Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Taipei trip -- Day 3

Day 3 -- 6 March 2006 (Mon)


What I’d term as “High High High” ( or 高高) day. :P
As we visted the tallest skyscraper in the world --- Taipei 101 and the second tallest Ferris Wheel at Miramar.

Ok , once again, I shall begin my 流水账。

Had breakfast again at the hotel’s café. Same old stuff, just that the hams were replaced by a dish of fried tow-kuah.

Took the MRT to Taipei Main Station as I need to exchange the old $500 and $100 notes which my mum had passed to me at the 台湾银行. Yeah, NTW$700 more to spend. That is abt S$35.

Before I continue, let me insert this highlighted section of the MRT line for easy reference later.




Decided to visit the 24 hr Eslite Bookstore (城品书局) located at Junction of Ren Ai Rd and Tun Hua Rd. Hence we took the train and alighted at Zhong Xiao Dun Hua (忠孝敦化) Station.

More details of the bookstore chain can be found at : http://www.eslitebooks.com/


As we walked past the buildings, I spotted the optics shop德恩堂 , which products had been endorsed by Li Sheng Jie last year. Haha, so guessed what I did? I thought of passing by the shop, to “beo” if they still have posters of him hanging in their interiors. That was what I did after we had visited Cheng Pin, and to my disappointment , there were no signs of “Him”.

Now back to城品书局 . The thing abt Taiwan is that their signages were placed rather at a distance, hence even with maps in our hand, we were still unsure we were on the right track as we could not identify which street we were at after walking past a few buildings.

Asked a lady and her reply was “噢，往前一点就是了。” If we were in Singapore, we will interpret the “前一点” as tin the building was very near, that is, the next building. But 在台北“混”了两天，knew that their “前一点” could mean that it was located at a few buildings ahead. And true it was. We had to walk passed a building, and a construction area, then crossed a road and saw this building:



This Eslite bookstore took up a few levels of the building (B2 to lev 2, if I am not wrong) and though it was known as “24 hr” bookstore, not every level operates 24 hrs. When we reach there, it was ard 10.30am. Haha, blur blur me decided to explore B2 first, where the stationery department is located. And even though we were greeted by some stands that act as barricade as the lift doors opened, we simply went straight ahead to the department as the doors were opened.

Had a feeling that something was amiss when we din see anyone at the counter, but heard some voices coming out from the room behind the counter. Still presume that it was early and there were no customers other than us, and we still explore around while waiting for some staff to come out from the room.

Then a man came out, obviously shocked to see intruders. But then he politely informed us that the department does not operate until 11am and we can explore Level 2 which operates 24 hrs. With that he closed the door. Perhaps he didn’t close the door and that’s why he didn’t scream at us. Keke.

Explored Level 2. Saw quite a few magazines with MeiLian’s hubby featured on their covers. Spotted a few other foreign magazines (craft work magazines lah) which I often bought in Singapore, but they cost more in Taiwan. So I just explore ard, browing through those books relating to design (for fun only) and then browse ard their top seller lists. Didn’t purchase any books as firstly, those can be purchased in Singapore and secondly, they will simply add on to my baggage weight.

Flutterby was different; she bought a few books as she was attracted by their packaging. Yah “packaging”, one of the books actually came in a straw bag.

Next agenda: 忠孝东路走九遍。

Since we were at忠孝东路, we decided to do a real life version of Power Station’s song – to walk down Zhong Xiao East Road 9 times. See we have pics to prove.



See we were really at different sections of 忠孝东路. Can see that at times I was tired, at times I was lost.

Hahaha. Gotcha! The truth was actually more of a 忠孝东路拍九遍. It was such a long road. Walked once already left us dead tired. Especially where we bought some local snacks such as Pineapple tarts and baked muah-chee along the way.

And much to our surprise, we had actually walked from忠孝敦化 Station to 国父纪念馆 station! Initially tought of having lunch at one of the cafes in one of the shopping centres, but we dicided to give it a miss as we dun seems to be able to find the café, hence we decided to try out the take-away available at 7-Eleven.
Flutterby had heard that their take-aways, especially Chicken Cutlet Rice, are very delicious. She managed to grabbed the last pack (ard S$2.50) and I purchases a seafood Mui-fan .

Kaoz. Really tasty man! 连便当都这么好吃！ And the meat was sooooo thick.
Because the food was so delicious, we couldn’t be bothered with those office workers who walked past and stared at us (cos we simply just sat down on the corridor to have our meals). Hmmm, 听起来有点凄凉，怎么我们沦落到在街上吃饭了！haha.

Guessed what? We were super blur! After our meal, we simply took the train back to Taipei Main station, forgetting our main purpose to walk along 忠孝东路 was to visit Jay Chou’s shop –Omni, which was located there. We totally forgot abt it until the next day, when we were abt to depart Taipei and saw a restaurant also named Omni at the airport departure hall!

Ok, next stop: 台北车站 (Taipei Main Station), to explore the tallest skyscraper in the world (is it still the tallest this year?). We had done our homework and knew that there is a free shuttle bus which will take us to the building from the MRT station.

Website of Taipei 101: http://www.tfc101.com.tw/



Already went “wow!!!” as we approach the building. Of cos we went snapping pics of it exteriors. Went into the mall, and snapped some more pics. Took pics of the lobby, took pics in the lifts (we seems to have fun taking pics of relections).
Reached Level 5, which is the entrance to The Observatory (89th storey). Contemplated buying the tickets as each cost NTW$350 (S$17.50). Rather expensive hor. Fannie told me that for her Taiwan trip last year, she and her friends simply just stroll outside the building, “wow” at it, took pics and left liao. Flutterby and I decided to purchase the tickets in the end, simply because 我们竟然都到此地了.

Quite an experience, especially the lift ride. It took only abt 37sec for us to reach 89th floor from 5th floor. Can really feel the pressure in our ears. When u looked up at the lift’s ceiling, you can see stars shining ( and we went “woah!!!!”).

The observatory was like a mini science centre. Saw wall panels of different designed but on a closer look, they were actually made up of the patterns “101”. Each wall panel also states a short trivia of the building. Then I went around the area, taking pic of each trivia. Flutterby somehow found that her dressing that say was similar to one of the female model in a poster and asked me to take another “kee siao pic”, where she posed exactly the same way as the model.

Went to see the damper (the big round structure which is to stabilise the building) and watch a short multimedia clip on its construction. Then it’s was my turn to strike a kee-siao pose. I looked at the view, and gave a “ 哇！这么高。要跳楼肯定死” look.

If you think we weren’t kee-siao enough, sorry lah. There’s more.

When we went back to 5th floor (the pressure we experience when the lift was descending was greater, really need to swallow saliva to ease the discomfort), saw 2 colourful Day and Night scene of the Taipei 101 building , and we continued our “kee siao phototaking”. Then upon seeing the lift lobby was covered with mirrors, we experiment taking pics of our reflections.

Ok, here are some of the pics taken at Taipei 101




Next stop was New York New York, another shopping mall located opposite Taipei 101. Saw a Statue of Liberty. Then I suggest buying a sundae (not ice-cream cone, as it will create a mess when the ice-cream melt) and pose exactly like Liberty, except we have ice-cream cup instead of torch in our hands.

Thought I could quickly get away with it, but Flutterbly seems to be a perfectionist when taking pics. She commented that my hands were not stretch out as straight as Liberty, and made me pose again. I can see the group of guys (locals) who were taking pics before us stopped to look, and those motorists waiting for the traffic junction glancing in our direction.　真丢脸！ Then it was Flutterby’s turn.




Apparently what we did inspired the guys. Flutterby saw them digged out a bottle (looked like detergent bottle) and they took pics again, mimicking our poses. Hahahahaha.

With that we left Taipei Main Station and proceeded to剑潭station. Notice that there were ppl giving out supplements of the tabloid 苹果日报. Really regret not taking it then, come to think of it. It would serve as a great souvenir. Further more the reports were all on Lee Ang having won the Best Director for Oscar. Remembered last year in Singapore, supplements on the Superstar were sold for $0.70 each, not given free.


Next place of interest on our “agenda” was Miramar Ferris Wheel 美丽华摩天轮, the second tallest Ferris Wheel in the world. Had seen pic of its structure with green neon light gleaming when the sky is dark. It was abt 33 storey tall and the ride cost NTW $150 on weekdays and NTW$200 on weekends. .So u can see why we decided to visit it on Monday instead on Sunday.

More info on this website: http://www.miramar.com.tw/

Took a free shuttle ride from 剑潭station. Was wondering why Flutterby stated in her notes that there is no free shuttle bus for return ride from the Miramar Building though I saw the schedule at the bus stop. Then realized that she had mistaken the Chinese phrase “末班车 22:30　（回程不载客）” as no return rides for all. Anyway it was great knowing that we have free shuttle rides, hence saved $ on transportation.
Had dinner at one of the pasta café opposite the Miramar building. Then we into Miramar and took escalator up to the 5th floor, where the entrance to the Ferris Wheel is located. Noticed that there weren;t many people hanging out in the large mall. (When I checked with JQ a few days later, she mentioned that they seldom hang out on weekdays.) And much to our surprise, we were the 3th and 4th people (out of the 4) who took the ride at that round. We were prepared to wait for at least 30 mins (that was what we had read in forums and other reviews).

Remember I had mention abt the term “半票” used it Taiwan/ When we went to purchase our Ferris Wheel tickets, the ticketing staff kept on asking “全票还是半票”. And Flutterby whispered to me:
“Huh 有半票？可以坐一半就跳下来？”

And I just shooed her away, saying that it might have a different meaning. Actually I was also unsure what the term mean. And when we got off the Ferris Wheel, we saw that the couple continue their ride. Hence I presume they had bought tickets for unlimited rides.

When I questioned JQ on the term “半票”, I really burst out laughing when I thought of the comment Flutterby made. “半票” is what we would termed as “concession or discounted tickets for students/army guys”. Hmmm so the ticketing staff might have thought we are students. ( hey Sips, 人家都觉得我们年轻了，看你还敢叫我们Aunty吗！)

The whole ride took abt 17 mins. The view was so beautiful. Can see Taipei 101 afar. Too bad our cameras failed to capture the night scene well.





That’s all for Day 3.

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