Ximending + National Palace Museum

After much struggle, I got myself up this morning and thought about what to do... since it's officially hurricane week and it's raining and blowing tremendous winds.. Since I've never been to Ximending before (at least of my limited memory), I decided to pay it a visit. Before going, I tried doing some "homework" and looked up the places to eat and visit.

When I got to Ximending, the first thought was "oh wow, it reminds me of Hongdae!" It's very young people-ish and has a lot of shopping area.

I like the open space and the fact that there are a lot of places to shop. It wasn't really raining during the day, so it was good for shopping and walking around.

So the first place I visited is this famous "mi-sua" (rice noodle) place. It was pretty good :) It has pork intestines too.... so good.

There wasn't really a line, but there was a swarm of people eating outside...... because there are no seats. I think they purposely made it that way so people will stand outside and eat. These places that have become tourist attractions all have a system to their sales so that they get the product out super quick. And you better be ready to receive the food ASAP! And when I say receive the food, I meant receiving HOT food! Yeah... it's really hot..... so it's really hard to take pictures of it when you are by yourself.

I only got the small one because I want to try other food around the area.

The next stop is this famous snow ice called the "Three Siblings".

I got the taro ball, yam ball, and tapioca ball mix with brown sugar ice. It was quite interesting...

It's one of those things where when I eat, I ask myself "this is all real food right?" I don't know... I keep asking myself that question when I eat Taiwanese food because you occasionally see news that say that "they actually use fake meat!" or "that's actually chemical powder!"... so I'm not really sure what I'm eating. o_O

The taro and yam balls are more transparent than the Jiufen ones.... so they definitely added more power than real veggies. The snow was really creamy. And these tapioca balls were strangely big and transparent. When I bite into it, it didn't seem cooked... so I took a look inside... and...

There are red beans inside! Wha...t? Strangely so. So I ate as much as I probably should and left the rest on the table. It only cost 100 NTD. Can't beat that price.

Not sure what else to do in the area (except being convinced to buy a bag... which I do need, so it's not too bad), I decided to go to the National Palace Museum in Shilin.

On the way there, I found the MRT that has these newly decorated floors to prepare for the World Sports Tournament (I think that's what it is) that is being hosted in Taiwan.

So cool! I'm not sure which court this is...  I didn't have time to walk to the other cars to check it out since I had to get off in two stops.

On the way walking there, I saw this "onion pancakes" which is made a little differently from normal... so I gave it a try. It was really good! They added an egg to it... and only cost 35 NTD. Yum!

Again, popular place, super hot food. Taking pictures while holding hot food in the other hand was not too wise.

After a long bus ride, I finally made it to the museum... and.....

OMG.

The peoples!!!!!!!!!!

My gosh... this place has become tourist trap. I didn't know it was gonna be this bad on a Saturday. It was REALLY BAD. There were Korean, Hong Kongnese, Taiwanese, Chinese, TOURS everywhere. When I say tour, I meant tour. They ALL have headsets on and the guide speaks through the mike to explain each thing to them.

Dude, going through the entrance was like going through immigration. Geez.

And then EVERYONE wants to see the same thing.... it was SOOOOO LOUD!! There were these employees silently walking around with the "please be silent" sign. I'm like "you're super ineffective. First of all, you don't talk, you just walk around with the sign. Second, do you think they care about your sign? Do you think they even read the language?!" It seems like a very useless idea.... and super pointless for them to hire employees to "silently protest" as part of their job. Bleh.

So yes, EVERYONE wants to take pictures of the same thing. EVERYONE was crowding around the same artifact. There was really no point to the museum anymore... it's like "snap the picture of the artifact to let everyone know that you were here and then leave". There is no reminiscing about the past and ponder about it... it was just "please leave as soon as you take pictures... there are more people coming". Bleh!!

And the people crowding around the exhibits to take pictures of them..

Clearly, I was really annoyed.

After trying to fight the people and going around all three levels, I kind of gave up and just went to tour the outside. It was really raining... but at least the peoples won't go into the rain, which would give me some peace and quiet.

There is this garden that is inside the palace that is free for entering if you already bought a ticket to the palace museum.

It would probably have been flooded with tourists as well if it weren't raining today. But since it was raining, this place was quite empty.

That concluded my tour of the palace.

On the way back, I went to Carrefour and found these taro ice cream that I've only eaten when I was a kid! Too bad they only have the taro flavor inside... the passion fruit one tastes even better!

The hurricane is really blowing now. I can hear things crashing outside intermittently..... but thank God that every time I actually travel, it hadn't been blowing or raining that badly... so I've been quite safe. However, I might need to eat some dinner sooner or later.......