Taichung

day 1 : 13th Dec 2012

It's time to escape the scorching sun in Penang and fly to a winter wonderland! Funny the Westerners escape the winter and fly to the Bahamas, Bali or some tropical hot spots. While we like to flee to their country when it is deemed at a miserable temperature state.

This time, Hobs, Fumi & I were not heading west. Instead, we are heading further east and climbing up to the Tropic of Cancer.

Peering out the airplane as we landed at Taoyuan aiport, it didn't look at all like winter. Oh man...

We loaded up our luggages and probably spent almost an hour in the airport getting local SIM cards, playing with the state of the art technology that captures your face and projected it for everyone in the airport to see!

We got ourselves into the U-bus (NT30) to catch the High Speed Rail (HSR) to TaiChung. Operating at 300km/h, the HSR has become one of Taiwan's tourist attraction and a must try (some say). Since we're heading over to TaiChung and wanted to save an otherwise 3 hours car ride, we took the HSR which amazingly transported us to the heart of TaiChung in just 38 minutes!

The HSR was packed that day and we had to stand with our luggages. I felt light-footed with an almost flying effect when the train accelerated to its max speed.As the train speed stabilized, everything fell back into place with a peaceful atmosphere. We were totally oblivious of how fast the train was carrying us. The interior looks like an airplane cabin with a train stewardess pushing a trolley of food for sale.

We arrived in TaiChung on time and made our way to our hostel located within the Feng Jia night market. It was just 5PM but the sky has darkened as if it's 8PM back home. Fumi made a call to our hostel as we've been told it's not easy to find it. We were guided by phone towards an alley and the person in charge will meet us at the end of it. Then, he will guide us personally to our room. Hmm...the whole thing sounds like some underground gangsta deal. We found the dude and he guided us to this building. 

You gotta be kidding me!

He led us passed a steel door and the 4 of us cramped into a tiny beat up lift. The lift opened up to a hallway filled with the smell of cigarette. Rooms emerged at every nook and corner. There was even a room directly in front of the lift. It's like the person can just step into the lift as soon as he comes out of his room. 

The dude led us to our room...

Wow! It felt like we entered into a different realm as we stepped into our room. It looks so welcoming and that night, we had a Doraemon themed room :) Filled with Doraemons everywhere, Doraemon sandals, Doraemon comics, Nobita's baseball bat & gloves, baskets of Doraemon toys. I sat on the desk and checked out the drawer. Lo and behold, they even had Nobita's teleport drawer with its teleport gear and all.

The night is still young and we're hungry. Feng Jia market was so huge and colourful, I really don't know what to eat for dinner. The variety of food and drinks offered was endless.

So we had the Taiwan style corn dog at just TWD10! It was so hot, crispy and yummy that I had to order 2 sticks. 

Suddenly, a wave of sewer smell swept by. I looked at the next store and it's the infamous smelly tofu! All right, so one of our "mission" was to try the smelly tofu in Taiwan. But we've decided not to spoil our first day in Taiwan eating sewer aka garbage smelling stuff and try it on the last day in Taiwan. Stay tuned...

Kids selling stuff

There are countless stalls selling milk tea, bubble tea bla bla bla....oh which one should we choose?

The tiramisu chocolate milk in this stall looks really tempting

So, we treated ourselves with some yummy drinks here

Don't know what's this or how it taste like but we bought it anyway. I don't really like it though

Then we got ourselves fried sweet potatoes with sprinkles of sweet and spicy powder. Once you pop you can't stop and the potatoes filled our stomach really quickly. Causing our precious stomach space limited to probably 2 more serving of food.

This stall sells unique looking dessert. I ordered my most bizarre banana split drenched in condensed milk, yogurt and sprinkles of candies. I took a bite and gave it to the guys.

This doggie did not look pleased at all

Tidak halal!

We were admiring the hats in this stall when I saw something moved. One of the stuff here is alive! Can you spot it? (Scroll to the bottom if you can't find it)

We were pretty tired and we only finished the main street of the night market. Couldn't eat as much as what we thought we could. Probably due to the exhaustion with all the travelling we did since early this morning. We wandered around aimlessly and came out to the main road where the bigger shops are. 

I stumbled upon the Poya House and couldn't resist its bright lights. Inside, I was blown away with so many varieties of girly stuff. Make ups, toiletries, skin care, hair products, scrubs, perfumes bla bla bla...

Rows of facial masks! In Taiwan, the cost of mask is at least half the price back at home. Which one should I choose? Help!

By the time I got to level 2 of the Poya House, I was getting light headed. Too many stuff to see and I haven't even get to level 3 yet. Level 2 treats girls with cute accessories and fashion items. Level 3 was filled with miscellaneous stuff from junk food to stationery. Everything were so cute! My energy was seeped dry in this Poya house alone.

I met up with Hobs & Fumi again who wandered off to their own favourite shops down the road. All of us were so psyched. Even if we could not buy most of the stuff back home but our eyes and soul were well feasted :)

Oh yeah...here's the "thing"