Taipei Day 9 (30/11/2012)

Final day to do any last minute shopping!  In my original itinerary, I have kept this day as F&E, in case there are last minute places that we have missed visiting / would like to visit again.

When Mr Lee brought us to Dihua Street on our Day 5 guided tour, old Dad fell in love with the ginger sweets that we bought. Also, when we reached Dihua Street the other day, it was close to evening time and we did not really get a good look around.  So this morning, we decided to revisit this place again.

As usual, work up to the sound of rain hitting against the window panes.  Another wet day. Well since it is our last day in Taipei, must not waste anytime.  Armed with our usual gear of umbrellas, raincoat..we set off.

At the train station, we asked a couple of people how we should go to Dihua Street.  All of them said different things.  One old aunty told me that to get to Dihua Street, we should be taking bus instead of the train. As it was raining and we were unsure of the bus route, I took a gamble.  I have done my homework on the net and I am pretty sure other bloggers would not have given wrong info.  Trusted my memory on what I've read on the internet and took a train to Shuanglian Station.  At the train station, I went to the control station and asked for directions.  To my surprise, the control station seemed to be well prepared! hahaha! They passed me the following slip of direction guide and off we went!  Exit 2, and when we are up at the street level, we turned left as instructed.  We were supposed to board bus No 518, shuttle bus that will bring us to Dihua Street.

When we exited from the station, I was totally caught off guard by the scene.  The streets were full of life! So much activities going on, eateries, bakeries, roadside stalls etx etc!  Just like our Chinatown street.  Well, of course we have not reached Dihua Street, but decided to stop here for our breakfast first.

After we exit from the train Station and turned left, and about 30 steps ahead, we saw this stall selling noodles and bee hoon.  Ingredients looked fresh so we have our breakfast here..

While my mum was queuing up to buy the noodles, I saw the beancurd stall next to it and bought 1 bowl to share.  Smooth and sweet..in black sugar syrup. Anyway, there was food stall left, right, everywhere...so we bought different food from different stalls to try.

We were seated at a table by the roadside.  The stall owners are pretty easy people who does not seem to mind us buying food from all over and using the table and cutlery.

While we were having our food, I saw Bus 518, the bus that we were supposed to take to bring us to Dihua Street.  But after asking road directions from the food hawkers, we have decided to walk to Dihua Street and not to take a bus instead.  There are so many things to see along the way, why waste the trip by being on the bus.  From what we gathered, the walk will take us about 15-20 mins.  That's absolutely fine, coz our tummy's already fueled up :)

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So, from the noodle stall, we took a short stroll further down the road to check out the street.  There was a morning bazaar going on, more food sampling and local scenes.

Morning bazzar..

You should see Starbucks if you turn left after you come up from train station Exit 2.  It is about 100m away.  But if you see Starbucks, it would also means that you are in the wrong directions to Dihua.  Go back to train station and walk in the other direction.  Again, from train station Exit 2, turn right to go the Dihua Street. Long-winded huh....:)

Once we have finished checking out the stretch of shops along the noodle shop, including Starbucks, we walked back towards the train station.  From the above picture showing Shuanglian Station 2, assuming you just came up from the station, turn right and start walking all the way down.  If you need to, stand at the station facing the main road, look out for the road sign that says "Mingsheng West Road", that is the direction you should be heading.  

 

Actually, there are a lot more good food stalls if you walk along the way.  For us, because our initial thought was to take a bus, hence when we were up from the train station, we turned left to look for the bus stop and happened to see the noodle shop. But if you do not intend to take a bus and walk to Dihua Street instead, you can straight away turn right after you come up from Exit 2.  All the way to Dihua street, you can find food stall...as in really old food stall, tucked in corners that is probably only visited by locals.  After you walked for about 80-100m, you will see a 7-11.  They have washrooms inside in case you need to find one. After that, I would suggest cross the road and continue walking from the other side of the road as there are much more things to see, more food stalls ( always peep into little lanes, you will see queues and that means ..good food!)

Below are some of the street scenes and food stalls that you will see along the way..

When you see this green metal bridge, that means you are on the right way and is already half way to Dihua Street.

Look for sign boards like this...

 

Along the way, you can look out for the sign that says "Ningxia Might Market"..When you see this sign, just right beside it is the famous "Wah Kuey" that I have raved about in my earlier post.  :) Hu Xu Zhang is also just next to it.  Must try !

As we were too full to stuff anything else into our tummy, we made a mental note to come back here to have our lunch at Hu Xu Zhang.  Never give up the chanec to eat good Lu Rou Fan ! 

From the photo below...see the 2 yellow/red pillar?  Hu Xu Zhang and the famous "Wah Kuey" stall is located just right under the HOYA sign.  Easy right?

From here, continued walking and in about 3 mins time, we reached Dihua Street.

Finally, reached Dihua Street. ..

 

We went to this shop..Jin Xiang Ji and bought lots of goodies like cuttlefish, ginger sweets, olives, preserved plums etc.  Their prices are a little more expensive, but fresh and they are wholesaler distributor too.  However if you do have lots of time on hand, shopping around a bit will definitely be an advatage to look for better bargains.  We bought 600g of sweets at this stall for TWD120.  Elsewhere selling on TWD90..:)

 Armed with bags and bags of goodies, we made out way back to Shuanglian Station.  At Dihua Street, we roamed happily around until lost orientation.  Got to ask a shop owner for the directions to the train station.  I think in between there is another train station but since we do not mind walking back along the path we came from...so walk lor..  Reached the iconic green metal bridge, saw this sign and happy like a butterfyl!  haahaa!   Oh before that, we stopped by Hu Xu Zhang again for our 2nd visit..forever yummy !

For those who just want to make a trip to Ningxia Market in the evening, take train to Shauanlian Station, but this time Exit 1.  Once up and out of Exit 1, turn left.  You should see the following sign..Bao Feng Ying Lou, Bing Lang...

That's it...walk down down down the street and you will reach Ning Xia Night Market.

A fruitful outing indeed! Went back to Minsu with big and small bags.  Once again the question....how to pack all these stuff into our bags.  Hmmmm.....need some brain power.

We started packing some our stuff that afternoon.  Done...napped...then went out to XImending again for our 2nd visit to Ya Rou Bian, at old dad's request.  :)  They do have vacuumed pack goose meat, our concern is not running out of foreign currencies..but rather running out of luggage space.  So in he end, never buy.

That's it folks, end of a wonderful holiday in Taipei!