Sunday was another relaxing day while I waited to meet up with Vi. Mike was not feeling well so plans were changed.

I took a coupla peektures of my view from my hotel window, since it was too rainy when I first checked in.

Sloppy, comfort dressing. Loving my S$8 boots!

I had walked past Breeze Centre a few times previously, since it was near my hotel. Decided to pop in for a good look around. There was meant to be a Balenciaga store, but it was still under renovation! Bummer.

There was a Chloe store though. One of my previous obsessions. Also a brand that Vi and I shared a passion for! I took sneak peektures of these baby Paraties for her…

The red python was gorgeous! Too bad Chloe’s now feel too heavy for me, after getting used to Balenciaga’s.

After leaving Breeze, I went into Sogo to buy some mentaiko bread buns, and got stuck at a beauty cosmetic counter. The SA was so persistent! I only managed to get away after buying an eye gel. I figured, if I were to buy something from them, it might as well be something I would use (my eye gel was running out). I refused to cave in to the products they were trying so hard to push to me (eye masks and I can’t even remember what else). And in the end, I literally had to say, quite forcefully, that I was late and I had to go.

Vi was waiting at her hotel for me, so I jumped into a cab and headed over. We then went to meet her family for dinner. I loved meeting her family! Everyone was so nice. I met her grandma, her aunt, cousin, and her parents. We had dinner at an organic Chinese restaurant. It was lovely chatting with them.

Bidding a hasty goodbye, we scrambled into a cab that Vi’s dad had flagged, and headed back to her hotel to check on Mike. Then, Vi and I went to Eslite (again) since we didn’t spend much time there previously.

I found Laduree books, but resisted them!

And other macaron books too. Also resisted them!

But I did get one more Jimmy Liao book, in addition to the ones I bought previously.

We also went and bought Char Siew buns for Mike from that Hong Kong cafe so Vi could bring them back for him.

I had a mentaiko French bun for supper back in my hotel room. I wish the bakeries in Singapore would start making these!

I found Totoro like this on the bed, placed there by the housekeeper. So funny! I’m sure it was by accident but he looked like he was tilting over saying hi.

My own starry, starry night in my window. <3

The next day was a frenzy of activities so I didn’t take any peektures at all. This was the morning when I had no hot water, and got delayed meeting up with Vi and Mike for the last time. I was pretty upset with the hotel. But I did manage to spend slightly less than an hour with them. We did some last minute shopping at Sogo and I bought my last mentaiko French bun for my plane ride home. I was so glad I did – it was such a treat on the plane! I totally could have had two.

Taipei was absolutely lovely. Of course, the best part was meeting my BFF Vi and her DH Mike! <3 Even though my planned schedule did not happen at all, except for Villa32, it was actually pretty nice not keeping to a schedule at all. It was good getting all that research done anyway, so I had an idea of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see, but there was no stress to cover all and everything. Definitely will be back for more of Taipei next time! Maybe next time I will get a travel companion, as it is pretty challenging to explore the night markets alone. It is definitely possible, and I did it, but I would have liked to be able to eat more stuff (oink).

Notes for next adventure, especially to a cold climate where I’d be wearing boots: Must get pedicure done before traveling, or be brutal and cut toe nails short even if the polish hasn’t been removed. This was the first time my toe nail has actually broken from being in closed-toe shoes. Lesson learnt. Pack fewer sets of clothing, if hotel has laundry service. I definitely overdid it on the socks this time (brought one pair for each day but only used half of them). I need a lightweight coat, something between my Juicy Couture hoodie and wool winter coat. That said, I did manage to travel quite light this time and I’m quite proud of it!

Can’t wait for the next one. Where will it be? In the meantime, I might post peektures from my previous Japan and Vancouver adventures (both were in 2010). I haven’t actually blogged about them proper. :) I also have the Taipei edition of **The Macaron Scribbles** coming soon. Stay tuned!

x o x o
bB