Taiwan Trip - Wufenpu and a Samaritan

We planned 5 days of travelling around Taipei, and we would like a break in this trip. We chose the third day as our relaxing day. Maybe we can just sleep in and shopping at Wufenpu in the afternoon, chill out having some shaved ice, and maybe a short trip to night market for dinner. But my friend's swollen feet getting serious. In fact she shouldn't walk at all, but she didn't want to stay all day long in the minsu. Sure, who wants that? We just head out anyway, and see how things go.

We got off at Houshanpi station, walked to exit 1, my friend got to take a break so we sat outside the mrt station and had some delicious chicken floss bun that we bought yesterday. Just some heads up, I can't stress enough the kindness of Taiwanese people in this post. You may just skip this post if you are already tired of my rave on the Taiwanese people (the good side btw).

The view at Houshanpi, exit 1

So we sat outside Houshanpi station, take a break before continue to Wufenpu. As we were sitting eating our bun, few Taiwanese walked passed us and one aunty, I guess she was in her 60s, sitting next to us, doing some kinda stretching and knee exercise, not in any weird way tho. She tried to have some small talk and asked about my friend's feet. I tried to reply with my limited Mandarin. My friend's Mandarin even worse than me, so I have to do all the talking. This friendly aunty suggested my friend to take some painkiller to reduce the swelling. She said something in Mandarin, of coz I didn't get it and I asked her to type the medicine in Chinese characters in my phone. But instead, she offered to get it for us, however she not familiar with Wufenpu area. She assured me that she can get it at some pharmacy at the other area. We didn't want that aunty to go through the trouble and paid for us, but she insisted.

I went with her, went back in Houshanpi mrt and got out from another exit. We had some small chat and I figured that aunty was in her 80s, and she is in perfect health for her age. As we crossed the road, some funny negative thought crossed my mind. How if this is a scam??? I know I know it's very bad of me to think of some samaritan/stranger's kindness in a negative way. Coming from Malaysia, stranger's kindness is kinda an oxymoron here. Since we were kid our parents were like a tapped cassette recorder with the reminder 'don't talk to strangers, don't take things from stranger, don't listen to strangers, don't verb to/with strangers. You can just fill in the blank. It is quite hard to relate strangers with kindness, especially in a foreign country.

As we walked down the road, I opened my running apps and use the GPS to track my path. In case if I were mugged or stranded somewhere. I don't want the newspaper title come out the next day 'Young tourist tricked by 80 years old granny'. But I was also thinking it might be a good idea so I don't have to trouble the kind aunty to walk me back all the way to exit 1 of Houshanpi.

Now with my GPS switched on, I followed her. Down the quiet alley, she really brought me to a real pharmacy and INSIST to pay for the medicine, NT$150. My level of guilt were already pretty high, and again we were bombarded by the aunty kindness. She knew we planned to go Taipei 101 by MRT, so she offered to walk us to Taipei City Hall all and then to Taipei 101. We kindly reject the offer because we didn't want to trouble her the whole day.

I already knew Taiwanese are friendly and kind, but today I seen a whole new level of kindness, how far they would reach out to help a mere stranger. My hat's off to you.

Me and my stupid GPS, and I burned 116 calories. What is not shown here is my level of debt-of-gratitude to aunty

Ok, my rave on Taiwanese ends here.

Now, we were hungry and looking for place for lunch. Just crossed the road and we saw a fish fillet shop full of people. We walked in and ordered some simple meal, sticky white rice with minced pork on top and a bowl of fish soup. It was quite nice. A lot of people ordered fish rice soup, 1-bowl-meal.

After lunch, we saw a Cosmed and decided to stop by, if there's any good deal or maybe some stuff that I never seen in Guardian or Watson back in Malaysia. Before our Taipei Trip I googled some of the top Taiwan made skincare and the result turns out to be Dr. Wu. Some blogs suggested to pick up some Shiseido drugstore products. I have to be careful after my last Korean skincare haul, I will never have to buy face sheet mask  for the next 3 years. No more face mask from Taiwan.

Let's see my Cosmed haul. I love Nexcare patch and I seriously think it is one of the main products that help with my hormonal acne prone skin. Although my skin is pretty clear now, but I still very traumatised with my last 3 years hormonal acne experience. I picked up the moisturiser made for acne prone skin (NT$800) and a DD cream also made for acne prone skin (NT$850), both by Dr. Wu. It was a pretty good deal, buy one and get one for free. I used to use Holika Holika CC cream, but I suspect that was the culprit in causing my skin congestion, ever since, I've stopped using any makeup product.

Cosmed haul

I knew I don't have that much cash and checked with the salesperson beforehand if I can use credit card. I just wished it was a weekend, then I can get 5% cash back from Maybank Amex.

My receipt came out to NT$5758, ~ RM694.17

After our trip to Cosmed, again I was beaten with spending guilt, in a DRUGSTORE? To make myself feel better, I kept convincing myself that at least it's not all skincare this time. I really restricted myself from spending in the next trip to Wufenpu, but still can't help myself when I saw a set of bra and panty for NT$100.

Good price. I will never get this in KK. Love that leather bracelet, NT$50

These Taiwanese sausages were awesome, NT$30. We came back twice.

We had good time today. Met good people. Wufenpu is very big, most of the sellers were friendly and kind, but if you are not lucky you might meet one or two non-Taiwanese sellers. And I tell you it was not a good experience. We went home early and had good rest.