New Year’s day and it was 1 more day with hubby at Taipei before I came home first!
The streets were quieter this morning. Maybe everyone else decided to start the day even later than us. Today, we decided to go shopping around the hotel area. We walked along Chunri Road and in 5mins, we arrived at 桃园JC Park Mall that had some restaurants, coffee place and retail outlets. As the traditional breakfast place I went on Day 2 was closed on New Year’s day, we had our breakfast at Louisa Coffee.
Although we could have take a direct bus to Taipei, we wanted to explore the shopping streets near Taoyuan train station. We took another 25mins walk and reached Jingfu Temple (景福宮). Built in 1809, this temple is already 200 years old. It was a feast to the eyes to look at the architectural details, intrinsic wood and stone carvings in the building. It was also said that businesses along the Zhongzheng Road and Minsheng road were developed from Jingfu Temple.
Next to the temple, we found a shop that sold the all-time-favourite in Taiwan, Oyster Mee Sua and we stopped to have a bowl together with the locals. From the main entrance of Jingfu Temple, we continued our walk South along Zhongzheng Road which was like the shopping street of Taoyuan. International brands such as The Face Shop, Nike and Daiso can be found here. And lastly, we reached the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Taoyuan Station Store before we finally reached the train station.
By now, there was still 1 more Taiwan delicacy that I have not found during this trip. I walked along the underground streets of the main station and finally found the bento sets!! I 1st tried it when we came in 2013 on the train and fell in love with it. Despite not taking the train this time, I still wanted to eat it. Here’s me very happy with my bento set!
Thereafter, we took a train to Chia Te Bakery at the Songshan District in Taipei (nearest station Nanjing Sanmin). We’ve heard it was good and popular among tourists. But nonetheless, we were still shocked by the queue we saw outside the shop. We decided it would be a good gift to bring back to Singapore, so we joined the queue. Although some of the products were sold out by the time we went in, we still bought a few boxes. The shop could deliver the goods to the hotel if you want to have it later and fresher.
That night, we decided to have a good dinner before I return to Singapore. Under the recommendations from friends, we decided to head to a Sushi restaurant near Nanjing Fuxing station which was just 2 stations away. From the station, we took a 10mins along Fuxing South Road and then turned into Section 2 Bade Road. Manjedad Sushi Restaurant 瞞著爹 壽司店 was finally in sight. I really like the name. Isn’t it easy to remember?! From the exterior decorations to the interior seating, it gave a feeling of an authentic Japanese restaurant. We took our seats along the bar and started ordering sushi from a piece of paper on the table. Although the price of the sushi costs like those we have in Singapore (not the price we expect to pay in Taiwan), the freshness of the sushi was worth every cent!
The following morning, I took a flight back to Singapore alone while hubby stayed behind for work for a few more days. Although this was a rather last minute (and expensive) trip, I was glad to have been able to spend my 1st overseas countdown experience with hubby at Taipei, a very much loved country in my heart. Taoyuan, a town which many tourists conveniently bypass after touching down at the airport, is certainly a place worth exploring as there are so much cultural and heritage left behind.
Funny encounter on plane: As we all know, the 1st row of seats next to the emergency doors in the planes are those with larger leg room and they are usually reserved for adult travellers (who are not pregnant or old) because in the event of emergency, these people would have to help cabin crew in opening the doors. So this time, as a single adult traveller, the airline decided to allocate me such a seat. Good for leg room though!
However, because of the extra leg room, tv screens are slot under the armrest of the seat, just like those chairs in lecture hall. Everything seemed fine, until the lady next to me started to fall into deep deeeeep sleep with her legs extended over to my side and blocking my table and screen. I had difficulties pulling out my table when meals were served. And when I was done with my meal, I encountered another difficulty pulling out my screen. I tried to tap her. Cabin crew tried to call out to her and wake her. All these methods did not work. Eventually, I decided to gently push her leg away, all these while with her still sleeping with the eye mask on.
When we were approaching Singapore, I finally saw her shift her body. Phew! I was really so worried she had died! And how would she be able to help cabin crew during the unlikely event of an emergency when she was so soundly asleep??!!
Perrine Travels 