Tai-wandering in Taipei

This was during my “rebel” days. I told my parents that I went to Taiwan alone. I was scared of their reaction if I told them that I was going with Iking. You know, typical strict Filipino parents…

Funny (and probably stupid) idea why we decided to visit Taiwan was only because we wanted to try Modern Toilet Restaurant, a bizarre (cute) poop-themed restaurant.

We have already booked our tickets and everything before we learned that the restaurant was closed for renovations during our time there. So we ended up researching other themed restaurants which are very popular in Taipei, and doing other stuff.

Among other themed restaurants we found were about ninjas, hospitals and nurses featuring drinks in syringes, pets and cartoon cafes. Yeah, crazy stuff.

But Taipei is a lot more than themed cafes. Street food, bubble tea, architecture, and temples are also huge players for tourism in Taiwan.

Taoyuan International Airport is already an eye candy to visitors. There are a lot of adorable wall art just right after you exit the plane.

We went straight to our cutesy colorful hostel, Colormix Hostel. Our room was a small loft-style room. It is located in an alley close to Ximending.

On our first night, we went street food eating and window-shopping along the streets of Ximending. The place was crowded during the late afternoon to midnight. Local people like to hang out in the place and stroll with their pets.

The next day, we took the train going to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It was about a 10-min travel from our hotel.

The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of the former President of the Republic of China.

From there, we walked our way to Peace Memorial Park, which is a historic site and municipal park. It was literally peaceful there.

On our way to Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe, we took Zhongzian Fuxing MRT Station, the most adorbs MRT station you might probably see your entire life!

I was a big fan of Hello Kitty growing up. I used to wake up at 7 o’clock in the morning to watch Sanrio and Friends on TV. My parents once took me to a Hello Kitty Cafe on my birthday when I was a kid, despite it being far from our place and considering it was incredibly expensive back then. ^{Oh, good times.}

Ambience was terrific, but the food was meh.

Before capping the night off, we dropped by Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taipei that is a 101–story architecture. It has two high-speed observatory elevators which only takes 37 seconds to travel from the 5th floor to the 89th floor of the skyscraper.

This was the time we realized that observatory decks are never worth it. It’s always better to find a different location to appreciate any overlooking place than to pay for the deck. That’s why we never did it in Tokyo.

To end the day, we went to Shilin Night Market for a food trip and a little souvenir shopping.

On the following day, we visited Sacred Heart Catholic Church, to fulfill our vow. The church is kinda wildly unique.

From there, we traveled our way to Yeh Liu Geopark, a popular photo stop with scenic rock formations and fossils.

From there, we tried to make our way to go to Pingxi for the flying lanterns. Unfortunately, we failed. We bought our tickets and took the train. We were lost.

We spent a total of 3 hours on the train and the train station in Sandiaoling Railway Station BY OURSELVES. It was creepy and dark. There was no way out from the station – it was empty. One officer was manning it but he can’t understand and speak English. Behind the station was just an empty and dark horizon.
Until suddenly, out of nowhere, a monk appeared. We asked instructions and he accompanied us back to where we should be.

Finally, we managed to get back to the city and had a late-night dinner in a local food stall in Ximen.

The next morning, we toured Yangminshan National Park where we tried our luck to see cherry blossoms and Beitou Thermal Valley aka Hell Valley where it smells mildly like a fart! Haha

We dipped into a public hot spring pool, but we only managed to stay for 15mins. The temperature was intense!

Before dark, we went back to the city for dinner. This time, we ended up trying Barbie Cafe.

Food was still a meh. But we enjoyed here better; we had fun playing/posing Barbie and Ken!

^{I have proof of how much he loves me lol}

After dinner, we quickly visited a Michael Jordan store (to give back the masculinity 😂)

We were surprised how big the market is for basketball in Taiwan. Nike stores are everywhere, basketball shoes for sale here and there, unlike in Singapore.

We flew back to Singapore the following day. It was tiring but definitely a 5-day fun-filled trip. Lots of food and lots of walking!

<sub>A Filipino currently living and working as a corporate warrior in Singapore, aiming to share experiences with the people who have the same interests. The goal is to be traveling one country at a time while keeping sustainability in mind, so hoping to inspire other travel junkies too!

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