I can officially put a tiny tick next to my number 1 resolution this year and that is to travel.
Last week was spent in Taipei and it was a much-needed break for me. I was getting sick of Tokyo and thought I was starting to hate it, but that is all untrue. I just needed to get out of Japan for a little bit to spend some time with my family. I was getting homesick (though I wouldn't call it homesick because I don't miss Singapore one bit), and was craving for all sorts of Chinese food. I really just wanted to see my little sister honestly. It felt like forever since I last saw her.
Day 1 : January 10th, Sunday.
I couldn't get any sleep the night before so I just left my apartment early and headed to Narita airport. I still fucking hate how far Narita is by the way. I arrived in Taipei at 3-ish in the afternoon and my sister was the first one to hug me once I was out of customs. Mom and dad hugged me later on and our family vacation began.
We checked into our Airbnb apartment in Neihu district and went to a small restaurant that the host recommended. It was just a 10 minutes walk away. Our Airbnb host, Summer was really nice and she recommended so many restaurants.
My first impression of Taipei was... it's not what I expected it to be. For all these years, I always thought it'll be a kinda glamourous city and somewhat like Tokyo but it's far from it. There were many small food stalls just outside our apartment and I could smell Chou doufu (smelly beancurd) on the way to dinner. It reminded me of the wet markets in Singapore. Also, much dirtier than I expected it to be. It's not disgustingly dirty but when you live in a country like Japan known for cleanliness, almost everywhere else in the world is dirty.
We had dinner at Hei Mei Lin Xiao Chi (omg it feels weird writing hanyu pinyin on my blog). It was one of those restaurants where you order dishes and rice. Man, I really do miss it. Chinese food in your neighborhood at some run-down building, those places normally serve better food than expensive (overpriced) restaurants in shopping malls.
This was when little sis and I were wracking our brains on ordering and reading the menu, haha.
After dinner, we walked around the neighborhood but got back to the apartment early since we were all tired. I really loved our Airbnb apartment! Little sis and I found it and immediately knew that my dad would love it because of the break walls! AND there was cable television, exactly the same as Singapore's. Also, there was Takashi Murakami's work in the room little sis and I shared. There was a Kaws Simpson print in my parents' room. I picked the right apartment. :)
Day 2 : January 11th, Monday.
We all got up really early and decided to get a local breakfast at a small place that Summer also recommended. It was also near the apartment, 15 minutes walk. My dad ordered too much, as usual. We had Xiao Long Bao, You Tiao (omg I've missed it so much!!! and the one in Taiwan is nicer), some wraps which were pretty good as well, Tao Ling and something that tasted like fried carrot cake (No, not the western carrot cake but Singapore's carrot cake). I can't even remember now. But it was just 11am on the first day and most of my cravings were satisfied.
After breakfast, we headed to Zhong Xiao Dun Hua to go to Eslite bookstore, we spent quite some time there because my dad was doing some research for work. It was raining quite heavily that day but we decided to walk to get lunch anyways. We went to get some Taiwan-style beef noodles. Lin Dong Fang beef noodles are supposedly one of the most famous beef noodles in Taipei. You can smell the beef about 5 minutes away from the store.
It was almost 3pm but there was still a line. I actually miss going to places like this to eat because I don't do that in Tokyo at all. It's always cafes and I'm getting sick of cafe food. This place is located next to the roadside in a run down building as well. Maybe that should be the new trend, going to places where they actually sell good food instead of all these "I'm a foodie" people who only go to cafes.
We didn't wait too long to get seats and I ordered 4 small bowls of beef and tendon noodle soup for the family. If you know me well enough, I LOVE LOVE LOVE beef noodles soup. My favorite one is the one back home in Melbourne. But this one comes in a close second now. The beef is so tender, not flaky or too firm at all. It was also bursting with flavor. The soup was soooo smooth, it was not too beefy and you can taste the Chinese herbs, it was a nice clear broth. Never had anything like it and the next time I am in Taipei, I will get a big bowl of this. I know it's good when my dad finishes every single drop of soup in that bowl, hahaha. There's even a Youtube video for this!
After lunch, it was raining even harder so we decided to take a cab down to Huashan 1914 Creative Park. I immediately fell in love with this place. The first store I stepped into was filled with so many things that I like. It was honestly such a nice change for me, discovering new artists again and getting so excited over the smallest of things.
In the end, I bought a sticker set from this egg character called Shock Mama, it's a parody of things. Since Gudetama is too famous for me now. Also, got a really weird shaped ruler. I wanted to get so many things but it would probably be a pain to carry it back here since they're fragile so I decided to give it a miss.
There were several shops and exhibitions going on the park, so we took our time exploring the place and taking photos. I didn't go to any of the exhibitions because none of them were to my liking.
Huashan 1914 Creative Park is actually an old winery opened in 1916 located in the Zhong Zheng district, which explains the old rustic, abandoned feel to it. I personally liked it a lot, it felt like you went back in time. So it's like a old meets modern thing. Also, it's very good for OOTD shots if you're into that.
More photos after cut >>
My parents waited for us at a nearby cafe since they were kind of bored with the art stuff, we took a while to finish exploring everything since the area was huge.
This was my favorite store because it was so well decorated inside, though it is for children. They places some paintings on the ceilings of the walls and they would light up and change every few minutes. It was hard getting a photo of it actually.
What some people do just to get a good photo, haha.
And... even more...
After we were done exploring the Creative Park, we just chilled in a cafe for a little bit and decided to head to Taipei 101. I personally didn't want to go because observatory things are a waste of money to me but my dad insisted. Funny enough, because of bad weather, we couldn't go up the observatory. You wouldn't be able to see anything because it was too cloudy.
We just walked around the shopping malls and went back to the apartment and called it a day. We were all so tired that we slept before 12 midnight.
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