台北の旅 2007 - Day 3
10月23日 - 我要换换爱！

slept until very late today. took my own sweet time to get ready too. the 3 American girls in my 6-bed room checked out at like 12pm, and i only started to change after they left. anyway, here's how the room looks like. the upper bunk in the center was mine.


already 12+ when i left the hostel. feeling hungry, i grabbed some dianxin from the bakery nearby and ate while walking to Ximen station. my first stop was 故宫博物馆. enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the train from Ximen to Shilin station. reaching Shilin, i was once again hit by nolstagia by how much the station resembles the MRT stations in Singapore.


took a bus from Shilin station and reached the museum in about 20 minutes. at that time, my watch was acting weird again (it's sometimes stop and sometimes work) and so i checked the time on my digital camera. 2+pm it said.


walked up to the grand-looking building and bought a ticket to enter the modern museum with a wide collection of ancient artefacts from China. there are 3 floors inside, with about 6 or more galleries on each floor. looked through so so many exhibits ranging from old machinery & books to pottery & paintings. was quite amazed at some of the fantastic artwork. but after like an hour, everything started to look similar to mi. =P anyway, a famous item in the museum is the jade that is shaped like a cabbage. another is the stone that looks like a piece a fatty meat, which i found more interesting. (picture-taking was not allowed in the museum so i grabbed these pictures from the web)


there was a big group of youngsters from Hong Kong in the museum that day, probably on their school trip. their hairstyles and way of dressing were so hip and trendy! how i wish i were younger. =P finally left the museum after 2.5hours and took some pictures outside. the wind was so strong that i had a hard time trying to keep my hair in place.


it was already almost 5pm when i was ready to leave. wanted to go to Miramar shopping mall but i was afraid i wouldn't make it in time for the dance class at night, so i boarded the bus back to Shilin station. on the bus, i suddenly realised something - my digital camera's time is Japan's time, which is 1 hour ahead of Taiwan! it was only 4pm then! so upon reaching Shilin, i took the metro to Jiantan, which is only one stop away. if i had known earlier that it was still early, i could have taken a direct bus there and save some time and money. mi so blur~

while waiting for the free shuttle bus to Miramar at Jiantan, i overheard 2 teenagers behind mi talking in a mixture of American English and Chinese. sounds very ABC, i thought. and during the bus journey, i managed to catch a glimpse of the Grand Hotel and Martyrs Shrine.


soon, i reached Miramar Shopping Mall, aka 美丽华百乐园. now the main reason of coming here was because... this is the location for the drama "换换爱"!!!


hee... those who have watched the drama would definitely recognise this uniquely-shaped shopping mall with a mega-size ferris wheel. was so excited to be here!! everything looks exactly the same as in the show! walked around the building and found many familiar scenes - the seats on the ground floor where HuoDa sat, the escalator where JiaDi dropped her oranges, the foodcourt where HuoYan overheard XiaoNan's phone conversation with JiaDi, and of cos, the connecting walkway where HuoYan threw money on JiaDi and then 强吻 her. hehe~ there are lots more but i guess only the people who have seen the drama would understand what i mean.


had dinner in the foodcourt, which once again reminded mi of Singapore's foodcourts. i ordered this 麻辣肥肠面 - the noodles was so-so but the 肥肠 was fantastic! hadn't eaten pig's intestines for a long time.


after eating, it was already nightime. went out and took more pics with the beautifully lit-up ferris wheel.


soon it was already 6+, time to set off for the 7.40pm dance class i wanted to take. but to my horror, i realised that the shuttle bus i wanted to take only comes once in an hour! oops~ hung around the place for another 45mins and boarded the bus at 7.05pm to go Zhongshan Guozhong station, then took the metro to Sun-Yat-Sen memorial hall station again. (there are many dance studios near this station)

the dance studio i went was ShowBiz - opened by Niunai! searched frantically for its location and managed to get there just in time, but when i reach, i was told that the class had been cancelled bcos there was no students and so the instructor had already gone home. what?? it was only 7.39pm! how could the instructor leave so soon? it was then discovered that she had mistaken the class time to be at 7.10pm instead. a long-haired guy then offered to treat mi to a drink as an apology. i insisted that it was ok but he quickly went off and came back with a milk tea with pearls. he introduced himself as A-may, the co-boss of ShowBiz together with Niunai. he was very nice and explained to mi about their dance studio kindly. i asked for permission to take pictures of the studio and with him. he agreed right away and even gave mi his namecard after that.


i thanked A-may once again for the milk tea and left. felt happy about this little encounter even though i couldn't attend the dance class. so i decided to go to another dance studio in the area for beginners' Reggae class! (had already searched for a list of studios before i went to Taipei ^^) it was drizzling and i found the studio after some difficulty.


the instructor was a sweet-looking lady with a kick-ass attitude by the name Tweety. she's a really great instructor - not only did she explained the steps well, she also shared a lot of dance knowledge. very inspiring! after class, i quickly went up and ask her for a photo. (didn't want to regret like yesterday again) she said that she didn't put on make-up that day but i think she still looked very pretty!


went back to Ximen and walked around for a while. i really love Xi Men Ding! anyway, i was thinking of buying a big bag bcos i had bought a tad too many things yesterday. passed by a bag shop, where a bubbly sales assistant attended to mi. i wasn't really planned on buying so fast and said "看看先". immediately, she put her arms around mi and said, "新加坡人对不对?" i was like "ehhh?!" how did she know?? she explained that Taiwanese people usually say "先看看" but only Singaporeans and Malaysians say "看看先". muahahaha~ anyway, i spotted a big pink PVC bag and thought it looked quite nice, but my usual habit is to scout for more choices first before deciding which to buy. however, the sales assistant was persistent. she started by stating the price as 490, then discounting to 450. seeing that i still wasn't ready to buy, she finally said 400 and straightaway put it into a plastic bag. so fast! but i was needing a bag anyway so i paid for it and left. oops~ spent too much again!

in the hostel that night, i heard lotsa laughter in the kitchen as i was using the computer. apparently, it was the last night for a Hong Kong girl and they were playing some really scary game! this is what i mean.


that's one of the ladies who run the hostel by the way. after the game, the Hong Kong girl cried bcos she was so sad about leaving Taipei and the hostel. awww~ then later at night, i went to the kitchen and got to know a Malaysian guy who's working in Singapore, as well as a Japanese lady who happens to live in Kobe too! chatted with them for a while and went to bed.