DEC 2022 - Chang Family in Taipei (1/2)

rachrachchang

Jan 14, 20239 min read

DAY 1 // 25 December, Sunday | A few days ago, we were informed our 12-ish pm flight got rescheduled to 3.15 pm! (but no change to the check-in time/bag drop timing).

We booked our taxi and made our way to Terminal 3! Featuring my new airport style:

We arrived at T3 before 1 pm and after a few panic attacks, we are good to go to Departure Hall!

All of us went on with our own agenda, parents went to get iStudio and Bacha Coffee, Bili went to search for a massage chair, Fat fat got her peppermint cake from Coffee Bean, and I queued for more than 20 minutes for Krispy Kreme! There was a huge upstream order ahead…

Then we made our way to the boarding gate, but we still can’t board yet. At this point, we were checking up on day tours or basically things to do on this trip (no time to plan okay, and we wanted it to be chill)

The Taroko National Park tour seems not bad, and it’s early 100++ per pax! (I like such tours after the one I had in hanguk two months back hehe)

Our flight got delayed further, to 3.45 pm, and then later, boarding was delayed too as the plane is not even in parking yet??

(disgusting note: we saw a teenage boy, digging his nose, teeth, etc, and following with eating whatever he got out... it was a whole-ass buffet for this boy)

The plane only took off after 4.30 pm. What time will we reach safely at our Hotel?! The flight to Taiwan is 4 hours and 5 minutes, then we also need to clear immigration, take our luggage and take a train from Tao Yuan Airport to our accommodation (A13 > A1 then take 2 stops to Long Shan Temple station).

My math says we will arrive at our hotel at 1130 pm!

Meal on the plane:

I watched the movie “Bullet Train” during the flight, it was hilarious 😂 (reference: diesel)

Clearing immigration didn’t take that long, but we are trying to get used to seeing everything explained in Chinese HAHAHA. It will take us some time to process, but I am already loving how 亲切 the people are!!!!

Then we got the tickets + their transport passes, and boarded their train with all our things:

The train is scheduled to leave at 10.19 pm (good luck to us because there are quite a few stops + it is getting chilly?)

Insert: how my hair looks after a long day commuting

We arrived safely at our Hotel – Caesar Metro Hotel at 11 ish pm!

Of course, we are feeling tired and hungry, and already planned to grab some food from the convenience stores nearby!

(this also became our every evening must-visit place, before we head back to our room haha)

(favourite part of every convenience store, is their onigiri selections)

We dispensed the hot water from 7-11 into our cup noodles and made our way back to our room, to feast hehe

(after eating + taking turns showering, we went to bed close to 2 am)

DAY 2 // 26 December, Monday | I realised I did not take a picture of our transport pass, so here it is!

We decided to tour around our hotel, there is a temple nearby too! A few steps and we saw a special bird, it doesn't move after seeing us and dad thinks it is fake. I SAW IT MOVE!!!

In another 200 meters, we have a Starbucks close to our Hotel. I love how unique it looks!!

Inserting some street views we saw around the neighbourhood:

After walking around for 30 minutes(?), we saw this night market entrance and why not go see what they have?

Okay, one of the rare family photos we took on this trip (as dad is always the one taking pics for us)

Market's interior pictures:

Bili looks happy because this picture was taken after we ate hahaha

卤肉饭 and things😋

Then I saw got other things to eat also, now 心痒痒

After our filling lunch, we just randomly tour around the area and saw one of the temples, but we didn’t really know which deity is this temple dedicated to.

We did a small prayer before trying to find out how to get to our actual destination – 艋舺龍山寺. Dad took a picture of us here, not sure why we are always so ready for mini goofy moves:

Taiwan street view inserts

(I love Family Mart)

More goofy things??

We saw this really cute kitten in a tea shop and stopped there for more than 3 minutes until dad has to walk back and tell us to keep moving…

On our way to 龍山寺:

(Bili totally unprepared haha)

龍山寺

I love this waterfall hehe and how our photos turn out here:

We went to see the different deities and I don’t know if it is rude to take pictures of their statues, so I took interior pictures here.

Me: I think I can stay in a temple leh, I love how calm and peaceful this place makes me feel

Sis: “I thought you love to eat pork”

Me: *keeps quiet*

Bili wanted to help her friend get an amulet as they believe the age ending with 9 always comes with misfortune! There have a wide variety of amulets sold here, I wanted to get one but had no idea which one to pick, 算了

Fat fat was experiencing pain in her eye, due to dirty contact lens (?) so we decided to head back to our hotel for her to change into her specs.

(view from the hotel room window 😍)

After that, we took the time to go to Level 5 to check out the Starbucks within the Hotel, dad also booked a buffet dinner for 31 Dec, and then we went to the lobby!

Christmas decorations (dad: must take photos)

AHHHH why did I close my eyes?!

We stopped by the v chio Starbucks for a coffee fix:

Due to (us) not having excellent mandarin, the barista got my order for Peppermint Mocha as Red Velvet Oat Latte. Fat fat went to get her drink changed!

Parents started feeling tired, so the three of us decided to go hike up 象山 then go Taipei 101!

象山 | Elephant Mountain

(If only we managed to reach the peak)

We arrived here at 4 ish pm and the sun sets at 5ish, so halfway up, the whole place looks pretty dark! The steps are also extra steep so at one of the resting points, we decided to give up...

(please refer to my Taiwan 2019 trip for Taipei 101 and 象山 pictures haha)

Exercise is not for the weak, and I am the weak, so here is my milk tea right after semi-hiking up 象山:

We just walked in the direction of where 101 is, and came across this v huge Christmas Tree 🎄

After many streets of moderately dark walkways, 101 我们来了!

Taipei 101

(oh side note, dustbins are hard to find in Taiwan!)

Ahhh have no idea if the Taipei Restaurant Bus stations here or if it drives around. The latter makes sense as people get to enjoy the view while dining!

(wonders if motion sickness will set in if I eat on a moving bus 🤔)

We went around looking at souvenirs and their supermarket (YASSS) while waiting for our queue number to be called! Mom and Dad can OTOT arrive for dinner hehe

(4179!!!!)

DING TAI FUNG (in Taiwan)

I AM SO MUCH OF A FOODIE but kept forgetting to take pictures of food before we start feasting )):

We going to eat! (WHEN WE ALREADY ATE)

臨江街觀光夜市 | Linjiang Night Market

Featuring Mom as a random passerby at 臨江:

We decided to explore what they have since we already had dinner haha

夜市FOOD!!!!

I love the aesthetics of Night Markets (or Taiwan ☺️)

Then it is time to head back! Hopefully the food digest away fast fast so tomorrow is another day to binge!

DAY 3 // 27 December, Tuesday | 早安!!!!

We took a late breakfast at the food court right outside Longshan Temple Metro Station!

Wah the people here are so nice, the stall owners told us to take a seat, and they served us the food:

(our parents ordered more food, not featured here)

Guotie Auntie told us that it is very cold here (where we are sitting) and asked if we wanna move to any location, if not our food will also turn cold very quickly.

(I thought about retiring in Taiwan hah, will be nice to live here hor)

We took the Metro to Tamsui Station!

淡水 | Tamsui Old Street

(outside Metro Station, why their Metro station so chio one)

Okay, then I had a slight PTSD from seeing bicycles, after an accident during EN's Night Cycling on 9 December 2022...

I love this place already!

Fat fat trying to dodge my camera line of vision, but oops, you are totally in it HAHAHA

How can we not get Ice Cream on vacation??

THE VIEW:

Dad saw game booths along the street by the water body (ocean? sea? idk) then we decided to just play, and he actually won something but has no use for the gift (three grown kids hah), and gave it away to a family (with young children) walking by!

Fat fat got drink holders here at one of the stalls. Most of the time, I am just worried about the motorcycles (scooters thingy) haha

We saw a cat here!!

(just chilling)

Street snacks at 淡水

We ate our late lunch at one of their shops, 蛤蜊粉丝 ++

Then somehow, we ate more food immediately after lunch hah. We went for a more chill dim sum food stop

Dad kept speaking to the staff in Cantonese, and thinking we are in HK! (I miss our yearly trips to HK)

兔子🐰

Then, food coma hit us right in the face! We went to grab our daily dose of coffee from Starbucks, used their toilets, and chilled here until 5 pm-ish.

(on our way to the next destination!)

士林夜市 | Shilin Market

We went to look see look see, before we start buying anything. On one of the streets, we saw a very cute and realistic tiger animation! Got this picture due to Bili's resilience to wait for the perfect opportunity:

We went on the grab what we wanna eat, Dad went to check out his ideal dinner place (MUST SIT DOWN AND EAT) before queuing for beef cubes!

Fat fat not interested in Oyster mushrooms (or mushrooms in general), so she went to get 冰糖葫芦

(but later she liked the mushrooms)

THE QUEUE WAS INSANE BUT WORTH IT

Then we went for Beef Cubes!! (my favourite heh)

(beef cubes with a special cheese twist!)

铁板烧

Parents got a set meal, while we just ate the mains because we got bigger plans hehehe

豪大大鸡排

And I have been talking about 大肠包小肠 since forever, so here it is!!!!

Yogurt green tea (tasted like diluted yogurt drink haha)

The food at Shilin was so good (but this is not my favourite 夜市), but 夜市 vibes felt different from pre-covid times...

On our way back, we saw a shop selling fried 雪糕, so dad got the melon flavour one, loving it hehe (even tho really damn full liao)!

No picture because I WAS TOO EXCITED TO EAT IT!

Mom and Fat fat saw sales at Mister Donut near our Hotel, so we bought and here it is, really is 吃了又吃，然后再吃！

We started watching Crime Scene investigations every night (totally my kind of show hah)

DAY 4 // 28 December, Wednesday | We left our Hotel close to lunchtime, because parents wanted to change rooms, to be on the same floor as us. Tomorrow is probably gonna be a not-so-chill day, so chilling today is great!

永康街 | Yongkang Street

(this is a random alley we saw, I love)

Parents found a place to grab a quick bite, but we weren't really feeling it so decided to keep moving around. We saw a chio coffee place:

(later we got our coffee here)

We chanced upon a really interesting shop, selling handmade items. I got this cute earring:

(clip-on earrings are hard to find, plus this is so cute!)

Bili went to look up nice lunch places, and this 牛肉面 stall came up, so we went:

In general, the shop staff are very unfriendly, and not keen to do business?? It was not a good experience once we stepped in lol

是我华语不好吗？说小菜自己拿, 50NTD. I thought free flow, but is 50NTD per plate, okay lo!

(end up we spent 300 bucks on side dishes)

We ordered some other dishes:

They were good, but the mains were not so much (at least for mine)!

(We ordered the noodles with soup, no meat haha at a famous 牛肉面 shop hahaha)

The original taste soup broth, cannot taste any 牛肉 at all!!!!! So err I didn't drink much of the soup, so of course not getting to the bottom of this bowl to see this:

I did not eat 到回忆...

VIEW:

We went to 芋頭大王 for desserts, but did not order any 芋頭 🤣 HELPS

自由时间: the three of us went shopping around, I got a chocolate drink that helps digestion, and then we bought umbrellas (I love my forest green umbrella!!)

(this quote^)

This shop sells very chic things, I got a few things here heh

It started raining, so app to take out my umbrella haha! We queued in the rain for:

I'm absolutely crazy about this!!!

THE QUEUE:

We got coffee, on our way back to the Metro Station to meet our parents for our next destination!

103% view 💕✨

西門町 | Ximending

💙

Bili remembered the really nice 绿豆糕 from 港记, we must buy and keep it chilled to ensure we can bring it back to SG!

(We also bought other 伴手礼 here, to collect on 31st!)

Then went to 如邑堂, and sat down to try their stuff before purchasing! They gonna pack it in a carton, haha will be difficult to carry around (same collection plan)!