Finally, we arrive in the capital city of Taipei... Walking thru the underground shopping street (which is really confusing due to the many exits of the station), still with our 2 big cases, found the exit which leads to our hotel.. I tell you... It has gotta be a scene right out of a Stephen Chow movie... You can imagine the shock that we had when we saw the 'hotel' sign at the side of a really rundown building.... I truly, honestly, nearly dropped my case.... I could not bring myself to take a picture of this one... Gosh.... Thankfully the 'hotel'
(which is actually only one level in the building) was not as bad as the exterior... Phew!! In the end, it was kinda cosy.. No complains for the room itself. After throwing down the luggages, it was as usual, out again.. Took the Metro to Da Zhi Station to walk around abit and headed over to Lin Jiang Street Night Market (临江街夜市) also known as Tong Hua Jie Night Market (通化街夜市). It was food and shopping shopping shopping all over again...
Next day, we headed to Dan Shui Old Street (淡水老街), Yu Ren Ma Tou (漁人碼頭) was on our 'to-visit' list but we could not make it there in the end. The boats stopped its services due to the strong winds so we had to give it a miss... Also in Dan Shui, I had my first Starbucks coffee in 7days in Taiwan... *Yay-Finally*!!! We simply had too much shopping in hand and too less time so we decided to give the Hot Springs a miss as it will take quite a few hours to travel there. Will leave this one to the next visit as well... keke... Shi Da Night Market (师大夜市) was the planned one this night. Still... food and shopping... (What else?!.. keke...)
We decided that we had to be more tourist like this day.. so in the morning, we headed over to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂). There was a pre-Halloween party/bazaar for kids in the open area before the hall.. All the kids were dressed in different kinds of Halloween costumes.. They looked really cute.. Passing the bazaar, we climbed the long flight of steps towards the hall. We were lucky to catch the 'take over duty' procedure of the Guards in the main hall. A procedure that only lasts for about 10mins at 12pm each day.
We took the train to the Eastern shopping district next and we stopped by at the 'famous' SOGO to look for our lunch restaurant - Dian Shui Lou (點水樓). I had looked forward to going to this place as it supposedly serves real good dim sum. Nice ambience and yes... Great food. =) 
Next on the list... the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). As it was a Saturday, we had free entry to the museum after 6.30pm. As we were browsing thru the many exhibition rooms, we realized that 2 hrs was not enough.. We did not manage to finish touring the whole museum but it was a very enriching trip there. I guess I would go there again if I have the chance. 
Night Market Highlight for the day - Shi Lin Night Market (士林夜市)... The shopping area and the food area is really so huge... By the time we finished the shopping area, I was already too full to get anything from the real food section... Wie Schade!!!
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