Taipei Day 5 & 6: Chia Te, Ximending & Goodbye

Day 5 in Taipei:

Morning fuel for day 5…

Right: dan bing (like day 2) + bun + fruits + milk tea (from machine this time) from Star Hostel.
Left: fruits (persimmon & liu ding) which we bought from the fruit vendor at Huayin Street.


More food. Leftovers from yesterday’s Din Tai Fung dinner.

After breakfast, we wanted to buy more fruits from the vendor near our hostel (to bring back to Malaysia) but it was closed. Then we stopped at a shop (also along Huayin Street – the street where our hostel is situated) to buy cloth face mask.

Here are some snaps of Huayin Street ~ an old street, full of charm and characters. I didn’t like it initially but it won me over eventually.

Shops below and flats above. Quite a selection of food to eat here. I’ve only tried one. Will reveal further below.

Star Hostel (our accommodation) signage is up there.

Whenever I pass-by these shops, I will look and look. So interesting. 🙂

We bought cloth face masks here. Tried their hats as well. Then the shopkeeper showed us something which got us ladies very excited.

It’s these… beautiful printed floral towels made from cotton. It’s rectangle in shape, perfect for wiping sweat after workout.

We visited a nearby mini market looking for persimmon and liu ding after that which we got wind of from this shopkeeper. After stashing our goodies in the hostel, we proceed to the first planned agenda of the day.

Took the MRT to Nanjing Sanmin stop. Reached Chia Te Bakery at 11am… only 2 minutes walk from the station.

All these small packets are pineapple cakes – the pride of Taiwan! and other various flavors such as cranberry, strawberry, prune and acrospires walnut. That’s my sis’ goal. I thought she was going to buy a lot. She only got a box of 12 pieces. Ha! Click here to find out what we think about Chia Te’s and Li Yi’s pineapple cakes.

As for me, I was going after the tai yang bing (top photos; left and right). I also reviewed tai yang bing between 3 brands. You can read it here if you’re interested. Chia Te also sells nougats (below left) and cakes.

Although I like egg tarts, I did not get these as I dislike perfect looking egg tart. Yes, I’m weird.

Long lines at the cashier.

If you’re a hardcore fan of Chia Te, you might find this packing service useful.

Our next stop is Da Jia Fa 大家發食品原料DIY烘培. It’s a baking and cooking supplies shop at New Taipei City. To go there, we took the MRT to Jiangzicui stop and spent lots of time walking. Click the Da Jia Fa link to read more about it. It’s an odd building ya? It’s huge and interesting inside.

After completing our shopping at Da Jia Fa, we walked back to Jiangzicui station. As our stomach were growling on the way to the station, we stopped at Formosa Chang 😍😍😍 for braised pork rice! Time was around 2.11pm. Thank you Formosa Chang for setting up a shop there. Haha This was our fourth and final lu rou fan meal in our 2015 Taiwan trip.

My sis decided to get a cold milk tea from the nearby Comebuy after lunch.

We got back to the hostel to rest. Around 5pm+ we head downstairs for this:

Fuyuan pepper bun! This shop is located beside our hostel and it took us this long (2nd last day in Taiwan) to finally tried it. Wanna know more about this pepper bun? Click here for my review.

Final stop of the day is Ximending. To come here, ride the MRT to Ximen station. I like Ximending more than Myeongdong. Hehe

Dogs! The two golden retrievers are actually the mascot for the two restaurant branches of Ah Mao Risotto found in Ximending. One of them is Ah Mao. I kinda pity them. Wish I can whisk them home and give them plenty of love. The dog on the right is huge. Not sure what bread though. Does anyone know?

These two are compulsory must-eat in Ximending: Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle and Hot-Star Large Fried Chicken.

Onion pancake 葱抓餅 and milk tea from Specialized Tea Club (queer name right?). The onion pancake is sort of like our local roti canai, only more fluffier. Btw, what’s the Chinese name for Specialized Tea Club? I can’t find this shop info in the net.

This is grilled mochi with peanut.

I reviewed all these food above at my food blog. Check it out here.

Along the eating, we also shopped for the Uma Hana bags and umbrellas. Since the owner from this Uma Hana stall spoke Hokkien, we chatted for quite awhile. We even asked her about her origin, why the young generation in Taiwan no longer speak and understand Hokkien. The stall which we bought the umbrellas from (near to Ximen station exit 6) were friendly too. Their umbrellas prices are cheaper compared to those found at underground malls. They (husband+wife team) said they will repair umbrellas for free whether you buy from them or not.

After Ximending, we went to the underground mall at Taipei Main Station. My sis was looking for a nougat shop but we reached there too late as it was nearly 10pm. And for the first time, we got lost in the big maze of Taipei Main Station.

We got out eventually and bought bagels from NY Bagels Cafe at Q Square and black sesame soya from 7-11 near our hostel. We found out one can still walk through Q Square after operating hours which is good because I consider this a safer route. Some restaurants are still open late in Q Square such as the bagel cafe. The unfortunate thing is the bagels are so off-putting. No one wanted it after the first bite. It was also my first time trying bagel. Aiya.

We slept at 1am on our last night in Taiwan. Mostly for packing all the food we bought. Haha

Day 6 (last day):

First thing in the morning, we went to the fruit vendor to buy persimmons and liu ding. Then we had breakfast as usual in Star Cafe.

Toast with ham and egg. I like it. That’s chocolate and peanut butter on the right side of the plate.

We checked out at 9.40am and waited for our 10am taxi ride which we requested the hostel to help us book the previous day. The taxi driver came up to the lobby at 10am sharp. Punctual! He helped us load our luggage and off we go to the airport. The taxi ride cost NT$900.

On the way we saw this dog riding the scooter with his master. He was standing and feeling the breeze. So cool. 😎

It’s also in this taxi that I have first-hand experience with the black box. The taxi driver is friendly and my dad chatted with him nearly the whole way to which we kept ushering dad to keep quiet since the driver need to concentrate on the road.

We reached Taoyuan International Airport at 10.45am. That’s five hours before our AirAsia flight. That’s my usual timing to arrive at the airport… basically 4-5 hours before departure time. We spent our free time walking around the airport and also shopping.

Since we have checked-in online at the AirAsia website, we only need to drop our baggage. Sound simple right? Problem is almost 90% of us did the same thing. So the drop baggage lines were really really long while the check-in counter line has only 2-4 persons queuing. I think I’ll skip check-in online next time.

Then there was a problem with one of our check-in luggage. The officer told us to remove prohibited items. We can only guess power bank. So we took out the power bank and later my DSLR battery. Funny how come this rule doesn’t apply in KLIA2? I actually never have problem with DSLR battery in the luggage in any of the airports I’ve been to. Either it’s a new rule or Taiwan is stricter. A couple of others behind us also got called regarding their luggage.

After all the frenzy and passing immigration + security, it’s business as usual. Business as in shopping. Kekeke

We took off at 3.55pm sharp. Had our in-flight dinner at 5.20pm. About 1-2 hours before we touchdown, rain started to pour.

If you have power memory, you would remember my first Taiwan post whereby I wrote this:
Btw, make sure you stick to the end of this Taiwan travelogue. Something happened!

So rain started to pour and then followed by lightning. 30 minutes of lightning actually (I counted). Every few seconds, we saw the skies being lighted up. I sort of regretted for not paying attention to a Quora question: Can a plane struck by lightning? (The answer is YES). The chances was pretty high at that point since we’re near the source and we’re made of iron/steel/whatever… a conductor!!! Thankfully I was seated at the aisle (less dramatic images from the window). Not so good was my mom who’s beside the window. It was scary and tense. I began Buddhist chanting.

We also encountered several levels of turbulence. From light, moderate to severe. The moderate turbulence has the plane wobbled left, right, up, down. But the two severe ones (which I will remember for the rest of my life) got us going like in a roller coaster!!!!!!!. The plane had a sudden drop of which felt like dropping a few hundreds feet and back up. And we encountered it twice in the space of less than 5 minutes. Everyone was shouting. During that time, I asked myself “Am I going to die?”… “In an AirAsia??”. Then I looked around and sees my family. “It’s alright if this is the end since I’m with my family”. 💗💗💗 Well, at least I can say I have no regret at that point.

A little thought came up during the severe turbulence… “Why did I not ride the roller coaster at Universal Studio Singapore?”. LOL

I also remembered asking my sis “Have you encountered something like this during your long flight to US?”. She said “Non. Nothing as horrible as this.” It’s also important to note, if not for the seat belt, we would/might have been lifted up from our seat.

Thankfully after that two severe turbulence, there were no more major ones. And as we look outside the window, the plane were moving away from the storm. Still all we could see below was the sea! Where’s the land eh?

When I finally hear the flaps open and later the wheels down… ahh joy! Our scheduled arrival time is 8.40pm. We touched down at our beloved home country at 9.50pm. And everyone clap! 👏👏👏 Kudos to the crew of AirAsia. The captain spoke and I can sense a relieve from his voice as in saying “We made it!”. Hahaha

Btw, thank you AirAsia for moving us to the later return flight so we could experience the worst turbulence ever. No pun intended. I really mean it. I sincerely hope that that was the worst turbulence I will ever experienced.

And that’s it. My 2015 Taiwan travelogue is complete. Ended with a lil’ 😂 when writing about the turbulence.

Thank you for reading my Taiwan posts. May you find something useful in the posts and I hope I have convince at least one of you to visit Taiwan.

I never wanted to visit Taiwan before this. But the moment I touched down in their beautiful land, I knew I’m going to like Taiwan a lot and come back for more. It has that magnet that draws you in. Somewhat like Hong Kong and South Korea. What I love most about Taiwan? The friendly people and the food. 🙂

My completed 2015 Taiwan travelouge:
1. Taipei Day 1: AirAsia, Star Hostel & Ningxia Road Night Market
2. Jiufen Day 2: Jiufen Old Street
3. Beitou + Taipei Day 3: Hot Spring & Shilin Night Market
4. Taipei Day 4: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Nanmen Market & Food Shopping
5. Taipei Day 5 & 6: Chia Te, Ximending & Goodbye