Destination: FUN TAIWAN

Good morning my darlings! Let me start my show and tell of our recent Taiwan Trip with an overview of what we did there for 6 days. Some places we visited like the famous Shilin and Ximending deserve their own blog posts because there are much to see, to eat, and to look at. All the pictures won't fit in one post. Anyhoo lets start my show and tell now!
*photo heavy*

Taipei is pretty much like Hong Kong for me. I find the place a bit underrated. It's bigger than Hong Kong but also just as easy to get to places (cheap cab rate, uncomplicated MRT routes, and plenty of buses to choose from). Food is extremely cheap and shopping is super fun.

DAY 01

Upon arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, we went directly to the ground floor to get bus tickets to take us to the city. We took CitiAir Bus for NT$90 to ZhongShan St. Same fare applies to its other stops. If you prefer to take a cab, you will spend approximately NT$1,200 but it will take you directly to your destination while as for the bus we took, we had to walk 2 blocks going to our hotel.

While walking towards our hotel, I spotted a lot of milk tea shops which was one of my "must try" because they say milk teas originated from Taiwan ( I'm addicted to milk teas! ). Auntie Christine took us to Ten Ren's Tea which is known to be using good quality tea. I got a cup of Orange Green tea with pearls for NT$70. They used 3 fresh oranges for my drink. It was GOOD!

For people who have time, feel free to sit down and they'll perform a tea ceremony for you. The shop also sells high quality teas in pretty canisters.

Our home for the first 3 days. Liz Inn is located at Lin Shen Pei Lu Street. I do not recommend this place because it's kinda out of the way. There are no near malls, only a handful of street vendors can be seen lined outside. We had to take a cab everyday just to go to places. We stayed here because it was near the relatives' houses which we had to meet up almost everyday.

The companion and his mom's room. Look at that super cute interior! The whole place looked like a big dollhouse.

My room which was small but just as cute. After checking in we had lunch at King Ping Tea Restaurant and joined a half day tour to Jui Fen Old Street outside the city.

For dinner we decided to eat at one of the small eateries near our hotel since we were all feeling tired because of our 7am early flight.

To people who do not know how to speak and read Chinese, you cannot eat at this type of place by yourself. The aunties manning the place do not know how to speak or understand English. You are best to eat at malls or more popular areas like Shilin because they all have English translations. What we had were: Asparagus w/ Mushrooms and Carrots, Milkfish Belly Soup, Sauteed Liver ( eww. ), Shrimp and Egg ( delicious! ), and Boiled Goose. Our total bill was about NT$1,000 so that's about  Php1,300.

Day 02

We started our day by having lunch at a famous restaurant called Fu Ba Wang Chu Tsiao serving Lou Rou Fan ( stewed pork feet ). After, we went shopping at Sih Ping Sun Square located at the same area as our lunch place .

It is a day street market. Lots of inexpensive clothes, shoes, and street food.

You can see a lot of  beauty and health care stores all around Taipei. There are Watsons, Momo, Sasa, and others.

Drugstore makeup lovers would go GAGA over these! 

Tip: For facial mask lovers, Taipei is the best place to panic buy them because most of the facial masks being sold in Hong Kong etc are all made in Taiwan.

The companion went on his coffee sampling journey because he loves coffee.

Taiwan Guava is super yummy! We ate it with Plum Powder. Around 1:30pm when the sun was too hot, we took a cab going to Breeze Center Mall then at night we had dinner at the famous Shilin Night Market.

Day 03

The companion got sick. We were not sure if he had gotten it by eating something dirty at Shilin ( I had tasted everything he has eaten and I was fine. ) or because of fatigue. Anyway, today we visited his gwama ( grandmother ) who is staying at the Yong Yue Wellness Center. It was her birthday. Visiting his gwama was also the main reason why we went to Taiwan. We had a quick lunch at the hospital's cafe which serves healthy Japanese meals.

I had an Udon Soup set with grilled Japanese Fish. The soup didn't have any meat but rather was topped with textured tofu. It was tasty but not really filling.

After the mini celebration, we returned to our hotel and took rest for the remaining part of the day. At night we got takeouts from the following: Mango Green Tea with Mango Sorbet from 50 Lan and Pork Wonton Soup from Wen Chou Ta Wanton.

We also ordered a couple of burgers from MOS Burger. We got a Yakiniku Rice Burger and a MOS Cheese Burger for me.

We also got a bowl of Oyster and Intestine Misua. I just love that soup!

Day 04

The next day we switched to the Regent Hotel. We lived there for the remaining days of our stay in Taiwan.

The hotel was pretty impressive. Regent Galleria ( duty free ) is located at the basement which houses over 50 luxury brands such Bulgari, Cartier, Chopard, Hermes, and others.

Breakfast buffet is served here.

When I woke up late and breakfast was over, I had breakfast at Harry Winston <3
( but that mean looking guy shooed me away.. )

After checking in, we had lunch at Lau Tsin Chuen Fa Nio Ro Tien then went to Taipei Main Underground Shopping Street.

For dinner, since we were celebrating a special occasion, the companion took me to an amazing restaurant called Hunghwa Teppanyaki Steak House located at the top floor of Taipei 101 Mall. Going there we passed by these: Xinyi New Life Square

Vieshow Cinemas ( it used to be Warner Brothers ) which has 13 cinemas.

We took a detour so that I can take photos of what was inside the mall.

Shinkong Mitsuikoshi Mall

Taipei 101. All of these malls are located in close proximity. 

Day 05

Another auntie invited us for lunch. She made Pork and Vegetable Dumplings from scratch! After lunch we all went to Ximending for last minute shopping. For dinner, Uncle Chris took us to The Dragon restaurant located at the topmost floor of Sheraton Hotel.

Day 06

For our last day in Taiwan, we only had lunch at Din Tai Fung located in Taipei 101 before going to the airport. We had an afternoon flight back to Manila.

Have A Lovely Day!