{Taipei Day 1}: Itrip Taipei Inn & Ximending

Finally, after the 1hr + long bus-ride, the bus driver dropped us outside the hotel 一乐园, and pointed out that our hotel is just right beside this building. 

Spot our hotel's signage! 日安西门城市旅店(Itrip Taipei Inn)

We have to go into the building and take a lift up to 9th storey.

I am very satisfied with this hotel for its good location and friendly service staff. I first chanced upon this hotel through reading a blog, that proves that blog-hopping isn't always useless, hahaha.

Details of the hotel:

Website: Itrip Taipei Inn

You can book your rooms through the email provided in their website, or even Agoda and Booking.com. One thing good about this hotel is that you do not need to call them if you want to book a room, unlike other hotels! After comparing, I also realised that it's cheaper (by a teeny weeny bit) if you book through them directly rather than booking through the travel intermediaries. 

I booked a room with triple bed (三人豪华套房), and it costs around SGD40 for each person per night, so in total, each of us paid SGD160 for the 4 nights that we stayed, a pretty good deal right! The room is also very clean and comfortable, has a huge plasma tv in front of our bed and sufficient space for all of us to put down our luggage!

The washing and bar area. Very convenient for the basin to be located outside the toilet. My only complaint is probably the fact that there is no hanging area for clothes and towels in the toilet!

You can probably see that the streets is pretty empty, could be due to the wet weather earlier on or because it's a weekday evening! Anyway, so happy to finally arrive at Ximending, it reminds me of the scenes in Taiwan idol drama!

After hearing/seeing so many people talking about Taiwan's 7-11, we have to go in and take a look for ourselves! And of course, it did not disappoint! Look at the varieties of food/drinks they have. On the top right-hand corner, there's the cheesy shrimp pasta! OMG, I feel so hungry just looking at it now! I didn't get to try there though, it just looks yummy to me!

CC's favourite 官东煮! She had this everyday. 

Then to the famous amos 阿宗面线! 

I really love this so much, must add lots of vinegar! I can have this everyday!!!

Their opening hours.

Address: 台北市峨嵋街8號之1 

Crowds start to gather after the sky darkens...

Ximen MRT station! To be honest, the route from our hotel to the MRT station is really complicated, I wouldn't know how to go there if not for CC's guidance, LOL.

Queued for chicken chop! We were really amazed by the staff selling this, because they were singing along this line "快来买鸡扒，要大的还是小的~while serving the customers! We were discussing that, if anyone were to also do that in Singapore, the shop will definitely bustle with customers, because it's such a joy to see the staff enjoying themselves while working!

It's not really to my liking as there are small pieces of bones inside!

Passed by this stall, and decided to get some 煎水饺! 

The stall looks very busy, but the staff who served me don't seem too friendly leh.

So cheap!! I bought like 6 pieces of pork flavour ones for us to share, only NTD30~SGD1.30 in total! Tell me, how to resist food in Taiwan? 

Then I felt like I could still stuff myself with more food, so we went inside a food stall.

OMG, super yummy 鲁肉饭! T.T only for NTD25 a bowl!

We also ordered a 蚝煎 to share, and didn't like the sauce too much!

There'a really lots of shops selling bubble tea, I got myself a mango green tea from this shop! 

Passed by the toilet-themed restaurant! I wouldn't want to eat in such a restaurant, it's hard for me to relate food and toilet together.

One can see many street vendors like that on the streets in Ximending (and other night markets)! I did not try any of the food they sell due to perceived hygiene issues.

Throughout the stay in Ximending, I passed by this restaurant lots of times! I really want to try the food inside for my next visit. There's also a signature Labrador doggy sitting outside the restaurant everyday(not visible in this pic though)!

So, this was our Day 1 for you! As I go along, I hope to be more specific in the pricing/directions so it will be beneficial for my future reference and for those who are looking to travel to Taipei!