Location: Sogo, Taipei
Time: 9:00am
Date: 28 December 2009

It's the 3rd day and it was terribly cold after the rain the previous day. Today, me and Fann had to have our own breakfast. So, while walking to the subway station, we came across Sogo. There, we saw Beard Papa cream puffs. We were so excited to see this. Unlike the ones in Japan, they had 3 types of puffs to choose from. As usual, we got it all. They were so delicious. Yummy breakfast! After that, we met Bowie and Terynn at the station as we then traveled to the zoo.


Location: Taipei Zoo, Taipei
Time: 10:20am
Date: 28 December 2009

We were greeted by a gust of chilly wind when we arrived at the zoo. It was still drizzling slightly as well. Well, the Taipei Zoo is heck of a place. The place is well maintained and is very huge. Even during winter, you can still see how colourful the place is.

Since it was a Monday, there was a bonus item here. The entrance fee to the Panda Emporium was FREE!! Yes, and only on Mondays. Ooo.. It's the best place ever. Panda Kingdom. There are two giant pandas here named Tuan Tuan & Yuan Yuan.


Although there were only 2 real live giant pandas here, it still felt like there were millions of them, all around!

Location: Shandao Temple, Taipei
Time: 8:10am
Date: 27 December 2009

Woke up early on the 2nd day. The weather wasn't that cold as the day before. We had to travel down to Shandao Temple station for breakfast. While waiting for Bowie and Terynn, we took a shot of how the Taiwanese subway looked like in the cold morning.

After they came, we walked to a nearest shopping mall. At the 2nd floor we saw a crowd of people in a certain corner. We walked towards it and noticed how freakin long the line was. Everyone who was eating there looked really happy and enjoying their food. It felt like this breakfast was gonna be really something.


After a really long 15 minutes wait, it was finally our turn to order. So, here's what we had for breakfast:



Location: Ximending, Taipei
Time: 2:15pm
Date: 27 December 2009

Next, we went to Ximending (西門町) for some small food and shopping. Ximending is somewhat like our Bintang Walk. Famous among the youngsters, it sells many things, from clothes to watches, shoes to condoms, food to DVDs and more.


Furthermore, Ximending became a well-known theater street in Taipei in the 1930s and grew even more prosperous after the defeat of Japan. The posters here are gigantic!


As we were walking, I heard Fann shouting: "I want this, b!! I want this, b!!" Well, as I turned around, it was no mistake, fried quail eggs. What more would she be so excited about than quail eggs. We stopped by and bought a stick for her. It looked pretty much like fish balls but tasted delicious! yummy~


We got ourselves quite a lotta stuff here at Ximending. We wrapped up our day at Ximending when it started to drizzle. We headed back to the hotel for a short rest and shower. Then for dinner, we had beef noodles. This was one of the best beef noodles I've ever had in my life (It really felt great to have beef again since my boycott on beef for 2 years)


What's special about this beef noodles is that one of the sets came with pork leg... WHOA~~ yes...pork leg! yum.


Anyways, beef noodles always taste great when the soup is hot and the weather outside is cold. It felt really comfortable. Oh, and also never forget your Chinese tea as well.


It was a tiring day, we all went back to rest again after dinner. Our feet felt like jelly and needed to soak our smelly feet in the hot tub. Everything that is hot in a cold place really is comfortable.

After soaking and resting, me and Fann went to 7-eleven to go and try out their cup noodles. Fann loved it so much. after makan then sleep d... Hmm..really so comfortable mei? Goodnight lo.. Zzzz..

Location: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan
Time: 4:50pm
Date: 26 December 2009

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport wasn't as impressive as KLIA, but it's still Taiwan, which is far away from Malaysia. So that's cool enough. The weather wasn't as cold. But it looked quite dark for a 5p.m. We took our bus downtown which took about an hour or so. We checked in our hotel only to find out that again we have been upgraded to a Studio room for no reason, all I can say is Lucky!

After unpacking our luggages, go toilet and watch Fann do a quick jumping concert on the bed, we headed to the nearest subway station. We needed to go to a Taiwanese pasar malam called 師大夜市 (Shi Da Ye Shi) which is located near the National Taiwan Normal University. The night was cold and my fingers were numb. We then grabbed ourselves some 關東煮 or Oden. The hot soup made our hands warm and our tummies even warmer as we walked from the station to the pasar.

On the way, we bought 2 prepaid sim cards for our phones. We had to provide our passport numbers and details in order to purchase it and get it activated. According to the salesman, Taiwanese government needed these troublesome procedures so that people will not do crime with the numbers. The sim card cost about TWD600 and had a TWD500 credit in it. Not bad.

Taiwanese pasar malam felt different. Despite it being overly crowded, it just felt much better than our Malaysian pasar malam. Probably it was the cold weather or maybe everything was in Chinese? It felt weird, but I kinda like it. Well, enough is said, food was our main objective that night, or probably the whole trip. We had to grab some famous munches along the way.

First up was a Taiwanese delicacy called 滷味 (Lu Wei). It's actually dishes made by simmering in a seasoned soy-based sauce. The stuff you could choose ranged from vegetables to animal spare parts.

This was our dish of Lu Wei. Pork Intestines, Pork Ears, Fu Zhuk, Mushrooms, and many more. Gobble Gobble.

Then we went for the Giant King-sized Fried Chicken Chop. While waiting for it, we saw this:

Malaysian food in a Taiwanese Pasar Malam! Translation of the menu written from left to right: "Fried Egg, Ikan Bilis, Fried Noodles, Fried Mee Hoon, Char Siew Fried Rice, Nasi Lemak, ABC Soup, Curry Chicken, Curry Chicken Rice".

Look at the enormous wok of curry chicken. Oh My Gawd! These were only some of the food we had that night. I was too busy eating that I forgot to take each and every thing we had that night. If I remembered, we also had Salted Crispy Chicken, Pau, Tempura, Octopus Balls, and many many more. *burrrrp!

I also noticed that Taiwan uses really old looking electric meters. Looked really unique in this advanced country. Well, we ended our first day with a happy and smiling tummy. Back to the hotel to recharge our batteries for our next day.