Taipei 101 and Ximendin

Taipei--April 10, 2014

A free day to enjoy the city of Taipei on our own. Being so close to the Taipei Station, it was convenient for us to go anywhere we wanted. 

Taipei Station--the main station for all the trains, high speed trains, and metro.

Huge department store across from the Taipei Station.

Elevator entrance in front of the department store that takes people down to the Taipei Station underground mall.

Metro

Taipei 101 metro station

Taipei 101--Entrance to the food court from the metro exit.

Taipei 101, 2nd tallest building in the world.

Modern and sleek with many high-end stores.

Lunch at the famous Din Tai Fung

open-kitchen

Must have the pork dumplings

braised beef noodle

pork dumplings with crab meat

Every dumpling was weighed and folds counted.

After lunch, we stopped by a stand and bought some macarons as gifts.

taking the metro back to the hotel

Taipei station underground mall

the view from our balcony

Ximendin used to be a popular part of the city when we were young. It is still bustling, but mainly patronized by the younger generation.

Taipei Night Market

Taipei--April 9, 2014

Our fourth time staying at the Hotel Flowers in Taipei. This hotel is our favorite not because of its amenities but for location and reasonable room rates. We also have our favorite room which is on the top floor of the new annex, a family room for the three of us. The room is very basic, with hard beds but quite spacious. The location can't be beat. Near the train/metro/bus terminal with many stores, restaurants nearby.

Our friend, Lin, came to pick us up in the evening to visit the night market.

Interesting--indoor multi-level parking garage.

Entrance to the Raohe Night Market

A very busy place.

Baby oyster thin noodle, very good!

Christian got an Aussie meat pie here, he said it was good.

The longest line--baked pepper cake 胡椒餅

fried stinky toufu

old friends

Back to the parking garage.

Taipei 101 at night

Yenshui and Hsingying

Yenshui, Chiayi and Hsinying, Tainan-- April 8, 2014

Our last two days in southern Taiwan, we kind of relaxed and spent our time with families. BIL and SIL came to pick us up for breakfast in Yenshui. MOR often talks about the famous "Yi Mien" that he grew up with, so we decided to have some before leaving this area.

Simple menu posted

The "Yi Mien" can come in soup or dry. This is the dry Yi Mien.

Fried 'won-ton' soup, which they called Yen Su Soup.

After breakfast, I went to a local beauty salon for a perm. It turned out really inexpensive, fast, and done the way I like. For half of what I would spend in California, I was happy!

For lunch, we went to a nice restaurant in Hsinying with some family members.

Nice individual hot pots

FIL has a little piece of land as garden.

April 9, 2014--Last day in S. Taiwan

MOR's friend came to pick us up to drop us off at the bus station. He decided that we should see this place which is a private museum of a local musician named Wu Chun Wai, 

A very traditional village building that turned into a museum.

This museum is located in a quiet corner of town. We were the only ones there that morning.

A lunch of milk fish before boarding the bus. We had a memorable stay once again here in southern Taiwan.