Taipei Trip Part 3 (evening of day 1 at the nite market)

NOTE : some pix could only be viewed by family..

PART 1     PART 2

 

after checking in at the hostel and bringing our luggages to our room, i bought orange juice and water from the convenience store downstairs.. its supposed to last us till tuesday... but the orange juice was soo good i was buying everyday hahaha... after a few minutes, cathy and i went down and... seems like we forgot something from the room (i forgot the thing we forgot ahahaha)... so we went up again...  in the elevator we saw 3 ladies...  when those ladies went out the reception floor,,, i told cathy "the girl looks like she"... so we went out to follow them... she and i have been texting in the philippines we even talked on the fone but... since we only saw each other for a few mins during jun's bday bash,,, its understandable if we dont recognize each other ne hahaha...

cathy : sheryl..

she : ui!

cathy : (pointing to herself) nurikocam

me : (pointing to myself as well) vylette/hazel...

hahaha twas like an eyeball ya know hahaha... so she told us how they got lost in going to the hostel... she introduced her companions... lyn and she's friend K... ive been texting lyn also but unlike she, i have no idea how she looks like hahaha...

so we just chatted for a few minutes and she told us they might go to night market that day... so we told them we'll be seeing them there if ever..

so cathy and i headed towards the mrt station... we were to meet mandi at danshui...and go to national palace museum..

 

 

we saw this outside the hostel.. i find it cute so i took a pic of it..  

 

 

 

 

 

 

at the mrt station we saw Vaness' pic haha my fave f4 member tho i was only on f4 mode for 2 months...

 

 

 

 

 

at one fo the music-video stores... we saw arashi and news posters...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we bought mrt passes... i was expecting a card-like pass just like in HK,,, but... they were actually chips hahaha kawaii... machines for this are everywhere in the mrt station... so you can buy them easily..

 

 

 

our supposedly 4pm meet-up with mandy was super delayed to 5.30-6pm ahaha mandi texted and said that national palace museum is already closed... *phew* what a relief since from danshui, we didnt know how to go to national palace museum ahahaha the bus routes are all in chinese,,, we didnt know who to ask huhuhu... since one night market is located in danshui, cathy and i thought of going there instead since 6pm was too early to call it a day har3...

 

 

walking outside the mrt station, i lauged when i saw this signage... cathy didnt laugh,,, which means she's still innocent? nahhh i doubt that probably she doesnt know the term har3... so those who will laugh are dirty-minded har3..

 

 

 

 

 

we asked a woman and luckily her husband can speak understandable english... so twas easy for cathy and i to go to night market... but... how come the night market looks different? seems like not the usual night market tourists frequent...

it started to drizzle... until it rained really hard... (ohh!!! now i remember!!! this was the thing we forgot thats why we hafta go back to our room earlier hahaha)... we had no choice but to stop for a while since our feet are sooo wet already plus we really had no idea where the hell we're heading ahahaha... we saw a teriyaki boy resto somewhere... but we dont remember where... so we just went to this small resto becuase we saw omurice in the list of food theyre offering... inside..

me : excuse me (the lady looked)

me : do u have omurice (she just looked at us and her companion... uh-oh this is gonna be sign language again..)

i motioned for her to follow me outside,, and i pointed at the omurice pic hahahaha

she gave us 2 orders... they only have cold tea for drinks... im not a tea person so i just sipped a little... cold tea and soup was free... cathy and i just had to pay 70ntd each (105 pesos).. which isnt bad considering that one order is enuf to feed us both... i love the soup seems like ginger was in it... the lady serving us was in her mid 30s or early 40s we were the only customer... and when we paid... we were giving her a tip but she declined... still we insisted but she declined again... we insisted once more,,, and she declined it again... so i thought it was better for us not to give tip anymore rather than go thru another sign language session again har3...

  

 

 

 

Us after a hearty meal... (viewable by family only) 

 

 

 

 

the rain stopped (thank gudness) so we continued with our night market... some of the things we saw...

 

 

also... ive been in taipei the whole day already and this is the first time im seeing a gas station lols...

 

 

 

notice there are heaps of motorbikes parked? :) in the phils many people are using motorbikes also cuz gas is cheaper compared to driving a car.. but not as many as those ive seen in taipei har3... 

 

  

 

 

                                                    the food stands..

 

 

 

 

 

originally cathy and i planned to try taipei's street food even when we were still in manila... but we were still full with our dinner (which by the way we didnt get to finish..)

pix of us in the food stands and night market..(family view only)

 

just like in most asian countries' night market,,, u negotiate with the price via calculator har3... i guess even if most asians dont understand english,,, they understand when one says "how much".. sometimes they can give you the amount in english but most of the time,,, they type the amount in the calculator... so if you think its overpriced, you give "your price" thru the calculator also until u both agree witht he price hahaha..

whenever i go to other places, i make it a point to buy everyone in my family souvenir items...keychains, coasters, shirts, magnets, shot glass, or anything that has that place's name written on it... and this is usually found in night markets.. to our surprise we only saw 2 stalls selling taiwan/taipei shirts.. the lady was giving it at 300ntd/shirt (450 pesos)... waaahhh twas pricey... so we said we'd just go back and started walking away... she called us and motioned her hand as if saying "il lower the price for you" then she typed 250 (375 pesos) on the calculator hahaha still twas pricey ne... so again we said we'll just go back.... then she called us again and did that hand thingy and typed 200 (300 pesos) on the calculator... we said thank you we'll just go back again... she didnt stop us anymore this time,,, which means thats the lowest price she could give us ahahaha.. before heading home, we went back to her and bought shirts kekekk

pix of us @ the nite market (i bet we looked weird taking pix of ourselves there since there werent many foreigners in that place..)

we saw a store selling unofficial asian idol items (unfortunately i forgot to take pix of it *darn*)... there was matsujun and arashi mousepad.. some pictures, mugs, kattun keychains, bi keychain, fahrenheit... f4 wand jay chou available there also... but cathy and i didnt buy... (we need to resist temptation...)

funny how both sides of the night market has a direction... like when cathy and i were trying to squeeze in ourselves, we found it difficult since everyone was walking towards us... thats when we relaized that we should be on the other side of the street ahahaha i dunno if theres any ruling with this... but its amazing how organized they are ahahaha..

unlike in HK and bkk night markets... there's only one long street and then u need to turn the corner and there's another long street of stalls... in taipei,,, its like there's an intersection... like a "t" so you need to walk one side and then return and walk the other side again until you finish all 4 sides then you go out and enter another "t" hahahaha twas kinda confusing and tiring but... we considered it as exercise so... 

 

 

i took this pic of a man holding a signage of the store he's employed ahaha he's using a stepper so its hard not to notice him.. i think he noticed i took his pic cuz of the flash and he just smiled... i guess his job is tiring ne...

 

 

 

 

we were told by the lady from whom we bought shirts that mrt is up to 12mn already so by 11.30, cathy and i were rushing to the mrt station when we spotted mco hahaha... we got tired with all the walking and rewarded ourselves with a creamy ice cream from mcdo...

 

 

 

 

took this pix while waiting for the train.. view of the night market from the mrt station

pix inside the train (family view).. cathy had to take 3 shots of me ahaha since 1st 2 flash was reflecting,,, so we switched places (notice the different background? haha)

the taipei railway station at night..

 

we got back to the hostel around 11.50pm (weeee exactly 12hrs after arashi arrived in taipei har3) we couldnt sleep yet,,, we needed to prepare our penlights and banner and fit the yukattas so we know who gets to wear the violet and ho gets the white one... cathy was asleep already by the time i finished bathing... my such a deep sleeper hahaha she wasnt awakened by the sound of hairdryer hahaha... i slept around... 3.30am... that morning will be a very tiring one...

will continue next time...