As promised, the focus of my final post on Taipei is on shopping. Taipei has such a thriving and vibrant shopping scene, it’s impossible to miss!

Today, I will be sharing my top 4 spots for shopping in Taipei as well as pictures of my hauls.

1) Stay Real at Ximending

Stay Real is a popular Taiwanese streetwear brand established by Ashin from Mayday. The brand has a history of collaborating with famous Japanese designers including Jun Watanabe and also Japanese characters like Hello Kitty, hence it is little wonder that it decided to set up shop in Tokyo too. 

I really hope this brand will arrive on our shores one day. Their designs are unique and the workmanship is excellent. In case you were wondering about the price points for this brand, the Hello Kitty t-shirt here cost me about S$60, the shirt was over S$100 and the cap was about S$40.

2) Wu Fen Pu Wholesale Market

I am sure this wholesale market needs no introduction. Like any self-respecting Singaporean who loves shopping, I spent practically one entire day here scouring through alleys after alleys of clothes, shoes and accessories. 

The shops here
now boast an endless selection of Korean apparel, accessories and shoes
at affordable prices, which make them the perfect alternatives to the
traditional stores in shopping malls. I personally think it is a good
idea to pop by here first before you head down to the malls, because you
just might be able to bag something that you’ve been looking for at a
much lower price.

 Don’t get me wrong though, the Korean merchandise here are certainly nowhere near dirt cheap, but from my observation, they are likely to cost up to 50% less than what the malls offer.

I’ve been on the lookout for wedged sneakers for a while now, and I was absolutely over the moon when I located three pairs in the exact styles that I wanted! These cost me about S$80 per pair.

 I bought a couple of dresses here too but what really caught my eye was this baroque dress adorned with intricate lace sleeves and gold trimmings.

This lace jumpsuit is another one of my favourites. The lace top is sheer but the tailored cut ensures that you reveal just a hint of skin without compromising on elegance. I loved it so much that I wore it to the Queen Elizabeth II Cup recently. My Korean diamonte accessories were from Wu Fen Pu wholesale market as well.

3) Shih Lin Night Market 

The shopping in Shih Lin Night Market caters to the masses and tend to be very reasonably priced. If you’re on a tight budget, this is probably the place to be as the likelihood of burning a hole in your pocket is relatively lower. 

I found a shop here that sells both made-in-Korea apparel as well as designed-in-Korea apparel. What does the latter mean? It basically means that the clothes are designed in Korea, but manufactured in China. The lower cost of production also translates to consumer savings, hence such apparel tend to be priced lower than their true blue Korean counterparts. Based on personal experience however, the made-in-Korea apparel are definitely better made.

I bought a couple of designed-in-Korea tops at about S$20-S$30 each.

4) Chung Shan North Road

My main objective for heading down to Chung Shan North Road was to visit the Chrome Hearts store, but the cold and unprofessional service provided by the sales assistants turned me off big time. I literally did a U-turn and zipped out of the store with nothing in hand although I went there with the full intention of buying some new accessories.

Well, as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. By a stroke of luck, we stumbled upon some shops in the vicinity where we were greeted with exceptional service and quality Korean apparel. This striped jacket with neon pink cuffs and lining is my favourite buy. It fits amazingly well and I love how the pink lining that peeks out at the sides adds an element of surprise.

 

I also bought the lace pants that I was wearing in this picture from the same shop. It is very comfortable and fits me to a T.

I hope you enjoyed this shopping post! 

What about you? Do you shop at these places when you head to Taipei too? 🙂

We sat there, had drinks and chatted for what seemed like eternity before we finally got back on our feet and left for more food.

As you can see, the place was pretty dark, hence not many photos were taken.

Everyone raves about the street food in Taipei and honestly, it is not difficult to understand why. There is a huge variety of choices even if you are not into their signature fried food (e.g. fried chicken, mushrooms and the likes).

Baked potato drenched in cheese, topped with sliced ham.

Snow Ice

Salt and Pepper Squid

Smelly Tofu

 Xiao Long Bao

This reminds me of crepes, but this is known as 蛋饼 in Taiwan. There’s a wide selection of fillings to choose from but what really completes the meal is the dark sauce drizzled on top.

Are you hungry yet? I haven’t had much appetite lately due to the bout of illness but these pictures are enough to work up an appetite for me!

Finally, I’m ending this post with some of my outfit shots in Taipei:

 I bought this pair of Korean black wedged sneakers at WuFenPu for about S$80 and they are surprisingly very comfortable. I loved it so much that I brought it along with me to Jakarta too and I pretty much wore it everyday. 😉

Although the bulk of this trip was spent shopping (well, it was hard not to shop, especially when we set foot on Wu Fen Pu), we made sure that we had ample time for Taiwan snacks and delicacies too. After all, Taipei is the city that never stops eating.

One of my favourite stalls in Taiwan is Ah Zong Mian Xian, located at Ximending. Ah Zong Mian Xian’s noodles come with generous servings of pig intestines, which is great if you’re a fan of innards. I generally tend to stay away from all innards, so I was there just for the noodles. I absolutely love the texture of the noodles and the flavourful gravy!

 

 Ah Zong Mian Xian

Address: No.8-1, Emei St., Wanhua District, Taipei City (台北市峨嵋街8號之1)
Walking Directions: 5 minutes walk from Ximen MRT station, exit 6

Being an ardent fan of Jay Chou’s music, I was adamant on visiting Deja Vu, a themed restaurant set up by Jay Chou and famous magician Liu Qian.

The restaurant
is decorated with antique chairs, tables and artifacts which belong to
Jay Chou, alongside props that Liu Qian used in his magic shows.

I love the baroque and gothic interior design elements, which came together beautifully to create an interesting environment for patrons to dine in. There is so much character here and the ornaments on display are a feast for the eyes as well. 

The most outstanding item on display at the restaurant is probably Jay’s Batmobile, which doubles up as a bait for all photography enthusiasts.

My favourite item, however, is this intricately carved antique grand piano. It has been a while since I last played the piano and I have been contemplating about buying one for my current home.  Maybe it’s about time!

 Decor aside, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the food is reasonably priced and pretty delicious too. Here’s a word of caution though, the portions here are ridiculously huge so it is best to share to prevent food wastage.

 Besides pizza, we ordered the mentaiko pasta here at the recommendation of my friend, and I’m happy to report that both were good! This is one restaurant that I would recommend for both ambience and food.

 Parting outfit shot:

Blouse from Forever21

Jacket from Zara

Jeans from Topshop

Wedge Sneakers from Korea

Bag from Prada

Deja Vu

Address: Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914) , Center Four Hall (中四館), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號)

 I
just returned from a work trip to China and am in the midst of
unpacking my luggage, finishing up some work and also sorting out all
the photos from my Taipei trip (erm I still have photos from Australia
and New Zealand too!) as well as from several blogger events/reviews.

 To start the ball rolling, I thought I’ll just share some photos of my new hairstyle. 😉

I wanted to get highlights done in Taipei and my friend recommended that I try out Crazy Cut Salon located across Rainbow Hotel at Ximending. Her regular stylist, Angel, suggested I go with either dark purple highlights or greenish ash highlights. I thought it would be an interesting change to have purple highlights, since ash is way too similar to my base colour. 

My only reservation was that I was afraid the purple highlights would turn out too bold and inappropriate for work, but Angel assured me that it would blend in very well with my existing base colour.

These photos were taken indoors and they have not been edited in any way. Isn’t it amazing how subtle the purple highlights are?

This is what it looks like under sunlight, 2 weeks after my colour job (photo taken from Instagram @reginachow_sg)

The colour is definitely more obvious under sunlight, but it is still somewhat subtle and not too in-your-face.

I took the opportunity to touch up my roots at the salon as well and the entire process took a little over 3 hours. The service was wonderful and I was really happy with the end result! The best part was, the total cost was extremely affordable compared to prices in Singapore. I had my roots touched up, highlights and also treatment done at about S$180! I would highly recommend Angel at Crazy Cut Salon if you’re thinking of getting your hair done in Taipei. 🙂

Alright, enough of my hair for now. I will be sharing more about Taipei in a bit, but meanwhile, have a great week ahead!