Taiwan Day 3 - Jiufen/Shifen

Headed to Taipei Main Station real early in the morning to take the TRA to Jiufen/Shifen! Was kinda lost at first cause we went to the wrong platform. But thank God we were early, so it didn't matter all that much. :)


the TRA train


Platform 4! the RIGHT platform.. :)


a group of Korean ahjumma tourists.. using a rose in place of the usual flag!


Yvonne & I on the train.. i look real tired & disheveled. >_<


to Ruifang

To get to Shifen, we had to take the TRA to Ruifang first before transferring to one of those smaller inter county (?) trains. I rather enjoyed the ride throughout as it was pretty scenic and old school. :) However, to purchase the train ticket from Ruifang to Shifen, we had to get out of the station and head to the main ticketing counter instead. How troublesome..


at Ruifang


the platform where we were supposed to take the train to Shifen


cool designs on the floor


sign pointing the way to Jiufen!


train route to Shifen


super old school huh? :)


the train ticket to Shifen


the train!


**to be continued**

Taiwan Day 2

Gonna attempt to blog down my taiwan trip... with FB these days, i rarely blog as much as i used to. But i still think that despite the saying that 'A picture is worth a 1000 words', descriptions and narratives are still very much important. I don't think that I can remember everything about my trip just by looking at my pictures 2 years later..

Yvonne found this really cool hotel, Ambience Hotel and I was pretty impressed with it!
Its a boutique designer hotel that wasn't too pricey.. i think it cost us only S$500+ for 5 nights for 2 pax? Plus breakfast was provided too! The service was exceptional as well. :) Highly recommended!


Ambience Hotel


the room!

Went to a japanese departmental store at Taipei Main Station to get some ettusais products as Korea doesn't carry this line. Am quite pleased with the results! ^^




I arranged to meet Shalin & Dingdang on the 2nd day I arrived & since we had some time to kill before meeting them, we headed off to Ximending to soak in the atmosphere!


Outside Ximen Station!

My 1st meal in Taiwan was the Ah Zhong Mian Xian that everyone was raving about online!





Ah Zhong Mian Xian!

It was pretty tasty too.. n cost only $2 or so for this whole bowl! I shared half with Yvonne as I didnt' want to spoil my appetite for the buffet that we were gonna have!


Check out all the food!

We headed to a buffet restaurant on the 2nd level of Rainbow Hotel (note: the buffet restaurant is not inside the hotel, but outside it!) and it cost abt NTD$450~ or so for a free flow of food n drinks + desert! But the downside was that the food was limited to 3 orders per item. Even then, we were pretty stuffed by the 2nd order, so i suppose that its more than enough. The beef was extremely good!

Yvonne brought me to this 'wholesale like' store that sold cosmetics, masks and other toiletries for a pretty cheap price!


the entrance to the store


the building opposite it.

Its located on the outskirts of Ximending though.. anw, i bought like S$60+ worth of masks & toiletries! hur hur hur.

Ximending wasn't all that impressive. in the sense that the shopping wasn't really my style. Cheap though it may be, the quality just didn't justify the price tag.. We adjourned to a nearby Starbucks for a toilet break. The interior decor was really cool! I think it must have been a teahouse or sth at one point in time. :)




interior of Ximending's Starbucks

The MTR has priority seats for the elderly and handicapped, similar to what Korea has! However, there weren't that many seats to begin with though...


inside the MTR

Met up with SHalin & Ding dang @ Taipower MTR station before heading off to Shida Night Mkt for shopping! the clothes were markedly better, though albeit at a much higher price. And most of the clothes were imported from Korea. Didn't make much sense to buy them since I could get them for a much cheaper price in Korea..

It was really great meeting Dingdang after 3 years! n Shalin after 1 month (she came over to Korea in March!) would love to go back someday to catch up with them more.. Dingdang's pretty busy with her store, so she hasn't been out of the country since 2008! Anw, i'm not done with exploring Taiwan too! so yup, that gives me a good excuse to go back to visit!


Shalin, dingdang and me.


my loot for the day

of books & more

with last week being a rather eventful week, this week has began with a rather muted pace.. not that i mind that much.

sat was spent somewhat in a daze, owing to a severe lack of sleep. i think i had only 4hrs of sleep before i went off to class at 종각. headed off to Bandi & Luni's for a look see before going home. i realised that due d, being very diff from audit, required some in depth knowledege & what little i knew wasn't really gonna serve me that well.

stumbled upon the Mckinsey Valuation book in Bandi & Luni.. n it was going for only 48,000won (USD$43.44) as opposed to USD$54.88 on Amazon or USD$63.53 on Bookdepository



there were quite a no of textbooks on valuation to choose from, but i chose this cause of the Mckinsey brand.. haha. i know its a pretty lame way to choose a book, but that was about all i could do, seeing as how the books were sealed up in plastic wrap. but it seems that i made the right choice, cause most of my colleagues had the textbook (the korean version) in the office! haha.

am now waiting for the textbook to be out!



but i suppose it'll probably take some time to arrive in Korea. its pretty pricey even on Bookdepository, going for approx USD$30? and around USD$20.55 on Amazon.

n i've booked my tickets to Taiwan!! or rather, redeemed my mileage. hahaha. Yvonne found a really classy hotel for quite a gd price! though its a little out of the way, i guess we'll survive. :P will update with pictures/price/location of the hotel when i get back tonight or sth!

and and! i'm going for steak @ Tony Roma's tonight with 수연! one of my colleagues passed me a one for one coupon & we're gonna make use of it before it expires. though i'm really full now.. had a pretty filling lunch with the partner + 2 other colleagues. 안심토마토파스타! i've no idea how i'm gonna have steak tonight too...