Chili House Restaurant, Ximendi, Metro Mall, Nova, Shabu Shabu - Day 3 of Taiwan Trip

The day started off with lunch at Chili House Restaurant. As the name suggests they specialize in spicy foods. My aunt thought it'd be interesting to try out since it was one of her favorite restaurants. To those who wish to go there, you HAVE to make reservations in order to be seated in a reasonable amount of time. Some of the dishes I tried included: breaded pork rib with sweet potatoe, spicy wontons, duck egg fried tofu, sour pork with sesame seed bun, and an coconut jello dessert (that was on the house). I have to say that this was definitely an interesting place to eat. Food was good as well as the atmosphere. I'd highly recommend it.

Next stop was Ximendi with my friends. According to my aunt this is a shopping area for "younger" people and she was right. When we got off the MRT stop, we were greeted with a pool of youngsters out shopping. I most of the stuff was clothing of all types and I'm sure it was a treat for the ladies. Not as much food or street vendors here since most aren't allowed to be there. Still a cool place and there are even multi-level malls within some of the buildings. Some are hard to spot since they blended in so well with the other buildings. An interesting store we found was Daiso Japan, which specialized in selling Japanese stuff. Apparently Taiwanese people really love Japanese stuff and this store is everything Japan. Also, everything is $39 NT, which makes it a hair over a dollar.

We tried the Metro Mall next to Taipei Main Station. For those who do not know what a metro mall is, it is basically a mall underground where the MRT stations are. There was a variety of different shops around from food to office supplies to various clothing stores. There was also an arcade towards the middle which was kinda cool. Overall not a bad place to spend some time, though I definitely would not spend a whole day here. Got a lot of walking done though :)

When we got out of the Metro Mall, we then hit up the Nova store next to Taipei Main Station. Apparently it is a big retail chain that specializes in computer and related hardware. There were literally floors of vendors selling mostly computer related stuff with a good mix of general electronics. However, what I learned is that Nova tends to be slightly overpriced because it is a retail chain. Guang Hua, which I will visit later, apparently sells the same electronics at a cheaper price.

To wrap up the day I ate shabu shabu with my friends. We tried a small joint that I can't even recall the name to. However since the place was not that tasty it isn't a great loss.

As always, check out my Flickr album for more pics.

Taiwan Typhoon Morakot, Sushi Express, Wu Lai, Bing Lang, Mister Donut, Vieshow Cinemas / G.I. Joe - Day 2 of Taiwan Trip

The second day I'm in Taiwan and Typhoon Morakot hits. Since I am staying in Taipei, the typhoon did not affect me as much, though I have to say that it was still pretty intense. The southern part of Taiwan got hit the hardest and most of the things people see on the news comes from the south, however, Taipei did get some strong gusts and heavy rains. At least the heavy rains helped against the hot and humid weather. Though still humid, at least it feels slightly cooler.

One of the first stops of the day was at Sushi Express for lunch with some friends. Sushi Express is a franchise that serves sushi on a moving belt. I have to say that I am really impressed with the quality of food that you can get and the variety of sushi available. Everything in the store is NT$30, which makes each plate that you eat slightly less than $1 USD.

After that we hit up the mountainous regions near Wu Lai. I am not too familiar with the area of culture but it was still a beautiful place to be. Supposedly it was also near a place where the Taiwan aborigines are. There was a beautiful waterfall as well as some crazy landscape to look at. Definitely a lot of green :).

On the way there, we also picked up some 'bin lang' which is commonly known as betel nut. There was no bin lang princess aka the girls that wear skimpy outfits to attract your attention near Wu Lai because there aren't as many commercial trucks around the area to merit a princess. The way that the betel nuts (aka areca nuts) are prepared is that the areca nut itself is surrounded by betel leaves. The leaves are there to add to the flavor while chewing. Trying to chew the betel nut for the first time was difficult because my body just wanted to spit it out after around 5 seconds. After chewing, I felt a numbing sensation in the areas where the juices were in my mouth. Supposedly bin lang is a form of natural stimulant, similar to drinking caffeine.

For the night, we went to the Vieshow cinemas near Taipei 101 to watch G.I. Joe which just came out. On the way to the cinemas we stopped at Mister Donut, which is another popular franchise found in Taiwan. They basically sell donuts of different flavors. I got the mini 5 donut sampler that had a miniaturized donut of their popular flavors: original (w/o anything), chocolate, strawberry, sesame, and caramel (I think). The donuts were quite chewy compared to American donuts and had a unique flavor. Definitely recommended if you are in the area. We also hit up the food court around the area and got some dinner. I got hainan chicken rice, which only cost me NT$130 I believe. It was surprisingly delicious and much better tasting than the stuff back in the states. I'm still stunned by how cheap and great tasting the food is in Taiwan.

I noticed that American films tend to be quite popular in Taiwan since there are not as many big budget movies that originate from Taiwan. Though definitely a lot of smaller movies, I do not see nearly as much advertising for them as compared to the American movies. G.I. Joe was a decent movie. It was definitely fast paced and sometimes the CGI graphics in the movie were not as polished during some scenes. The movie felt as if it was setting up the plot for a chain of G.I. Joe movies to come, since the movie tried to focus on the backgrounds of all the main characters in the movie quite a bit.

My G.I. Joe rating: 6/10

Taiwan: Slower Updates, Buying Taiwan SIM Card, Taxi Rates

I guess my daily updates will be infrequent while I'm in Taiwan since the internet that I have is quite slow. Uploading pictures takes forever and I haven't had the time to be able to edit pictures when I get back from a full day. Usually I'm pretty tired by the time I get home and just knock out after a good shower.

A thought from yesterday: apparently the SIM card that I bought from 7-11 for my phone charges at a pretty high rate. I thought the initial NT$300 phone charge was going to last me awhile, but I ran out of minutes yesterday when I needed to call my friend to meet up at the MRT station. After closer examination I found out that the SIM card charges at a rate of NT$0.71/6 seconds. That makes it NT$7.1 per minute, which comes out to roughly 40 mins from a NT$300 charge card. I have to use the phone more sparingly or else I'm going to be eating up those minutes. As always, a 7-11 was nearby and I walked in and purchased a NT$300 more minutes for my phone.

Also for those interested in purchasing a SIM card while traveling in Taiwan, make sure that you have a GSM phone or else your phone will not work. Also, in Taiwan has apparently gotten more strict about purchasing temporary SIM cards and a local phone shop told me that they do not even sell them anymore. I know 7-11 sells them and since they are literally every block in Taipei, it is easy to find a place to purchase them. In order to buy a SIM card in Taiwan, you need 2 forms of identification and other tiny bits of information such as a local address that you are staying at. Luckily the employee at 7-11 was nice enough to help guide me through the application form since it was a rough 50/50 mix of English and Mandarin (which I cannot read). After the forms were filled, it was faxed to some agency in Taiwan that performs a background check and it took roughly 3 or 4 hours before my SIM card was activated.

Another thing I noticed yesterday when I took the taxi home from my friends house at midnight local time was that taxis apparently charge an extra NT$20 on top of your final fee for any rides between 11 PM until 6 AM. At first I thought the taxi driver was jacking up the prices, but apparently after asking my aunt it was a fact. The taxi driver that I talked to told me that he purposely that most taxi drivers work a 12 hour shift and that he in particular wanted the night shift to make the extra NT$20 per ride. The way the taxis work is that they normally start off with a NT$70 flat rate for the first 1.5km travel distance and then NT$5 for every 300m traveled.

Taiwanese Food, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Shida Night Market - Day 1 of Taiwan Trip

My first full day in Taipei, Taiwan was quite eventful. After minimal sleep on a 13 hour flight I managed to wake up around 6:30 in the morning to join my grandma for breakfast. She took me out to a 'do jiang' place around her place.

Do jiang, for those who do not know, is a traditional Taiwanese breakfast. My breakfast in particular consisted of soy milk, sao bing (a crispy flatbread), and fan tuan (rice burrito). While I cannot say that it is a staple breakfast for everyone, it is considered to be a form of comfort food for people. The combination of warm soy milk (which can be ordered sweetened or non-sweetened) and sao bing is quite delicious. The fan tuan (which can ordered sweet or salty), or rice burrito, consists of a sticky rice that surrounds a crunchy, sweetened interior. Generally the sweet fan tuans I eat back home consist of a 'you tiao' and sugar, but I could not figure out what it was this time.

One of my first cultural experiences came after breakfast when my grandma took me to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. At the time I could not understand what it was all about because everything there was written in Mandarin, however, after doing some research I found out that the memorial was constructed to remember the Dr. Sun Yat-sen, aka the Republic of China's National Father. The building was finished in 1972 I believe and houses a monument, library, and museum. Outside I noticed that there were random festivities going on so apparently this is like a cultural center for people to do things. When I first went in I noticed a group of Honor Guards performing a march and salute at the memorial. Apparently they do this throughout the day to pay respect.

For lunch, my grandma treated my friend and I to Ding Tai Fung. For those who do not know what Ding Tai Fung is, it is a very popular chain dumpling house. Many people I know back home love Ding Tai Fung. One store back home is located near me in Arcadia CA. The prices, from what I remember, is a little cheaper than what it is back home. We ordered wonton soup, beef noodle soup, pork dumplings, vegetarian dumplings, and a taro dumpling for dessert. The grand total came out to be like 946 NT after gratuity (for dining in).

After lunch, I went with my friend to the airport to pick up another school friend who was joining us from Hong Kong. After we picked her up and got back home, we planned our trip to the Shida night market for the night. We took the MRT to the Guting station and walked to Shida road where the night market was.

This was the first night market that I've been to in Taiwan. I have to say that it was quite interesting. There were many small shops and street vendors that sold everything. We were were definitely more interested in the foods that they had. They had everything there from meals to drinks to desserts of all types. Naturally there are a lot of exotic foods as well that are generally not found outside of Asian places back home.

Overall a pretty satisfying first day in Taiwan. Hopefully I'll be able to hit up more interesting areas in the future.