lea pof travels: Taipei

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Taipei, Taiwan: 3 Things I Could Do Again and Again and...

Some things are worth returning for. I'm big on experiences, so here are my top picks for what I will do everytime I return to Taiwan.

1) Visit this wholesale stationery store to stock up on stationery (e.g. planners, character items) that are marked down from the listed price. Here's a link to their facebook page: 光南大批发

2) Visit the hotsprings at Beitou (despite taking very long to find my way). The Japanese's love for soaking has spread far and wide. The water in Korea's jimjilbang is not fantastic but the scrub by ahjumas (yes in their undies) helps you lose a few kilos of dead skin (i exaggerate), and the after-soak experience (think malt tea, hardboiled eggs, overnight stays) cannot be replicated anywhere else. Japanese are more particular about the source of their water and the zen-out experience and Taiwan is rather similar in this respect.

Beitou and Wulai are 2 more popular places for hotsprings near Taipei. (I think you can soak at Yangmingshan too!)

Visited Beitou again for the second trip. The themed station and train is pretty and informative! I prefer to go to the public bath (40NT) and mingle with the locals (in bathing suits) compared to getting a private room at nearby bathhouses which might use diluted water.

The train

3) Go to Dansui... to get these fried mushrooms (I was very hungry then). I will add visiting any night market to this point. More on the food in Taiwan here. P.S. you can visit Danshui after visiting the National Palace Museum and soaking at Beitou's hotsprings, since they are along the same train line.

Other things to eat and see and buy

P.S. There's free wifi for tourists at selected iTaiwan outlets! The 'i' sounds like 爱, meaning 'love'.

Yes Taiwan I shall be back for more! Thank you for following my Taiwan 2013 adventures. Stay tuned for a new chapter.

More pictures are available on my Flickr (simply click any photo).

Taiwan: Almost 100 Shots of Food. *Burp*

Taipei, Taiwan: 3 Things I Could Do Again and Again and...

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Taipei, Taiwan: National Taiwan Museum

Updating bank books, those were the days. This machine still works like a charm!

The National Palace Museum is a must visit for any first trip to Taipei (the most popular exhibit being the jadeite cabbage) but the oldest museum in Taiwan is the National Taiwan Museum (NTM). So eclectic you can catch a glimpse of dinosaurs, gain insights into the history of local banking and admire some qipaos (a traditional Chinese dress) at only 20NT.

The NTM was established as the Taiwan Governor Museum near Taipei Railway Station in 1908 by the Japanese colonial government, making it the oldest museum in Taiwan. Later it was renamed Taiwan Provincial Museum before it got its current name and declared a "National Heritage". It covers the areas of earth sciences, humanitarian developments, zoology, and botany. The building was designed by the Japanese architect Ichiro Nomura based on the Greek Doric-style with building materials imported from Japan such as black marble from Akasaka and white gypsum from Mito, as well as locally-grown Hinoki wood and pebble-washed terrazzo.

Natural Life