I went to Taiwan(Taipei) from 12 Dec to 18 Dec. The weather was superb- cool and windy. I had fun browsing the Night markets like Shilin which was the biggest, Shida where things were rather cheap and Gongguan where a huge variety of food was sold. However, I did not really enjoy Taiwanese food. Almost everything was fried.. very oily..but I do love the mee sua. Also, things were rather ex.. I bought about 4 earrings, a necklace and some knick knacks. But they were rather expensive.. I didn't buy much.. Didn't even use the extra luggage that I had brought along :(
We went for a one-day tour and had fun. Visited beautiful Yeliu(saw many natural rock forms), Cultural Jiu Feng and some shops where I bought a small tin of green tea for OMG SGD$90.. Apparently it is very good for removing the oily contents from your stomach!!! I learnt about tea drinking in Taiwan and bought some home. Good tea is really different- very smooth and there is no bitter aftertaste... I also went to the Beitou Hot springs.. really shiok man to dip in hot spring water on a cold day.. I shared a room with Cal. The good thing is that we are alone but it is a tad boring because there is no scenic view... I heard if you go to a public pool, you may get to admire the beautiful Taipei scenery. But our hot spring dip was arranged by the tour agent so we can't choose.
On the last night in Taiwan, I decided to be adventurous and tried a lot of food from the road side stalls.. and I suffered throughout the night.. Was nauseous and vomited.. At first , I thought I had indigestion. But my stomach churned the whole night.... the Pharmicist said it is stomach flu but I feel it is food poisioning. Thank God it only happened on the last day of my visit.
What I love about Taiwan is that the people there are really nice and polite. They seem very honest and helpful. The salespeople are very polite, friendly and they dun get upset when you dun buy anything. People there are very considerate. They give way, stand on one side on the escalator so that others can overtake them..They dun have the ugly Singaporean 'kiasu' attitude.. they dun push and jump queue! Also they love dogs. The dogs is Taipei get to accompany their owners almost everywhere. I have never seen so many pet dogs in a mall or night market before. I even watched a street performance where this man brought 13 dogs out and get them to perform simple tricks.
On the whole, Taipei is a lovely city with really polite and friendly people. You can't tell a Singaporean and a Taiwanese apart until the Singaporean opens his mouth and sprouts Singlish. However, for a shopaholic like myself..I left Taipei rather empty-handed and sick.
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To drop 15kg