Friday, October 10, 2014

Travel: Machikaka, 24 Hour Laundry, Zhongshan District (Taipei, Taiwan)



Machikaka near Nanjing East Road MRT Station

We needed a quick afternoon snack after arriving in Taipei from Wulai, and I found an attractive looking café called Machikaka online. When we got there, though, they asked if we wanted to sit at the front area where it was quieter, or at the back. The front area was just a narrow bar with two stools, and you couldn't see any of the décor, so I asked to sit in the back... and then the worker actually said we needed a reservation or to come back in 1.5 HOURS. What??? A reservation in the afternoon for a coffee shop?? So strange.

(I guess I'm a little annoyed he didn't tell me up front that we needed a reservation, and instead tried to make it sound like the front bar area was better...!) We decided to take the bar seats and we ordered a coffee and ice cream parfait. I asked if they had an English menu, and they said they did not... which is also strange, since I saw an English menu on this blog review (since we had free wifi from our hotel, I used this blog post as a cross reference).

The coffee came quickly (and Cory enjoyed it thoroughly), but the ice cream parfait took them about 30 minutes to make! What the heck... As tasty as it was, I don't think I could recommend this place when it's busy!


Machikaka store front


Machikaka menu - one a blog I read, they had an English menu


Machikaka


Cory's first real coffee in days


Cory is pleased with his coffee


We ordered a cute looking parfait. Pretty tasty!



Laundry Time at 洗e店

Given our hotel's super expensive laundry service, we found a nearby 24 hour Laundromat to take care of our laundry. We googled "洗衣" and found 洗e店. Not the most glamourous part of a trip, but needs to be done on trips over 2 weeks long!

There's no air conditioning in the Laundromat, but the café/restaurant thing next door does, and also serves a good cup of coffee! We came back again after 4 days because the clothes we wore in Taipei got extremely sweat-drenched. Again, who decided to come to Taiwan in September?!?


The "e" replaces 衣, which is kind of funny


They had different sized laundry machines


and English instructions to boot!


Change machine


Big dryers



Near Zhongshan MRT Station

We had a little time to kill before dinner at Sasa Sushi (separate post!), so we walked around the area which had a lot of cool looking shops!


Cool shops in the neighbourhood around Zhongshan MRT Station


Lots of motorbikes in Taipei


Furniture shop in Zhongshan Qu


Another cute shop


Duffy and Shellie May spotted in this hair salon. There was a lot of hair salons in this area.

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