Taiwan Trip: 5th Day Home Sweet Home

Last day of the trip, as mentioned in my previous post, we went to Eslite Bookstore again in the morning! Haha. Our interest in shopping seems to diminish with age.
Before checking out, we went to the Family Mart near our hotel to buy 10 bowl noodles! Their beef bowl noodles really has the meat inside unlike the ones we normally buy which comes just with the garnishing.

After we're back from the bookstore, I did my nail art at Ximending;

the nail palour is just opposite Ah Zong Mian Xian

I told larling no matter what I have to do my manicure before gg back to Spore, cos the nail art in Taiwan is cheap and good.

The one I did costs around SGD18. I don't think it's that cheap in Spore, so die die must do in Taiwan! Haha

Tadah! There's one crystal on my every finger.

This is one of the cheapest with simple design. For the more complex ones with more crystals, it'll cost around SGD27
While I was doing my manicure, larling went to buy this danbo robot which costs SGD40++.

Super doodad.

I think this is his most exp single purchase in the entire trip. LOL
Free lunch from 33md as I purchased over SGD50 and they gave me a free voucher for this set



Waiting to board the plane back to home sweet home..
I love my nails
Lastly let me end with a non-related-taiwan-trip pic.. my lovely Cartier:

Taiwan Trip 4th Day: Hello Kitty Sweets Restaurant + Wufenpu

On our 4th Day morning, we went back to Eslite Xinyi Bookstore again. Actually my main purpose was to look for Jolin's Nail Palour which used to be at the same building. Unfortunately, her shop closed down after checking with the concierge.

These are the books I bought on the 3rd day.

Actually books in Taiwan are very cheap.

The Little Prince is only SGD10, and the other book is only SGD12.

I was so tempted to buy more since they can't be found in Spore/ more exp in Spore, but the chinese words made reading quite difficult
Masks and more masks!! Made in Taiwan.

Larling bought those eye masks (in orange boxes) all for his colleagues.

My Beauty Diary masks which are quite popular in Spore are slightly cheaper in Taiwan.

I've just tried them and I think they are quite effective

The Eslite Xinyi Bookstore is quite near to Taipei 101

After that we went to look for Hello Kitty Sweets Bakery at Zhong Xiao Fu Xing Station (No 90 Da'An Road).

The window display looks irresistible!

Even though I'm not a die-hard Kitty fan, I can't resist being attracted to the bakery

Look at the cakes!

Pinky sofa-chair placed right after the entrance

The waitress informed us that if we were to dine-in, we need to spend a min of SGD30 per pax.

That's a damn smart way to earn money, and ppl won't just order a slice of cake to share and hog the tables for the rest of the day.

Only Hello Kitty restaurant can afford to impose such a charge. If others were to do that, I'm sure they'll lose their customers

Browsing through the menu

Even the menu looks so chio

More pics of the pretty menu

One of the dessert.. This alone already cost SGD30 bucks

This tart tastes great!

The other dessert which also costs SGD30.

Very nice food decor and it tastes not bad too..

The dessert comes with a free drink.

Larling's latte

My pudding drink which tastes like horlicks with milk

The remains of the first dessert.

The kitty chocolate is so sweet that we didn't finish it

The serviette has the kitty imprinted on it.

Table mat is so sweet too

Lastly came a free pudding for both of us

Enjoying ur dessert?

The bill comes in a passport-sized folder.

Checking out the toilet.

Kitty framed mirror for gals to zi pai.

Larling said the guys' toilet wasn't that nice

On the way down to first floor to pay the bill

It must be a joy working as a pastry chef in Kitty bakery

I want a kitty birthday cake!

Last shot before we leave the cute place

We went to Wufenpu after that. This time the Wufenpu shopping king didn't buy anything from there. And I bought only one jacket. That's the only clothes item I bought in the entire Taiwan trip. I wasn't in the mood for clothes shopping.

From Wufenpu, we walked some distance to Raohe Night Market.

The market is quite far from Houshanpi MTR station, so it's better to take the Railway back so we don't have to walk all the way to the MTR again.

Finally left with Day 5..

Taiwan Trip 3rd Day: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall + Shilin

How could we not visit Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall 中正记念堂on our second visit to Taiwan. This monument is built in memory of Chiang Kai Shek. With the white walls and blue tiled roof, it looks like a fortress. There's two sets of stairs to the main entrance, each with 89 steps to represent CKS' age at the time of his death. The memorial consists of his bronze statue, watched over by two motionless guards who changes shift at every hour in a rifle twirling ceremony. We almost missed that ceremony as I couldn't help taking many pics of this beautiful place.

Looking opposite the Hall is the Liberty Square 自由广场

A panoroma grabbed from Wiki..to the left of the Memorial is the National Concert Hall, to the right is the National Theater

国家音乐庭

国家戏剧院

Guards practising their drills



Both halls looked the same until you look closely at the board

I like this pic.. taken by larling's iPhone

Moving closer to the Memorial

We saw a Singaporean couple who asked to help them take a photo.

They offered to help us take a pic in return. So nice

After dashing up the 89 steps of stairs, we managed to catch the ceremony:

After the ceremony, the next shift of guards have to stand motionless for the next hour.

They can't even have facial expressions, scratch their back or fidget around.

CKS bronze statue

Xie xing

View from the top

The place wasn't very crowded as we went on a wkday.

Serenity

Lunch was at foodcourt at Taipei City Hall station

We shared a beef teppanyaki set

This costs around SGD8 bucks.

Then we went to Eslite Flagship Store at Xin Yi which has 8 storeys of collections!

First time we went to a bookstore so many times. On our last day we even went back to buy Romance of Three Kingdoms. We didn't buy it on the 3rd day as I already bought two books and it's very heavy bringing it around

Dinner was at Shilin Night Market, which is at Jiantan MTR station, not Shilin Station.

Upon arriving, we chiong to our all-time fav stall selling humongous 鸡排

Raohe's famous Pepper Bun in Shilin!

A family of 3 making buns together..

Very heartwarming.

Their son still in his sec sch uniform, helping out at the stall after school

I believe such kids will never grow out of hand; children who go through the hardships with their parents will understand that money is not earned easily

Back to Ximending..

This Partyworld building is just opposite our hotel.

We wanted to try their Partyworld, but we procrastinated and eventually we dropped the idea

Next: Day 4 Hello Kitty Sweets Restaurant + Wufenpu