Friday February 8th, 2013
Hello schedule! You’re a sight for sore eyes! Come in, come
in! Don’t be shy! What’s that? 4:00PM at Taipei City Hall MRT station?
Uh-huh…uh-huh…with Akiko and Kelly? Alright! Let’s do this!
We began with something I’ve wanted to try out in Taiwan for
quite a while. A Taiwanese foot massage! They are advertised as a top thing to
do when visiting Taipei so I assumed they would be pretty good. There are
hundreds of massaging places so picking one was kinda like a shot in the dark.
Akiko had been to one before but both Kelly and I had never, ever gotten
massages at a paid facility.
Thankfully at the time we arrived the place didn’t have too
many people so the waiting period was relativity short. It looked like a nice
facility, clean and efficient. In the front, cheap slippers were given to us to
wear both as a cleanliness reason and of course because we are in Asia. ;) Then
we were bade to change from jeans to provided short baggy pants that assisted
in the foot massage. The foot massage includes the legs also so long jeans make
it difficult to do so.
All three of us chose the foot and shoulder massage that was
said to last forty minutes costing $400NT. Yet the same treatment for seventy
minutes cost $800. See the imbalance of prices? It would be better to just get
the forty-minute massage twice for cheaper! XD
Anywho, each massage began and ended differently for all of
us. Kelly skipped soaking her feet in hot water and went straight to the foot
massage. Akiko and I on the other hand did partake in the hot water footbath.
It’s as simple as the name suggests. Just stick your feet in a tub of hot
water. Akiko had a bonus of a shoulder massage during it, though not much to
her liking. It was too light for her even when she asked the lady to massage
harder. I on the other hand got no treatment of the sort. Sadness.
Next Akiko and I were shown to the same place as Kelly,
large padded lounge chairs with foot rests. This would be the massaging
station. The employees begin with covering the lower half of your body in
towels. It was ridiculous how many towels they had placed on us! One for your
feet, one on your pelvis and then a random little one on the thighs. After
asking Kelly later, she said it probably was for privacy reasons. I understand
if we were naked but that wasn’t the case because the baggy pants covered up
the private parts.
Kelly had a guy that seemed to really know what he was
doing, apparently having ten years of massage experience. He claimed to know
what kind of things you eat or what your activities are just by feeling your
leg/body. Things like, you eat a lot of carbohydrates or you walk a lot. Based
on Kelly’s expressions he wasn’t soft in his techniques but not death-like
hard.
Akiko on the other hand had a woman working on her, the same
one that did her shoulders, and really didn’t like it. Her massaging was too
soft even when asked to increase the strength. Therefore Akiko asked to have
another person, which resulted in getting Kelly’s guy after he was finished.
The dude didn’t go easy on Akiko. XD It seemed he focused more on technique
than strength but of course not going light. Akiko’s face cringed now and then
proving he was doing a good job of triggering pain, the good kind.
Onto my experience! My first foot massage ever! I was
excited and had high expectations, also predicting I would be a tad of a pansy
from being kneaded unforgivingly. XD Real life ended up with a very calm Andrea
that rarely winced from pain. The trouble spots were the dead center column of
the foot and a small part of the lower leg. Other than that, no pain.
The process basically follows putting a butt-load of white
cream on your leg to prevent friction from massaging. Actually my person but a
butt-load of cream on but Kelly and Akiko’s guy barely used any. They’ll work
on one foot/leg, move to the other, wrap hot towels around each for a while and
then wipe off any excess cream. Afterwards you sit upright on the footstool for
the shoulder massage.
The lady who worked on me would ask, “does this hurt,” which
I replied “no.” Later she asked, “do you want it harder” and I said “yes.” In
my mind I was thinking ‘CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!’ Truthfully she didn’t change her
pressure at all. Throughout the whole ordeal it was pretty light. I felt duped
because here Kelly and Akiko sat getting massaged by a really good guy who knew
where and how to attack trouble spots. Instead I get a lady who did an average
job that didn’t satisfy me. Even with the shoulder massage I so looked forward
to, I wasn’t at all impressed. In my opinion, you need to be laying down for a
truly good shoulder massage. The whole time I had to fight her all tensed up in
order to stay upright and not be pushed forward to my knees. You need to be
relaxed and even if I was, she focused more on the bony part of the shoulder
blades rather than trouble spots nearer to the neck and shoulders. I know what
a good shoulder/back massages are thanks to my American Mom and today’s was
nowhere even close to her league. Shout out to my Mom! I miss your wonderful
massages and crave them! :D
Overall, I was not pleased with the massage trip. It just
felt so lackluster. Kelly even told me later that my person seemed
inexperienced and afraid. Oh well, I’m glad I at least tried it once in Taiwan.
After it was all said and done, we united with Leo and took
Akiko to the MRT for a previous engagement of hers. So the lovebirds and I went
in search of dinner. At first we saw a cheap looking noodle place but vouched
to keep exploring. We’re all glad we did because one restaurant popped up with
a friendly, familiar looking atmosphere. Luminescent lights, sprinkles of
sombreros and a green-white-red flag hanging up proudly. We done gone found
ourselves a Mexican joint called ‘Amigo’! AYYYYYY(roll your tongue continuously)YYYYYYY-YA!
I can’t remember the last time I ate Mexican food! Not in
Taiwan for sure so it was sometime in the States. Regardless you get my point
of how long I’ve gone without it. ;P A craving for quesadillas led me to order
just that. I was a little suspicious from the picture on the menu because the
tortilla looked plain white and not that beautiful golden color from cooking
it. Nevertheless, I braved through it and also ordered a strawberry yogurt
smoothie.
So! The quesadillas…first bite set in stone my feelings
towards this place. A long paused took place after the first bite for chewing
and rolling around the flavors and texture. I got my craving fixed all right
and savored the creation. IT WAS PERFECT! The tortilla! The cheese! The
chicken! All flipping FANTASTIC! They didn’t skimp on the cheese (thank
goodness!) and it had good amount of meat. Surprisingly the tortilla was
wonderfully different from my prediction. It was golden and crispy from being
cooked to perfection! This competes with quesadillas back in Texas! Though
Tex-Mex still wins because of the unlimited chips and the tasty salsa. ;P
A difference in eating method came with dipping the
quesadilla in a bowl of sauce, either a red salsa or unknown white and green
cream. This is something new to me because I knew of guacamole back in Texas
but not dipping in these kinds of sauces. They were both tasty in their unique
ways. The red salsa was not hot but still had a faint nudge of spicy. The other
was perhaps sour cream with a sweet green sauce of something. Once the green
sauce ran out I didn’t bother using anymore because the white sauce was too
bland and tasteless.
The drink quality was a shock as well. I only bought one to
make the minimum charge cut but still you can’t expect much from restaurant
drinks. It was pleasing how I could actually taste strawberry though obviously
containing a lot of sugar water. The disappointment from the ‘Come Buy’
strawberry smoothie a few days ago left a want of a good version. This one at
Amigo wasn’t amazing but it did its job nicely.
Sadly there were no flan or churros options on the menu but
it deviously pained us when the fried ice cream choice was there with a
beautiful picture and a red line going across announcing it’s unavailability.
Twas mean! We would’ve ordered one in a heartbeat because this place seemed
pretty darn authentic with all of our dishes and an authentic fried ice cream
would’ve topped it off splendidly. Alas no such dessert could be consumed here.
Kelly says that Mexican food is not liked very well by the Taiwanese so it’s
difficult to have that kind of shop successful in Taiwan, which probably
explains why some foods were taken off the menu.
Oh well. Even though it was pricey I don’t regret going in
the slightest. I LOVED THE QUESADILLA OODLES AND OODLES! :D Andrea is happy!
The German side of Kelly came out when she took us to a
beloved German bakery of hers. Here we purchased two treats and consumed them
among the three of us. The rectangular one is almond flavor with a thin berry
layer included. Apple pie was the other dessert’s flavor. The pie had good
chunks of apple and was sweet but didn’t have any cinnamon. For me, I prefer
apple pie with cinnamon on it but that’s just my tastes. The rectangular cake
was tasty as well, having a small yet lovely fruity kick among the thick layer
of almond. Good stuff!
In conclusion, I think today was good in many aspects. Yay!
Now time for bed. Night all!
