Day 4
It proved to be super hard to sleep cos (1) the room next door consisted of a bunch of girls who were chatting and laughing till wee hours I had to call front desk to help get them to keep their volume down (2) the husband has a strange blocked nose [which persisted for ALL THREE NIGHTS] and made strange snoring noises (3) queen sized bed really cmi. Even after taking my muscle relaxant, I still had problems sleeping. It was THAT BAD. The sound proofing of Ark really sucked. It's a real pity cos everything else was quite excellent.
Mos breakfast was either ham and egg, tomato and egg, or bacon and egg, with a beverage. The good thing is they will pick it up for you if you pass them your breakfast voucher but when I pick up the breakfast in the morning, the buns are usually lukewarm. Oh well, can't complain too much.
It was crazy cold in Taipei, unlike in Kaohsiung where the weather was milder. We took the 24 hour pass (360Twd for 2 pax) and made good use of it. First stop was to Gu Ting gym cos we had pigged out too much. After a good workout, we went back to Dong Men to have Qi Fan Shi Tang. Saw a long queue last night but thank goodness no queues during lunch. Ended up ordering super lot for two persons. And even added on more dishes subsequently, much to the embarrassment of me cos the male boss was amused that we (or maybe just me) were eating so much. Total damage: 1300Twd. Recommended dishes: pork liver (x2), Su zha xiao juan (x2). Qi Xiang dou fu, Zhao pai ji tui, Lu sun with scallops, Yu Juan and Lu rou fan was just okay. Their signature rice was actually zhu you ban fan but obviously we did not get that. Those interested can try.
Drew more Twd in the morning so we picked up another 2 boxes of Naruko. Super convenient this service. I will definitely make full use of it in future. Saw many other orders for books and blogshop items as well. After dumping the stuff in the room, we headed out again to Zhong xiao fu xing to pick up some Cai Tou Su from Lao tai yang tang shop. Ordered from Gomaji cos Groupon no longer accepts our credit card for payment (sad).
Then it was to Shi Zheng Fu for the Panda exhibition. En route we caught a glimpse of a rally/demonstration for Taipei independence. The Tobs was obviously not too impressed with the pandas but I thought they were quite cute and for a worthy cause! It wasn't long before we headed for Wu Fen Pu.
It was almost like Bangkok platinum mall, just outdoors. The style of the clothing didn't really suit me. I was pretty sure their sizes would not be very suitable as well. Tobs bought a jacket for 200Twd. Later I also got a white shrug and top for 700Twd. Shopping at Wu Fen Pu is confusing and tiring. Plus, people smoke all the time so it was kinda irritating.
When we headed for Rao He Night Market, it was already dark. And really cold. The night market was flooded with tourists and seemed really congested. We did have some good eats like Xin Jiang Yang Rou Chuan, Yu Zhong Yu (bao Jiang Yu yuan), Hong you chao shou, bao Jiang ji tui juan, run bing, and this Korean egg in egg with cheese snack. Ended off with bao xin fen yuan which was quite interesting (pearl with bean center). Overall, Rao He is not too bad for its variety but the crowd is really massive cos it's a huge hit with tourists.
Got back to hotel quite late and hit the bed soon after but still did not get a super good night's rest. Sigh.
Day 5
Today is Xi Men day. We went to our regular massage place for th 1350Twd 2 hours package. Was served by No. 5(T) and 35(G). It was good but I woke up today to discover a huge bruise on my right shin -___-". Went straight to Ma La after massage but found a queue and had to come back again at 2.30pm. So we shopped around and picked up contact lenses at pegavision and also grabbed papaya milk from Bei Hui. Own note: pegavision does not accept credit card. Spent 2000 (G) and 1000 (T) on pegavision.
When we were admitted, we weren't ravenous (thanks to Bei Hui) but Tobs did manage to eat a lot. For some reason (ageing?!?) my appetite has shrunk substantially and I cannot force myself to expand my capacity like I could in the past. So I had to be super selective. As usual Ma La was good and because of the cold weather, it was excellent. Just that I cannot have my fill of the ice cream cos it was just insane to have ice cream after the hot pot and offset any warming effect the Ma la pot has. So it was food coma and we had to go back to Dong Men. Headed to Cosmed to sweep up more stuff before dumping everything back in the room.
Headed out in the evening cos I still need some stuff to fill my tummy for dinner. Settled on the Tianjin Cong Zhua Bing (still awfully long queue) and got the zong hui without jiu ceng ta. We also went to si mo ji 2nd floor which required a minimum spending of 100Twd per person. We wouldn't have gone if it weren't for the insanely cold weather. Retired to the room quite early and spent a lot of time watching variety programmes, including one comparing the different beverages and how deceivingly unhealthy they can be. It was quite a shocker. Other programmes also address postural issues of office workers and a special feature on the 3-11 Japan earthquake. Time really just flies when you have so many programmes to watch.
Day 6
The Tobs refused to wake up after two consecutive nights of working till 3+am. I could stone around for 2 hours but I figured time is better spent in the gym. Headed down to Gu ting and did cardio while browsing the Cosmed catalogue. When I finished, we arranged to meet at Dong Men for lunch. It was Yong Kang Niu Rou Mian this time cos Lao Zhang is closed every Tuesday. Had large bowl of half beef half tendon, beef soup, 2 hong you chao shou and fen Zheng pai Gu. It was crazy lot especially considering we also had the Cong Zhua bing earlier. But last ditch at Taiwanese food man.
Back in the hotel, it was a challenge to pack to meet our weight limit - 25kg and 15kg but we did. Was really handy to have the portable weighing scale around as well. With our bursting luggages and handful of bags, our driver, Mr Shen, picked us up and brought us to the airport. And that was the end of our trip. If the weather was better, we would have done a lot more, including climbing Xiang Shan but oh well, next trip!!
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