Nov7 - Day5 (Specialized, Taipei101, Wufenpu Wholesale, Shihlin)

Becoming lazier & lazier. Didn't wake up in time for my hotel FOC breakfast. 7-11 is our most frequent shop during our trip. You can get pretty much anything. For example, cereal with milk. Innovative lehh...

 

 Cereal at 7-11

Our itinerary today is to visit the Specialized Concept Shop. Seems like in every overseas country we go, we tend to visit the bike, running & tri shops. 

Specialized is located at No. 302, RuìGuāng Rd, Neihu District Taipei. We took a few transits to Gangqian Train Station. The shop was around 10mins walk away.

The sales guy was a Singaporean. The shop's size is wider than our KL Branch which makes it seemed bigger. First bike that KS requested was the Specializes S-Works. I'm not good with these high-tech stuff but his eyes were twinkling.

 Specialized S-Works

Starting em' young

Next, we went to Taipei 101. That would be at the Taipei City Hall Station. We decided to give Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall a missed coz many had said CKS Memorial was much better. The station also provides free shuttle bus transport to the Taipei 101 but we decided to walk instead. Takes about 20mins.

 

 rent a bicycle with Easy Card

Taipei101 Shopping Mall is like Starhill KL. Branded shop, expensive stuff & few people. Take a lift to the 5th floor to the ticket counter. Purchase an adult ticket for NT400.

 

In the lift, you'll see the countdown on how many seconds to get up to the Observatory floor. You'll also be entertained with constellation stars on the lift's ceiling.
 

Customer service was great. They would lead us to the information counter to obtain our info listening device in required languages. At every corner of the building, it would explain the history & layout of Taipei.

 Shhh...we're learning

 Taipei

 He rather take picture with the cow

Wanna tell ur family and frens you are in Taipei101? Just post them a card

Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Sitting just 660 ft. from a major fault line in Taiwan, the tower could be subjected to earthquakes, typhoons and fierce winds--major challenges to the rigidity of the building. The remedy for these potential seismic and atmospheric assaults is this 730-ton tuned mass damper (TMD). It acts like a giant pendulum to counteract the building's movement--reducing sway due to wind by 30 to 40 percent."-wikipedia-

 

The long awaited Wufenpu wholesale market. Houshanpi train station. I expected to spend alot here as friends said you can find the cheapest stuff here. I was sooo wrong. Terrible experience. Clothes in plastics everywhere. No one serving you. No price tag. Bought a top which I thought was a good deal but found out (much much later), that I could have bought it at a lower price elsewhere. Ppl would cycle around, whacking into you and I believe shop owners actually buy their stocks here. After 30mins, we left.

A nd where did we go? Back to Shihlin Market, of course. I suggested here again because KS said no other market would sell the Fried Chicken & Mee Suah as good as the original place. This time we took our time exploring the place.

 Mee Suah auntie

 Taiwanese Sausages & meat rolled over spring onion

 More porkie

 Baby doggies

As we were early, there weren't many people. With Winter around the corner, we bought our winter wear coz it was cheap. Below are my purchases :-

2-style winter boots = NT390

 Summer & winter tops = NT100-NT290

 Winter Jackets = NT390 each

 KS bought Tara this...dun remember how much

 Leg warmers & tights = NT100 each

 My woolie furry beanie/hoodie & gloves = NT390

 

This may be the worst buy =NT150 (i could have rented this cheaper)

I think my most expensive purchase here was a cup of cherry tomatoes (with a slice of assam inside) for NT100. Now that I think about it. WHY!!!

I had my bowl of mee suah again. Yummy!! And this time, I bought a big piece of chicken for myself (I share a piece with KS the night before).

*NT100 ~ RM10