January 26, 2008 · 10:46 am

I Think I've Died And Gone To Shoe Heaven!~

Woke up really early this morning (try 6 am) to accompany my dad for buffet breakfast. They had a full American spread plus some Chinese stuff as well. Food wasn't great, but at least it filled my stomach and I only munched on stuff I like, such as bacon... lots of bacon! Hehe!

Went back to the hotel room for a nap, before my Aunt arrived at around 10 am. This is the wife of my Dad's 5th brother and she's really very cool. They actually live in Japan and she has 3 children, a boy and twin girls. Because Dad had to meet some friends for lunch, my Aunt was given the task of bringing me around. She brought me to Xi Men Ding where I promptly died and went to shoe heaven!~

Seeing such huge posters on buildings reminds me of Tokyo and New York

Xi Men Red Stairs (translated literally). It used to be a theatre, but has since closed down.

Within 20 minutes of arriving here, I had already bought a track suit and a pair of shoes. This pattern was to continue for the rest of the day. The things here are incredibly cheap! I bought some great warm clothing, not that I really need it in Singapore, but its so cheap, so who cares? Anyway, its been raining so often, I guess some warm clothing wouldn't do me any harm. And the SHOES! WOAH! There is crazy variety at such cheap prices, I could hardly believe my eyes! I couldn't make up my mind and had to keep narrowing down the choices. After a good hour or so of shopping, we stopped for some famous mee sua.

Really famous mee sua that I tried and loved!

Imagine such a huge pot and its sold out in minutes because there is a long winding queue for this hot piping bowl of goodness.

The yummy mee sua you get after queuing for so long. Tastes especially good since its nice and warm while the weather is wintry and cold. Mee sua will never taste the same again!

After the uber good mee sua, we proceeded to shop somemore. The style of the shops here are fairly similar to Hongkong and you can actually bargain as well. I had a good time polishing my bargaining skills at the various shops and managed to save a bit of money. The style of the clothes, bags and shoes here are quite different from the things you find in Singapore, although I do recognise some of it from the small indie shops in Far East Plaza or Bugis. I had to control myself from buying too much stuff and only buying things I didn't think I could find in Singapore, although I did invest in some warm clothes, because it has been raining and the weather is colder than I expected. Of course, when you are shopping so hard, you have to stop to eat and replenish your strength.

Somehow most of the menus here are done in this style

Taiwanese style Tempura (Tian Bu La)

A strange queue of girls that snaked all around Xi Men Ding. When we asked them, they said they were there for some autograph signing by some star. I couldn't be bothered to find out who.

After 5 solid hours of shopping, we finally decided to head back to the hotel. Mostly because it was beginning to get dark and my hands were beginning to ache. My Aunt decided to take me on my first train trip in Taiwan

Train ticket purchase machines which look alot like Singapores'

View from inside the train

View of the crowdedness inside the train

Getting off at our station "Zhong Xiao Fu Xing"

The train station issn't very far from the hotel and we managed to get back quite fast. As Dad as asleep in the hotel room, Aunt bide me a quick goodbye and zoomed off home. I was left to look through my purchases and calculate how much I had spent.

This bundle of stuff that I brought back from Xi Men Ding included 3 pairs of shoes, 3 tops, 1 track suit, 4 skinny ties (The wonderfully yummy looking andro type ones), 1 sweatshirt, 1 shirt, 1 vest, 3 bags and other assorted tiny things.

After resting in the hotel for 2 hours, my Dad went off for his dinner appointment and I went to explore the area nearer to our hotel on my own. Armed with a map and my new woolley warm sweatshirt, I went off to find more places to shop. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated trip to SOGO was a huge disappointment. Everything was crazy expensive in there, even though it was on sale. I couldn't find a single thing worth buying and ended up walking around under the tunnel areas instead. And that was where I found my next shoe heaven! 2 different shoe shops yielded another 3 pairs of shoes! And all at a really cheap price too!

The underground musuem that leads to a rather deserted mall where I discovered my next shoe heaven.

The pride of my shopping today. 6 pairs of different shoes. Note the sexy black heels with intricate design, the shiny black flats and brown boots I've been searching for so long.

Pink panther sneakers which I couldn't resist and WHITE BOOTS which I have been looking at forever but never did buy cos I felt it was a waste to spend so much on white shoes. This pair that has embriodary design on it only cost me SGD $9! OMG, so cheap, how could I not buy?

I have to say that my first full day in Taiwan has been great! So wonderful! So cheap! Good food! Great Shopping! Yay!

Historical comments (1)

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glazzal · 1/26/2008 12:27 PM

Eek, those are really nice sneakers! The rest look cool too! Not cheap at all, haha! I really want to say buy less, but I have to admit that everything looks good. Just cut back on things you won't be using!