after breakfast we check out from our airbnb apartment and took a cab to 台中高铁站. the cab fare cost us NT305. cab fare on monday from the 高铁站 to our airbnb cost NT300.
we reach 台北高铁站 at around 1130 am. and we took cab again to our hotel at ximending, which is only 1.1 km away, and we reach the hotel in less than 10 min. cost us NT80, if i remember correctly.
in the past i have stayed at either rainbow hotel or east dragon hotel. this time we stayed at Roader's Hotel, and i must say that both of us are very impressed with Roader's Hotel. let me tell you why!
first of all, their lobby. the lobby is the most impressive and hipster lobby i have ever seen. got a fireplace (with fire projection hahahahaha), and many sofas/couches for the tourists to sit. got a big screen to show movies from HBO or live nba basketball matches. provide these items FOC 24/7: popcorn, tidbits, instant noodles, 包s, coffee, hot chocolate. for breakfast they will put donuts and sandwiches at the lobby, first come first serve.
and the lobby got a photo booth!
damn cool right. there is a printer underneath and you can collect your photo printout.
and paste it right here on their bulletin board!
the many flavours of instant noodles that you can choose from.
secondly, the hotel staff are very young and dynamic, and they make sure all the guests feel at home. they are very prompt in entertaining requests and are always so cheerful and friendly.
our room has a pretty nice view. :)
we head to 永康街 for lunch. for my previous 6 visits to taiwan, i have never been to 永康街 before. i must say, this place is amazing man! so many restaurants, so many good food! what have i been missing out during the previous 6 visits!
lunch is at the famous 鼎泰丰. the queue there is totally crazy.
but they have a very good queue system. first you go to the counter at the front of the entrance and tell them how many pax. then they will give you a paper slip with your queue number. and the paper slip will also tell you the waiting time. mine is 35 to 45 min. -.-'''
then they will also pass you the menu to let you order the food first. so one of the staff will actually walk around to collect the menus from the waiting customers. at the front of the entrance there is also a big tv screen that flash out the queue numbers. and some of the staff are bilingual or trilingual. they pin flag badges on their right chest to show what languages they can speak. i saw usa, japan, korea, and the most outstanding one is... SPAIN. a local taiwanese can speak Spanish?! wow simply awesome.
ok since i got 35 to 45 min to waste, i walk up and down the 永康街, while darling is pumping out her milk at the 浦乳室. a good thing about taipei mtr is that every station will have breastfeeding room, and the breastfeeding room is very well equipped with a table, power socket and hot water.
i queued at the very famous 天津葱抓饼 and tasted it, but it did not live to our expectations. it was overrated. darling and i have tasted much better 葱抓饼 at hualien in 2008. i remembered vividly that when i bite into the 葱抓饼 the egg yolk exploded with the egg yolk juice swimming inside my mouth. the guide told us this is called 炸弹葱抓饼. and therefore... 天津葱抓饼 was a major disappointment.
but thankfully 鼎泰丰 did not disappoint. i ordered alot of food. hahahaha. it was a good change from the 夜市 food that we were having for the past 2 days. when i tasted the 小笼包s and 虾仁蛋炒饭 i was like OMG SO GOODDDDDD.
we had matcha dessert at matcha one cafe, also at 永康街. presenting the hand model, my darling! the matcha crepe cake was really good, but a bit pricey. tried once can liao.
and after that we went to the famous Chia Te bakery to buy my favourite 3Q 饼. i was shocked when i saw a queue outside the bakery. but luckily the queue was moving quite fast. Chia Te is also famous for its different flavour pineapple tarts. i also saw egg tarts and they look really good, but i was too full to try them.
for the whole night we went back to ximending for shopping and dinner. :)
