Lara, Vina, and I have been planning a trip for the longest time so when the opportunity presented itself, we quickly grabbed it! And by opportunity I mean cheap ticket sales and timing that worked well for us three… We tried to make the most of our stay in Taipei which means there’s a bulk of photos capturing the places we went to, the food we ate, and the things we did.
After our flight landed and after going through immigration and customs, we bought a metro card to make our commuting experience a tad easier. It didn’t cost a lot, 200 or 300 NTD. The only catch though is that not all stations have a reloading machine so whenever we had to top up, we had to make sure the amount would suffice before coming across another station with a reload machine.
The first thing we did on our first day in Taipei was to go to the restaurant that served the original bubble tea. It was already around noon when we headed out of our hostel since we went to bed at 5 in the morning (we decided to treat ourselves a couple hours of sleep). Anyway, perfect for a good lunch!
We walked to the station right next to our hostel and boarded the train that would take us to the restaurant which I’ve forgotten the name of. Whoops.
Vina was able to locate the restaurant prior to our trip so it wasn’t much of a hassle finding it. (Then again, Vina did all her research way ahead of time so we basically had a game plan LOL). There was a queue when we got there but thank goodness they allowed us to already place our orders.
Since this was an actual restaurant, it was pretty pricey BUT you get what you pay for! Our rice bowls were good and THE original bubble milk tea tasted great.
CHIANG KAI-SHEK MEMORIAL HALL
After lunch, we headed to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which was built to honor Chiang Kai-shek, the former President of China. Since I didn’t read anything about Taipei prior to our trip, I’ve only just found out that this structure has a lot of significant details.
Like the stairs. Each set apparently has 89 steps which represents President’s Chiang Kai-shek’s age when he passed away. I mean how cool is that? If I had known that, I would’ve counted the steps just to make sure (even though it’s probably 100% legit) haha!
And the roof is eight-sided (symbolizes abundance)! I remember looking at that roof and I didn’t bother thinking anything of it, except for how nice the colors were. 
While we were inside the memorial, we were able to watch the changing of the guards (thanks to good timing). You know those things you watch just because you’re there, like when you’re in Disneyland and the parade is on and you don’t even want to watch it but you’re there anyway so you end up watching it? Ok out of topic haha but anyway!
Mandatory group photos before leaving!
We asked this guy to take our photo by the bridge and his little daughter wanted to join 🙂
NATIONAL CONERT HALL / NATIONAL THEATER
The National Concert Hall and The National Theater were both within the vicinity so we decided to check it out. I honestly cannot tell which one we took photos of, if it’s the theater or the concert hall since we only went to one.
SUN YAT-SEN MEMORIAL PARK
We walked from the Liberty Square to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park, which basically just offered full views of Taipei 101. We didn’t really stay long since there wasn’t much to do aside from people-watching and taking photos. 
We found a 711 across the street and got ourselves some popsicles!
TAIPEI CITY HALL
This wasn’t part of our itinerary, we just walked by it and we thought it was a good spot for photos. And it really was, especially during sunset.
I love looking at maps, it’s so fascinating.
Apologies for the abundance of photos of Taipei 101. One of those things you can’t help take a photo of whenever you see it. Such a beaut. ❤
SHIN KONG MITSUKOSHI
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was around the area so we paid it a visit before heading to the nightmarket. It’s basically the place for shopping, especially when you’re after well-known brands.
This building sort of reminded me of the QVB in Sydney. Sucker for these kinds of buildings! 
Pretty flowers and succulents in ESLITE.
SHILIN NIGHTMARKET
We ended the night by visiting Shilin Nightmarket. As expected, it was extremely crowded and you can even see the smoke coming from all the stalls! STORY TIME: At this point of the day, I was pretty annoyed at myself for having so much stuff. I had my usual backpack on, camera, phone, and wallet. I actually held all of my stuff all because I wanted to keep my eye on them and refused to leave them inside my backpack on the off chance that I would get mugged or whatever. Welp. Lesson? When heading to a busy nightmarket, head back to the hostel first, leave unnecessary stuff, and bring as little as possible. Anyway, it was all part of the experience!
We had one goal and one goal only: stuff our faces with food! 
Can’t remember how much this Xiao Long Bao cost but it was cheap and GOOD!
HANDS DOWN THE BEST ORANGE JUICE I HAVE EVER HAD.
Deep-fried milk cubes. It was interesting… It didn’t taste bad, it didn’t taste good.
The queue for this fried chicken stall was LONG and we decided to give it a go since people wouldn’t stay in line and wait a while if the product wasn’t good!
That’s it! Right when we got back to the hostel, we quickly got ready for bed and slept the night away. Oh and if you haven’t already seen it, check out my other blog posts of our trip!
Nice! Waiting for the next installment. 🙂
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Thanks so much, Joy! 🙂
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