Taiwan Series: Day 3

Our third day was the longest day. We went to a lot of different places. Most of them are tourist spots.

Before we explored some of Taiwan’s bustling tourist spots, Alain brought us to their basement to show us the one and only Green Hornet car! Yes, he’s neighbors with Jay Chou! I guess that’s the closest to Hollywood we’ll ever get XP

 

We took a quick stop to 7/11 and grabbed some breakfast. We had our little breakfast buffet inside the car then went off to our road trip to Keelung.

First stop is Yehliu Geopark. I can’t remember anything about it except that it was a great place to take photos haha! So that’s what we did! Photos away! (If you want to know more about the place check this)

It was a little crowded, but it was a big place. 

Hey Josh!

With my “travel mama”, Alain and his dad.

See that red line? You can’t go beyond that line. Go near it and the security guys will make you suffer, haha! Just kidding. But yeah, DON’T GO NEAR THAT RED LINE.

They sell A LOT of dried snacks.But we decided to buy this hokkaido ice cream! THE.BEST.ICE.CREAM.EVER. I’m not kidding…….. ugh!

Then we went off to Jiufen Old Street. Night market!! Or should I say… afternoon market?

Street food galore!Coffee beans!
Special egg. lol
This is funny. :))

Alain told me that I should eat Taiwanese sausage with fresh garlic – I regret doing it but he loves it. 

THESE MOCHI. YUM!

A restaurant at the end of the road where you can also stay overnight, it comes with a great view!

Plus it’s a few steps away from this coffee shop! I should’ve tried it. #REGRETS.

My cute sharpener

This one is unique. They grate those sweet nuts, put it inside a lumpia-like-wrapper with ice cream! Pretty inventive!
Cute souvenirs ballpens

I don’t know why I can see a lot of owls around. This pic. Another regret of mine. I should’ve bought one leather bag for my laptop or something. They sell a lot of bags!
Then off to another road trip. The zigzag road made us all dizzy. :)) Stopped by another night market near the train station.
More souvenirs! Then our next stop was Maokong Gondola!
Hello Kitty theme! Cutieeee!!
They say it’s best to ride it around 4pm because it’s perfect for the beautiful sunset.
The view was amazing!
Of course, you can see Taipei 101 from there too!

Taiwan crew. HEHE.
You can also use it to go to Taipei Zoo Station or some other parts of Taipei.

We stopped by the last station to enjoy some of the place’s famous eateries. We tried their famous oyster omelette, pancit bihon, stinky tofu, and shaved ice dessert with pearls and condensed milk. I wanted to try the mango shaved ice but it wasn’t mango season, so they didn’t sell it during that time Eating shaved ice dessert was a challenge in general because the weather was so cold!

But eating stinky tofu was waaaay more challenging! Taiwanese people love it…I don’t. It’s basically deep fried fermented tofu…it literally smelled of canal odor! Canal substance on your mouth ladies and gentlemen. What an experience. HAHA! How Alain manages to eat two servings and fully enjoy it? I’ll never know :))
Moving on, we rode the gondola again back to the city. It was crazy scary at night…
We went to Miramar just to try out Alain’s favorite cream puff. Superb!
We also dropped by this cute food court. Each store had its theme and a certain feel. A very “Instagrammable” food court!
   Then we went to this weird looking restaurant called Five Dime Restaurant. (Know more about it here)Taipei is also known for their thematic and bizarre restaurants. I wanted to try Hello City Cafe but, of course, the boys didn’t want to join me.
You could even buy fish food to feed the fish. We enjoyed this one a little too much. Haha!
Our last stop was the Eslite Bookstore. It’s like their version of Fully Booked, but so much better. (Sorry Fully Booked!)
But before that, here’s a funny story on our way to Eslite:

Back to Eslite, they sell A LOT of useful things there. From books to magazines, decorations, music, and so much more!
 They also have some branches that are open for 24 hours! How cool is that? (Read more about it here)

This place is my second torture place (first is Ikea). Haha! How cute is that lamp? Reminds me of Pixar. Haha!

Before going home, we dropped by this small dessert place to buy some shaved ice dessert (again). As if it wasn’t cold enough over there, haha!I could not understand anything! Good thing Alain was there to translate. (Grabbed these photos from Josh) 

Whew~ What a tiring day! My legs and feet couldn’t handle any more walking. Next time, I’ll definitely make sure to bring my walking shoes with me.

Next on the blog is Taipei’s Bike Lane, plus more of Taiwan’s food!