On our last day in Seoul, we didn't do much other than walking around Myeongdong and trying to get our tax free claims processed. There are 3 different companies doing tax refunds in cash/ credit cards in South Korea so you do need to check where to go. Luckily Myeongdong has all 3 companies but you do end up walking around quite a fair bit. Make sure to bring your passport, your credit card and all the receipts. The credit card is required as you need to drop off your receipts at the airport, the process was relatively pain-free and all the staff were unfailingly polite. We opted for cash refund as we were running low on Korean won and didn't want to change any more money as we were leaving for Taipei.
I did finally try the super long soft serve ice cream. Didn't finish it though, was just too much to eat.
After receiving all our cash refunds, we headed to Shinsegae to stare at expensive stuff we can't afford. On our way there, I spotted a coffee shop selling red ginseng latte, the flavour sounded so interesting I just had to try it. The taste was interesting and while I wouldn't drink it again, it was definitely worth a try. We walked around the basement of Shinsegae and just stared at all the expensive things on offer. As we were there around lunch time, the food court was ridiculously crowded. I saw a queue for the gimbap and being Singaporean decided that the food must be good and bought a beef gimbap to go. My instincts proved correct when I ate it later at the airport lounge. It was seriously mouth-watering, one of my better meals in Seoul.
At the airport, though we already got our cash refunds, we still needed to drop off our receipts at the various tax refund companies so they can process our claims. Failure to do this means that your credit card would be charged with the cash amount which has been given to you. Though I read that there will be long queues for this, in reality there was no queue at all. I think there must have been a huge influx of tourists so now they have many counters opened to cater for this. As we still had some money left over, I went walked around the duty free shops to take a look. Strangely enough all the prices were listed in USD instead of KRW. I wanted to spend the remaining KRW I had so I asked the staff what I could buy with the amount I had. Sadly, the staff were not very helpful and I had to work out what I could buy by myself. In the end I bought some toiletries and had only a few coins remaining. Buying toiletries in town was a lot better as you get a lot more freebies. Shopping at the airport is recommended only if you need to finish spending your KRW.
After a short flight of about 2 hours, we landed in Taipei Taoyuan Airport. I last went to Taipei 10 years ago with my mum and aunt. The airport has upgraded since then with a lot more shops. We were quite exhausted when we arrived so we quickly got on a bus. The Freego bus apparently stops by a certain time so we took the Kuokuang bus to Taipei Main Station instead. From there we took the MRT to Ximending to our hotel. Strangely enough, the Taipei Main Station MRT does not sell the pre-paid card which is refundable, so we had to buy a single ticket and then buy the pre-paid refundable one from Ximending station. After all that, we finally arrived at our hotel (which was also in a commercial building). After a short rest, we went out to walk around Ximending. I seem to remember there were more roadside stalls when I was there 10 years back. We also found out that the stalls are not permanent, they have to keep moving around to avoid the police. It's so tough to make a living like that. I managed to locate Ah Zhong Mee Sua and promptly bought a bowl to share with CS, sadly it did not taste as good as what I remembered. There was a huge crowd queuing outside the Nike store nearby, probably for some limited edition sneaker. We never did manage to find out what it was for though. As we were worn out from the traveling, we decided to have an early night after filling our stomachs.
My favourite thing in Taiwan, tea leaf eggs which are found EVERYWHERE!
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