Taiwan to Hong Kong

October 4, 2014: Taipei, Taiwan >> Hong Kong

Last day in Taipei! We started off with a traditional Taiwanese breakfast in Guting at a small stall. It was pretty good, especially the pancake thing. It was still morning, so I wasn't that hungry. This was enough for three people + one more pancake dish.

Then we realized that we didn’t even get to try 牛肉面, so right after breakfast, we went to the shop next door for more early lunch wtf. It’s not traditional beef noodles, and it’s more like a fast-food chain sorta thing, so maybe next time I can have something more authentic. I don’t even remember how this tasted, I think it was just ok. The other thing is a tofu appetizer.

I thought that this part of the terminal was cool for some reason.

After getting lost in the area of the bus terminal (since there were different parts of it) we finally found it. It’s NT$125 for the bus to the airport, so much cheaper than cabbing it :X But we had no choice the first day because we got back late. We still had a lot of time to spare, so we walked around the station. 

Naturally, we gravitated towards food...

Mos Burger….yummmmmmm….. basically sticky rice patties with food filling. We also bought a seafood one to go incase we got hungry (aka when we wanted to be a fatass). 

Apparently Uncle Tetsu’s Cheese Cake is a famous chain and there were a lot of people in line so we decided to get that too (NT$199). It’s not like actual cheesecake, but more like a fragrant sponge cake. It was nice and fluffy but by the time we ate it, it cooled a bit even though it was straight from the oven or whatever. I bought one for my aunt too since I was staying at her place, but they don’t eat that kind of stuff T_T 

(I think) this time our flight didn’t get delayed, yay! 

Hong Kong

When we landed in Hong Kong, I realized that I had been a bit misinformed on which bus to take to get to my aunt’s place. Because there was some miscommunication and it was just frustrating talking to my mom because she doesn’t listen >:( All the while, Wi-Fi was a bit limited and I disconnected whenever I got to the bus terminal of the airport.

“Aunt told me to take this bus but the board said it doesn’t go there! Are you sure it’s XX bus?"

“WHO TOLD YOU TO TAKE THAT OTHER BUS? DID YOU GET ON THE WRONG BUS? I’LL TELL THEM TO GO TO THE OTHER BUS STOP TO PICK YOU UP.”

“No I didn’t get on any bus yet.”

“SO YOU TOOK THE WRONG BUS?”

“No, I’m going to take the bus that I was supposed to.”

“I’LL TELL THEM TO GO TO THE OTHER STOP TO PICK YOU UP.”

-Bye-

Luckily, this lady lent me her phone on the bus so I was able to call my cousin to tell her which bus stop I'll be getting off at. The bus ride took longer than I thought so she ended up having to wait for us :( 

Got some wonton noodles (HK$25) from a random stall. It tasted okay, but made me realize that things weren’t as cheap in Hong Kong as it is in Shanghai, such as for food… 

I also met one of my older guy cousins for the first time. Nothing significant about the meeting, but it was just unexpected because I forgot that I had one LOL -_- 

Still dreading the rest of Hong Kong posts because of all the photos >< I'm going to try to get all of my China posts done. 

I'm going to go to Tokyo right after the program ends ^__^ It's kind of funny because when I was 14-15, there was a point where I said I'd go to Japan when I'm 20 and it's really happening :O

Taipei, Taiwan: Taipei Zoo/Muzha Zoo

Our main objective was seeing the pandas!! Apparently all zoos in China have pandas though… The thing with this zoo is that the pandas are still relatively young and supposedly when they were born, a lot of people took off work/took sick days just to see them :O

The train/train station, so cute!

NT$60 for the entrance fee! Forgot if there was a student discount or not. I don't think so because ours was from China.

Onigiri for breakfast, still obsessing over these, but I don't get them as often anymore.

Anyways, don’t really know what to say, so I’ll just spam you with animal pictures. My camera started dying at this point, so they're mostly phone pics :(

Tried to be artsy

We went on the gondola lift afterwards. I thought were going to go to this cliff or some scenic place but it was literally just a cable car ride, so even now I don’t understand why we went on it. At least it was Hello Kitty themed.

We shared our car with this old couple because it was kinda rush hour so we couldn’t go on our own. Apparently they were criticizing (?) us in Taiwanese because we were speaking in English O_O? 

So next we went for dinner at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), which is right at Taipei 101.

Saw this and thought it was a Michelin star restaurant, but turns out only in Hong Kong!! So misleading.

They're known for allowing people to be able to see the food being prepped.

They’re known for their 小笼包 (xiao long bao - soup dumplings). But we had lots of food as well. I wouldn’t say it’s the best restaurant I’ve been to, but I think given how we haven’t had a proper meal in a while, it’s was really good. I would give it maybe a 4/5 food-wise.

We wanted to go up Taipei 101 but the line was massive. You have to wait for 1-2 hours to get tickets and then another 1-2 hours in another line to get in. Just look at this from outside and call it a day hehe.

So we went for dessert instead…at Dazzling Cafe. 

So good…..why don’t we have this in the States…. -drools- Truffle fries were ok. They were kinda soggy. 

Went to Shilin after, which I just combined into one post [here] since it’s easier that way ^^;;

Okay, almost done with Taiwan, just one more to go...

Taipei, Taiwan: Shilin Night Market

Walked around the neighborhood for a bit before heading to Shilin Market!! It is a three minute walk from Jiantan Station (Exit 1), basically like right across the street. There are also signs that point toward where to go. 

The place seems to be mostly shops, but it's laid out so that carnival games are all lumped together, food stands are generally all at the same place. It's pretty crowded too and we came on weekdays. But it was the Chinese National Holiday (国庆节) so it could've been a lot of tourists. Plus it's nighttime, too...so locals could still come.

They had a lot of UFO catcher shops, but I feel like they're so rigged >:( I ended up blowing more money on it and didn't win anything. So much harder than the place in Ximen. The workers also reposition it ever time you mess up, so I can't tell if it's to make it harder for you again or if it's actually an easier position to get it because if it falls too behind then it's impossible. Maybe it's a combination of both.

They recently renovated the place, so now the food count is in the basement. From what I heard, locals don’t like the change. We came to Shilin on both nights, but it wasn't until the second night that we realized there was a food court...so we just assumed that the few stands outside was all there was. 

Food from the outside stands:

Bacon wrapped chive (??) NT$10; Not worth it. A lot of people lined up for this so I thought it would be good, but it wasn't my thing.

Spicy fish balls NT$25; Can't really go wrong with fish balls..

Calamari; Nice and tender :D It was kind of a lot though.

Steak cubes NT$100; Also not worth it because it was basically eating eating cubes of fat and I wanted my meat :( 

Cory bought stinky tofu (臭豆腐)...and I actually tried it too. I only took a small bite, but could definitely taste what makes it so distinct. It's like a really gross aftertaste. Wanted to try it in Hong Kong since I think that's where it originates from, but didn't actually get a chance to while I was there. Stinky tofu also has a really distinctive smell even if you're just walking by it and it took me a while to realize where it was coming from.

The food court didn't really have that many people, and it was basically just open food shops. 

蚵仔煎 Oyster egg pancake thing? I didn't like it so much >< It has a gooey texture underneath, but from what I was told, it's the sauce that determines whether it's good or not.

Forgot what this was, but I didn't like it that much either. So picky wtf.

大腸包小腸; uhh...big intestine wrapping small intestine literally. It's basically a hotdog with sticky rice as the bun and Chinese sausage as the uh sausage. 

I always see the goldfish scooping in manga during summer festivals lmao so I was curious to actually try it. They're like little fishes, so not really goldfish. NT$30 for one try.

Heh..caught one. For a while, my scooper was upside down so it I thought I just sucked at it -.- But the girl next to me pointed it out and it was a lot easier after that. She was so good too because she caught sooo many :X Probably like twenty in the time it took me to caught one. Basically you corner the fish in your scooper and slowly lift it up so it doesn't break. Ofc, I didn't keep my fish, so I just gave it back after my scooper broke.

Heard that the chicken steak (NT$60) is really good, so I "had" to get it right before leaving the night market even though I was already super full :X I ended up forcing myself to eat half of it before I gave up. The thing was like the size of my face. Had to wait til we got off the station to go home before I could eat it because you're not allowed to eat in the metro in Taiwan :O Apparently it's enforced and people do abide by it...

I didn't actually buy much from the night market. Trying to think of what I got and I can only think of this Hello Kitty jigsaw puzzle I bought. So expensive (NT$983) considering I didn't have much cash T__T I spent like 40% of my cash on that because Taiwan only takes UnionPay for the most part and I didn't know if there would be foreign transaction fees for using mine. They don't really take Visa and it wasn't until after the trip that I found out my Discover is only accepted in Mainland China.

Meeeep... almost done with Taiwan posts. I have a lot of photos to go through for Hong Kong, so I've been dreading it :X Anyways, until next time!