Taipei - Ximenting / 101

This is the second last Taiwan-Taipei entry that i'll be posting. Apologies for the huge delay - CNY, My Birthday Celebration, Lishan's Birthday and a couple of other events which required heavy photo editing caused the delay. I'm sure you can read the archives to see what i've been busy with. Another wave of events are set to take my schedule by storm so i'm glad i finally cleared this shit.. After 4 months. ;)

I really like the private coaches in Taipei, it's like these 1.5 storey buses and we're sat on the top deck, which allowed us to view the streets/city below better.

Ximenting is undeniably one of my favourite place of mine in Taipei. As my hotel is located nearby, i frequent Ximenting for my meals mostly and it was also due to this proximity that i managed to cover the entire area in detail.

I feel that Ximenting is like the Bugis Street of Taipei or something similar, just 100 times larger. I actually felt tired from all that shopping and there are still things i felt i haven't really seen despite passing by there for 3 consecutive days to get to the train station.

Staying near Ximenting has its perks. One of our meals was at this ultra cute restaurant which serves rather nice food. It's slightly on the expensive side but really, you should try it when you are in Taipei. Take time to explore the 4 storey restaurant building as it's really really cute.

Donuts with a 'sweetness' meter so you know what you're in for when you get a 'five star' donut eh?

Taipei 101 turned out to be not what i expected. Yes the grandeur, the expensive merchandises are all located inside the building. But the hefty sum to pay to go up the building to view Taipei's night view and to see more buildings was rather disappointing. It's not that it's not nice, it's just... i could have spent the money buying more clothes. =P

Oh oh, did i mention how i love the way their train works? Their tickets for single session rides come in a coin form. That is when you are entering the station, you simply scan with the coin! And when you exit, you simply put the coin into the gantry. It's much more convenient than single session tickets in Singapore where you have to get a refund after you exit.