Hello Taiwan ❤ D2

So as promised, here's Day Two in Taipei :D

The second day is with the ground tour that we booked online
So today would be the tourist route in Taipei :D

But due to the extreme walking and catching up with Suyi plus not sleeping for 2 days straight, we just collapsed to bed yesterday, so..

WE WOKE UP LATE

The poor tour guide was asking the receptionist to call our room over and over again

And Michelle and I were like 2 dead bodies in the room

Until I finally picked up the phone and it all registered into my head

So I went

MICHELLEEEE WE ARE LATEEE WAKE THE HELL UP NOWWWW

Within the next 10 minutes we freshened up, in the van, ready to go

It's amazing how your adrenaline could just push you to your limit

If there's ever a Olympic medal in getting ready the fastest,

I think Michelle and I should enrol in it :P

So thank goodness we weren't late because our first destination is Martyr’s Shrine（忠烈祠）We were there to witness an elaborate ceremony of changing guards and it's held at 9am sharp

So... phew.. we made it!

This is how it looks like but I can't find the pictures of the guards :(

But overall it's a pretty cool ceremony

After that, we went to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall （中正纪念堂）

This is built in the memory of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek and and if I'm not mistaken the tour guide said this is the place where the Taiwanese come to protest

But they're mostly peaceful protests from the students

The name itself translates to the Freedom Plaza

Next, we visited the Shilin Residence（士林官邸）,it is the residence of President Chiang Kai-shek during his lifetime. It has been reconstructed to an ecological park.

There're a lot of pretty flowers planted here ❤

The tour guide also told us the love story between President Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong May Ling, how he divorced all his previous wives just to marry Soong May Ling and how the other Soong sisters became successful.

This is one of the reasons I love travelling, except for the view and food you also learn about other country's history and story, and it stays in your mind for a much longer period.

There's also a coffee shop at the entrance and they sell good ice-creams :)

For the next stop, we went to Yuan Shan & Jian Tan Scenic Park（圓山劍潭風景區）

There's also a hotel here named 圓山大飯店

Apparently it's only meant for the presidents who visit from all over the world back then

But recently it's opened for all the normal citizens, at a high price of course

But it's a beautiful hotel and the lunch buffet looks really nice

Michelle and I were gonna have our lunch here but the tour guide said she already booked our lunch in another restaurant :(

So we bought some bread and cupcakes, and they taste really good :D

If you guys have the chance to come here, there's a shuttle bus from the Yuan Shan station and their buffet isn't expensive. So maybe give it a try and let me know how is it :D

After walking so much it's finally lunch time!

The tour guide brought us to the King Ping Tea Restaurant（金品茶楼）

We had a lot of Siu Long Bao :D

Let the pictures do the talking

This is the original version of Siu Long Bao, I love it! ❤

And this is what's inside HAHAHAH!

And here's the Siu Long Bao 2.0 and 3.0 and 4.0 and 5.0

This is the vegetable version Siu Long Bao

Personally I didn't like it very much

The tour guide was worried that we might still be hungry so she also ordered fried rice

I was too full from all the Siu Long Bao's so I skipped this

And here's the Sour Spicy soup. I skipped this too mostly because of the oil on the soup :O

Cake for dessert. I don't know the name of it but it tastes pretty good :D

The next destination after lunch is Chiufen （九份）

We're here to see the old fashioned way of life that still exists, with the aura of the old mines that is still apparent. It's about an hours' ride and it's an uphill ride

Thanks to my carsick problem, I was having a bad headache the whole time 

I can almost feel the Siu Long Bao trying to escape :O

Even though I'm not feeling well but I still walked through Chuifen

It's actually a really nice old street, this feels like the older version of Taipei

There're a lot of souvenirs and food sold here.

The people are really nice cause they let you try the food before you buy it :D

The place is really pretty 

I didn't manage to see this because it was really foggy up there that day :(

But now that I know it looks like this I want to go back!

The headache is going to be worth it!

After that we went to the Peitou Hot Spring（北投溫泉）❤

This is my first time going to a hot spring cause which Malaysian would go for a hot spring? 

We already live in a tropical country, lol!

I would go for a cold spring if there is one

But the weather in Taipei during May is rainy and a little cooling

So that's like the good weather for a hot spring

This is how it looks like... at least that's what the internet says

Well because Michelle and I didn't know it's was gonna be a naked outdoor hot spring and we are not allowed to bring in any towels, even a small one to cover our private parts

So after struggling for a little while

We decided to pay extra and took a private room 

Thank goodness we can wear our swimsuit in the private room

Yep we chickened out

Even though I know that I don't know anybody there and everyone is just as naked

I JUST CAN'T DO IT

Well neither can Michelle HAHAHAHAHA :D

Maybe some other time :D

The last stop! The must-go when you visit Taipei, Shihlin Night Market （士林夜市）

It's food time again! It's when I blog that I realize I eat too much :O

Well, screw it just enjoy every moment lol!

We start off by eating the oyster omelette （蚵仔煎）

Then it's the cheese baked potato ❤

There's ham, corn and basil and cheese on top of the baked potato, it's so nice!

You can literally feel your weight going up the weighing scale 

But it's so so so worth it

Yes we had the fried chicken again even though there's a franchise right beside our hotel T.T

Yes we don't think straight when it comes to food

We also had this potato on a stick thing :D

We also drank the cranberry juice near the entrance 

The Shihlin night market is really huge, Michelle and I were lost and found our way out 20 minutes later

I think we didn't even finish walking 20% of the night market

But we're way too full cause the portion of the food is big and the price is considered cheap :)

Can't believe our stomachs gave up on us

But at least we were sharing all of the food, imagine coming alone and wanting to eat a variety of food, that's just impossible

This is why you need a food friend :D 

After that we took the MRT and went back to our hotel :D

That's all for the day two :D

Going to all that places is actually really tiring

Even though it's tiring but we're really enjoying ourselves

I'll try to update Day Three before next week :D

P/S: Most of the pictures from today is still in my camera so I'll update them as soon as I get my hands on the pictures :)

XOXOXOXOXOXO

karman.hearts

Hello Taiwan ❤ D1

Heyyo peeps!

The guilt finally come crashing so I'm dragging my lazy butt to blog about this trip :D

Before I begin, here's answer to a question from a friend.

Why do I refer my readers to peeps?

Is it a short form to people?

Well there's actually a cute explanation to it :)

According to wikipedia, peeps are marshmallow candies, sold in the United States and Canada, that are shaped into chicks, bunnies, and other animals.

Look how cute it is!

A bunny peep cake!

Ya'll sweet sweet peeps  ❤

Moving on! 

So this trip actually means a lot to me

This is my first backpack trip abroad with my one of my best friends :D

This is also her first trip abroad so I was really worried about screwing it up

But thank goodness we both had a lot of fun and loved it!

We even promised to visit again soon! <3

This wasn't exactly a planned ahead trip cause a month before our departure,

Like always Michelle and I were aimlessly browsing through the net in the living room

I found out that AirAsia was having some promo flight deal

And the promotion ends the next day

Our conversation went like this

Me: Honey you know AirAsia is having a promo fare thing

Mich: Yeah? 

Me: Yeah. You know how we've never done anything fun ever since we started university? Wouldn't it be cool to travel abroad?

Mich: I don't know man. How much would it cost?

Me: Let me check. Apparently the to-and-fro ticket to Taiwan is only RM900 per person

Mich: Woah, that's considered cheap isn't it?

Me: Yeah wanna do it?

Mich: Yeah, what the hell. Let's do it! 

After calling our parents we paid the next day!

You know that little voice inside your head that demands you to think rationally? 

We completely blocked that voice :P

You only live once :)

A week before our departure we went to the 12fly website and booked the hotel and a 1 day trip to the tourist hotspots :) 

We don't want to miss anything in Taiwan but we would also love to explore Taiwan on our own so we compromised with a 1 day city tour and 3 days of free and easy :D

Our trip also fell on the first few week of the KLIA2 opening.

So we're proud to say that we're one of the first that used the new airport!

Unlike our expectations, the new airport is huge but rather empty

Like it's not fully ready for the public yet

But we're just there to catch the flight, so I guess it's not such a big deal

At least they have Subway sandwiches there :D

We took the KLIA Express to the airport. It's way cheaper compared to taking a cab because there's only 2 of us and its also way faster.

It's only RM35 to the airport in 33 minutes! And the ride was smooth :)

For the first timers, selfies are a must! :D

DAY ONE 

5 hours and a plane meal later and here we are!  ❤

Our day technically started in Taiwan because our flight reached TaoYuan Airport in the middle of the night. The driver was gonna pick us up around 8am so there's a few hours to kill there.

So... like all normal human beings, we eat.. again HAHAHAHAH! 

Pork sandwich and apple milk

Steamboat!

Got this from the 7-11 at Taoyuan Airport. I gotta say... 

Our 7-11 sucks compared to theirs

There's so much more food in their 7-11 and there's 24/7 steamboat and fresh meals

And their food and drinks are way cheaper, and nicer  ❤

There are also lots of promotion going on in the store

No wonder my friend who's studying in Taiwan said she could live off 7-11  ❤

For the next few days in Taiwan, we checked into 7-11 at least once a day lol!

That shows how much we loved it #truelove HAHAHAHHA!

So after feeding ourselves we registered for the free wifi services in the airport.

Thank you Taiwan. I cannot describe how grateful I am for this.

Wifi services and charging station. Perfect.

A few hours of going online and looking into the maps of Taipei later, the driver arrived and dropped us at our hotel in Ximending  ❤

Michelle and I decided to live in the Ximending area because according to the internet this seems to be the fun area of Taipei and we loved it!

Leo Hotel, a small but nice room  ❤

The receptionist was very nice, she let us checked in even though it's not 12pm yet and recommended a few places for us to visit 

We didn't want to waste any time because who needs sleep when there's a whole new city waiting for you to explore? 

So Michelle and I freshened up and walked around the Ximending area

We realized that most of the places don't open until around 12pm

I can't help but think that Taipei city is meant for young people

After walking around we saw it

We saw the famous fried chicken shop

It's HaoDaDa fried chicken and it's huge!

And really nice too!

After wandering around for I went to visit and reunite with one of my best friends from primary school for lunch, she came to Taiwan for tertiary studies and we haven't seen each other for 8 years!

I was really excited to meet her  ❤

So we took the MRT to Taipei 101 station

It was raining a little that day and it took some time before we found each other lol!

We went to Taipei 101 had our lunch at Mos Burger

It's a fast food chain from Japan and instead of using bread for the burger, they used rice.

Yep. You didn't read that wrong. RICE

As weird as that sounds, it's actually really nice!

It's like having a Chinese cuisine wrapped up in a burger form hahahah!

It looks good and it tastes even better ❤

 

 Here's a cute thing that I wanna share with you guys, instead of giving you a number when you have to wait for you order, they give you this small thing that would flash and vibrate once your order is done. Pretty cool, huh?

After that we went to a really cool sky lounge version Starbucks outlet that requires a permit to enter. Fancy enough.

Here's the cool permit that you'll need

But it's all worth it. Look at the view! It's a really nice place to catch up with your friends or go on a coffee date ❤

Here's Suyi ❤ 

Can't believe not much has changed and we could still talk about almost everything

I really miss this girl :)

I also seriously miss the good old days that we had

We were gonna go visit another primary school friend, Gary in DanShui but he couldn't make it at the last minute. Well, there's always a second chance :)

So after the coffee date we decided to spend more time with each other so she brought us to her campus :D

Suyi is studying in the Taipei Medicine University. So because of her we got to walk around her campus! :)

The facilities are amazing in her campus, they have all sort of sport facilities, a swimming pool and even a jacuzzi

I had to fight the urge to not strip there and then and jump right into it :O

After that we met her dorm mates who're really nice and hard working, they have way too many books on their tables and it made me feel a little guilty, lol!

There's also a nice view of the Taipei 101 station from her dorm rooftop :)

Stupid phone camera made it look really blur but it's actually a really nice view :D

Then we went to the night market near her campus which I don't remember the name of, but it's just right beside the campus and we ate so many snacks... again :P

This is one of the stalls which I love ❤

They have the sour version of french fries!

And there's also the salted version of fried chicken 

Guess what I saw after eating all those snacks?

Mr J restaurant! It's from my favourite singer, Jay Chou ❤

I can't believe it's right in front of me but I'm too full to take another bite of food

I seriously wished for a bigger stomach that day

Well maybe another day, another time :(

After that Suyi sent us back to Ximending

We were gonna take the bike but taking the bus seemed like a smarter choice since I'm always having problems with directions

There's a lot of ubike stations in Taipei. It's like renting a bike with a small amount of money and you can just park it at any ubike station near your destination :)

Too bad we weren't familiar with the roads there, so we took the MRT most of the time, well maybe next time :)

That's all for Day one

I was planning to update Day one and two together but blogging about this makes me really want to go back to Taiwan and hungry so I'm gonna go get some food and continue ASAP :D

XOXOXOXOXOXO

karman.hearts