Ximen Red House Theatre 西門紅樓

We reached Taichung HSR Station 臺中高鐵站 around 12 PM. The place were packed with people. I had to queue up for around 15 minutes to get my tickets.

We boarded on the 12.39 PM HSR and reached Taipei Main Station 臺北車站 around 1.30 PM. The HSR ride costed NT$ 560 per person. The place were crowded as usual. It's lunch time so I wanted to look for McDonald's. Yup I haven't give up on it. I tried to use Google Maps to search for a McDonald's in Taipei Main Station because anyone would expect to find a McDonald's in such a big and central station, right? But, the Google Maps showed that the nearest McDonald's was not in the station, but probably just opposite or beside the station. So, due to my eagerness to try McDonald's pork burger, I decided that we should walk out of the station and to the McDonald's with our luggage by following Google Maps' direction.

As you know, it's not easy to follow Google Map's direction,, especially when the signal inside Taipei Main Station's underground passage was very weak. Eventually, we got out of Taipei Main Station but we couldn't see the sight of McDonald's from our spot. If the direction given my Google Maps were correct, we're supposed to cross the big main road to reach the shop lots opposite Taipei Main Station. But there's no pedestrian bridge in sight so how were we gonna get there? That is if the McDonald's was really there.

Well, in the end, we gave up on finding McDonald's again =.= And we never did eat McDonald's in Taiwan. It's not as easy as in Malaysia to find McDonald's in Taiwan. I don't know why.... I thought Taiwanese like McDonald's too. I guess it's just they have too many other food choices in Taiwan until McDonald's couldn't dominate their fast food market.

OK so we ended up eating at Mos Burger around 2 PM at a mall connected to Taipei Main Station called Q Square 京站時尚廣場 because the other restaurants seemed expensive. And also, it seemed like Mos Burger was quite famous in Taiwan and their menu looked different than the fast food in Malaysia. I actually never knew about Mos Burger until I came to Taiwan but after a simple search in Google, I found that it's actually originated from Japan and is available in many countries like Singapore, Thailand and China. I wonder why Malaysia doesn't have one? Coz their burgers quite special and nice lah. Me and my family liked it. We ordered two burger sets and two ala carte burgers that costed NT$ 510 in total.

After lunch, we took Taipei Metro 捷運 to get to our AirBnb in Shilin 士林.

Waiting for Taipei Metro 捷運

It was fairly easy to use the metro because there were only 5 main lines. And luckily it wasn't peak hours when we were pulling our luggage while taking the metro to our AirBnb.

We alighted at Jiantan Station 劍潭站 because it's actually nearer to our AirBnb and also the Shilin Night Market 士林夜市. Then, it's easy to find our AirBnb with the help of Google Maps and the host's instruction.

From Jiantan Station, we walked for 10 minutes, passing through Shilin Night Market and a school to reach our AirBnb. For a moment, I felt like I was living like a local haha.

Our AirBnb was a room in an old building opposite Shilin Night Market. There were a lot of locals staying in that building too. The AirBnb host specifically stated in their instruction not to let the other residents know we're staying with AirBnb. Before we used the lift, we had to get pass the guard counter. Luckily, the guard didn't bother us or anything because he observed us like we looked suspicious lol.

I chose this place mainly because of it's location that's really close to Shilin Night Market. Our AirBnb in Shilin costed RM249.64 per night.

My review on AirBnb:

Generally a good place to stay. Cleanliness acceptable. Just opposite the famous Shilin Night market. There were English channels on the TV, wifi and a washing machine with detergents. There was also a place to hang /dry your clothes.

AirBnb Link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21902263




  XIMENDING 西門町  

Initially, I planned to visit Tamsui 淡水 but cancelled it because we didn't want to be rushing around.

So, we went to Ximending 西門町which were the most famous youth shopping district in Taipei.

I had a list of foods that I wanted to try in Ximending too. First one was....

Chengdu Star Fruit Ice 成都楊桃冰 NT$

I thought it would be fresh star fruit with shaved ice but no.... it was sweet preserved star fruit in iced water... anyhow... still refreshing and worth a try!


Next stop --- Ximen Red House Theatre 西門紅樓!

Ximen Red House Theatre 西門紅樓

Usually people just take photos of the building's exterior and then just leave. But we decided to go inside to check out, turned out to be a fun discovery!

There were a lot of art vendors in this building! And they're selling those very creative and modern lifestyle artworks like clothes, jewelries, accessories and etc. Nothing like what I've seen before. It's a nice window shopping place and of course better if you're willing to spend some money on artworks because the things were not cheap!

Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle 阿宗麵綫 Ah Zong Mi Sua

This is a must-try in Ximending and seriously is the most flavourful 夠味 food I've eaten in Taiwan! I don't know why before this I thought there's supposed to be oysters in it but in reality there were only pig intestines. I would prefer oysters more than intestines but it's okay because the soup was the bomb! Together with their famous chili sauce, I couldn't stop drinking the soup!

After eating Ah Zong Mi Sua we were hot until sweating... So we bought a cup of Boba tea from a random shop. The shop was called Penland Star Coffee 半島咖啡 半島奶茶. I'm not sure whether it is famous or not but it's nice and cheap (NT$ 35). Believe it or not, it's the first and only time we drank Boba tea in Taiwan, even though I'd expected to drink it everyday we're in Taiwan lol.

After we missed the braised food in Jiufen, I told myself no matter what must try braised food 滷味 before I leave Taiwan! So I bought the braised food from Lao Tian Lu 老天祿 in Ximending as it's also famous. I ordered braised egg, braised dried bean curd, braised vege ball and braised chicken feet. They had a lot of other stuffs too but trust me most of them looked disgusting (duck feet, goose feet, internal organs...)

My mum refused to eat any of the braised foods because they're cold. And I understand that not everyone can accept the taste. I think my dad and sis didn't like it that much. I thought it was fine it's just cold. Were they supposed to be cold? I'm not sure because I've only tried braised food from one shop.

We also tried the famous fruit tea that my sis recommended!

Yi Fang Fruit Tea 一芳水果茶 NT$ 51

I even searched the internet for the best formula of sugar and ice, which was little ice + half sugar 微冰 +半糖 lol. Yes it's nice I loved it! We even added water into the empty cup ourselves after we finished the original tea and it still tasted nice. Then sis ate the fruits.

We strolled around Ximending just looking at the streets and shops there. We didn't really eat much and didn't buy anything from Ximending. Around 6.30 PM we left Ximending 西門 and took metro back to Jiantan 劍潭 for Shilin Night Market 士林夜市.



  SHILIN NIGHT MARKET 士林夜市  

Sweet Potato Balls with cheese feeling 爆漿起司地瓜球 NT$ 50

Don't know why my dad decided to buy these sweet potato balls again after the first time we tried that's so-so. But these were quite good maybe because of the cheese filling.

Traditional Herb Pork Rib Soup 十全排骨湯 NT$ 70

Then, of course we must try the famous 'Taiwan's version of Bah Kut Teh'!

I don't know why I thought this shop that was just across the road from our AirBnb was the famous one (the one that got Michelin star). But nope it's not. I can't even remember its shop name. The shop that got Michelin star was called 海友十全排骨 Hai You Shi Chuen Pai Gu. 

Well.... The one we ate definitely did not taste anything like Bah Kut Teh... It's just pork ribs in sweet herbal soup?

I was still wondering why there were so many empty tables in such a famous shop....... =.= Took me quite some time to realise that we entered the wrong shop.

Cranberry juice with lemon 蔓越莓汁+檸檬 NT$ 40

This one was a random buy. The girl gave me a sample, I liked it, then I bought a cup haha. It's sweet and refreshing so nice to clean your palate after all that oily night market food.

There were a lot of shops selling cheap clothes. Sis bought a skirt. I didn't buy any because I couldn't find my style.

I also noticed that even though Taiwan is a country that promotes environmental and recycling awareness, they also produce tonnes of packaging waste especially from the night markets. Oh well..

BTW, we also found a souvenir shop in Shilin Night Market that provided a lot of cute stamps for us to use... And we spent around 15 minutes just stamping there I think lol.

When I was planning our Taiwan itinerary, I expected us to visit night markets until late at night. But the reality was, we always leave around 9PM haha. Maybe because we were tired and also we can't really eat a lot.

Also, we saw a long queue lining up for grilled mushroom... seriously long! It's the longest queue I saw in Taiwan! And we thought it must be just another over-rated food... Then after I came back from Taiwan only found out it's one of the must-try :/

Before we went back to our AirBnb, we went to a Family Mart nearby to buy some stuffs for supper. We actually had to spend as much as possible to use up the balance in our Easy Cards before we leave Taiwan the next day. 

Pepper bun 胡椒餅 NT$ 40

This pepper bun was also one of the famous snacks in Taiwan. The original maker of this pepper bun also got Michelin star but their shop was in Raohe Night Market 饒河夜市 I think. We just bought this pepper bun from a random shop that sell other buns also. I actually brought back to our Airbnb for supper because we were too full. Even after it's cold, the pork filling was still delicious!

Eating instant noodles with toothbrush

And then dad wanted to eat instant noodles as supper. And so we opened up the ones we bought at Alishan. And we found that there's no chopsticks / fork provided and there's none in our AirBnb too. Well, that didn't stop us from eating!

That night we watched Taiwan drama and drank Taiwan beer to sleep.....

NEXT: TAIWAN TRAVELOG 2018 臺灣寶島之旅 DAY 6: TAOYUAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 桃園國際機場 > MALAYSIA