Taipei Zoo

Taipei Zoo is huge.. Or perhaps should I say most countries’ zoo are huge as compared to Singapore’s.. They have much more land to spare.. I’m not really used to the hugeness of overseas’ zoos. Taipei zoo was no exception.. It’s huge to the extent that I gotta walk almost 5 mins from one zone to another zone and end up looking at such 1 or 2 animals per exhibit.. But hey, NT$60(SGD$3) for an entry ticket is totally worth the visit. Another thing worth mentioning is the tram service.. It’s amazingly cheap, it cost just NT$5(SGD$0.20) for a ride. Even though it’s charged on a per trip basis, it’s still cheaper than Singapore’s $5 tram service.. As in who would keep taking the tram?

Lovely cuties in Taipei

While we were in the Taipei 101 area, we came across this cute mascots for some “Love” event, or perhaps it was some sort of campaign that is going on in Taipei..

Taipei Day 2 – 迪化街

Since Chinese New Year happened to be around the corner during our trip, 迪化街 aka Di Hua Street was one place that we should never miss. Di Hua Street is somewhat similar to Singapore’s Chinatown. It’s a street where everyone goes to do their Chinese New Year shopping, it’s full of Chinese New Year goodies. And as expected, it has to be very crowded in order to have the festive mood.

Taipei Day 1

Back in Taipei after 6 months.. Really missed this place but the weather is so different from 5 months ago but luckily, it’s not cold to the extent of freezing.. Hehe..

Since it was a Sunday, I guessed the best place to visit first would be 淡水 as I have a feeling that 淡水 is a place one should visit during a weekend as it would be bustling with people and activities..

Raohe St. Night Market

The place that you MUST visit when in Taiwan is the night markets.. You can get lots of 小吃s (especially my smelly tofu :D), and at some night markets, you can to do lots of shopping for clothes, accessories, bags, etc.

First night market for our trip was Raohe St. Night Market. It was a walkable distance from Wu Fen Pu (五分埔), where we spent hours shopping. Unfortunately for us, it was raining heavily on the first day of our trip, and we had to find our way around in the rain with an umbrella in hand.. The longer we walk, the heavier the rain got.. But… I guess it was kinda “a blessing in disguise”? Cos when we reached Raohe Night Market, it wasn’t crowded.. 😀 And since it was raining extremely heavy, we decided to buy the food back to the hotel and slowly enjoy it instead of eating it in the rain.. Well, with the exception of my smelly tofu… I wouldn’t want to stink the cab with it..

Off to Taipei 101

Speaking of our hotel choice, I guess I can say that our hotel was conveniently located near the heart of the shopping district – Ximending. With lots of yummy food choices around our hotel and with the train station just a 2 mins walk away.

Our first meal of our trip was Beef noodles just round the corner of our hotel. We heard that it was a rather famous stall with the locals around there, and it was one of the “original” stalls. The beef noodles are really awesome, the beef would melt away the moment you eat it. It’s very tender, and not as fatty as the ones we have in Singapore.

Mission accomplished in Taiwan

I gave myself a mission to complete during my trip to Taiwan.. That mission was – to eat smelly tofu every single day.. And I managed to accomplished it and I was a happy gal.. Wherever I went, I kept my nose wide open for the wonderful smell of Smelly Tofu.. 😀 And like what people have been saying, the more it stinks,  it means it’s more delicious..

Different from Singapore’s night markets, they have different types of Smelly tofu – Grilled Smelly Tofu (I personally don’t find it nice, it wasn’t smelly enough), Smelly Tofu in Spicy soup (didn’t try it as I didn’t wanna risk getting a tummy ache from the spiciness), and finally fried Smelly Tofu (the best version and also the version that we have in Singapore). Perhaps there are more variations of Smelly Tofu that I didn’t come across…

Fried Smelly Tofu

Grilled Smelly Tofu

Oh… Apparently, Smelly Tofu is supposed to be good for digestion as it’s fermented.. Well, that’s what some stall owners said.. Whether it’s true anot, I’m not too sure.. But I guess it does makes sense, just like how people assume Yakult is good for digestion.. Both are fermented too, aren’t they? *wonders*