We moved on away from TaiChung 台中 with High Speed Railway (HSR) 高鐵. This was not our first time catching the high speed. It's ever convenient, but consider pricy. Here we concurred
Taipei 台北 again! (This was my 3rd trip in life)
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| High Speed Railway |
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| Always come with convenient food |
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| Taipei Raiway Station |
We didn't have a fixed destination scheduled after touching into Taipei city. We left it all to the weather, my planner had a few options in hand. The last 3 days were planned with its main intention - shopping & food.
Accommodation : Dairy of Taipei
台北日記旅館 at XiMenDing 西門町. I will always stay this area for convenience reason. It's best for commuting via MRT, the station is just right in front of the hotel. Food and shopping area are just around the corners.
Upon checking in, we headed out for dinner. Visited the new shifted in ShiLing food stalls 士林夜市. We walked a distance from the train station, then found the new place isn't had the feel of night market and bazaar anymore. We still settled down for our simple dinner, at the food court area down basement.
Foods : Settled for the O-chien 呵啊煎 and Minced pork rice 滷肉飯。
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| Simple mea |
Along the way towards the train station, we grabbed some snacks back to XiMenDing.
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| Pepper bun |
The ever famous AhZhong Noodle 阿宗麵線 is just 1 block behind our hotel. My partner grab this everyday for supper. Though I don't fancy it all the while, this time round I felt not bad... exceptionally good and acceptable taste.
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| AhZhong Noodle |
The hotel provided us breakfast voucher everyday. Unfortunately, no choices except KFC nearby. The set were not attractive at all, as compared to McD. We still grabbed out bite every morning, one of those my partner met his friend coincidently staying at the same hotel.
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| View from KFC |
Shopping : The following day, we choose to stay in city and do some shopping. My record 戰力品 as below. Coffee utensils were at good bargains, even at the high end shopping malls. I got myself and for a friend, the ceramic coffee dripper. To replace those plastic type of dripper we usually use. It was only NT350 each.
I was tempted to buy other coffee utensils, but held my breath on it....
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| Ceramic Coffee dripper |
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| Tempted with the coffee tools |
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| Taipei Municipal Council |
Foods : We settled some great food at the mall's food court. Not bad, with the price of KLCC food court. Food were bigger portion and good variety. Some came with free soup and drinking water.
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| Free soup |
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| Udon with tempura |
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| Korean beef rice |
GuanDu 關渡 - A place not far from Taipei city, towards the famous tourist spot DanSui 淡水.
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| Local temple |
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| Bicycle Rental |
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| Nice Bicycle track |
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| Cafe along the way |
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| Overlooking 陽明山 |
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| Sunset view |
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| Little vege farm view |
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| Rented Tandem bike |
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| Bridge view |
When the sunset, we headed via train to DanSui 淡水 for dinner and some shopping. We didn't hit to the usual tourist spot of 淡水老街. We headed to a multistory shopping mall with Uniqlo, walk inner along the shop and found something similar to night market. A few stationary shops too.
I spent quite a lot of time in stationary shops. A little tips if you wish to get nice and cheap souvenirs, get them from stationary shops. Art and craft stuffs are common. In my case, over year end, I had got get some affordable fridge magnetic calendar.
Foods : As we walk along the street, we hunt for food too. Observed the local (not many tourist along this street) dining choice, we settled in a home cooked food restaurant, namely 台G店.
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| 鹵雞翼 Chicken Wings & 高麗菜 cabbage |
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| 黃酒雞 Rice wine chicken - yummy |
The night was still young, upon reaching back to XiMenDing. We planned for supper. Besides AhZhong noddle, we added the O-Chien from opposite stall, namely 天天利. Dropping by 85度C chained coffee shop was a must too. Famous chain in Taiwan, apparently.
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| Food stall |
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| Yummy O-chien |
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| Cafe Latte at 85度 C |
Following day, we thought if it didn't rain. We might have ended up further suburb YiLan 宜蘭. Too bad, it rained pretty heavy that morning. We scraped that idea, instead went somewhere down south,
YingKer 鶯歌 &
SanXia 三峽.
Transportation : We took a multi-stop train from Taipei Raiway station to YingKer. A unique town, where its station and surrounding documenting some classic background of the township. Clay art is the core, we found lots of shops selling uniqle clay work. I wish I have a cargo plane or ship, without that I avoided shopping for any.
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| Old street |
By walking a few blocks away, we took the bus which headed us to SanXia. This place is also unique, with great red bricks building, specialty on art and craft work station. We bought some souvenirs here too.
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| SanXia - unique bell |
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| SanXia - mini plant |
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| SanXia tourist spot - old street |
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| Cute drainage cover |
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| Drainage cover |
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| It's too new |
Foods : Local speciality bun, I would call it Chinese croissant. Bull horn shaped. We walked around, near the market and settle for late lunch in a noodle stall.
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| Tasted not too nice |
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| Variety bun |
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| Famous brand - yummy |
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| Local stall |
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| 陽春麵 was nice |
At the train station, we grabbed some bun cake. It was awesomely nice.. especially the garlic bread.
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| Garlic bread from train station |
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| Bottled coffee |
Shopping : Final night in Taipei... shopping is a must! Especially beauty products. I like to shop for households, but time has been limited. The shop just a block away from our hotel has lots of variety, worth to shop for households and specialties.
Besides, my most expansive souvenir was a genuine 牛皮 sling bag. Roots seems to be famous brand in Taiwan.
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| Special masks |
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| Hand mask |
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| Night face mask |
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| Emporium with lots of variety, from home to beauty |
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| Famous Canada Roots brand in Taiwan |
Foods : Local dumpling aka Bachang in XiMenDing is famous too. We used to patron this shop over our last trip. Without failed, we were back.
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| Dumpling shop |
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| Rice cake |
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| Bachang |
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| Add caption |
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| Add caption |
Other food which I missed were the coffee shop serving lots of local cookies, especially the walnut cookie 核桃酥. Imaging myself having a Western coffee served with Chinese cookies. The time we passed by the shop, it was all packed.
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| Coffee shop |
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| With Chinese cookie |
Shopping did not stop at XiMenDing. In fact, we found that the airport departure hall was worth shopping for duty free goods too. Do spare some time to shop after the immigration check in.
- End -
Till then for my next planned trip for Taiwan. Something more exciting will be up then.
