▲TWENTYFOUR▲

I'M BACKKKKK! Didn't realise it's been so long since I last updated. December was a crazy busy month travelling for me so I've so much to share! & not forgetting the way overdue end-of-2013, start-of-2014 reflection post ha ha

 So before I start, I just wanna address some issues. I'm fine w people taking my Instagram pics but I think it's only polite if you credit me. I spotted a couple of people using my food pics (food that I COOKED myself so you can't say you went to the same place to eat & you ate the same food as me hello) & especially my pics that were taken at Montigo Resort. I just never left any comments on their pics because I don't wanna be so calculative & annoying & bitchy. But pleaseeee...... guyzzzz... stop stealing my photos & pretend like you took it. I saw a girl who took my pic & even gave advice to someone else on how to edit the pic. LIKE WHAT? & PLEASE, don't follow me on Instagram & ask me a million & one questions on how I edit my pics, (& I WILL reply because I'm nice like that k lol) then get all the info you need & unfollow me. I don't really care about followers but this is obviously making use of me.
& PLEASEx2 don't follow & unfollow & follow & unfollow me. FOR WHAT???? The notifications are really annoying. There's this particular girl who follows & unfollows me like twice a day, for the past week. Why...are...you..doing...this.... & don't steal my shop's pics & post them & resell clothes that belong to your/other online store/s.... I pay my models. I pay my photographer, I pay for studio space. You wanna sell your clothes, please find your own models/studio & create your own pics. WTF. I think it's fucking ridiculous to watermark all my photos.... & I don't wanna do it cause it's LAME... so...... please...just sttttaaahhhhpppp. !!!!!!!!! 

Ok ranting over. Haha I'm gonna update about my December chronologically. Tbh now I can't remember what I did in early Dec.. oh well not important I guess


11-16 December: Taipei

First, I went on a family trip which we haven't done in 6 years (!!!!!) to Taipei.

Please don't ask me where's good to go or what's good to do tho, I really have no idea coz I've never been to Taiwan before, nor do my family or myself speak much Mandarin, so we were practically like huhhhh the entire trip. Hahaha we were just either going to the famous places or following what others told me to do.

We booked the trip quite last minute, so I think tickets & accommodation were quite expensive. We took Cathay, with a stopover at Hong Kong. For a round-trip ticket, it was around $550 SGD per person. We stayed at Howard Plaza Hotel, nearest train/MRT/forgot what they call it there is Zhong Xiao Fu Xing station. The location was really good tho! Quite centralized. I'm not sure how much accommodation was but each room was >$200 SGD per night.

Lunch onboard the plane! Cathay food really sucks. To the max.

The moment we reached Taipei, I NEARLY DIED. It was so cold outside, colder than inside!!!! Ok I make it sound like it was really cold.. it was around 17 degrees? But I'm the kinda person who can't take the cold well so yeah hahaha was freezing my ass off. 

Bought prepaid cards with data at the airport, the service provider was Tai Wan Da Ge Da. We paid around SGD $20 for one SIM card if I'm not wrong.

Day 1: Reached Taipei & by the time we checked into the hotel & settled down it was almost 9PM, so we took a cab to some night market that the hotel bellboy recommended. He kept saying "Lao He"... I was practically 24/7 on WhatsApp with Shermaine coz she's been to Taiwan before & kept updating me about the places I should go to.. neither of us knew what Lao He was. When we arrived, it was actually RAO HE. -.-

Rao He was one of my fav night markets coz it was really organized, basically just one street & 2 sides to cover. Within 10 mins I bought a pair of Nikes from one of the shops lol. (I just suddenly remembered about this pair of shoes & realise I haven't seen it since I came back wtf lol). The rest of the market was mostly just food food & more food. We ate A LOT that night coz it was our first night market, we wanted to try everything hahaha.

& everywhere we walked I could smell chou tofu. OMFG.... I hate the smell of it so much.... Idek why people dare to even put it into their mouths.... PUKE. In fact this stupid smell haunted me almost everyday in Taipei. _|_

Day 2: Went for breakfast at this really random roadside stall where there wasn't a menu & we resorted to pointing to food pics on the walls (there were magazine articles about their food plastered all over) tbh I wasn't a fan of the food, I hate pork.. I guess this place is pretty famous tho?? Since there were so many articles about them. I really don't know the location of this place but it's like 1 min walk away from Chrome Hearts at Ren Ai Road. 

Was walking randomly down the road after breakfast when I spotted this grey building... & this silver logo which looked kinda familiar.... OMG CHROME HEARTS started running towards the building lolol. But in the end I bought nothing.......... the tees' designs were ugly. Wasn't interested in jewelry. SOBZ

Took a train to Taipei Zoo station, where the zoo's at (obviously). I remember entrance fee was around SGD $4 WTF? But we didn't get a chance to go in coz we took the gondola up to Mao Kong & by the time we came down the zoo was closed. WTF. Wanted to see pandas... :'( 

Anw idk why there was this Hello Kitty theme going on around Mao Kong but... good for me coz I love HK ^_^

Purposely queued up for the crystal cabin! The floor is made of see-through glass so we could see the forest & trees etc... this was also the time I realised I kinda got over my fear of heights I used to have since I was a kid. Yippee! The ride up the mountain was close to 20 mins. 

Reached the top & there were quite a few street-food stalls. CHOU TOFU AGAIN FUCK MY LIFE. Walked around for about 15 trying to find some ice cream stall Sher told me about... no luck. Can't read signs in Chinese either. Sobz. Turned the other direction & had lunch at some Western cafe my mom's friend told her about. 

Sat outdoors & even in leggings & a pullover I was freezing to death oh my gawd. Idk how some Taiwanese girls could sit outdoors & chill & take selfies & smoke. But tbh most of the locals were wearing real thick winterwear hahaha. 

The food was mediocre, the ambience was lovely. 

I think we went back to the hotel to rest after that, legs were aching badly from walking here & there & at night we went to Shilin Night Market. (I can't really remember the flow of events lol) 

First thing I HAD TO TRY was this! 

It's soooo sweet but I love it. I always see it in TV shows bahahaha finally tried it. I had it twice... 

Fried milk!!

Trololol waffle dicks. Wanted to buy one... but nobody was near the stall. Everyone was standing at a distance & taking pics... & I didn't wanna be the one who got judged buying a waffle dick. & then eating it after. Awwww 

Saw this in quite a few places in Taiwan.. up till now I still have no idea wtf this is. WOW FROG EGGS? Didn't look like anything froggy tho.. 

Found Hot Star! Tbh I haven't even tried it in S'pore but everyone says it's much nicer there so ya. 6 of us took turns eating the chicken & we couldn't even finish it. Threw like 1/4 away in the end lol it was so huge. 

This was so gross & dry & I only bought it to take a pic for Mandy coz she loves elephants. Hahaha

Also had the famous Ah Zong Mee Sua. I remember getting angry lolol when Sherman came back with a bowl of this coz it had PIG INTESTINES inside. Wtf so gross I was expecting oysters (which I find gross too but not as gross as pig intestines) I hate pork I hate pig everything. Avoided em carefully & had some mee sua... Idk what's the hype about really. I think the oyster mee sua at Shi Lin snacks in S'pore is nicer?? Hahaha but the experience was cool. They had a shop, kinda like a restaurant but with no tables, just benches all over & people will sit & hold their bowl of mee sua & eat & leave when they're done. Lol so weird. 

Sneaker shops everywhere! Bought a pair of Air Max for Anton

Bought Starbucks at Zhong Xiao Fu Xing Sogo for the walk back to the hotel in the furreeeezzzinggg cold. Cakes at Starbucks were super cheap tho! SGD$4 for a slice, compared to the prices in S'pore.

Bought this cute bottles of coffee & milk tea from 7-11 (Family Mart has em too) they look like shampoo bottles right?! I bought every single flavour coz I wanted to collect the bottles bahahhaa.

Day 3: Had brunch at Zhong Xiao Fu Xing's Din Tai Fung. I'm not a fan of DTF at all, not even in S'pore but Sher insisted I try it. They do have items that they don't have in S'pore, like the guo tie which was quite nice actually. 

With my dad & Sherman around, we almost always over-ordered during every meal. 

Took the train down to Xi Men Ding for some shopping! (altho I bought nothing LOL)

Surprisingly the weather that day wasn't really cold & I actually perspired in my pullover a little bit. 

My mom & sis went into practically every shoe shop they saw. As in, ladies' shoes, while Sherman & I went into every sneaker shop we saw but got nothing. I bought like 10 pairs of socks tho for around less than SGD $1 per pair.

Got bored while waiting & saw someone eating ice cream. Followed the person to the shop & got one for myself hehehe. Best feeling in the world to eat icecream when it's cold out! 

Couldn't resist Hot Star again. Their fried mushrooms are so yummy! 

We were done with XMD really quick in a couple of hours so we left to go to Zhong Xiao Dun Hua. Wanted to go to Juice Taipei! Sadly we didn't see Edison Chen hahahahahaaaaaa.

Made friends with the really cute girl working there & we chatted about makeup & 3CE/Style Nanda in really broken Chinese (for me) & broken English (for her) she kept asking if I liked 花 de Air Max & I had no clue what she was talking about.. found out that night that Juice was gonna realise the Liberty x Nike Bourton AM1 the next day lolol SO THAT's what she was talking about... Got an UNDFTD tee for myself. The only clothing I bought the entire trip lolol.

Bought 4 pairs of Puma x Sneaker Freaker shoes... the boxes were so huge D:

I think that night we went to Shi Da Night Market. Where I bought nothing again. Tbh there was quite a few stalls with v v nice clothing but I was freezing, had no mood to shop, & they were selling mostly winter wear. I was soooo tempted to buy so many knits & pullovers but S'pores weather is just.... so nah. 

Day 4: Was watching TV before heading out for breakfast, saw the advertisement for Happy Meals & there were HELLO KITTY TOYS. So naturally, we went to Macs for brunch. Teeheeeee.

& then we took a freaking long train ride to I forgot which station. But the place we went was called Dan Shui! It's like some old street/old area with street food bla bla etc which naturally meant more eating of coz

OMG these fried mushrooms were so freaking good I miss it so badly now I want some I NEED some 

Ice cream AGAIN... the one on the right was so good. Some tea & melon flavour mixed. 

We came all the way here to see the sunset.... but obviously, there wasn't any coz there was no SUN???? 

Then we saw a taller ice cream so we just had to buy ice cream, AGAIN

After that, Sherman & I went off by ourselves to Zhong Xiao Dun Hua again while the rest of my family went elsewhere. We went back to JUICE & walked around the area where most of the shops were selling street wear like Stussy, UNDFTD, Nike, New Balance etc.. then walked all the way to Chrome Hearts again but had nothing to buy again. Then we HAD TO go to Hello Kitty Cafe!!! 

Idek what to say about the desserts.... just thank God we didn't decide to have our dinner there??? How can something that looks so good & cute taste so awful hahahahhaa. Still I don't regret going coz it was a Hello Kitty experience not to be missed. I pity the boyfriend who had to accompany me there & eat those sucky desserts just for the sake of these pics lolol.

Went back to Zhong Xiao Fu Xing Sogo to have our dinner at a Jap Tonkatsu restaurant called Anzu, recommended by Sher (obviously). We had SO MUCH difficulty ordering coz the entire menu was in Chinese (I expected English menus considering the standard of the place tbh) & the waitress was speaking in such fast & fluent Mandarin, I even had to take pics of the menu & send em to Sher & ask her to translate for me... it was that bad..... 

So anyway we had this! 

It was on their special seasonal menu. A really big portion of tonkatsu which I am not a fan of coz it's pork, but in really yummy sauce with mixed mushrooms. The rice is refillable & really nice, & their chawanmushi was OMFG the best I ever tasted in my life. THAT GOOD. Oh they call it Cha Wan there. Lol I ordered it guessing & hoping it'd be chawanmushi haha. We also had some sides of tamago & erm I forgot what else. Our total bill was less than SGD$30 WHAAAAATTTT?? It was a pretty "high-class" restaurant too. Really cheap. 

Day 5: Had no idea where to go. Haha went to Taipei Main Station & did some shopping in some mall idek the name of. 

I chose the lunch venue, Coco Ichibanya! Lol yes I know they have it in S'pore too but idc. Food was v good & yummy & CHEAP. Less than SGD $80 for 6 of us!! 

Then Daddy got me my Liberty x Nike sneakers hehehe. Can't believe they sell COLLABS at NIKE STORES. 

We got bored of that place pretty quick & decided to go to Taipei 101. But when we reached there we figured it wasn't worth going all the way up coz it was so cloudy & all we prolly wouldn't be able to see anything.

Went back to the hotel & my dad insisted on having the hotel buffet as our last dinner in Taipei so yeah. Wasn't too excited about the food but they had Haagen Dazs ice cream HAHAHA so guess what I had for dinner..... ice cream again. 

Day 6: Woke up, did last minute packing & went to the airport to catch our flight. Stopped over in HK for 2 hours & I just had to have Macs at the airport coz HK McNuggets is nicer than S'pore. LOL 

Nothin much, I felt like the trip was too long coz we didn't really know where to go & we didn't go out of Taipei either. It wasn't boring yet wasn't like wow fun I guess but the street food is good (& fattening!) but even tho I complained about the cold most of the time, I missed the weather the moment we stepped back into Changi Airport. Lolzzzz.

K next post up will be about my Bangkok trip after Taiwan! Omg I spent almost 3 hours & 50% of my laptop battery on this post.