main Station) to Taoyuan and change to Airport Shuttle instead.
During my previous trip to Taipei, I bought quite a lot of clothes and shoes from R zone - Zhong Shan Metromall, but I didn't get anything today. Anyway, Taipei Main Station is connected to Zhongshan Station.
I was quite bored while shopping at the Metromall, then I went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, and walked a few rounds. -___- Suddenly, I felt like getting myself a Hater Snapback. So I searched the address of the main shop on the map and took train to Zhongxiao Dunhua Station. You can either take Exit 1 or 7 to reach the place.
(Updated as of 03 Jun 2014 - Thanks to an anonymous reader who commented below, I went to their official website and realized that they have relocated this shop to Taichung (台中香港IDC x KBW 台中一中直營點：台中市北區尊賢街9號1樓 Address in English: 1F., No.9, Zunxian St., North Dist., Taichung, TEL: 04-2223-3317, Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KBWTC?fref=ts. I will be going to Taiwan again this coming July 2014, will certainly keep the blog updated on where/how to get Hater Snapbacks in Taipei.)
Update (15 Jul 2014) - Hong Kong IDC has a store in Taipei Ximending, please refer to my latest post on Taiwan via this link
http://lynnechua.blogspot.com/2014/07/taiwan-2014-day-1-hsinchu-taipei.html
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| Street name of the main shop |
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| Tada! They offer the most variety of Hater Snapback in Taiwan |
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| Swag |
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| Yippie! ^^ |
Hungry again, time for braised pork rice! It's like pearl milk tea in Taiwan, everywhere also have.
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| NT 30 |
Rao He Night Market was in today's itinerary but it is located at Houshanpi Station (10-15min walk from the station) and I haven't got the chance to walk through Ximending so I headed back to my hotel, put down the stuffs I bought today and went out again to Ximending.
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| Street performance at Ximending |
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| Hippopotamus |
I love HMS T-shirts!! The designs are cute/cool and the cloth is very comfy. It's not expensive at all! NT300 per piece and NT400 for newer designs! I've been to Taiwan for 3 times and I will always purchase shirts from this shop for myself, my bf and my brothers. The shop attendant recognized me and offered me their membership card for my continuous support!! The min. spending to get the card is NT 3000, but I only spent NT 700 today!! Thank you so much!!! I was so touched by his good will. =D I will certainly come back again when I visit Taipei the next time!
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| SWIIO Hotel!!! |
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| Prince Cheese Potato |
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| Yummy yummy cheese potato |
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| Cold Stone Creamery |
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| Flavor: Cookie Doughn't You Want Some, 停不了口的饼干 |
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| Enjoying my cup of ice cream while looking at passerbys |
29 Jun 2013, Saturday
Time flies!!! Last day in Taipei!! There's nothing much to do today as my flight is at 2.30pm and I need to get out of the hotel by 11.15am (latest). As usual, I had the same breakfast (again...) at The Milk King restaurant. I set off after I finished packing. Checking out was fast - less than 1min.
I took train from Ximen Station to Taipei Main Station, where Taipei High Speed Rail (HSR) is located. I got myself a ticket from Taipei to Taoyuan at NT155 (SGD6.80). I took the train at 11.36am as the next train 12.00pm will be too late. The train timings are all scheduled so you can just check the schedule online before proceeding to the HSR Station.
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| HSR Ticket |
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| OOTD - Hater Snapback, HMS Top, Rainbow Skirt and Asics Sneakers |
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| Taoyuan HSR Station |
There'll be directions to lead you to the bus station where there's only one bus - Ubus 705 to Taoyuan International Airport, NT30 (SGD1.30). The journey from Taoyuan HSR Station to Taoyuan International Airport T1 takes about 25-30min. (Bus route: Taoyuan HSR - Novotel - Airport T2 - Airport T1).
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| Ubus 705 |
I reached the airport at about 12.30pm and went to Jimmy's Kitchen (T1) for lunch. Their noodles was great!! It's not very expensive either, the set lunch costs NT180 (SGD7.90).
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| Interior of Jimmy's Kitchen |
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| Menu |
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| 红烧牛肉面 |
I weighed my luggage and was glad that it's only 12.5kg!!! So I transferred some of my hand-carry to my check-in luggage to lessen my load. I only bought 15kg luggage as I didn't expect myself to buy a lot of things back to Singapore. Guess what's the final weight? 14.6kg. Hahaha.
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| Got my air ticket! Gonna check in now! |
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| Gate B1 |
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| Emergency Exit Seat - 13A |
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| Bye Taiwan! |
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| Lovely sky |
My boyfriend came to fetch me at Changi Airport T2 and he brought me to Sushi Tei at Tampines 1 for dinner. Thank you baby. =) Later on, I met Jasmine at Tampines and she passed me souvenirs she got from Tokyo!! Thanks!! Finally got a chance to try the famous Tokyo Banana!
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| Gifts from Jasmine |
29 Jun marks the end of my solo trip to Taiwan. I'm glad that I had the courage to travel myself for so many days. I learnt to be even more independent and thanks everyone for their care and concern. One bad thing I brought back from Taiwan was 42 (FORTY-TWO OKAY!!) sand fly/bed bug bites on my legs and hand. (T.T) Urghh, super itchy and ugly!!! Gotta see a doctor now as I don't wanna have any more scars!! I'll be flying off again on 2 Jul! Bye bye!! =)
More on Solo Trip to Taiwan:
Day 1: Taipei to Taichung
Day 2: Taichung
Day 3: Taichung to Taipei
Day 4: Taipei
