Saturday, April 10, 2010
8:12 AM: Taipei, Taiwan (Free&Easy) Day 1
hi its my second post for this blog. nvr blogged before, so its kinda new for me (though blogs have lasted for eons already).Anyway, just began a Free & Easy trip to Taipei, Taiwan! To me such a trip has been a new experience, after all it is my first time being overseas without a tour guide.
Today, we excitedly arrived at the airport, ready to begin our journey to Taipei, only to find out when we were in the plane that our departure had to be delayed for a short while due to heavy air traffic. In my heart i was thinking wow even planes have traffic jams! lol...
When we finally reached Taipei, yet another unfortunate incident took place. Our limousine, something that we have been anticipating for a long time, did not arrive! Apparently the driver from the local agent wasn't present, making us wait close to an hour before we finally gave up waiting and just went on to book another car. -_-"
But the time spent afterwards was pretty impressive. We went to Ximending, a hip and modern place popular among many youngsters in Taiwan, especially Taipei. I must say, most of the people who went to shop and hang out were really teenagers, otherwise young adults, either having a date or just hanging out with their friends.
Anyway, Ximending's layout hasn't changed much, with all the shops and buildings still strewn all over the place and (illegal! all running away at "certain" times!) hawkers selling various foods like 臭豆腐 and 卤味. There are still changes in Ximending, mostly the types of food sold there. It seems that recently the trend of food in Taiwan has shifted away from the traditional forms of food towards others cultures like Japanese and Western. As such we could see many ramen shops and sushi shops and western food stores selling fried chicken and stuff, pretty much so. It can be said that globalisation has definitely taken place here in ximending.
After exploring for a while, we decided to try out this food court that we stumbled upon in the basement of a building which sold various types of food.(duh its a food court!) In the end we ordered a chicken thigh set and a black pepper steak set. Portion was great, and so was the taste, except for one part, how well-cooked the meat was. Afterwards we decided to explore the deeper parts of Ximending, from boutiques selling clothes to grand and magnificent salons which had chandeliers installed to more food shops to watching street performances before going back to our hotel.
Alright tat's all for now, got to go sleep and regenerate. Stay tuned!
PS: Pls pardon my language, I'm already tired when I'm back in my hotel doing up this post.
