Pink and Undecided: shilin

#Pink and #Undecided's Taiwan Trip : Shilin Night Market (Culinary) + Hotel Review

Yellow everybody!! How are you guys doing?

#Undecided here and I'm quite excited that it's Friday today!! Gotta love weekends, right hehehe... This is another joint entry, and I'm so not sure what day we're at today, but this entry is for 2 exciting things: Shilin Night Market and our 2nd hotel in Taipei. First up: a photo of your travelers in the famous night market.

Had to bend down because of the glare from the excessive lighting there hahaha...

Hubby and I however missed the first half of the visit because right after we got to our 2nd hotel, I was totally surprised to see Audrey and her husband (Mr. Lin) outside!! First I thought what a coincidence, of all the places in Taipei, we had to bump into them OUTSIDE OUR HOTEL. But apparently NOT!! They were actually waiting for us. Not sure what happened or if I read her email incorrectly (or forgetting it altogether, I know, I'm such a bad person sometimes!). But we made an appointment to meet when "we got back from Hualien" and Audrey thought of it literally, as for me, I meant I would contact her when I touched down Taipei to MAKE THE ARRANGEMENT. Hahahaha... And worse, they had already waited for around an hour or so (so sorry, Audrey!!) because we spent so much time at the train station (after getting back from Hualien, getting Boss Re's family a hotel, Joe leaving his box of mochi inside the train, #Pink buying softlenses in the midst of it all (I know, that woman is cray!), eating Burger King, and so on...)

Oh a little background story. Audrey is actually a friend of my boss, but she also works in packaging business. I used to handle her account long ago (before A, and then Ave started working for IDP), so we are quite close. I've met her several times over the course of the years and every time I see her I always marvel at how wonderful of a person she is.

And this visit to Taiwan was no different. She took us to dinner (dinner was yum! Traditional Taiwanese Cuisine no less) and had the best mang guo bing!! Too bad I didn't take any picture (was too busy enjoying the food to do so and my Blackberry ran out of battery), but I believe #Pink did the second time we went to the mang guo bing place :).

#Pink's here's! And i am quite surprised that #Undecided actually remembered all of those details (as in me buying contact lenses and all, there were no actual photo evidence to remind her after all!), but she's really getting wayyy ahead of ourselves here because this entry actually picked up right from our last entry of Taroko Grotto! The taxi drivers uncles insisted on taking us to try a famous lemon juice on the way to the train station.

Super famous as in they were even featured in magazines and newspapers okay!

The very vintage and super "China" looking place :D

A cute hand drawn map on the table!

A closer look

The famous lemon juice! It looked really refreshing in the picture, but it was so so bitter than i almost fell off my chair when i took a sip!! Obviously i totally refused to take a second sip, but i think #Undecided fared better with her lemon juice :p

It was passed lunch time already and we had no more time to go to another restaurant so we asked if they serve food there, and apparently they only serve seafood noodle there, and this is the *humongous* side dish of.... Pig trotters? I have no idea *horrible food blogger-wannabe there*. I only recognized the boiled brown egg :p

The SUPER HUGE portioned seafood noodle. It was alright, but the portion was gigantic! I was annoyed at hunny because i kept on saying we should order one and go splitzies (we did that we we were dating, no wonder we were both so slim back than LOLOLOL FOL) but he refused and said "The portion's really small" after looking around at other diners. I have no idea if he was seeing things or those other people ordered different kind of noodle, but this could feed three people! I wanted to puke and managed to finish less than half. I hate wasting food -___-. Btw, not only the noodles were generous okay, the amount of seafood they chucked in there were no joke also!!!

My mum told us to find a "sort of mochi cake" in Taiwan because it was super yummy, but i'm not sure if we managed to find the thing she asked for (it might be a seasonal thing), but that didn't stop us asking Joe to bring us to places that sell that kind of cakes nonstop hehe. Joe probably asked the uncle drivers to take us to this place (which apparently just opposite the train station!) that was famous for local cakes and sweets. Funny thing happened for a bit because #Undecided's hubby got off the taxi before the rest of us (hunny, #Undecided and i) who didn't speak Chinese, and the uncle driver tried telling us to get off as well but he didn't speak like, a word of English! So we just sat quietly there, doing a guessing game with each other until Joe came and rescued us. LOL.

Freshly made... it was mochi, right #Undecided?
Errr... I hope so, #Pink hahaha...

Then we just walked to the train station to wait for our train! I also experienced more tortures by having to go to the train station's public toilet *hikhikhik, i don't understand why people don't FFF...LLL..USHHHHHHHH* and see a huge shit (yes, i'm talking about toilet here so of course it was literal. No need to censor right?) in one of the cubicle i tried to go into, i backed so fast and furiously i must've turned into a Lady Flash for a second there WTF. Other than China (yes, even compared to Indonesian public toilets) Taiwan had one of the worst public toilets for me. I mean, even at the malls :(... They would smell disgusting and people don't flush and they only have squatting toilet which for some reason i find more disgusting than sitting ones. Of course, hotel's toilets were nothing but heaven for me there!

Should have snapped the photo 1 minute later, #Pink! LOL.

Love how Taiwanese know how to line up... Unlike most Indonesian I know. Gah!!

The ride back to Taiwan was fancier - see here for comparison.

And finally!! We're back in Taipei! The train station at least... And read my first paragraph to learn about what went down when we were here hehehe...

So clean I could just roll around on the floor!

Boss Re was being cray and he didn't even have hotel reservation for the rest of the trip, so while Joe scrambled around helping them book a room and the others getting food, i actually just sit on the floor like a little lost kid. No lah, i sat on top of our luggage because i was the appointed "guardian" LOL. That's why i could snap these pictures from this angle

And here are the photos about our 2nd hotel: Inhouse Hotel, Ximending. IMHO one of the loveliest places I've been in. #Pink was in her element for the walls were painted pink hahaha...

Yup, and the full-bodied, lighted up mirror for selcas and OOTD pics. Felt a teeny tiny bit like a stripper though.

Very clean room, very comfortable bed...

A bit scared of this glass paneled cupboard though. As a horror freak, i always worry about ghosts hiding inside my closet. And this see through ones just amplified the fear. I mean, i'd see the ghost straightaway no??? Shocked myself a few times just seeing clothes that we hung inside -____-

The room was small but super clean, cosy and comfy! LOVE it! But it's the type that my bro KC will definitely deem "love hotel", with the lighted mirror, the free condoms and adult movies (LOL). Oh, and the stylish receptionist ladies with their super long legs, skinny bodies and super short pants!

Trying out the mirror for a selca immediately. Oh ya, if you ever stay in this hotel in the same room, do not open the curtain if you're naked hahahahahaha the full glass window faced the alley on Ximending directly! I can see people busily walking pass down there until very late into the night

Pretty and rustic wiring table

They even provided speaker and dock for your Ipod

One teeny tiny problem for me (#Undecided's room's layout was slightly different and she didn't have this problem). This aisle you see?

It leads you straight to the bathroom. NO door!!!!

Particularly in love with the toilet seat warmer!
FYI, it's Japanese toilet with all those crazy buttons and drier :D. But i'd still prefer if they put a door there zzz

Even the shower is so high tech and fancy.

Yep, you're not seeing things. Those are genuine L'Occitane toiletries...
Definitely one of the highlight of staying in this hotel! I read that L'Occitane actually sells these travel sized products, IDR 100.000 or something each! #faints. We got two sets each because we were extremely Asian and immediately kept everything in out luggages so the housekeeping gave us a new batch the next day :p. Don't tell me you wouldn't do that if it's L'Occitane!!!

Immediately tried a selca. Looked ghostly, but okay lah hehehe.

#Undecided and her hubby went for dinner with Audrey and her husband (and later joined us) while Joe guided me and hunny to hunny's #1 destination in Taiwan, Shilin Night Market! He's been demanding to go to this famous night market from day 1 because it was so famous by its street food *while Ximending was more famous for the shopping*

We took the MTR there and after walking for a bit, we arrived! While hunny made a (long) list of food to try in Taiwan, i only have one thing that i wanted to try (well, i definitely wanted to eat oyster omelette but it's not something new because i've had it thousands of times in Singapore before) from reading Xia Xue's Taiwanese travel entry.

Fried milk!

That's the milk i guess, the square thingy. A solified milk somehow *still in wonder of them*

Then deep fried into balls

Tried to capture a pic after biting into it to show you the center but it turned out so blurry zzzz

It was... interesting. Not everybody's cup of tea i guess. Kinda bland *which is good for me because i do not like overly sweet things*, milky (well, obviously) and creamy. With savory outer. It was nothing mind blowing or whatever, but something that you should try at least once if you're visiting Taiwan, if only for the novelty factor.

Of course, there were a lot of festival games booths as well

I think this is the "heart" of Shilin but the place itself was pretty spread out and big, Joe took us to very confusing alleys later (he was hunting for some food he wanted us to try, he's definitely the perfect guide!)-not recommended if you're not guided by a local though hahaha you'd get lost! Stick to the obvious parts

HUGE ass serikaya (sugar-apple) that were larger than large oranges. Puts Indonesian serikaya (which sized like, half of those) to shame

Oil in a wooden bottle. Looked interesting so i snapped a picture, but i no longer remember what oil that was (sorry Joe, who already explained in details hahaha)

Now, if you're uncomfortable with graphic things or extremely prudish, i suggest you to skip the next part.

I warned you already ah :p.

Ta-dahhhh

#Undecided actually saw this peen waffle in some blog and showed me before we went to Taiwan, but we weren't actively looking for it and just stumbled into this booth!

I think it was pretty hilarious so of course we ordered some stuffs

OMG this picture looked so bad. I mean, hunny's fine because it looked kinda normal looking, but me... I was stuffing a gigantic purple peen into my mouth WTF!!!!

It was a lolly ice hahahaha

OMG looked so disturbing ya! And do you see those people inside the shoe store starring at me? They really were. In fact, EVERYBODY starred (and laughed) at me. I was sooo damn embarrassed okayyyy!!!! I mean, this is a local booth but seems like the locals were more shocked to see me sucking on a gigantic purple peens (and gave me a judging stare) than the tourists (who mostly laughed in a non-judging way)!

Joe was very embarrassed as well and kept on refusing to try any of our peens *LOLOLOLOL WTF* so in the end i kinda forced him to pose hahaha

As for the taste, the waffle was surprisingly good but the lolly was very so so *just like frozen shaved ice with grape syrup*, but it was so so so HOT (did you see how hunny was drenched in sweat on the picture up there?) that it was very welcomed to cool me down. It was huge though so it lasts very long (as well as the embarrassment) :p. Just try it for a laugh with your friends!

There were also quite a lot of other shops. Seems like Taiwanese are pretty big with toys, stuffed animals (Minions were on the rage when we were there) and anime stuffs. But for fashion, i prefer Ximending (i did purchase a Hello Kitty tights here though)

Joe then took us to another part of Shilin

Spotted this toilet-themed cafe. Taiwanese are BIG with themed cafes! I went to a similar cafe in KL before (dunno if it's a franchise or not)

On to a very secluded area

What's that, deep fried crabs?

This was what Joe wanted us to try, i don't remember the name (obvi) but it looked and tasted a lot like a nasi tim hehe
I believe this is lu ruo fan, bb!!! Joe, correct me if I'm wrong and WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ME THERE TOO!!!! *stare*

Oyster omelette! AAAAAAA!!!

Drooling uncontrolably! I want one NOWWWWWW

See what i mean with cutesy stuffs? Even the paper box to pack the omelette was so cute

Oh so yum... Personally i like Singapore's version better but this is visibly healthier (less oil, with lots of vege) so i'd kill for either version!!! Huhuhu

Then Joe lead us back to the previous area, down to a basement to look for another item in hunny's "things to eat" list : coffin bread!

The coffin bread uncle

Prepping the fried bread

Making incisions to create a space *and door* inside the bread

Then filling it with very thick congee

Topped with shreds of chicken

It was quite nice and interesting, but very filling as well! I had one little square and immediately very full (i only had bits and pieces of other snacks before) so try to keep this one on the latter part of your snack-adventure because otherwise you might be too full to try anything else, and that's a NO NO!

#Undecided and her hubby arrived just then, and we went to the toilet-where i made a total fool of myself! Remember how i told you that ALL of the cubicles in public toilets in Taiwan have emergency buttons? Well, that night i was confused or something, i totally mistaken the alarm button as the effing flush button! OMGGGG!!!!!! I realized my mistake as soon as i pushed it, and i flee out of the cubicle screeching at #Undecided, a second later.... The alarm blared SUPER LOUDLY!!!! OMGGGG. I was so panicked and shocked i ran away as fast i possibly could *before being detained or fined* from the toilet -____-.

Shocked the shit out of me hahahaha... It was so hilarious though! And we started running like crazy... The alarm was so loud and people were staring hahahaha... We then asked Joe why there are alarms on every cubicle which he responded with "in case someone drowns" and he was lucky we didn't throw some sugar apple at him hahahaha...

Oh well, that's it everybody. I hope you enjoyed reading and ogling at the photos.

Until next post!