Taipei, Taiwan: Day 2

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This is Day 2 of the Taipei series. Today’s theme was “enjoy nature’s beauty”. We hiked at Yangmingshan’s Erziping Trail, relaxed at Beitou Hot Springs, then enjoyed a romantic sunset at Fisherman’s Wharf and Lovers Bridge. Spur of the moment dinner at a local restaurant was awesome. + Night drinks

After the travel day, this is our first full day in Taipei. Woke up in the early morning to take the metro to Yangmingshan National Park. Let me tell you, it’s a tizzy doing this the cheapo way. We got off at Beitou MRT station and hopped on bus 230 that’ll take you up the mountain. It’s not over once you get off, you’ll actually take ANOTHER bus (bus 108) which will take you to the hiking trails. This wasn’t convenient and no one explained anything to us. Luckily there was a 7-11 and you can have a snack before hopping on the transfer bus. I’m pretty sure though there’s a better bus to take – and we missed it.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day. There’s a few different hiking trails but I took the Easy Erziping since I’m a novice and really just wanted to escape the city!

Fun facts: Yangmingshan is one of nine national parks in Taiwan. Yamingshan Mountain is actually a dormant volcano so that’s why there’s a lot of sulphur (which I thought were just ordinary clouds passing me by but in fact were sulphuric clouds!). No wonder it kinda smelled.

i.was.tricked.            There was a misleading sign that told me it will only take 0.2km but in actually it was 1.8km. I think it was 0.2km to the next sign post. And since it was a warm day, I felt my skin slowly burning. Remember to bring sunblock, shades, and umbrella/light jacket! I had my trusty lightweight jacket to keep me….in a sauna =/ It felt I was in a sauna.

tricked I tell ya

Nice view. Would I do it again? Maybe not.

Finding our way down, I’m thinking spent about 7 hours (including traveling from hotel). Let’s say 5 once you reach the MRT, hike, and back down. It's a day trip!

But there’s enough sunlight so we carried on to the next destination.

Stop 2: Beitou Hot Springs

One MRT stop over, you’ll reach the hot springs area. Tourist guides made it sound so awesome, but I felt let down. Maybe if I ventured off higher up the hill, but I was too exhausted at this point. Guys, the hot spring “pools” were nothing like I imagined. It wasn’t that dreamy hot springs like you imagine from Japanese anime. Of course now, we’re in Taiwan not Japan. So I detoured to the restroom and ran out. Especially when creepy old locals stared at me hungrily because I’ll be in the pools with them. No way!

Stop 3: Fisherman’s Wharf & Lovers Bridge

Getting off at Danshui MRT stop, take bus R26 to fisherman’s wharf. It reminds me so much of home (Long Beach, CA represent!). When I was young, I use to go to shoreline every weekend and this totally reminisce. It was a good ending to the day. Relaxing breeze and spotting couples and families enjoy the evening. But you know what…I’m hungry!

Stop 4: Danshui area

We had dinner at a local restaurant and milk tea from Milk Shop. Highly recommend Milk Shop! There’s many other things you can do here like the night market and old district. I was too tired so we headed back to the hotel.

After walking over 11km, got in MY hot tub and spritzers at the hotel. AaaHhHH hotel lux ;)

Preview: city touring ahoy

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XoXo V

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Taipei, Taiwan: Day 1

Hi All,

I’ve been traveling and working a plenty since we last met. It’s just that these days people are vblogging (OR do they just call it vlogging???) and I felt so out dated. With my fancy iPhone (that takes super cool photos and make simple videos), I am now welcomed into the YouTube community. Please don’t forget to follow me there! Still learning how to put in music, voice overs, texts and stuff….but always great learning something new.

With that being said, I’m not abandoning my blogdom. I LOVE to express myself through writing. I’ll continue to update both kingdoms.

For starters, I’ll be showing you around my latest travel: TAIPEI, TAIWAN.

It all started on NYE while sipping my patron and eating spaghetti at home. I had a 4-day weekend and literally had no party plans. So I started looking up videos of potential places to visit for 2017. Mostly, getting ideas from my k-variety shows. Low and behold, I came across soooo many videos telling me Taipei is a food mecca that I had to make a pilgrimage.

Salivating, I tantalized other friends to join my “World walking tour”.

Over the next few blogs will be about the days I spent there.

Day 1: jetting to Taipei

First day started with a mid-day flight to TPE on Eva Air. We picked this particular flight since it was the only non-stop one. Albeit more expensive, it saved us time than to trek our butts on a bus via Saigon to Taipei.

Arrived early evening and found the airport metro to take to the Taipei Main Station. I generally like to take the metro as oppose to a taxi since it’s cheaper. By far, this was the CHEAPEST transportation I’ve ever taken from an airport to main station. SERIOUSLY, probably like ONE DOLLAR. Where can you find a deal like that??? Another +, it came so often (like 15 minutes).

A qualm I had was about arriving at main stations are that they’re so huge. Literally you can get lost (more on that later). That’s why I say you should take a picture of the maps so you can find your way. We were at the airport metro station, which is different from the city metro, or metro to other cities, or bus terminals. So be careful when you’re at Taipei Main Station! I think it’s better that you walk outside to get your bearing.

Our hotel was a bit of a walk from the station but fairly easy to find. The reason we picked our hotel is 1. New 2. Size 3. Free snacks 4. Gorgeous interior decorating. I LOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE IT! There were free snacks 24/7 (instant noodles, drinks, candies, crackers, coffees, yummy yum yums). I felt so cool being in the lobby.

After dropping our luggage we headed to Shilin Night Market. Why? Because I heard it was the best night market. Somehow, we didn’t find a lot of street vendors. We were told it all went underground, but I wasn’t really excited by anything there. Bummer.

We had the:

• Milk tea with boba pearls: since we didn’t buy at a popular place, it tastes bland. I got fooled by all the Chinese characters, thinking it was somewhere famous
• Beef cubes: it’s just regular steak
• Huge chicken cutlet: juicy on the inside, otherwise, typical
• Fried oyster pancake made from eggs
• Stinky tofu: dude, I heard people saying it’s nasty/it’s delicious/it’s like socks….I took one really small bite in my mouth. Didn’t even swallow it, just hitting the tip of my tongue, and I had to gag it out. That’s not like socks or anything I’ve ever had. It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had. I rather eat DURIAN than STINKY TOFU. I don’t know what Andrew Zimmerman is talking about.
• Korean chicken with cheese: don’t ask me why we had Korean chicken in Taiwan. Can’t resist cheese.
• Lime drink: perfect sourness to cut all the fat
• Ramen: this was across the street from Shilin Night Market. We got too hungry and had to grab something to eat.

Interesting game: playing mahjong with the stall owner. If you win, you get a prize. The stall owner must be very talented to play 5-7 games at the same time. Also, lots of trust.

What you need to know: English is in most places but knowing Chinese makes everything sooooooo much easier. Trust me, find a friend.

Line etiquette: I’ve been to many countries and I was super impressed here. They drew lines so that you know where to wait and get on the metros. The kicker is: everyone followed the rule. There was no cutting, no pushing, no sliding through while others getting out.

What am I doing in the last picture: pretending to be a flute player. As we walked in the super quiet metro labyrinth back to the hotel, the closed shops had murals on them. I decided to re-enact them. Falling quite a few things doing this musically yoga pose.

Food: I felt jilted by the whole food mecca thing. Of course there were lots of street foods at the night markets, but I just didn’t feel satisfied like Bangkok, Thailand. More on that in blogs to come.

How to get to Shilin Night Market? Contrary to what you might thing, get off at Jintian station! Trust me, puts you at the end of Shilin so you can work your way in a methodical manner.

PREVIEW for days to come:

Mochi: Walked like 10 kms/miles to find THE fresh mochi. Mainly 1. It was night time 2. Getting lost from poor directions people gave online 3. Rained so hard and had no umbrella 4. Explored underground metro tunnels even in the deep and spooky zones that no one could be found.

Juifen: loved feeling like I was in Spirted Away.

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YouTube channel: Charming V YouTube Channel

YouTube vid link: Taipei, Taiwain - Day 1 vid

Blog: https://vonionlife.blogspot.com/

Thank you for the support! Please follow me 0=)

Let me know your thoughts. Shout it out in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.

XoXo V

* Sunny Up with V *

If you would like me to visit your place, let me know! I’m more than happy to check out and eat your delicious food =)