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23rd Birthday long weekend in 【台北】: Day 1

Friday, July 12, 2013

For my 23rd birthday- I think i definitely The Luckiest Chick, other than the little *cough HUGE cough* hiccup the week before my birthday, something went wrong and my AC suddenly broke down, drove like 4km and my car overheated and it just couldn't move anymore at the right turn lane right smack in the bustling paya lebar intersection and I was feeling so helpless and immediately called my friend Joe to help me arrange for tow car service to pick me car up and tow it to his workshop.

Well i don't speak car language but that day i had to wait about 3 hours to change the water pipe apparently it broke and after replacing it they took it for a test drive and my Chevrolet came back with smoke pouring out of the hood. lol more helplessness. 

So Leon rushed down from god knows where and swooped in with his fluent car-language and they concluded that they would have to leave my car at the workshop for at least 3 days to do a top overhaul, again i have no idea what that is, but it's just gonna cost me a bomb. Having no car is really killing man! I'm too pampered and i definitely need my own transport, the fiance was such an angel to send me to work everyday even grabbing breakfast for me awwwwww. Love you!

Luckily my car was ready one day earlier than expected, went to picked it up.. along with the bill of $2013. *heart bleed* just 3 months ago i just spent $700 on servicing and changing some parts man. )':

 ★

But yes anyway, other than the very fat hole burnt in my pockets, i had an extremely awesome birthday!
Because Leon is in Taiwan for 3 weeks during my birthday for rehearsals for JJ Lin's world tour as his backup vocalist, he was so sweet to fly me over to Taiwan, my grandparents, mummy & uncle gave me big fat birthday ang pows too so this trip is practically all-expense paid! Awww the fiance even gave me shopping $$$ which is like a first! Hehe so sweet!

So daddy fetched me to the airport that morning, SO.. so sooo tired i only slept like 2 hours because and i was too wired from clearing my workload that day before i left for my leave, then back home and chiong to pack luggage and i couldn't fall asleep so i watched FRIENDS all night. LOL


On my flight, couldn't really fall asleep but i met this guy who was well sitting beside me so i was stuck for 4.5hours so might as well make conversation right? He was pretty friendly + nice so we chatted quite a bit about Taiwan and because it was his first trip so i was giving him some tips etc.

When i was in Taiwan we actually bumped into each other in Wufenpu too, such a pleasant surprise to see a familiar face, well, kind-of familiar face while shopping alone. Hahah apparently WuFenPu is THE place to bump into people, @Sinnee0722 instagram commented and said they spotted me there and said some very sweet things (:


Wore my new love, two-toned Melissa wedges that i bought for myself for ahem my birthday, haha you will hear me saying that alot this month but I'm really just finding a reason to splurge. 
lol come on.. who can resist more plastic shoes?


 【Data plan in Taiwan】
So once i reached the airport, they renovated the airport so i know on my previous post i mentioned that from immigrations, walk out turn left and you will find all the tele-communications companies where you can buy your unlimited data plan etc. But now you gotta turn RIGHT and walk straight all the way and you will see all the tele-communication companies counters. 

My preferred ones is 台湾大哥大, they have this 5 day plan, for TWD500 and unlimited data got local calls included too, they will ask you which phone you're using and I'm using an iphone5 so they did the settings and changed the sim card for me and it was good to start using immediately once it's done!





 【How to get from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei City:】 
Since I was travelling alone from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei City, i decided to take the 客运 which was super cheap like TWD150 as compared to cabs would cost you about TWD1200?
So the bus counters are located in B1 so just go down and walk abit you will see the bus counters, Freego, Evergreen etc all go to Taipei city, so just ask like tell them you want to go to Xi Men Ding, ZhongXiaoDunHua, Taipei Main Station etc, just pay for the ticket and wait for the bus! 


The 客运 company i originally wanted to take the bus just left so they directed me to another 客运 company quickly bought my ticket and went to the pick up point and the 客运 came about 5 minutes later so yay! :D


Reached the hotel, we only realized that we can stay at the hotel provided for the JJ Lin tour after we book our own accommodation, usually David will share a hotel room with Leon but he very kindly moved to stay with the bassist during the other 3 nights i was there so we can save $ on accommodation + stay in the same hotel! Lol he always tease me and very annoyingly parrots me but he's soooo nice. (:

So leon managed to get us out of the hotel booking without paying for all 3 nights that we booked for.. hahah *private joke* but it's definitely something i won't be able to do if it was me..


 【Accomodation】

So the hotel we booked was RF hotel [http://rfhotel.com.tw/], quite a nice comfy stay and pretty good location too, near MRT and all. But the hotel that was provided for the tour was even more convenient and lots of funky cafe in the vicinity so I was really glad we got to move over to stay there. heh 


So after i checked in, god it started raining and all, so i was STARVING by then and Leon was still having his rehearsals which ends at like 8.30pm or something that day so i asked the hotel staff for foodie recommendation around the area and they told me to just cross over to the road and there's a well-known street full of cool cafes and different variety of food.

I think it's awesome that i got to explore areas other than the normal Xi Men Ding because i found that yummiest Ramen ever?! I was walking around and this waffle cafe caught my eye, went in and was told them i need a reservation and even though it was only for 1 pax they couldn't squeeze me in anywhere and there was a 1hour queue, wtf? 

Sorry man, i'm one Singaporean who will never queue for food. Like honestly Singapore everywhere you turn also got yummy food, queuing for food really bums me out, so.. nono *waves fingers*


Then i continued searching for my first meal in Taiwan and chanced upon a couple cool pizza places.. taco places and i saw this RAMEN SANJI 麵家三士and it caught my eye because of the word SANJI lol as in Sanji the best chief + super power leg dude from One Piece. 

I don't think this ramen restaurant has anything to do with THAT sanji since it's not even a one piece themed restaurant but i assumed it was good, and it WAS!


Had this ridiculously yummy dipping noodle, wow the noodle and the soup, FANTASTIC.
Errr then i ordered this fried mini fishie + matcha dipping salt and this super yummy Sweet+Sour brinjal which is like a cold dish i guess? But everything was deliciooooous. 



 【RAMEN SANJI 麵家三士 at ATT4FUN】
No. 12, Song Shou Road, 5FL 
台北市信義區松壽路 12號 5樓
(02) 7737-5188

MRT: Taipei City Hall
Website: ramensanji.com.tw




Was eating while reading my kindle and this Caucasian dude walked in and gave me a friendly smile so of course i smiled back and he sat at the table next to me and we started talking, somehow we manage to talk a shitload of stuff like i was telling him i watched this stand up comedian in Melbourne and about how Germans generally hates Germany or being German and he totally agreed [lol, he's German obviously] and idk we chatted for a long time and after i was done with my super fulfilling lunch we bid goodbye and i left first.

So like 30 mins later I was walking on the streets and trying to find the nearest departmental store and we bumped into each other again so we were like what the heck why not just shop together? So that was how i randomly made a new friend and hung out for like 4 hours. 

So we shopped, ok not really shop since most of the time we were too distracted to shop cos we were talking so much, so tired in the end we settled down in a cafe to grab a drink lol and he freaked me out with some disturbing fact about bubble tea bubbles -.- he said gelatin is made out of mostly pig bones or whatever, eeeeeew. 

It was quite funny to see him struggle and talk to the Taiwanese about the smallest things like getting the bill or asking how much or whatever, even though i could totally speak mandarin i didn't wanna help out at all and i told him how amused i am seeing him struggle. LOL I'M A BAD PERSON.





After that we went on our separate ways cos Leon has finally ended rehearsals and is on his way to bring me out for my day before birthday dinner! Awwww, celebrating earlier hehe went back to RF hotel to wait for him to freshen up + wait for him to pick me up.


He brought me to this lovely fusion cuisine Bistro called DIARY 
which came highly recommended by a Taiwanese friend.
Lol the name of this dish is 盐石 and it's actually fried seafood coated with squid ink with cheese mayo dipping and the name really stuck with me because at first when leon was ordering it i was like WHAT? 眼。。。眼屎 
[ eye shit ]?!?! EH?!  hahaha
Oh and the lamb chop is oh-so-tender, the best i've ever had i swear.


Oh the food was soooo good and thank you baby for such a perfect ending to an awesome day! (:



 【酒吧DIARY
No. 53號, Dōngfēng St, Daan District Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Opening hours: 3.30 pm - 1 am
3:30pm~1:00am
3:30pm~1:00am
+886 2 2706 3553



A good sangria always makes everything better, yums! 
Oh, and the end off my day one in Taipei for my 23rd birthday long weekend, 
some shopping loots from the day:


♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.
Address: 53 Dong Feng Street, Taipei / 台北市東豐街53號
Tel: (02) 2706 3553
Hours: 3:30pm~1:00am - See more at: http://www.sugarednspiced.com/taipei-diary/#sthash.p8dumlAx.dpuf

Address: 53 Dong Feng Street, Taipei / 台北市東豐街53號
Tel: (02) 2706 3553
Hours: 3:30pm~1:00am - See more at: http://www.sugarednspiced.com/taipei-diary/#sthash.p8dumlAx.dpuf
Address: 53 Dong Feng Street, Taipei / 台北市東豐街53號
Tel: (02) 2706 3553
Hours: 3:30pm~1:00am - See more at: http://www.sugarednspiced.com/taipei-diary/#sthash.p8dumlAx.dpuf

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