The buildings crowded together more intensely as we travelled closer to Xin Bei Tou, where we had our lunch. Initially they wanted to eat Yoshinoya, but I objected. Then after that we went to a normal food stall but SH said he couldn't stand the smell of smelly tofu (he endured for about 4 minutes or so) and thus we made our way out. Seeing that there was almost nowhere else to dine, and out of hunger, I gave in and suggested that we have Yoshinoya instead. There was a bit of a heated "discussion" between SH and me before we settled down in Yoshinoya.
Being the treasurer I can roughly remember how much the meal costs. It's about NT 250 (SGD 12.50) for two. The price may be similar to what's in Singapore, but the taste is totally different. I had no regrets eating at Yoshinoya after tasting the food. I really don't understand how the same franchise can have food that tastes so different though. I had beef and chicken and it tasted real heavenly. There were also huge windows which exposed us to the beautiful view of the mountain that we came from.
After the good meal we went around looking for a Hot Spring. However because of the great number of choices that were available, we became rather confused. Anyway, all of a sudden it looked like it was going to rain. We followed this rather old man with a prosthetic leg to a hot spring called Long Nai Tang, but it was closed for piper repairs. With the impending bad weather, we decided to abandon the idea temporarily.
SH was saying that it wouldn't rain and he'd checked the weather forecast for the 5 days that we were in Taiwan. Well, it did rain eventually and we made our way to Long Shan Shi station, which was my suggestion. I must say, it didn't turn out very fruitful.
This was supposed to be the underground mall, and we didn't find anything interesting. I don't know if we were looking in all the wrong places, or that it wasn't late enough in the day for the day to come to life yet. But it was really quite disappointing.
I can't remember what this night market is called but it's supposed to be a tourist spot as well! There unique stuff you'd find inside are things like dishes made from snake. They've got drinks from snake blood, snake meat and stuff like that. It is kind of freaky to see snakes in cages and all! There's a lot of stalls selling seafood, but we were in the mood for shopping instead of eating.
We continued walking through the streets and I realised how different it was compared to the central of Taipei. This place looked more like what films from Hong Kong portrayed in the 1970s or so. Speaking of which, we missed out on Jiu Fen on this trip, which is supposed to be some resurrected ghost town which in the past was crowded with people trying to mine for gold.
Along the way SH managed to get a bao and asked the shopkeeper for directions. It turns out that we've walked quite a distance and the nearest MRT station was Xi Men Ding! We also had ice cream but it wasn't very good. It continued to drizzle a little and made walking a tad hazardous due to our slippers.
So we made our way back to the hotel. It was then that we realised that there was no electricity and I had to sit outside to get my camera battery charged. Also, they were all showering in almost complete darkness. Thankfully, they changed a room for us, this time without a bathtub but relatively more spacious. After changing into clean clothes, we made our way to Xi Men Ding again.
The thing at the top left corner is the rather nasty tasting hai dai. What's it in English? Eh, SH ordered it and in the end we played the Secret Number game and I got to eat one of the last ones, with pepper on it. Yuck! SH and Daniel indulged in more doll-picking machines.
We went to this shop that sells all sort of things for anime fans. The top floor was for dressing up as anime characters. Then the other floors had all sorts of different things. The biggest one was the second floor with its extensive comic collection.
And after walking around a bit more it was back to the game machines!
Actually I would say Tiapei seems to be obsessed with games. Almost everywhere you go, you'd be able to find game shops. They're never one too many for them! The people are friendly and they'd adjust the dolls for you to have greater chance of catching them. Although it's not necessarily true all the time, but seeing it tithering at the edge makes one more determined to get it once and for all. Haha.. It was great that they were so generous and more focused on customer satisfaction than anything else.
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