Taipei
February 21st, 2009 -- Posted in travel | No Comments »While the baby’s expected delivery date was brought forward to beginning of March, I had to make a last minute plan for a 3D2N trip to Taipei to meet with our client and his customer who’s the end user of our product. I flew in on Wednesday and returned just yesterday.
I was arranged accommodation at The Fullon Hotel Taipei. Initially I wasn’t quite impressed when I received the confirmation fax with the hotel letterhead, but when I arrived I loved it right away.
It’s modern, clean and definitely chic. The furnishing was all new. The bed was the softest I could imagine.
My room has a strange but practical design. The wardrobe is accessible from both the corridor between the front door and the bed… and also from inside the bathroom on the other side. Ingenious idea!
Dinner was arranged with our client Benson and his wife at Wang Ping Steak House (王å“). We were told it was the best in town. For less than $50 each, we had full courses of appetizer, soup, main course, fruit, dessert and coffee. Mind you, it’s not a Denny’s family meal. They’re all quality stuffs. Since I’m to abstain from beef and seafood, I had this humongous piece of pork chop… biggest I’ve ever seen. I was first served the outer layer (which is actually a lean layer of the pork leg) while they bring the inner layer back to be cooked a little longer. It came back looking like a completely new dish.
It’s my first time in Taipei… and between the meetings and business meals, I had very little time to see much. So I had to pick just one or two places to visit within the two nights. I was recommended a few, and I picked Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) for the first night and Ximending (西門町) for the second.
The streets at Shilin Night Market reminds me of a blend of Bangkok and Guangzhou, but a lot cleaner and the people friendlier. It was already close to midnight and yet there’re still lots of youngsters roaming the street. Most of the clothes and stuffs are so cheap I could not believe I was calculating the right conversion rate.
The street food… aaaah… HEAVEN! I saw so many things I wanted to try but after the gigantic pork chop/leg, I couldn’t stuff anything else down my stomach.
By the time I got to the end of one street, I had to turn back and call it a night. I wanted so much to explore the whole of Shilin but there’s just too much to see in one night and it was going to be a long day tomorrow. It was such a waste not to be able to try the street food. Nevertheless, it’s a place I’d definitely want to come back to.
After a breakfast meeting with Benson and Mr. Len, we took a 2 hour train ride to Chiayi, another city south from Taipei, to meet with the big customer of Benson, an industrial end-user of our coconut cream.
Here’s a video showing how fast the train went… Note the green fields. The only other place I’ve seen such green fields was in Japan.
It was just four of us meeting a whole team of 15 over people from various departments. The meeting lasted hours but it all went well. After the meeting, we were brought out for dinner before rushing back to catch a train back to Taipei.
Back in Taipei en route to the hotel, Benson briefly showed us The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It wasn’t much to see and it was smaller than the Tiananmen Square, but the sight of the memorial buildings are just fantastic in the night lights.
Video for a panoramic view of the place…
By the time we reached the hotel, it was already 10:40pm. Needless to say, it was too late for me to visit Ximending so I decided I’d just head back to Shilin for some last minute shopping before they close at 1-2am.
Some of the stuffs I bought include…
... a Domo-kun hat for Liang Hwei
... a double wrap leather wrist strap
... a silver ring and bangle to match my old silver ring
That’s not a lot, but I must say I’m more satisfied with the shopping than I expected. Though I couldn’t find the sneakers I was looking for (or the grey Lux for Derek), I’m pleased with the leather wrist strap, the silver ring and bangle which I’ve searched for years for. So it’s quite a good catch within such a short time span.
The next morning, while waiting for the rest for breakfast, I took a walk around the street outside the hotel. Taiwan residential street reminds me a bit of Japan. The narrow lanes and small apartments resemble so much of those in Tokyo.
After a hearty breakfast (I even had nato beans on rice… a favorite Japanese breakfast choice) and before heading off to the airport, we made a short visit to the Carrefour. Nothing much interesting but I saw this giant shopping cart just outside the entrance. I wonder which giant left his/her cart outside the store.
So that was that… a short visit to Taipei. I’d definitely return… and next time with Sunsun and baby. I had the chance to visit just one of the many night markets. I’d definitely must explore more the next time.
