Solo Trip - Taiwan (July 2023) - Taipei Shopping and Mala Noodles

What could be more cool than writing this blog while listening to Ah Yue singing in the background :)  Happy Weekend at home today, attempting to complete my Taiwan Trip blog. Almost there. So let's continue! 

Woke up the next morning and decided to walk to carrefour 24hr shop to see if I can get some souvenir. I love 24hr shops since I can go there super early when it's less crowded. We used to have Carrefour in Singapore, but it has since closed down...

After browsing and buying some stuff, I was really craving some mala. I was wandering around Taipei yesterday evening looking for Mala Fragrant Pot, but apparently, it's not a thing in Taiwan. When you say mala, it's the soup version. Anyway, I was hungry, so I waited for this mala shop above to open and was one of the few early bird inside. 

This was what I ordered, mala beef noodles with blood cube. Did you know, I only started eating blood cube when I ate it for the first time in Taipei? My colleague took me to a mala hot pot, and the soup came with complimentary duck blood cube. It was the first time I ate it (out of politeness), and loved it! But weirdly, the blood cube in Taiwan taste a lot nicer than those I find in my Penang Curry Mee. Why is that?

The bowl came with a very generous amount of gigantic beef blood cube! The place was not cheap though. More than 10sgd for a bowl. It wasn't that spicy either. But boy are those blood cube delicious1 They have a certain fragrant to it. I finished the whole bowl satisfied!

On my way walking back to the hotel, I came across an old building with the above display outside. It looked like railway station in Taiwan, historically.... I stopped to take some photos.

Mapped of Taiwan and it's railways. The size is almost the same as Peninsular Malaysia. Can you imagine if Peninsular Malaysia have high speed train connecting every part like this? I could go to KL in an hour! More people would travel, and economy would boom! Ah..... the potential that has not materialised.... Sometimes, I weep for my own country.....

Here are all the stations. I think I visited 4 of them this trip! I've also been to Hua Lian and Chiayi in my previous trip before. Not too bad!

Back in the hotel probably before noon. It was summer, so hotel with aircon was a good place to be. I collected the daily assortment of snacks from the lobby and went up to chill in my room. Love the snacks! Never know where to buy them though. It's those little touch of a hotel that I love. The currently hotel I was staying was called The Chairman Hotel. It was the most expensive hotel in my trip, yet the room was small and the hotel was harder to access than the very first hotel I stayed in. Personally, I prefer my first hotel. It was more like a hostel, and I felt safe staying there. It felt much more local. This hotel was more touristy business like.....Maybe it's just me. I either like luxurious hotel, or downright local hostel. I don't really care for business hotel. But usually business hotels are the one that is affordable and has all the amenities......