1 Mar | Taipei Revisited | Taipei, Taiwan

If you read this blog, you would know that Taipei is pretty much my 2nd 'home'. As Hong Kong is so close to Taiwan, I couldn't let a side trip to Taipei slip through my fingers! I went to Taipei this time with a good friend of mine, where we spent a good 3 days here exploring all we could in the short time frame.

One of the more surprising things about Taipei this trip was the weather. I thought it was going to warm up to the late-teens/early twenty degrees mark, not too dissimilar to HK, which would have meant good sightseeing weather. Nope, we got freezing cold 13 degrees and 2 unprepared travelers with just a thin blazer on hand! It was all grey skies as well, not the bright sunny Taipei I left behind 14 months ago. I had planned out this Taipei trip quite thoroughly, down to snacks and meals, but the weather put a dent on certain plans. I had to change the itinerary a bit, which was a bit annoying as I had drafted out everything on my lovely excel spreadsheet (I can't help it, itineraries are best done on spreadsheets!) I cut out a few things...M wouldn't have known otherwise :P

PS: I am splitting the posts into 'days' as I will never finish anything if I were to update everything in one go.


Day 1:
Once we settled into the very comfortable and convenient Park Hotel Taipei (I highly recommend it - 2 people for about $120/night), we went out in hunt of food! Taiwan is known amongst other Chinese groups for its fabulous food, but I must say since I have lived on the spices of South-East asian cuisine for so long, I am still biased. (Go Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine!) Yes Taiwanese food is great, but only if you know what to eat imo. I took M to one of my all time favourite Taiwanese eatery - 度小月. Here you will find a wholesome Taiwanese meal with a couple of updated fusion dishes to delight your palate. I like to ease people into the Taiwanese way of eating, and this place is the perfect transition restaurant. You will find great food, in a very nice setting at cheap prices. It is almost like going to a street vendor, but in a high class setting! The restaurant has been around since 1894 so you cannot go wrong here!

Street vendor-like store front

So much to eat, but only 2 travelers!

1 bowl of dry noodles, 1 bowl of soup noodles, and 1 fusion-sushi roll dish

Actually the two of us ate ALL this! And we finished it!

Since we consumed so much food, we had to just walk around the block for a bit to let everything digest! It was nice to roam around the streets of East Taipei (Zhong-xiao dunhua) - they have a lot of cute boutiques and eateries everywhere!

I used to walk past this store all the time, I still haven't had a chance to try the buns!

Very cool Lomo concept store

Cute boutique displays can be found all over Taipei

Since we were already around East Taipei, we just kept heading East to see more Taipei sights:

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall:
SYS 孫逸仙 is also known as the 'Father of China'/'Founding Father’ 國父 both in Mainland China (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China). He was the key instigator and political activist for overthrowing the corrupt and increasingly powerless Qing dynasty, and founded the Republic of China. I think anyone of Chinese-descent ought to know who he is and what he fought for to bring about modern China and uniting Chinese as a whole around the world - collectively we are actually known as 中華民族. He wrote 三民主意 － 民權，民族，民生 : Three Principles of the People - Nationalism, Democracy, People's livelihood.  (I could go into a whole history lesson here, but I think I will refrain myself). The point is, there is a memorial which can be found in Taipei dedicated to Sun Yat Sen. The memorial is built in the architectural style of the Tang dynasty (618-907AD), so it may look a little different from the usual classical chinese architecture you see elsewhere.

As you will see from the pictures, there are a few statues of him throughout the memorial, the most significant statue being in the main hall where there is a gigantic statue of him. I think that statue is even larger than Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The 'changing of the guards' ceremony which happens on the hour is definitely worth a look if you've never seen it before.

Large statue of SYS inside the memorial

Sun Yat Sen statue in the gardens.
If you look behind the statue, you will find Chinese words on tablets behind.
I am most impressed with the evolution of the Chinese written form over the centuries

The crowds that gather to see the ceremony!
It used to be Japanese tourists that were the majority, these days it is clearly the Chinese tourists in the majority

The lanterns just outside the main hall are pretty :)

SYS Memorial Hall

As we could see Taipei 101 in our vicinity, we decided to keep heading East. It was a cold day to be walking around exposed to the elements but we persisted! Usually I'd recommend heading up to the Taipei 101 Observation deck as everyone else does, but not today. The weather simply was not clear enough for me to recommend heading up to see the entire Taipei. M didn't mind so we found ourselves roaming the Taipei 101 mall which is very beautiful, if only they had affordable shops inside.

Taipei 101 from SYS Memorial...not the clearest of days!

Is this new? One can hire bikes to ride around the city.
Discovered this on our eastwards journey to Taipei 101

Taipei is a 'book city' and I say that because not only do you find bookstores everywhere, you will also find the largest bookstore - Eslite. Eslite is probably more a concept/lifestyle store, especially the branch at Taipei 101, but people definitely come here to read &/or buy the books more so than buying clothes and gifts. I love this place! We spent some good time there only because I selfishly wanted to. What makes this place so attractive? For me, it is because this store is just so comfortable and inviting. You are free to read any book you wish to, and you don't need to buy it, but most people do end up buying a book or two or more. Borders simply cannot compare to Eslite!

Inside Eslite bookstore. It's awesome!

Part of the awesome stationery section

As our feet were about to collapse from all the walking and sightseeing, we stopped for coffee and tea at the cafe inside Eslite. It was a much required break as our next destination on my revised itinerary was to head to the Shilin Night Markets! M had no idea what kinda day I had planned for ourselves, nor did I.

Trendy cafe inside Eslite. Love the decor!

One of the great things about Taipei that I absolutely love are the MRTs. They are fast, convenient, timely, clean, frequent and importantly, they get you to almost every corner in Taipei. If not, just wait a year and a new MRT line will be operational. (Shame on Sydney! where's my convenient transport system?) For some reason I had worked out in my head we should just buy point-to-point tickets rather than pay a deposit for an Easycard and add credit to it. In hindsight an Easycard would have been more worthwhile even for just a 3 day trip. We didn't lose the fun though as buying point-to-point tickets meant we could keep using the touchscreen machines and getting our casino chips! Casino chips? Yes, that is how a ticket is issued! I don't know if any other country has implemented this, but what a good system! You don't end up wasting paper and you just slot it into the machines. How awesome and environmentally friendly :)

The Casino chip travel ticket!!

@ Shilin Night Market Station

The idea of going to Shilin Night Markets 士林夜市 is so that we can sample the famous Taiwanese Small Eats 小吃. This is what ALL tourists do in Taiwan, so I had to let M experience this! Below are some of our dinner samples :) Unfortunately I couldn't remember how to navigate to where the locals go to eat in Shilin, so we ended up at the 'touristy' sight of the markets. We eventually found it but by then we were full and couldn't eat much more.

Food vendors @ Shilin Night Markets

Oyster Omelette, Stinky Tofu & Taiwanese sausage
These are all typical eats at Shilin Night Markets!
My personal favourite is the stinky tofu!! 

Eating my stinky tofu!

M ready to eat!

Street vendor selling soy-milk dessert

I gave it ago...yummy!

Going to Shilin Night Markets is really quite an experience. It is one of Taiwan's largest and you can sample all the Taiwanese treats in one venue, play old-school games and of course do some great night market shopping. Before we knew it, we spent 3 hours just roaming around the night markets! Oh how I missed Taiwan!! Locals and tourists descend to this venue on a daily basis, there is not one day where it is quiet.

Old-School Games time!

Check out all the jewellery from this vendor!
I bought a couple of gifts from this store

This stretch was all food!
We probably should have come here first rather than eat at the 'touristy' part of the markets!

Taipei Day 1 was certainly an action-packed day! We didn't even have energy to drag ourselves to a bar to have a relaxing drink! (And I missed out on going to my favourite lounge bar in Taipei this trip, Fifi...*sobs*) We certainly walked until our legs were about to detach themselves from our bodies. Sleep and rest was in order.

Looking forward to some snooze!

Tune in for Taipei Day 2 coming soon!