Travel With Me #4 - XiMenDing (西门町)

Today wasn't a productive travel day as I went into recharge mode after posting my yesterday's post. I've slept at 3 AM this morning, snug myself under the blanket 🛌 with a room temperature of 22 Celcius (without the AC on) such a perfect condition to sleep until 4 PM.

Woke up around 4 PM with a hungry stomach, I get ready myself for heading out to Ximending Walk. To reach there, I'll need to take a train from the Main Taipei Station and while walking towards the station from the underground mall which links directly with it, I've discovered a heaven spot for console gamers as there are lots of game store around here selling the latest games and accessories.

Trying out the game with the console provided outside the shop

Lots of game store around here

Beside game stores, I also encounter a lot of Claw Crane here, interesting to know that Taiwanese actually love getting their hand on these because there is retail space full of all these machines in it everywhere around the streets or station whereas, in Malaysia there is only few machine around shady corner in some shopping malls where seldom people get their hands on it.

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Soon I've reached the train station and take the Bannan line head straight to Xi Men station which is 1 stop away from Main Taipei Station cost only NTD $16, and I found out people here loves to queue which is a good habit. They won't rush into the train when the door was open instead, they wait until everyone has exit then they proceed into it.

Upon getting out from Xi Men station, I instantly saw a lot of people and shops around it, which reminds me of Bukit Bintang or Chinatown but this is a lot bigger but surprisingly isn't crowd.

Inside the MRT

Xi Men Ding Walk

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Lots of fashion shop, restaurant, cafes, hotel and people

While scouting for foods around, I remembered that people always come here for Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle inside those Taiwan travel video that I've watched. I've open up Google Map and find where is it located and luckily is just a 2 min walk from where I was, off I went and I can start to see many people standing outside slurping those rice noodle just outside the shop.

Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle as the name says it all, is famous for its noodle although the noodle looks somewhat simple with its brown thick gravy, but don't let the looks fools you. The moment I slurp in some noodle and instantly I know why is so nice, the noodle is super smooth like silk without any graininess and the thick brown gravy is actually made primarily from bonito flakes and mixed with some salty pork intestine cube for chewy bites.

Besides eating its raw flavour, I've also added some vinegar and garlic into my noodle for an additional boost in flavour. Oh! and there's no tables seat in the shop so only stand aside and slurp the noodle.

Lots of people queueing on the left, and people slurping their noodles on the right

Got ourselves a small bowl to try it out, NTD $55 per bowl ($70 for large)

Chilli, Garlic & Vinegar can be added to spice up the flavour

Shoutout to @joannewong, she'll be my model for the rest of the trip

Finishing up the noodle, we continue our explore around and occasionally we'll smell something smelly around the walk that's because there are few street stall selling 臭豆腐 (Stinky Tofu), and yes it really smell like drainage but it tastes good, you'll see local people and some tourist are queueing up for it. We saw some crowd queueing on 豪大大鸡排 selling fried chicken under a big KFC and we also join the crowd to get ourselves some to try it out.

Am I up for this challenge?

Serious competition spotted

Oh yes! Time to crunch in

Nice, Hot and not too salty as well

Besides eating, we also saw some live performing dance and unique art painter along the way. Around 10 PM, shops started to close and, we were deciding whether to get a drink or get back to the hotel and call it a day. In the end, we opt to get a drink at one of the bars around here which were recommended by @joannewong's colleague, the bar is called "Hanko 60" and we were told it was a bit difficult to look for it. I was thinking how hard could it be but Hanko 60 covered it well 👍🏻, perfect camouflage using the cinema concept on the outside of the bar.

Who would have know this was a bar from the looks

Nice environment, not too crowded, not too noisy and its somewhat similar to The Bar Kinugawa

Order a drink called "苹果有毒" (Poisoned Apple) and the looks does live up to it's name 😂

Closer view and at first, I thought it's hot and boiling 😅

@joannewong with her first drink

Since the outside looks like a cinema, of course they do serve popcorn but inside hidden a drink 😏 spot the straw?

Make some new friends here too, Jason and Qvt. They are ABV (American born Vietnam) lives in Hawaii, which we might plan to go for our future trip 😆. Crypto investor as well, managed to intro them Steemit

Time passes fast after a couple of drinks and chit-chat, it's almost 12.30 AM, time to call it a day and head back to the hotel for a good night sleep! Almost forgot, below is short video of today's trip! Enjoy

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