Taiwan 2016

Roamed the streets of Taipei with Virus in a 3-day getaway. It was an exhausting weekend from all the walking, but a much-awaited escape nonetheless.

Our flight was at 3:40am on Dec. 9 which also means an earlier call time at the airport. So rather than going home after work on a Thursday, I opted to stay at Lui’s crib in Mandaluyong. We had dinner and rested for a few hours before prepping for the 12mn call time at NAIA.

We arrived at the Taoyuan Airport around 6 in the morning. Running with no sleep, we were off to our first stop.

Longshan Temple. One of the oldest places of worship in Taipei. It was my first time to witness how they practiced their religion. It’s admirable how they do it. While inside, our tour guide also showed us how to use their prayer stones.

Next, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It’s a tribute to Chiang Kai-Shek. We didn’t explored the place. We only watched the Changing of the Guards.

Next, Taipei 101. It used to hold the title of the World’s Tallest Building. Sadly, we only took photos from the outside since it was closed when we got there.

 

Then, we headed over to Chiufen Village for lunch and more strolling. The narrow streets were crowded with tourists. We had to squeeze our way in but seeing all the souvenir shops and food stalls in old Chinese architecture was really nice.

Enjoying my chocolate dorayaki

After covering the streets of Chiufen Village, we went to Shifen Waterfalls. Something chill for the day.

Our last stop for the group tour was at the Shifen Old Street wherein we got to fly sky lanterns! We wrote our wishes in the sky lanterns and send them off with high hopes.

Afterwards, we went to our hotel and day 1 was over for me.

Day 2 involved A LOT of walking because it was mostly shopping day. Our morning started at the Huashan Creative Park which I didn’t have any photos of. Except for this one time of my tired feet.

Anways, the park was like a village full of quaint stores. They said it used to be a winery. Then, we rode a train to Ximending!

Ximending Shopping District is a shopping haven. Clothes, shoes, gadgets, food stalls are everywhere. I am actually amazed by the fact that in every corner there’s a Nike, Adidas, Converse store. Sneakers abound.

We also had our lunch here. Standing.

I don’t exactly know the name of where we bought this but it was good

Deliciously tasting chicken chops behind us

After Ximending, we went to Shilin Night Market around 6pm. This is where Lui and I bought majority of our pasalubong since goods here are cheaper. Sadly, we were too busy buying that I wasn’t able to take a good photo of the place. Around 9pm, we went back to the hotel to rest for an hour (our first legit rest of the day) then we went to Nanxiang Night Market to grab some street food!

I tried their sausage, Taiwan version of a bingsu, and their egg tart. Solid!

Tummy full. Feet sore. Day 2 out!

Our third and last day at Taipei was for some last minute pasalubong shopping. We stormed grocery stores and convenience stores to buy all that we can with what’s left of our Taiwan dollars. I spent my last coins on some good milk tea. I rarely drank water during our stay here because there were more milk tea available than water.

The whole experience was a blast. Shoutout to Virus for this treat. Thank you for making this happen!