This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

The bad thing about not having to rush to travel every morning is that you totally have no urgency to wake up early. No more early bird catching the worm, more of lazy bird waiting for hot sun to dry the worms. So we probably left the hostel at about 10am to start on the most impt mission of the day, going Taipei 101 looking for money-changer. By now, me n RH have more or less exhausted our original S$500 and were desperate for a money changer. In Taipei no cash still alright, you can still swipe n swipe. Out of Taipei and into small towns, it’s crucial to have cash on hand.

The thing about Taiwan is that probably due to currency controls, you can only change money at banks. No such thing as going to the nearest indian moneychanger like we are so used to in sg. Walking 1 street away to a Japanese bank’s branch, we got our 1st rejection of the day. They don’t take SGD, and instead directed us to a Bank of Taiwan’s branch 3 streets away. Eschewing the offer, we decided to make our way to Taipei 101 where it’s a financial hub and banks are aplenty. Taipei bank branches, most of them would deploy a junior staff member to stand at the waiting area to answer queries that ppl have, including foreigners like us. She would usually be somewhat attractive and wear this pair of white satin gloves. Taipei 101 is currently about 10 mins walk from the nearest MRT station, but that is set to change within a few yrs as they build the new Xinyi line. So for now, we have to take a free shuttle bus from City Hall station, our 1st ride on an intra-city bus and i noticed this interesting contraption.

The scooter sign folds out when the bus door opens, serving as an indication to riders who are attempting to squeeze between the kerb and the bus, that passengers are getting on/off the bus. Very impt in taipei, where every sq inch of road space is taken up.

The interiors of Taipei 101’s mall is damn posh. Basically the cheapest stores there are McDonalds and Watsons, the rest are all atas-atas outlets like LV, Armani and the likes, including a store that uses a 20k motorcycle as a display item.


The pic on the right, you can see the top floor has an entire row of bank branches, of which none of them takes SGD.

WTF???!!!

Turns out that a grand total of 2 banks handle SGD in Taiwan - The Bank of Taiwan and ChinaTrust. Truly fucked up.. See that’s what happens to a country who doesn’t support Taiwan officially and yet not so impt until Taiwan has to carry balls for that country.

Anyway it was too foggy to waste time and money going up the tower. It costs NT$320 to go up to the 89th level and 100 more to go up 2 more levels to the outdoor observatory. We settled for lunch at the food court instead, full of expensive outlets..like more than 6 dollars for a decent meal there.. I thought i found a gem though…

Decent Ribeye steak with salad, soup and drink for NT200

Not wanting to make a wasted trip, and partly also to do a “We were here @ Taipei 101″ declaration, we opted for the customary photo…

The 3 Musketeers

Taking this shot presented a certain amount of risk to the photographer, with him sprawled on floor n pointing the camera upwards. The subject then takes a position with his feet like inches away from the photographer’s groin. Make sure that u’re gum with the subject b4 attempting to take such shots.

Pretty foggy and the contours of the building made it impossible to see the top when standing at its base.. looks like petronas towers lose liaoz.. Anyway onto ronghua’s most craved-for item…

Mister Donut

Best donuts ever, according to him. Seriously i think it’s a big bunch of balooney in a way. Firstly their donuts are cold and decidedly stale in texture. Of course if you look at it from the other angle, it’s tangy and Q Q but i like my dough products fresh? They do excel with the sheer amount of variety, product differentiation.. And of cos the “No Photography” rule, I had to take this shot on the sly..my back was facing the counter n the camera was under my armpit.

We finally found our bank at 3.36pm back near the MRT, and the bank branch closes @ 3.30pm! Luckily we just entered despite half of the shutter gates being closed as we could see many ppl inside still. The security guard was nice enuff to let us enter after telling us “下一次早点来。。” Not the end of the story, you still have to fill up a form, show your passport for verification before they show u the money.. the rate was pretty decent, though not as good as Chinatown’s..

Next stop was Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, which doubles up as a performance venue.

Actually we came here just to compare the standards of the guard-change parade, expecting it to be manned by Army guards, since CKS was manned by Navy and Martyrs’, Air Force. Turns out that the Navy mans it, looks like kena more arrow.

The rifle tricks look good but nothing compared to the Air Force ppl at Martyrs…
Air Force ppl got toss rifles, dun pray pray..

IT shopping next on the menu, at this place called Nova Square, and it’s essentially like Sim Lim Sq. Prices were not really that good, like few dollars difference from Singapore. The Sandisk 1gig memory stick that i bought was in fact slightly cheaper in sg, but what the heck, i needed the card. Managed to transfer my existing photos to a CD at a photoshop for only NT$30, pretty good deal.

Dinner, we found this place called Pepper Lunch, which apparently originated from Japan, and their posters made it seem like Taiwan’s the 1st outlet out of Japan. Pretty cool store, with DIY hotplate. The meat n veg comes to you half cooked and u have to finish the cooking on the 270 deg C hotplate. I liked their menus…

That explains how long we took to decide wat to eat…
Here, make u ppl feel hungry….

Huaxi Street 华西街: I remember my RSM saying back in 2001 when we were in Taiwan for army exercise that when we go Taipei, we should not go to Huaxi Street, as it is notorious. He recalled the story of the army sergeant who was dragged into one of the many “teahouses”, where for a low cover charge you can get 小姐 to come drink tea with you. The only problem is that the tea is priced extremely high. Big deal, how much can you and the gals drink. Big mistake, the gals drink like camels and the sergeant walked out with a S$200 bill. Note the currency involved and note that he didnt get any action, so to speak…

Huaxi was definitely quieter than Shilin, and more exotic stuff…


My insistence on not using flash unless absolutely necessary has some problems obviously. The shot of the doggy, you can see the red nettings at the side. Those are used to put birds for sale. One bird per net, so not enuff for you to do a Richard Gere here, besides the fact that they only take cash.. Porno vcd shops are really common here, i forgot to take the pic of another signboard that made the following claim: “Uncensored Hard Core Movies”

Somehow we managed to walk into one of the back lorongs and found the really dodgy side of town. Massage parlours, whorehouses mesquerading as budget hotels, and of cos, the teahouses. The 3 of us nearly got pulled into one, cover charge NT$100, and per 小姐 will cost NT$300. Not so exp, but heng i noe about their business model.

The only chance that i got to see Ronghua being squirmish was at the snake shop…where they serve snake delicacies… We ordered the snake meat soup, which positively tasted like chicken soup.

Ronghua wasnt keen on trying the soup, after learning that it came from a type of cobra.. But we forced him to and he gave face by having a few sips of the soup. No issue as me and boon liang was enjoying the meat, though it was pretty bony.

The shop had some exhibits…

Turns out that some of snake shops offer packages, NT$300 for cobra soup, gall (蛇胆), blood, and venom. And they prep the live snake in front of you. Again, no pictures allowed. I would have tried, but both BL and RH wasn’t so gian.

The nite has to end with food… 盐酥鸡

Forgot to take pic of the papaya milk…

The complexities of 华西街 were summed up when we were about to leave the area. This man was disturbing one of the female stallholders, somehow i guess that they were a divorced couple and the man came back to disturb her. The lady was holding on to a metal bar n wanted to beat him but she was held back. The man was chased off by another guy, who threatened to hamtam him… All in all, huaxi was a pretty interesting place but not somewhere that i would recommend you go to alone, or even for a grp of gals…