Taiwan Trip Part 2 (Taipei: Shifen 十分 & Shida Night Market 師大夜市)

This photo was take while we were on the way up to Shifen old street 十分老街 which is located at Pingxi 平溪 and I was having a bad motion sickness. Lazy us took cab up instead of the budget but hassle way. Because of its location on top of the mountain, it was a long journey on the rocky roads. The cab keeps making turns here and there. I was like "can we go down for a break please" :'( I manged to hold myself back from puking but not until when we go down the hills. Horrible feeling. Well, the beautiful scenery is what makes the trip worthwhile.

 Shifen old street 十分老街

Yes sky lanterns!! We are there for these. In mandarin we called it 天灯 ~

 

Different colour stands for different blessing. They have one that is in a combination of 4 colours too. The normal ones cost 150TWD if I am not wrong. So it's like $6?

My ugly red sky lantern. I'm bad with brush so mine looked like crap...lol

 

Spotted this family's sky lantern which I personally find it pretty! Just look at theirs and mine. The different is....

 

 

Sky lanterns are not meant to be fun, they are meant for blessing and it is more like a kind experience which you can never get in Singapore. So don't expect it to be exciting or what alright! The place is definitely photos worthy because in the middle is basically an old train track and the place is surrounded with retro looking stalls. Actually, it is advised to visit Shifen and Jiufen on the same day since they are not far apart but due to our poor time management, we couldn't make it to Jiufen on the same day. We went Jiufen on the last day. Will blog about it in the later part. There are many cabs at Ruifang station which provide the 'packages' for Jiufen and Shifen. They even have posters printed with the rates stated inside their cabs. As it is really hard to get a cab at Shifen and Jiufen area, many people usually hire to a flat rate cab that offers the package of a few destinations and the driver will somehow become your one day tour guide in that case.

 

 

Was lucky enough to catch people playing with fireworks. I hardly have chance to see them this close other than at NDP!! It was really beautiful.

 

 

 

Next stop. 師大夜市 Shida Night Market

 

 

Shida was really a hot spot not until they got involved in some conflict with the government and now the crowd has reduced to less than half of its usual. Many vendors and shops were close up due to the complain issue. Such a pity because I LOVE THIS PLACE! Shida is actually a university nearby and the crowd there are mostly youngsters. The clothes and stuffs there are majority for teenagers and young adults which I personally find it way more trendier than Shilin night market. I was quite surprised that not many of my friends who have been to Taiwan actually went to this place. To me, this place is a gem! A shopping hot spot other than Wufenpu.

This is super good!!! Korean spicy grilled chicken(Dakgalbi) with rice cake and assorted veggie. The taste of this is similar to the one I had in Big mama Korean restaurant located at Tiong bahru area,

 

They used the remaining marinated sauce to make kimchi fried rice on the spot. The portion is quite huge!

 

If you are wondering what is this restaurant called, it's call 飯館兒(fan guan er) and this is how it looks like. Try asking around if you intend to go. The price is cheap/reasonable so don't worry!!

 

 

Another good thing about Shida is, YOU CAN FIND 3CE MAKE UP HERE!!! The shop is called 86shop. They also have a website so maybe you can check out what products do they carry other than 3CE. They do have a huge range of Japanese and Korean beauty products. Here's the website https://www.86shop.com.tw/ It is located at one of the alleys near the main road. You can just walk around to look for the it since Shida wasn't that big either. I only got myself one lipsticks and one lipgloss from them as I've already gotten other stuffs from another shop. Kind of regretted not getting them from the first store I've went cause it was cheaper! meh. That shop is located at 忠孝敦化站 (Zhong xiao du hua staion) blue line exit 2. When you see zara, turn left and walk straight. NOT into the alley in between zara and watson. Jusr a few shops away, you can spot a shop with 3CE logo on their sighboard. So keep your head up hahaha! The price there is slightly cheaper but they don't provide testers unlike 86shop,

 

How to go Shida Night Market: Alight at Taipower Building Station 台電大樓站. Go to Exit 3 turn right twice.

 

 

(To be continued with part 3...)