JOY STORY: Oh Baby Baby Baby...

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

I finally have the time to write about my Taiwan trip seven months ago. Teehee! It was a trip taken with my best friend, Armida and it was actually an unplanned one. She got engaged September last year and we decided to take a trip abroad since we figured out that might be our first and last trip abroad together. It was supposed to be with our other friend, Crissa, but since she had a scheduled trip to New Zealand already and can't take another vacation leave, it was just A and I.

First Day High

After the two-hour trip, we finally landed at the Taoyuan International Airport. The airport was conveniently connected to the metro's train system. We just had to lug our stuff with us up the flight of stairs.

We arrived a few hours earlier than our check-in time, so we just left our luggage at the hotel lobby and looked for a place to eat. Not too far from our hotel was this turoturo-ish fried chicken place.

reminded a bit of Andok's pero fried

okay naman siya

After lunch, went back to the hotel to bring our stuff to the room, then back out to start our exploration of the city. First stop was the 228 Peace Park.

first encounter with squirrels

pagoda- a tiered tower with multiple eaves
puede ring pagoda- kami pagkatapos ng mega walkathon around the city

so serene...

Peace Park was my first encounter with squirrels. I found them cute but A reminded me that they're still rodents, so I better not go too near. Gallivanting around the park, we finally arrived at the 228 Massacre Monument

I can't remember if we found out what the monument was for at the time. I remember reading the marker at the site, I just can't remember what it was for. I'm reminded only now.

We finally found the park's exit nearest the street going to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. We finally arrived at the Memorial Hall after a 10-15 minute walk.

Love the contrast of the monument's colors to the blue sky

The arches were under construction during our visit. Corny.

So much space... ahlavet!

Mid portion was also under construction

Although some parts of the memorial hall were under construction, we were still able to enjoy sightseeing and walking around the gardens, watching other tourists and locals.

a 360 degree shot of the memorial hall

We went back to the room after this to rest for a bit then headed out to Shilin Night Market for dinner. Foooood!!! Huzzah!

A little of everything was our dinner for the first night at Taipei. Super enjoyed everything, but my favorite was the flame-grilled oysters with cheese galore. When we went around, most of them were selling the same stuff- beef cubes, grilled oysters with cheese, fruits, etc. So when we think we've, more or less tried what we wanted to try (except the stinky tofu- bawal sa may PCOS), we headed back to our hotel before the MRT stops operation for the day.

Not sure if November 2018 was election time for the Taiwanese, but came across what seemed to be campaigning politicians. Ayun o, may guapo. Haha! And on that note, we're done for Day 1.

Day 2: Walkathon in the City

After missing the hotel's buffet breakfast that comes with the room, we decided to head to the Taipiei 101 in the morning and have late breakfast/early lunch somewhere in the area, but definitely not in Din Tai Fung (que horror ang pila!)

We took photos of the station near our exit cos we got lost last night! We exited at the wrong exit and we had to do a lot of walking on top of the day's megawalkathon. And finally...

TAIPEI 101

Kaso maulan. Not advisable to go to observatory deck because of poor visibility. We had lunch instead at the food court.

this was what I had for lunch

hindi masarap

I forgot from which restaurant I bought my food from. A bought hers from Hawker Chan and she loved it. Was able to try Hawker Chan here in MoA and loved it too, but I wanted to try something different. Okay naman yung napili ko, worth what I paid for it. A and I shared this mango sago dessert and we weren't too happy with it. Una, hindi masarap/matamis yung mangga nila tapos hindi mango yung flavor- peach! Masarap naman ang peach mango pie pero this one just didn't work for us. Hindi na kami maniniwala kay CNN.

After the failed attempt to go up Taipei 101 and Elephant Mountain (due to the rains and also that we woke up late), we googled for nearby attractions which led us to- Da'an Forest Park. Bilang parehas kami ng trip (we weren't EcoTeam members back in high school for nothing), we both enjoyed walking around the park, being chased by squirrels and bird watching.

Ang daming birds! LOL :D :D Nakakakilig to see progress and nature side by side. Who says that for an economy to flourish, the environment has to suffer? If Taiwan, Singapore and Korea can do it, I bet we can also do it here in Manila. More trees and parks, please!

eto yung squirrel na nanghahabol

obligatory shoe-fie lelz

After spending hours in the park, walking around, taking product pictures and sitting on benches, we decided head for Raohe Night Market for dinner. We looked for the nearest train station we can take going to Raohe and we saw this pretty train station~

Da'an Station

And here's the Taipei 101 at night which we saw when we got out of the station, on our way to Raohe Night Market.

And finally- dinner! Raohe Night Market is smaller than Shilin Night Market but I prefer Raohe since it's easier to get around and scour the stalls for choices. Shilin is bigger and there are more choices which can be also overwhelming. One of the reasons we went to Shilin was A's search for the oyster omelette she had the first time she went to Taiwan, but we weren't able to find it there. Nasa Raohe pala siya- serendipity! Here's the stall, for reference... as if I can read Chinese characters!