"Just another city?" a Taipei Travel Page by yukisanto

Well, Taipei city..hmm... how do I describe it? Coming from another city, this city doesn't seem any different. But, there are several likable features. First of all, the CKS Memorial Hall and the Changing of Guard ceremony. We were lucky in that we happened to be there to see it. I think SG has the changing of the guard, but then, it's just not as interesting nor significant.

Shopping, well, prices are the same, if not more expensive than in SG. Guess what, I saw Charles and Keith there, and the shoes cost NT1500. (SDG70). My God, I much rather buy the shoes back in SG then.

Fashion right now is stripes (on clothes and socks) and glitter, following Japan. Black socks are everywhere, and canvas shoes are hugely popular with the young crowd.

Then, there's the food. Man, I like their stuff, the chicken cutlet, the bubble tea, the fried egg (jian bing), the beef chee cheong fun etc. We even skipped our hotel's breakfast to eat in the streets. You can eat your fill at the night markets. And best of all, it's costs only abotu NT20-50 per item. Enuf said.

Apparently, Taipei has a lot of Japanese food like shabu-shabu, teriyaki, omuraisu (rice wrapped in omlette)..but they don't have sushi. At least it's not as profilerate as in SG. So we ate the omuraisu, as well as western pasta stuff.

In Taipei city itself (not the county, for that, look at my other page), we went to the minature museum and the National Palace Museum. Luckily we remembered the Chinese names of these places, coz' the cabbie uncles there don't know english. Lazy to walk, we took a cab from our hotel in Ximen to the mininature museum, and the fare came up to NT180. That means S$9 split between the two of us.

We took plenty of pictures in the museums (no flash of course). Pity we didn't take the museum passport from the registration counter; you can stamp the booklet using the chops at the various exhibits.