day 1 - singapore to taipei, taiwan!

upon reaching taipei, we went straight for some shopping. the bus dropped us off at some busy traffic junction and we had to walk along these streets to ximending. it was about 2pm and the sky was overcast and everywhere was wet. not. fun. at. all.
at ximending. my excitement at shopping and exploring the area was dampened by the unrelenting rain. it just kept on pouring, and i couldn't shop properly! it was a major bitch to hold an umbrella, watch out for oncoming umbrellas and their owners, look out for interesting shops, try on clothes/bags, and eat all at the same time. we weren't given much time to shop, you see, so here i learnt that multitasking was a skill that everyone should cultivate.
we girls bought a bag each, and some tops. the things at ximending aren't exactly very cheap. my bag was like SGD35 after bargaining, and in retrospect, i think it's not worth that price. it looks a lot cheaper than that. but never mind, it was our first day and we weren't very savvy yet. on the second last day of our trip, we went to wu fen pu market, and their things were a whole lot cheaper, with bags being as cheap as SGD12.
kimmy, liyan and kristy.
i made them take this picture because there's this cafe on the second floor of the building behind them (click on the pic to enlarge, and if you squint a little, you can make out a light green swing beside the tree right above that TODAY shop signboard) where customers sat in little swings. so cute! we had no time to really explore ximending, due to the terrible weather, and majorly grumpy and naggy mothers. oh well, nothing i could do. i was on a guided tour with 2 close-to-menopause women who just wanted to go back to the hotel to rest as soon as possible. i also think they weren't very happy to be our ATM machines.

um...because the public telephones looked cute in the old school way and were different from those in singapore.

liyan and i had been dying to try taiwan's oyster omelette especially after watching a taiwanese idol drama that had featured it heavily. it was also supposed to be very different from singapore's version, and we were so excited to finally try it! i have to say, it really lived up to our expectations. besides the usual egg and oysters, it also had lettuce, bean sprouts and a special sweet and savoury sauce. much better than our local version. of course, we ate up everything except the smelly yucky oysters. well what's new.

still at ximending.
we ran into this random ramen shop for shelter and dinner. the ramen was fabulous! we tried the pork and beef ones and while both were great, the beef one was better. i love the broth. in this picture you can also see liyan's fingers behind the bubble teas we bought. oh, the bubble teas there were SO GOOD. i really think they're different from singapore's and better, too. the taste of tea was stronger. or maybe i'm just biased because hey, taiwan is where bubble teas originated, so their teas are authentic and hence must be nicer! and now you probably know why i didn't do well for my logic module...hehe.

beef ramen again, with some vegetables topped with minced meat dish that i didn't try but my cousins did and they said was delicious. before this meal, we tried the famous ah zhong mian xian (thin rice noodles) but i didn't take any pictures because we were too preoccupied with gobbling. the stall didn't have any seats so everybody had to stand, and there were so many customers that there was hardly any room left to juggle shopping bags, an umbrella, a steaming hot bowl of noodles and a camera while trying to pose. so i didn't bother. my mom loved the noodles, liyan liked it, and i thought it was a 7.5/10.