爱你一杯之

by hildagrahnat

all my family lives in Taipei, so that’s (roughly) the only place I kinda know about, and for most of my trip my gramma’s been in the hospital (I won’t go into details but she has min. 1~2 months and max. 6 months to live) so I’ve been in the hospital too

it varies depending on what you’re interested in (guy/girl stuff, food, shopping, CDs, price range, etc.) so here’s a mini master list of places (I’ve been to so far and remember). feel free to suggest more places and I’ll go shop there and add them to the list

FOOD

士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market) I got (cosmetic) surgery the day I went so I was wearing a face mask the whole time and COULDN’T EAT ANYTHING. I plan to go back just for eating :x

淡水 (Danshui/Tamshui) I recommend going with friends/family so you can share the food you eat. that way you can eat a lot of different foods and not explode your stomach in the process. if you can eat a lot in one go … then screw your friends/family LOL

三峽夜市 (Sanxia Night Market) [FAR (from Taipei)] go on an empty stomach. don’t bother shopping here. it’s small, so the structure is quite organized (shopping on the center, food on the outside, games in the back). try the chicken sausage (IDK the real name???) IT’S SO GOOOOOOOOD

Wellcome before you leave, come here to stock up on candies/snacks. it’s cheaper than 7(-11) and gives you more in quantity and at a cheaper price. and while you’re staying here, just buy a big jug of yakult and drink out of a cup or something cos individually packaged yakult is tons more expensive and will eventually drain your shopping/food money :(

全聯福利中心 (another grocery store) well my aunt works (in the company, not at the store) here, so I get things for cheaper BUT it’s another alternative to Wellcome if you don’t live near one. I haven’t been in one yet so I haven’t compared prices, but it should be roughly the same or cheaper than Wellcome (no that’s not a typo)

SHOPPING

士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market) (LOL not much to say cos it caters to everything; food, female and male, accessories, etc. etc. )

• Ride the red subway line to 劍潭 station. go out Exit #1. Walk straight, and when you see a bunch of trendy stores, turn into one of the alleys and you’re in the heart of 士林夜市. the stores on the outside are good to shop too

公館 (Gongguan) it’s mostly stores (but still cheap) so it’s not a night market, but more clothing/food stands come out at night

• ride/transfer to the green subway line to 公館 station. when you come out, you can go either left or right or behind the escalator and there’s stores to shop

淡水 (Danshui/Tamshui) FINALLY a place that sells male clothing …

• ride/transfer to the red subway line all the way to the end (淡水/tamshui station) my memory is fuzzy, but i’m going tomorrow so I’ll edit this later ;__;

五分埔 (WuFenPu) the structure is really disorganized .. be prepared to get lost or come across the same stores several times. don’t forget to shop on the outside of the actual area, too. go at night

• ride/transfer to red subway line 劍潭 station. go out exit #1 (my sense of direction is not that great but the exits will say which is the market). Walk straight, and when you come across a lot of stores for toddler clothing, go into one of the alleys between the stores and voila!

台北車站 (Taipei Main Station) when you leave the station— there’s a Daiso Japan, a bunch of CD stores/stationary stores, places to eat, etc. ^__^

• red subway line to 台北車站. it’s the biggest station so any line will eventually lead you here

台北車站 (地下街) (Taipei Main Station) the shopping centre connected to the subway station! tons of stores (cutsey cell phone chains, toys, iphone cases, CD stores, etc.), places to eat .. AND it’s air conditioned.

• red subway line to 台北車站. it’s the biggest station so any line will eventually lead you here

三峽老街 (Sanxia (Old) Street (? lol idk its english translation)) lots of places to eat, it’s not as cutsey as the typical night market which is a good change of pace. there’s also this one store that sells glass blown ornaments/charms and there (was) a guy making a glass dragon in the front of the store. I was considering asking him to make me his apprentice BUT I LIVE IN AMERICA .. that store had the biggest impact on me so I don’t really remember the others OTL and ice cream! ice cream for like 10元!

• honestly idk how to get here .. lol. I do know there’s a few buses that take you there but when I went my uncle drove sooooo

西門町 (Ximending) to be honest I know a lot of people like this place but I personally DON’T recommend it. I only put it on the list to say I don’t recommend it .. lol. stuff there is all relatively expensive (you can find the SAME things at 公館/五分埔/士林 for a least 100+元 less than they sell it for. a ton of people smoke there and there’s some crazies (just crazies, or people that smoke pot/etc. there). I’d only recommend going there if you want a rough taste of what’s available at other night markets for a better price LOL and I went in the daytime (cos the crazies come out at night) so not much food was there. for kpop fangirls, there’s a few second floor stores that sell (some official (?) most not .. maybe none are?) posters, cards, pillows, wallscrolls, prints, etc. of kpop groups. I’m only a fan of infinite (and they didn’t have much infinite) so I kinda just went, checked, left, but for other groups, there’s a LOT … I only saw 1~2, but there might be more. you can tell it’s those kind of stores when you see a stairway plastered with posters

• blue line to 西門 station. you’re there once you come out of the station

Sogo umm I didn’t really go to Sogo this trip because it’s (personally) very boring for me. it’s all american brands, for more than what I pay for in America -__- I remember (6 years ago) there was a floor just for stationary, but it’s not like those weird pens I like (like that poop pen I’m giving away? LOL my fav) and expensive. maybe just circle around sogo once just to say you’ve been there or go to the basement just to eat YAY

• blue line to 忠孝復興 station. my grandma lives near Sogo so I really only know how to walk there from her house but the exits should say where it leads you directly to the basement of Sogo

微風廣場(Breeze Center) mostly all high end, expensive brands. the basement is restaurants, and the second basement is a grocery store with a 1800NT cantaloupe …. oh and free samples for rich and high end food YAY BUT I don’t recommend buying anything there. their imported Japanese candies are MORE expensive than America’s imported Japanese candies (same brand, candy, etc.). probably like double the price of everywhere else

• uh . somewhere near Sogo LOL. when you see a big CHANEL store you know you’re there

Taiwan people are sUUUUUUUper friendly. There were times my mom and I were contemplating how to get to places and people would overhear and just tell us. saved us the trouble of asking and being shy about it LOL however if you’re speaking English or have bad Chinese, idk how they respond cos (most) chinese people have bad english and aren’t as willing to speak it
my memory is bad and my sense of direction is worse, so if my directions lead you to get lost SORRY just ask a random person on the street there’s TONS of them. however my knowledge of the subway station is pretty good and it’s nowhere near as complicated as NY’s. before you go, I recommend you buy a map or print this one out

SCENERY

花蓮 (Hualien) the (3~4 hour) train ride there .. apparently was pretty. I was sleeping. you can go to the Farglory waterpark (it’s not like Six Flags, the rides are really small) and ride that bus up the mountain and live in the Farglory hotel where it’s pretty high class and has pretty mountain scenes and (apparently) a perfect spot to see the sunrise … but I’m not much of a scenery person and it’s almost always cloudy/rainy there so seeing the sunrise is rare and the hotel is probably expensive ……. but you can go to 花蓮 just to go to the mochi place i went to

AGAIN this is only a small list of where I’ve been to, I know there’s a lot more (通化街, 台北動物園 (Taipei zoo), markets, places outside of Taipei, etc.) BUT this is off the top of my head, from very vague and crappy memory. if you recommend the place and write a mini review I’ll include it in here :D

one thing I REALLY recommend is don’t “rest and relax” .. LOL what a waste! 2 years ago when I came, I did a lot of resting and although I went to most of the places on my list (and rekindled my lovebond with my cousin who I relaxed with), …. wah. I don’t regret it but it would’ve been better to go out and play (although cos I didn’t have their key and their house was far/annoying to leave I couldn’t randomly leave the house anyway)

also WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR DIET JUST GO EAT. throw that “don’t eat after 6pm” rule OUT THE WINDOW. you’re missing out on a LOT of night market food that you’ll want to eat, tons and tons of food you’ll come back and see on this blog and be like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
just diet before or/and after you come! unless you’re here for like 3+ months then give it a rest LOL
(as for me, I’m riding on my second week here and I’ve actually LOST ~half a kilogram. HOW I DON’T KNOW I was the one eating everything i’m posting! JK I just don’t eat if I don’t have to. even if it’s mealtime I won’t eat, I save my stomach for night markets/when we go out. if it looks delicious, I’ll eat it, but skipping breakfast/lunch and only eating the yummies made me lose weight i guess. and shopping. i walk around in humid weather for like 4 hours at time and that’s got to do SOMETHING)

if you guys want restaurants like actual sit and eat and chat at a big table, … I don’t have any. LOL from my pictures, you can tell I go to a lot (my aunties and uncles prefer going to those SADLY) but I don’t make a note of taking their namecard or remembering where it is/the name because I’m more interested in night market style eating-as-i-shop, spending-100元-and-being-completely-stuffed. I think restaurants are a waste of time and money LOL

and as for recommendations on WHAT to eat
..
everything on this blog
(my opinion: corn and meat)

I’ll come back to edit this post as my trip continues though ^__^ I leave June 12 WAH but yeah i have stuff to do at home so i don’t want to stay too long either

<3

I want this so badly

pandaaaaa <3