Taipei Day 2 (spring)

 Because of jetlag I woke up around 5am....

Someone with a really squeaky wheel rolled past the hallway at something am in the morning.... 

I've gotten dressed am all ready for the day, and scouted out a breakfast shop. Just waiting for everyone else to get ready now!

Once everyone was ready we headed out to the breakfast shop I counted earlier. 麥而美 the name is called. It was about 7:30am when I arrived and there was a corner table free! Score,

I got some beloved lobogao with fried egg and danbing with corn. Some hash to share amongst the table and some chicken balls. Their lobogao sauce has garlic in it.... Yuck. But it Is a tolerable amount,. Yummy. 

Once done we headed back to the hotel to grab some stuffs. On the way we stopped in a Watson for M to grab some stuff she needed. After that we then headed out to MRT Beimen station to see the relics, because that's the only thing open at this time of the day. 

We looked at the relics inside and then headed out to see the old city gate next to the Railway Museum. We ended up going into the Railway Museum and spent 4 hours there. The entry ticket was $100. 

We started looking at the wall remnants and touched Qing dynasty wall, hehehe. 

They had a bunker (that was not open for visiting), and an octagon which used to be a men's public restroom with urinals all facing inwards in the middle. The women's rstrooms were added later as part of renovations. 

Then we went into the gift shop there and I bought some postcards, and a Green Running Man from a crossing light IC card voer. It moves! It's one of those 3D pictures that moves depending on the angle. 

Then we went into the main exhibit hall, and saw the model diorama at the scheduled show time of 10:30am. The trains drive out and it was neat!!

The rest of the hall on 2F had heaaaaps of rail history information in each room. Also memorial stamps! There's also a  film exhibit as well that's like a special arts and culture exhibit that we did not stay for. 

The president's room has baroque plaster decorations on the wall, which they had to restore after the earthquake. There was a exhibit about the restoration too. 

There's also a little toilet on the side with 花磚 that had a TV and 2 stools showcasing something. I didn't have time to sit and look... 

After upstairs, there's more exhibits downstairs too. I got halfway and then we went for lunch. The cafe was really empty, great!! And the windows and doors were open. I got spaghetti bolgnese and L and I couldn't tell our drinks apart so we accidentally had each other's one. I really wanted to try the lemon black tea, and ended up going back for it before we left the museum. $90 for the drink and worth it. 

Back into the exhibit hall and the ladies at the info desk asked if we were re-entering and if we wanted a stamp for re-entry? 

We got stamped anyway and it's such a cute stamp, I asked for one in my stamp book. 

One side was a complete carriage set up of the old KuangKuo railcards that had dining tables in it.  The way the did the windows was really cool, with the glass matte and moving lights imitated a moving carriage. 

Soooo much history and exhibits, and all so cool! After I went back for my lemon tea drink, we sat in the court area outside the gift shop to drink. There were a group of school kids on a trip. 

Once we left we headed towards Dadaocheng and started browsing the shops and getting the stamps. 

The info centre had a 2F with a old time tea bar. They also showed me the new stamps some shop had, and an exhibit at Sin Hong Choon 新芳春茶行 a historical tea trading company. 

The exhibit introduced 13 historical bui康首千末ldings around Dihua St. This was really cool to learn. Sin Hong Choon had a open sky hole inside the building for natural light and ventilation. That was cool!! 

Then my Cuz 康康 said he was almost at Ximen station, where I agreed to meet him to grab my stuffs. Oh no. I am 30 mins walk away! It is 5:45pm.

 Told him where I am and he said he'll meet me at Beimen. Oh phew thank you! 

I was almost to the MRT station when I met him up by Y23 exit (I had shared my location). I had just arranged to split up with L&M as they wanted to see the Underground Mall, and just as we did my Cuz waved hi at me. He passed me my stuff and said we could possible go to a nightmarket and pointed out 2 famous spots on the MRT lines.  Sweet, thanks Cuz!! 

Then I followed down into the mall and met up with L&M. They had spotted the plush shop right across from the exit and then M bought a fat pudgy cat plush that kinda looked like their cat Rii. It was $1395. 

Then to the Muse store where we spent a wee while. I ended up getting a Tondemo Skill mousepad for $180. L got a Kirito rain jacket, and M got a new Frieren passport cover pouch. 

Then we started to walk down the street, to look for food and also I was looking for Aiolos for Lake. I looked in every recycle shop and turns out he had sold out.... Goddammit why didn't you speak up and tell me then!! Silly boy. 

It was about 7:30pm now and we started to walk out of the mall, but kept getting distracted. Very understandable... You can't help but want to look at everything! 

We made it back to Ximen, and decided on a quick dinner at DONKI. But the time I realised and figured out where the bentou stuff was in DONKI, it was already like 8pm.... Their microwave was outside! For heating up the food. 

And we got back and finished dinner around 9pm. RIP my feet actually hurt a lot and I was hobbling a bit. 

After dinner and rehydration, I took a shower, and finished blogging. Sleep, another day with lots of walking tomorrow! 

Taiwan Day 1 - Taipei (spring)

 This time I am here with my two friends!! 

We got up early and left the house at 7am, and got to the airport. Because our passports had been changed, we couldn't check in online but they let us check in at the kiosks lol. 

The flight was bumpy and I watched Saumrai Time Slipper, and Look Back on the plane. They had a good show selection, 

They served dinner late and by that time I was feeling sick from sitting so long and kinda ill. I felt better when I stood up though, and then ill again when I sit down. As a result I didn't eat much at all for dinner - the beef was was too salty just for the potatoes. The pork belly for lunch was better and I devoured that fast,. 

Once we landed we went through baggage screening before reaching immigration. They have added NZ passports to the e-gates now!! But I chose to go in the line anyway cause I want a physical stamp... 

Soz friends we ended up waiting a bit longer than we needed to, 

Once we got out, L went to pick up his pocket WiFi, and I went to sort out sending out a luggage back down to Taichung with Pelican Express. 

I made sure to get the stamps from the info desk and then we opted to get a taxi to our hotel. Since we had big suitcases and we got a minivan for $1800 to Taipei. Our hotel ended up being right in the middle of Ximending LOL! I did not realise/check that. 

The hotel is old but it has two openable windows in our room!!! 807. 

Wow the noise from the street performance can be heard. XD But they quietened down by about 9pm.

After I showered I pretty much just died into the bed. 

Taiwan Day 36 (Taichung 8) return to NZ

 I'm so sad that I have to go back to NZ. :(

I woke up and had some oats but not too much. Then I tidied up the rest of my toiletries and laundry, and juggled the luggage around. At 10am Air NZ sent me a push notif telling me my flight was delayed by 2.5 hrs... what...

It resulted in me trying to call people and organising... If Meilin ayi was time sensitive on going back to Tainan, and if 五叔 would be okay dropping me off later. And also I had to go and change my bus ticket. I didn't have a contact method for Meilin ayi so I had to contact 二叔 to get her contact details. After that I tried to contact Ubus via phone but no one picked up. Then I asked 五叔 if he would be OK. And then I rode a Youbike all the way to the Ubus station and got it changed at the counter. Phew....

On the way home I parked the Youbike at the park next to 四叔's shop and dropped in. 四嬸 has just ordered bentous so I missed that. That's OK! I can just go to the place next next door.

I went and got a Spanish style fried chiecked with 2 sauces bentou. The rice ended up being a bit too much and I couldn't finish it. 

The e-waste recycler said they were coming and 四嬸 has just finished eating and started moving out the various computers and whatnot outside for them to colyou have to pay a fee. At least you get some rebate for getting rid of waste.

After that we had some tea and had a chat. Topics involved housing prices, investing, and others...

Then it was almost 1:40pm and 五叔 came down to take me to the station. I said byeeee and left. We went back to the house to pick up Meilin ayi and my luggage.

My bus was at 2:31pm and Meilin ayi's next one is at 2:48pm. I ended up having to pay an extra fee for my luggage which was $215 and Meilin ayi went to pay it and they rushed us onto the bus...

We arrived around 4:30pm. They played various traffic and roading education commercials (long ones that had a story) on the bus.

I went to the counter first to see if they'd let me check my bags in early. They did. This was after I asked AirNZ if the counter would be open early and they said no... ah well. I was just a tad overweight with one bag but the lady didn't say anything and let me through... and didn't weight my carry on. Phew. Cause I would've been overweight! They also gave ma a $350 meal voucher.

I later used an empty counter to check my luggage and confirmed I would've been 1kg overweight on carry on...

After that I went and had a rest on a seat and decided to head to the Observatory deck to have a breather with my mask off. 

After sitting there for a wee while, I went back inside and decided to have dinner. Out of the two choices open I had ramen. It wasn't too bad. The soy sauce base is slightly acidic and had a unique taste. 

Once done and rested I decided to head into security. 

They require you to remove your electronic devices still (where as NZ doesn't).

After security, there was a stamp rally at the gates. I ended up doing it but didn't put the first stamp down correctly. Lmao.

Then it was off to the Pili theme gate at D7. There was also a tea exhibit as well at the lobby just before the gates. My gate was at D8 which is the native birds one.

Then it was just waiting until boarding... I chilled at the room opposite the gates which was set up like a library/study and had those really old historic type chairs and tables. Charging stations. Really cool.

We didn't get to board until 8:50pm (our new take off time was 8:55pm) so it was like a 3 hr delay....

This set back really ruined my jetlag adjustment. I was so tired I didn't even check out the enterntainment catalogue. The lady next to me was phlem coughing.... but was at least surgically masked. Sigh. I hope I didn't catch anything. I didn't have dinner but did have breakfast.

When we landed I felt the need to poop but like the toilets were full... so I moved to luggage pick up and my luggage was already out. I didn't realised until after I picked up my luggage that I wouldn't be able to go the toilet with my trolley!! UGH!!! I had to hold it in and biosecurity was really slow...

Turns out you can't take beef jerky from Taiwan as it's not a FMD free country. Huh.

They let my aiyu jelly through though...  I told them it was tea. The triage lady was really nice and said it was ok as long as it's commercial tea.

They didn't even wanna look at my rice.... lol.

I finally got home exhausted... showered... ate.... slept... and then woke up groggily at almost 9pm feeling still sick. But then unable to sleep from 11pm to about 3am.... I just laid there unable to sleep but my eyes were tired.

I ended up calling in sick. This sucks man.