Welcome to Taipei (Part 4) - 故宫+五分铺+饶河夜市

On Monday morning, L and I headed off to 故宫博物院 in Taipei, as it is one of the most famous museums. It turned out to be big and we expected to be there for around 3 hours to complete all the exhibits.

As we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, I was unable to upload any into my blog. However, the museum was slightly disappointing for me. There were a lot of displays on artefacts found during Stone Age times and artistic displays which sadly, I was unable to appreciate. It seemed more like an arts museum to me.

After a quick lunch, we headed to 五分铺 for our shopping spree. 五分铺 is known to be a wholesale market in Taipei where one can get trendy yet affordable clothes. I have been warned to bring lots of $ there. :)

My conquests for that day were shocking as I ended up hoarding bags and bags of clothes around. It was fun exploring the small shops, lane after lane.


Some of the clothes were definitely too fashionable for me but there were many other stylish yet cheap apparels. I also managed to get a few T-shirts for my brother.

It was already evening when we decided to call it a day at 五分铺, nearly exhausting our pockets. As we were a little hungry, we started to head towards one of the famous night markets nearby, called 饶河夜市. The 夜市 or night markets in Taipei are known to sell a wide variety of delicious local snacks. What more can a foodie like me ask for? I couldn't wait to try!

The baked black pepper chicken pie was really v good!

The braised spare ribs with herbs and pan-fried kueh.

We tried a variety of snacks together and nearly stuffed ourselves full but there was just too much to eat! We also saw an interesting scene at the 夜市. Little shops were located along the way where you could ask to 挽面. It's an old beauty practice where the beautician will take a few strings and help to smoothen your face by plucking out your facial hair. Some people said it's a comfortable experience while others complained that the pain was intolerable. My mum said she used to do it when she was younger and totally hated it.


It was already quite late by the time we completed our snack tour but before we went back, the two of us crazily hopped on a cab and headed to another 夜市, called 公馆夜市. Our intent was to maximise our night in Taipei. 公馆夜市 was much smaller in scale compared to 饶河 and dispersed across a few streets. So in a way, it did not look as "happening" as 饶河.

We went back to Mousie's house quite late that night and I felt bad that Mousie had to wait up for us. But before she could say anything, I was busy showing her the purchases that I made on that day. Shopping just has this positive effect on girls. As we were going to 淡水 the next day, we did not chat long that night. I was looking forward to more good food the next day! Yeah!