Beijing Baby!: Taiwan & Thailand

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Taiwan & Thailand

I wrote up a quick entry for my last post as I was just about to hop on a plane to go to Taiwan and later Thailand. It seems I have returned from my tropical journey and all I can say is Sydney is damn cold! I really hate the cold, but I don't mind New York or Beijing kind of cold because at least that means 24 hour heating. Shanghai or Sydney cold isn't actually cold enough to have that kind of heating and using the air con non stop is such a waste of energy, and thus I am cold at home as well as cold outside. So I have to say I thoroughly loved my tropical holiday in Taiwan and Thailand.

My first stop was Taipei, Taiwan where my family and I stayed for 2 days. We went to the Night Markets on the first night which was a lot of fun. The Night Markets are just roads of small food, clothes and accessories stalls. Bargaining is a must there, but you can't bargain off a lot though since they prices are already quite cheap. I was trying to put on a Taiwanese accent while bargaining but they could still tell -_-;;

The food at the Night Markets seems safe enough to eat so I do recommend you try the BBQ chilli squid and this Red Bean Ice:

So nice on a hot and humid night.

I didn't try this but it looked interesting. It's ice cream pancake or something similar.

I probably wouldn't recommend buying a lot of clothes here. The quality is rather bad and the sizes are tiny. There were some T-shirts though which were nice. I bought a few Blair-like headbands and a pencil case. My sister bought some necklaces because she likes tacky plastic teeny bopper accessories.

It was so busy and it was only a Tuesday night. I wish Sydney was like this.

We stayed at The Grand Hotel which is one of the most unique hotels in Taipei as it's architecture is completely Chinese style and it's built on a mountain so you get the most wonderful view of Taipei.

My mother said that she has heard that there have been hauntings in this hotel. Fortunately my family stayed in a suite so we all slept quite close to each other so my sister and I didn't freak out too much.

On the balcony of the our room at the hotel.

We then went to The National Palace Museum (Gu Gong) in which all the ancient goodies from China's Forbidden City were stolen by Chiang Kai-shek after the Civil War in China. Haha, Chinese people get so bitter about seeing all their important artifacts in Taiwan.

Written work from the Qing Dynasty (I think, I forgot to take a photo of the description). I wasn't really allowed to take photos but I was sneaky.

Outside the National Palace Museum.

After the museum we went to Taipei 101 which is currently the tallest building in the world. It's 509 meters high and has 101 floors. There is a huge luxury shopping centre on the bottom few levels.

The view of Taipei at the top of Taipei 101.

In the shopping centre.

The shopping in Taipei 101 was pretty good. I almost bought a Gucci here but then decided against it. Must save for Japan!!!

Eating Haagen Dazs in Taipei 101.

This is the bag I bought from my previous post. Isn't it pretty? One of my friend's boyfriend's bought the same one in black for her, and since I have no boyfriend I bought it for myself. Girl power! LoL. The shop assistant at the Fendi store was really nice. I found out she was also born in Beijing so we had a long conversation while picking out the colours. I couldn't choose between Yellow and Red but I realised Red is more me. The shop assistant told me that there are only four Red ones in Australia so it's unlikely I'll bump into someone carrying the same bag.

On my second day in Taiwan I met up with my friend Gracie who now works in Taipei. She took all the photos that night so I don't have any. Send them to me Gracie!!! LoL. We did some shopping at Soho (was it Soho?) where there are three huge shopping centres located next to each other. We tried on a few dresses at BCBG Max Aria but once again I was able to control the urge to spend. Hopefully I'll be seeing Gracie in Beijing.

I really enjoyed Taipei, it was so much fun. If I have to describe Taiwan in a few words I would say "the love child of China and Japan". It has so many aspects of both countries that I felt like I was in Japan at times only to speak Mandarin. The Taiwanese were all really friendly, the shop assistants were polite and helpful, and the taxi drivers were chatty, although you have to be careful as some of them try to trick you into going to visit a place where they are associated with. You then end up having to buy some product which you don't really want but feel obligated to buy.

Anyway Bangkok was our next stop and it was actually my 21st Birthday the day we went from Taiwan to Thailand so I got to celebrate in two different countries.

My birthday dinner at a Thai restaurant in Bangkok.

China Town in Bangkok.

A Tuk-Tuk. It's a popular mode of transport but it's a little scary since they drive rather fast.

It was so hot and humid that day, probably something like 38 degrees celcius. I still prefer that to Sydney's 10 degrees though.

All the walkways connecting to different sides of the streets and different shopping centres.

Inside Siam Paragon which is one of the more upscale shopping centres in Bangkok. The designer labels here were more expensive than Taiwan though (I found the Gucci bag I wanted to buy and it was about $700AUD more expensive than the one in Taiwan), so I barely walked into the stores as I couldn't afford anything anyway.
I was excited because they had a Zara here, but the selection was really bad and it was expensive. The Zara selection in Shanghai is really good and the prices are low. The selection in Tokyo is also good but it's slightly more expensive there.

My sister in front of a Princess like jewellery shop in Siam Paragon.

I didn't really enjoy Bangkok that much, maybe because I had just visited a big city, and I think with family holidays it's always hard to decide to do one thing in such a city. There are a few shopping locations that I went to that I can recommend. Siam Paragon is definitely one to go to if you're willing to spend. Siam Discovery (which is next door) is more for young and trendy boys and girls, but it's a lot cheaper than Paragon. They also have a cinema at the top floor of Discovery. I watched Wanted there. Cool movie, but not brilliant. Angelina Jolie is hot! MBK seems to be popular with tourists and locals alike, but I found it crowded, dirty and noisy. I hated it, but some people might find it interesting. MBK contains little shops with shoes, bags, clothes, souvenirs... all kind of things which you can bargain down and buy. MBK is also quite close to Paragon and Discovery.

Although I didn't like Bangkok that much, I loved loved loved Phuket. I had the best time there. Our hotel was right on Karon Beach so we went swimming there everyday. I have never felt water this warm before, it's so much nicer than the Sydney beaches (the water here is cold, even in summer). I got a Oil massage on the beach on the first day, the next day I got a Thai massage (I've never heard my spine bones crack until my Thai massage) and I got a foot massage the day after that. We went elephant trekking and paragliding at Patong Beach. I had a blast in Phuket. We were going to go to Phi Phi Island for a day or two but then the idea fell through when we all got too lazy. However that's a place I would want to visit next time.

We stayed on Karon Beach which is quite a secluded beach so that was really nice. Kata Beach which is a 5 minute drive from Karon Beach is also really nice but slightly busier. Patong Beach on the otherhand is extremely touristy. Patong Beach reminds me of Manly actually. If you ever get the chance to go to Thailand you simply must must visit Phuket!

A photo of Karon Beach from the balcony of my hotel.

I don't have many photos of Phuket because I was mostly on the beach or in the resort pool with nothing but my sunglasses and a book (I was reading the new Stephanie Meyer book "The Host"). What I did manage to get lots of photos of was the Phuket Simon Cabaret where all the Lady Boys perform. They mimed many Chinese, Korean and English songs and did a two comedy acts with fat and unattractive Lady Boys who I suspect were actually just men dressed up as women. One of the first routines was a Dream Girls routine and one of them really looked like Beyonce! I have to say you really can't tell that the Lady Boys are male. They had the nicest bodies and some were just stunning. I took a photo with one of them (40 baht per person) but I'm not going to post it up because I feel rather depressed that a transvestite looks better than I do.