10D9N Taiwan Trip: Rilakkuma Cafe, Taipei Part 1

"240 thousand miles from the moon,  we've come a long way to belong here."

  

It is not easy to find a place which we can get attached to but somehow, I do find some lingering attachment to the city of Taipei. It's probably running in the blood since my dad was actually Taiwanese before he changed his citizenship to Indonesia due to work. Kinda wondering why he did not decide to stay in Taiwan instead but if that's the case, I would probably not be around now. Guess all things happened for a reason.

While waiting for my friend to finish his audit work on Saturday (working as auditor is hard no matter where you are including in Taipei), my travel buddy and I were looking for a cafe to chill out and I happily suggested Rilakkuma Cafe because themed cafe is always fun to visit with a girl friend.

This would serve as guarantee too just in case my future hubby dislike all things related to cute character and hence he will not want to accompany me to do this kind of stuff. Okay, to be honest I was not really such a fan of Rilakkuma either but this kind of themed cafe is unique and popular in Taipei so it would not harm to visit Rilakkuma Cafe at least once in our lifetime. 

Everything in a themed cafe features the themed character and since this time, we visited Rilakkuma's HQ in a way, his face is plastered everywhere including the menu. 

There are both savoury and sweet dishes to cater all kind of different taste buds. If only we came with an empty stomach, I would have chosen to order Rilakkuma sleeping under the omelette. So cute, really! 

Desserts are mostly tarts and cupcakes. I am never a fan of cupcakes so we just zoomed in on the selection of tarts instead. 

Once we have placed our order, it's time to look around. There are many Rilakkuma cushion scattered all around the sofas so chances are you will have these cushions to take picture with. 

You may also want to check out those goodies sold near the counter. Who knows the cafe sells limited edition stuff? 

If you order the egg pudding, you can bring home the container too. Cute, eh? I was seriously nearly tempted to buy this but then again, my travel buddy reminded me that my luggage was already at 98% capacity. 

Cutleries and cups/ plates/ bowls are available too but since I am not even living at my own home, all these things are deemed unnecessary for now. Haiz. 

Rilakkuma Cafe is located at: 

No. 3, Lane 248, Section 4 Zhongxiao East Road

Daan District 

Taipei, Taiwan

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday - 11.30AM to 9PM

Saturday and Sunday - 11.30AM to 9.30PM

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 3

"You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out."

Came back to work and immediately swamped with a mountain of work and dishearterned spirit, I seriously need a good dose of songs from Oasis, really. Sometimes when I wonder why do I work so much I have to be reminded of what I enjoy doing the most in life, travelling. And travelling does not come free since the most basic requirement from travelling is well...air ticket? #bitterlaugh

So it is time to remember the good time that I had back then when I was travelling to Taiwan. Let's count this as self-motivating post. I could not believe I need to split Jiufen post into 3 parts but combining them all in one post seems lengthy and Jiufen does have a lot of things to offer from street food, crafts and even awesome view. You will not be able to see the view unless you walk all the way to the end of this lanterns-lit passage.

There is one hand-crafted ocarina store in Jiufen Old Street. The store has been around since my first visit to Jiufen few years ago so I suppose the store really has a good business selling ocarina. You are not allowed to take picture of their ocarina though but looking from the display case from outside, the ocarinas sold here have so many cute shapes, mostly animals. If you buy the ocarina, the store owner will give you free tutorial booklet on how to play the ocarina. 

Few steps from the ocarina store, we are back to food hunt and the sight of colorful filled Chinese pastry lured me deeper into temptation. Obviously I failed and bought the milk filled pastry for NTD 40. Yummy!

Right after I just finished my pastry, I got lured again, this time by this fragrant Chinese sausage. Oh my gawd, there is no way I will miss this unhealthy and yet so fragrant and juicy (because it's laden with oil obviously) Chinese sausage. 

My travelling buddy could resist the temptation of sausage but only to fall on the next store's temptation which sells some glutinous gooey stuff which I cannot explain. This gooey gooey stuff taste pretty weird to me but travel buddy seems to enjoy it just fine. This prove that Jiufen has everything for everybody. 

When you reach the end of the passage, you will see many tea houses and cafes with view. It seems that there are more and more cafes nowadays and they have fancy decoration for these cafes. 

You don't have to dine in one of the cafes or tea houses if you just want to catch the view though. It's just you have to endure the crowd in patience if you want to have a shot of the clear mountainous view without anyone photobombing your scenery picture. 

If you zoom in at the road, you will see that the road is by no means, easy to navigate at all. It has so many turns and yet the bus drivers seem to be able to drive the bus without any difficulty. I do pray for a safe trip everytime I go to Jiufen though. LOL.

Since we have spent 90 minutes or so to reach Jiufen, we decided to chill at one of the tea house. We just had simple meal and coffee but the atmosphere of the tea house was so nice we ended up spending at least an hour inside. Hahaha.

The garlic butter toast that we tried that day. Simple and yet tasty. 

How to reach Jiufen by direct bus:

1. Make your way to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station

2. Exit via Exit 1 and walk all the way until you see Kao Chi at your left side

3. Walk further down the road for at least 3 minutes until you see a bus stop (which usually has crowd) for bus no. 1062

4. The bus may show Jinguansi at its destination but 1062 will surely bring you to Jiufen

 5. Bus no. 1062 will also go via Ruifang so if you want to visit this city, you can board the same bus

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 2

"I'm free to be whatever I, whatever I choose and I'll sing the blues if I want."

Totally singing the blues now because holiday is over today. But then, looking at the bulging belly, I probably really need to go back to harsh reality hoping that the harsh situation of my life will make me slimmer. At least before my cousin's wedding three weeks later. Hahaha wishful thinking?

If Singapore has a lot of street food like what Jiufen Old Street have, the above goal may just be really a dream. The food street sold at Jiufen Old Street really gives a lot of temptation to my eyes really.

There are non-food stores as well at Jiufen Old Street but most of them are handcrafts and arts store which is not really my subject of interest. My brother would be able to appreciate these better I suppose. 

I, for sure, will be able to appreciate pretty food such as these colorful mochi. Oh right, Jiufen is famous for its yummy mochi too and this store who has this bright and yummy display sells pretty good ones. I tried the fruit mochis before and the mango mochi tastes good. Strawberry ain't bad either.

This time, I would like to try out the bean/nut-related mochi and chose green tea instead. Taste not bad too but if you want to buy a box of these mochi, please take note of the expiry date. If I recall correctly, they don't last that long even if you put them in the fridge. Probably a week+ tops. 

My friend gave me a mission to buy these nougat crackers at Jiufen Old Street. Not like your regular crackers, these crackers are not super crunchy because of the sticky and gooey filling (and hence, the name "nougat"). I did not buy these for myself but my travelling buddy who got a box for herself commented that while these snacks taste yummy when we tasted them in Jiufen, they got soggy pretty fast when you brought them back home after few days. So words of advice, consume them fast! 

Once you have reached this restaurant, which gives inspiration to Hayao Miyazaki for the bathhouse in his movie, Spirited Away, you have reached the middle section of Jiufen Old Street. Halfway to go to the beautiful mountainous view from the top. 

How to reach Jiufen by direct bus:

1. Make your way to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station

2. Exit via Exit 1 and walk all the way until you see Kao Chi at your left side

3. Walk further down the road for at least 3 minutes until you see a bus stop (which usually has crowd) for bus no. 1062

4. The bus may show Jinguansi at its destination but 1062 will surely bring you to Jiufen

 5. Bus no. 1062 will also go via Ruifang so if you want to visit this city, you can board the same bus

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Jiufen Old Street Part 1

"Who kicked a hole in the sky so the heavens would cry over me?"

Ugh, I'm feeling kinda blues now that my two-weeks break is coming to an end soon. I consider a break as a short escape from all the troubles of yesterdays. The thing is, none of these troubles have been resolved, so I have to face them again when I am back to reality. Geez. Time to play my Oasis' playlist again.

Rewind back to few months ago at one fine cloudy morning in Taipei, my travel buddy and I wanted to visit Jiufen, a mountain town located in the northeastern part of Taiwan. There are many ways to reach Jiufen but we think that the easiest way to reach Jiufen is by taking a direct bus from Zhongxiao Fuxing to Jiufen. We were kinda lost when we tried to locate the bus stop because turns out the bus stop for bus no. 1062 which goes straight to Jiufen has moved few metres further down the road. The key to locate the right bus stop is to check where the crowd is queuing because there is surely many tourists who want to visit Jiufen.

The bus ticket will cost you NTD 100 so make sure you have sufficient balance in your YouYongKa (the equivalent to Singapore's EZ link) before boarding the bus. The same bus no. 1062 goes all the way to Jinguanshi and Keelung but don't worry, it will go via Jiufen before reaching its final destination. One hour 20 minutes later, we have reached Jiufen and ready to explore this popular tourist spot. 

I always prefer to visit Jiufen not on a rainy day because can you imagine the challenge of navigating yourself through this narrow passageway while carrying an open umbrella? Nightmare, really. The crowd that day was not so bad yet because we visited Jiufen pretty early around 11.30ish. 

The main attraction in Jiufen is gotta be the Old Street where all kinds of stores are located side by side. There are so many food and souvenirs to check out you should allocated at least one hour to check them out. There are some restaurants and tea houses too, so if you want to dine or having a cup of coffee/ tea with a great view, allocate your time accordingly. 

Oh look at this stall, the big block that the guy is currently shaving is actually peanut block. One of the main delicacy sold at Jiufen Old Street is peanut ice cream wrap. Nowadays, I see this food at normal night markets in Taipei so you don't have to make your way all the way to Jiufen if you only want to eat this. Hahaha. 

However, when you are in Jiufen Old Street, you have to make a pit stop at one of the many taro balls stall in Jiufen. Jiufen is usually identified with its famous and yummy taro balls. Since the first stall near to the entrance of the old street is the easiest taro balls stall that I spotted, I decided to just have a go at those yummy looking taro balls here. 

The big pot of taro balls and many bowls of toppings are displayed to lure customers in. 

One bowl of taro balls costs NTD 50 and you can have your taro balls hot or cold. We prefer to have it cold so the stall owner put some ice inside the our taro balls. The taro balls are served with dou hua (i.e. Very soft tofu layer) and many other things inside such as tapioca pieces, etc. It tastes pretty yummy and it can be a very comforting food for both rainy and dry season. 

How to reach Jiufen by direct bus:

1. Make your way to Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station

2. Exit via Exit 1 and walk all the way until you see Kao Chi at your left side

3. Walk further down the road for at least 3 minutes until you see a bus stop (which usually has crowd) for bus no. 1062

4. The bus may show Jinguansi at its destination but 1062 will surely bring you to Jiufen

 5. Bus no. 1062 will also go via Ruifang so if you want to visit this city, you can board the same bus

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Yong He Dou Jiang, Ximending

"Good morning and good night, I'll wake up at twilight."

Hello! Long time no see. I have been away for a two weeks break away from work and the drama at the slavery land. While ideally I should have been focusing more on my blog writing, I was so distracted doing so many lazy activities during my break including lazing on my bed doing nothing. Unproductive much?

While lazing around in my own home is nice and enjoyable, finding breakfast affair is not really an easy feat to do because it involves turning on your car and drive out to the nearest bakery or market. Kinda makes me reminisce those yummy breakfast stalls Ximending which only needs me to walk a few steps because I stayed in the vicinity during my last visit to Taipei. The first breakfast stall that I visited seem to be tourist-favourite because I was welcomed with a long queue in front of Yong He Dou Jiang. 

Undeterred by the crowd (and the assumption that a curler will not take long to fry anyway), my travelling buddy and I quickly snatch one of the menu available and pondering for a while to decide what to eat. It's good for Yong He Dou Jiang to have this kind of picture menu because this will make ordering so much easier especially if you don't speak Mandarin. 

Moving closer to the counter, we saw the size of the fried curler or locally referred as "You Tiao". They are gigantic and way bigger than Singapore version of you tiao for sure. 

When it's our turn, we decided to order the same stuff, shao bing you tiao. It's basically a wrapped fried curler. You can have option to add egg inside the wrap but we thought that would be kinda too much because we still had one more stall to visit later on for our breakfast. In addition, we also wanted to drink the soya milk (Dou Jiang) because what's you tiao without its partner, dou jiang? 

Happily posing with my brekkie on a random street at Ximending. Hmm, even though I am using filter function of IG, I kinda realise that my hair color has turned more reddish than what I kinda wish in mind. Time for a color fix maybe few months later. 

Yong He Dou Jiang has many branches scattered all across Taipei but the stall that we visited is located at: 

No. 102 Section 2 Fuxing South Road

Daan District

 Taipei

Opening hours:

Daily 24 hours

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Raohe Night Market, Taipei

"I'm looking for someone who speaks my language."

 

In Taiwan, one will never not have something to do at night. Especially if you have already fallen in love with the night market culture. There are so many night markets in Taipei alone, you can just choose which particular market you feel like going during the night. Last time, Raohe Night Market was not really part of my preferred options of night market to visit because it's kinda a pain to reach the night market because I don't particularly like taking a bus. But now, you can take train to Songshan MRT Station and walk for another 15 minutes to reach Raohe Night Market. Sweet!

 

 

When we came back in early March, there were so many lanterns put up for decoration right across the night market. Roosters to bring prosperity to the whole businesses in the neighbourhood, perhaps?

 

 

The grand temple beside the night market is still around until today. Ciyou Temple was in renovation when the last time I visited Raohe back in 2013. The temple is grand and beautiful, you may want to take a look for a while before entering the night market on its left side. 

 

 

Just right beside the temple, you will see the red gate of Raohe St Night Market. So many visitors come to the ordest night market in Taipei. The first stall that you will see upon entering the gate always have a long queue and if you have never gone to Raohe Night Market before, you may want to join the long queue of the black pepper meat bun stall. While queueing, you can also see the production line of the black pepper meat bun. Personally, I find it quite fun to join the queue and see the production line before getting the food. As long as I am not starving to death while queuing, it is. LOL.

 

 

After scrambling my way through the most crowded section of the night market, we finally can take a breath at the non-food stall sections of the night market. I did not find anything that I feel like buying though since I have spent most of my cash buying accessories at Feng Jia Night Market. 

 

 

While looking around, we saw an interesting stall which only sells two kind of food, seaweed fried prawn and mayonaisse fried prawn. 

 

 

The sight of the fried prawn looks so good so we succumbed to the temptation and joined the queue. Thankfully the queue was not that particularly long because we were getting hungry at this point of the adventure. 

 

 

My travel buddy did not want to eat another sauce-related food so we decided to go for the seaweed fried shrimps. She knows I love taking food pictures so much up to the point she automatically offers to hold the food while I busy taking picture. Hahaha. Love you so much my travel buddy! By the way, the fried shrimp taste yummy! 

 

 

The funny thing is, we really could not find anything else that we want to eat up to the end to the other gate of the night market. Omo! How could this happen? Probably it's because this was the 5th or 6th night market that we have visited across our journey and we kinda got a bit "bored" of the night market food which is not particularly unique. Hard to please these folks, I know. Hahaha.

 

But at the end of the gate, there is one particular food stall which have long snaking queue. It sells something the spring onion pancake but their pancake kinda looks different so we decided to join the queue and try it out. 

 

The pancake kinda looks like a Japanese okonomiyaki kind. But, after getting a bite of it, I know that my true love of Cong You Bing (spring onion pancake) lies at that pancake store at Yongkang Street. Up to the point, we decided to just make our way back there after our visit to Raohe Night Market to have another go at their Cong You Bing. Yes, we were so eager to make our way anywhere where there's good food at stake. 

 

 

How to get to Raohe Night Market:

 

Make your way to Songshan MRT Station and exit from exit no. 5. Walk straight for a bit and you will see Ciyou Temple. The night market is just located beside the temple.

 

 Opening hours:

 

Daily 6PM onwards

 

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Line Friends Store, Breeze Taipei Xinyi

"And I know when I need it, I can count on you like four three two..."

After checking Breeze at Taipei Main Station and Zhongshan, I have finally found the correct (and biggest) Line Friends store in Taiwan. If you are looking for the biggest Line Friends store in Taipei, you should make your way to Shinkong Mitsukoshi A11 department store which is located at Xinyi district (nearest MRT: Taipei Main Station).

There is one smaller outlet at Breeze at Taipei Main Station but I could not find anything that I feel like buying from that outlet. And one of the main reasons of why I really really want to go to the right store is because Choco is waiting for me at that store. Awww. 

But of course, I was so happy to find Sally, Brown and Cony and immediately posed with them. Hehe. 

Choco is really the fashionista in Line Friends universe. She even has her own corner at Taipei Line Friends Store. Thankfully the store was not crowded on Friday evening. We did not have to queue for long time to take picture together with the chic Choco. 

I just went crazy over these socks. Like really crazy. There is no way for me to buy Line Friends socks in Singapore because apparently the people here are not really head over heels for Line. They prefer the boring Whatsapp but I do agree that Whatsapp is more convenient and professional to use when you are chatting with colleagues (which includes your...ugh, bosses). 

If only I have my own kitchen, I will surely buy all these kitchenware for sure. Maybe it's a good thing I don't even have my own house at the moment. Hahaha. While these goods are cute, they don't really entice me enough to make me want to buy them. 

There is a swag corner with Brown, Moon and Edward. Don't you wanna be part of the cool gang of Line Friends Town? 

Mobile phone decoration and keychains are plenty but I already have a lot of these stuffs so I gave them a miss. I cant really hang all of them on my one and only phone after all. Hahaha. 

The couple Brown and Cony dolls are so cute but my rented room is too small for another pair of Line Friend plush toys. I really need to get my own house really. Somehow. Someday. God will make a way. 

I was so happy I can finally buy Brown and Cony figurines. There are two sets of Brown and Cony each but I decided to start with these two (because these goodies are not cheap). They have been featured quite prominently in my anyhow-takeaway-food because I put them on my table. Let's say they are good companionship when I eat my food while watching Ipad. #singleladylifestyle

Line Friends Store is located at: 

Shinkong Mitsukoshi A11

Xinyi District 

Taipei

Opening hours:

Daily 11AM - 9.30PM