Hi Friends, from the other side of the world!
My intention for (trying so hard) to write about our travels is to not only share with you all the amazing fun things we do, but to give you a better idea of our personal itinerary to maybe better YOUR trip if you ever go to these places! Felix is very thorough in making his itineraries and we hope that it helps you better visualize a potential trip for you in the future! The only place that won’t be very as touristy will be in Taiwan (our first leg) because we are spending most of our time with family that we are visiting, so the schedule is a bit more sporatic with family visits and what not! Also to note - today I was HORRIBLE at taking pictures because I was pretty delirious from jetlag. lol I’ll get better I promise :P
ANYWAY! Tuesday (technically wed morning) we headed off to Taiwan, Korea and Japan for yearly summer vacation! First up — TAIPEI, TAIWAN! Home of my mother’s side of the family! We traveled here a day later than my dad, sister and her family, but we are all staying in the same airbnb that is near by the Chang Kai-Shek Memorial, walkable distance to the rail. It’s a great location with a lot to see and do without being too close to a lot of people.
We arrived at the airport at 4:30am and to the airbnb at 6am. We walked around the neighborhood to grab some food to take back to the apartment to eat. After we ate, I was able to shower and clean up, and Felix took a nap.
Around 10:45am-11, we headed over to Taipei 101 to eat the ever so famous Din Tai Fung! If you are EVER in Taiwan, YOU MUST EAT HERE! The lines get long, but at 11am when it first opens, we were able to snag a seat right away. Din Tai Fung is home of the original xiao long bao restaurant that was founded in 1972. If you’ve been to other DTF’s around the world, it doesn’t compare to the one in Taiwan, so you must try it! If you’ve ever eaten soup dumplings, they are delicious steamed dumplings that have a little spoonful of soup. There is a fine margin for making xlb perfect - the thickness and texture of the skin (to make sure the skin doesn’t break when you’re picking it up), the soup inside (to make sure its flavorful but not too oily), and the meat (another.. flavorful but not to greasy). DTF has mastered all three and they give you the PERFECT bite of clean but meaty goodness!
Where they make the magic happen! :P
They have a range of many different XLB including even chocolate, vegetable and chicken! You can tell what flavor you have by the little yellow cut out of the item — this one is chicken (denoted by the little chick lol)
Then we walked around Taipei 101 which has a lot of highend, pushy people, but we were able to sample some really delicious snacks such as bubble tea cakes, and sunny hills pineapple cakes. Felix was able to pick up salted egg fish skin (OMG so good!) and I was able to pick up my favorite face masks from the most pushy saleswomen ever in the world. Although Taipei 101 is a must see place, I wouldn’t necessarily set your day to shop here because this is a known tourist spot where workers KNOW they can try and convince you to purchase more. Definitely set your day here to take pictures of the amazing building and grab a bite to eat!
After Taipei 101, we walked around our neighborhood and got some bubble tea (which you HAVE TO!), stopped by some bakeries and our favorite place ever — 7eleven. This place is truly heaven which I think I need to do a dedicated post for because it’s just the best place ever! Then we went back to our place to rest for a bit (and for Fel to take his second nap)
Grabbing our bubble tea — with the huge Irvins Salted Egg Fish Skin bag LOL
When we were ready to eat dinner, we headed over to the Taipei Main Station which has a huge strip of shopping areas and we were able to get some shopping done. By this point, I was slightly delirious from the jetlag (12 hours ahead).. however this area has such cute little shops to buy fun souvenirs and what not. Then we went to the food court area to eat some dinner (asia food courts, another place where its AT!)
After dinner, we went to see my grandma for a bit which I was legitimately not able to even talk because I was now full on exhausted, but that didn’t stop us from afterwards going to get some late night snacks. Taiwan’s night life is booming with people eating late and night and enjoying themselves. We went to the Da-an district to Yong Kang Street and there were so many people! We picked up some mango ices from Smoothie House.. and then we looked across the street where there was a long line for scallion pancakes.. and according to our aunt, she said the line is usually around the block! Thus… we had to pick some up and it was AMAZING!!! Although I went to bed SO FULL, I have no regrets of eating delicious mango shaved ices with boba on it… and scallion pancake with egg. It hit the spot SO GOOD.
In front of Smoothie House!
The scallion pancake place — she got to WORK. this place was bumping and SO delicious. You know when the place is run by older women that are hustlin’ — it’s damn legit! LOL
It was really hard to adjust to today because we arrived so early and felt like we had to power through our day since we have so little time in Taiwan, but it was such a lovely day spent with family in the motherland!
