Early that morning, we had our one last breakfast at Ta Shun Hotel, and though they didn't serve our usual favourite foods such as the Ruo Zhaos or the Chai Po Neng, it was still a pretty nostalgic breakfast. Checked out early that morning, at around 1030am, when my friend actually came to fetch us. She drove us around the entire day, so it was really convenient and saved us precious time.
We didn't plan for much that day, so our first stop was, the Xindian magic shop opened by Zong Yi Da Ge Da's Robin lao shi (referred by the street magician called Rich on the very first day I was at Ximending). Took us quite a while to get there, because the GPS ys had in her car was misleading at times... and while yq was the co-navigator... I sat at the back seats with her cute little dog who was so afraid of heights. 
When we finally managed to find the magic shop, which by then was already drizzling and it remained that way the entire day... it was like walking into a warehouse.... well hidden, and out of sight. Heard from them that they are only open on fridays and wkends. Spent a great deal of time checking the stuff out and mingling with the local magicians over there and the most surprising thing we found out, was that Robbin's wife was actually standing right in front of us the whole time and we didn't realise it only after yq's enquiry about why the other teenage magicians kept calling her "shi mu"... She was really a nice lady and we exchanged thoughts on the magic industry in Singapore and in Taiwan. After spending like 2 hours over time, we finally moved on to our next destination, Ding Tai Feng. I wouldn't exactly say its a destination because they have many branches throughout Taipei but it was one restaurant I really wanted to try out... to compare its food with S'pore's, especially the Xiao Long Paos. The outlet we went to was near Zhongxiao Fuxing, and typical of Taiwan, even before stepping into the restaurant, we were greeted by yet another duo of inanimated mascots.
They were really cute and they even had a souvenir shop outside the restaurant. We were lucky because we managed to get in before their "official chef resting time". However, ys couldn't bring her dog in, so she had to make the tough decision of living it outside. The hostress of the restaurant assured us they would look after him and if anything went wrong, they would notify us immediately.
We ordered cold wine chicken, crabmeat xiaolong paos, a yam bao and a pork bao. The wine chicken was way delicious, reminded me of Soup Restaurant's Samsui chicken just that its colder and marinated in wine. Texture is a little tougher than that of Soup Restuarant's and the sad thing about it is that they don't sell it in Singapore!! The crabmeat xiaolongbao didn't taste as good, even though they were made with greater skill (had more zhup inside the paos, almost half of it, while Singapore's ones are only about 1/3), because of the texture of the meat.. tasted rougher. As for the paos, they were really delicious as well but compared to other nice tasting paos, it was sama sama.. nothing too divine. 
After the meal, we went out to check on ys's dog and it was one of the most impressionable memories I've had. There was this prim and proper gentleman standing beside it and this other caucasian guy looking at the dog, together with ys. We thought they were just checking out the dog and playing with it, at least it was true only for the caucassian guy, for the other gentleman was actually looking after the dog for us... and he was one of Ding Tai Feng's staff!! Epic!! Would Singapore ever allocate a staff to stand outside of Ding Tai Feng to look after the customer's pets? Never!! The customer service over in Taiwan is highly commendable... they actually believe in going 2 extra miles!!
By then, it was already getting late, about time to head to the airport. Our flight was scheduled at 7.10pm and had to get to the airport by 5pm. Jalan-ed a little more around the orchard road of Taipei, though we didn't get much, just some Sasa face masks and ys got a concealer that can even mask tattoos!!
Had a little jam on the roads en route to the airport and I panicked a little as the time ticked by... but when we finally reached the airport... lo and behold, yet another bomb dropped on us by Jetstar. The flight was postponed by 2 hours!! 2 freaking hours!!! By then, they had lost all credibility in my eyes... we ate the Ruo Zhao fan that we tar paoed on our way to the airport and explored terminals 1 and 2 (even though our ariline was at terminal 1). Nothing much to do or eat at terminal 1, because most of the souvenirs and food they sold were very ex. We did buy super expensive tai yang pings, famous in Taiwan, and after calculating the cost, realised that it was the most expensive souvenirs we bought!!! Geeeze!!! We walked this long and straight aisle all the way to terminal 2, which was a little more bustling and they even had a Hello Kitty decorated area just before the gate to take a Hong Kong airline. Not like singapore's gates... literallly nothing there. Such biasness or Jetstar just couldn't be bothered...
After which, the time finally came for us to get ready for boarding... but but... guess what... yet another delay!! Everyone was seated, waiting for boarding time but 30 mins after the scheduled boarding time, an announcement was made to advise passengers to check in large and bulky luggage bags. This took another 15 mins... and the staff looked so lost when a queue was actually formed. Christ!! When we did finally board the plane, it was one of the most excruciating rides ever!! I forgot to mention that initially, our seats were an aisle apart... dunno how that could happen even though we booked our plane tickets donkey years in advance (about 4 months!) and the customer service officer kindly and politely told us he would change our seats to be together... you bet he was polite because the seats he had gotten us were the last row seats!!
Last row seats were the "BEST!!" You get to alight the plane last, your seats cannot be inclined, and you have the crampiniest leg room on the entire plane. Throughout the trip, I felt extremely squashed, nauseaus (since I was starting to fall sick by then), and even my muscles seemed to be violently objecting by making me feel extremely restless the entire 4.5h journey back. I thought I could sleep it off, then wala, by the time I woke up, I'll be in Singapore. But no... how could anyone sleep in that freaking position? It was so much worst than sleeping in a shellscrape (a dug up "coffin" in the woods during my army days)!!
Both of us had to stand up once in a while to stretch ourselves and it was seriously one of the most gruelling air rides of all time. Even the budget flight I took in UK some years back was way better, at a much cheaper rate of 99cents... and even the plane ride to Taipei, on the same airline was slightly better because we gotten the first 3 rows. But, as what yq asked me... if I would rather sit a seat apart, more comfortably or be cramped up in a corner with her.. I would choose the latter anyday.
And that was it... our trip to Taiwan, to Kaohsiung, to Hualien and last but not least to Taipei. Hope I've helped you to get a better understanding of the country and I hope I've provided you some valuable advice and suggestions to better plan your trip. And to end it off, this time, lemme just try to add in all I've learnt over there, about its culture and its people.
To sum it up:
- when vehicles start honking, it's not like a gesture of "coming through", it literally means "get out of the way!", just like in Singapore. Because we keep hearing honks over there (more excessive than in Singapore) so we thought it could simply be a way of signalling.
- it seems the fashion over there right now (as of during my trip) is that guys like to wear purple, and that females love to wear thick frame specs that have no lens in them.
- the toilet bowls over there all have smaller holes... so you can't throw more than 4 handfuls of toilet paper into them without the high risk of clogging it... even though the signages say that you cannot throw toilet paper in, you can do still, but keep flushing them so prevent clogging... only bigger hotels, shopping malls and airports have bigger toilet bowl flushing holes.
- the resturants over there provide fuller meals than the accumulation of little snacks you get to eat along the streets (duh), but all at a much more expensive rate. But personally, I would rather just go for the little snacks because I get to try more things one shot. Out of the 3 resturants we went, I personally think the Modern Toilet Resturant ranks top, followed by Ding Tai Feng then Mr J's French and Italian Resturant.
- all the local buses are not run by the government, but by many small companies. The buses have 2 payment modes, either payment upon boarding, or payment upon alighting. The rationale for that is that throughout the bus's entire trip, it is divided into 2 parts. Eg. For the first part, you'll have to pay when you board... then when it crosses into the 2nd part (similar to like another "stage" for sbs transit) you'll have to pay when you alight. So it's not like Singapore's ez-link tap-in, tap-out system. There's only 2 fares, and if you take from one end to the other, you'll have to tap-in and tap-out. If you're only travelling a short distance which is still within the first "stage", you just need to tap-in; and tap-out for the second "stage".
- Wu Fen Pu, contrary to beliefs, might not necessarily be the cheapest place to shop. It might sell slightly cheaper, but only if you know how to bargain. You should be able to find the clothes elsewhere, at the same rate because ultimately it all boils down to your bargaining skills.
- Night Markets are almost perfect to walk around at if not for the constant lookout for disrupting motorcyclists... some more polite, while other just honk. The famous stalls might not necessarily, in most cases actually, don't serve the best foods around. It's all a gimmick to boost sales.
- Advisable to book high speed rails but for normal trains, it would seem fairly safe to book on site. But, its always better to be safe than to be sorry... Important to know if you're gonna change your plans because at least you know you'll still be able to get to places.
- Underground train stations have very clean toilets and the distances between each station is very near... normally takes less than 3 minutes between each station so travelling from one end to another might seem long, but in fact, it's actually much much faster than it seems.
- you'll get to find many out-of-production, out-of-stock, rare things in Taiwan which you cannot find in Singapore, a great place to find hidden gems
- True, that there's lotsa UFO catchers all around but the main difference between that of Taiwan and Singapore's is that apart from the guaranteed cost of getting the toy, the toys are usually small-sized ones and the largest you can diaoz's also nothing compared to Singapore's hgue soft toys
- Jetstar asia is my greatest regret for the entire trip, if not for that, the trip would have been near perfect. I would rather pay more for a more comfortable, and secure journey, which would not waste 7 hours of my precious time.
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