Taiwan- the heart of Asia

TAIPEI 101

You have never been to Taiwan if you have not taken your own snaps of this breathtaking view from the top of Taipei 101.

Before we all could reach the 101st floor, of course, we had to ride in the coolest elevator I've been yet. To distract us from feeing totally dizzy, they have installed a galaxy-like vibe inside and as soon as the doors were closed, the lights were turned off and a second later we were instructed to look up the ceiling as if we were star gazing.

 

The moment I laid my eyes upon this over-whelming site, I have not contained my tears from falling.

And this I swear, is one of the most foregrounded moments of my trip in the heart of asia-- Taiwan.

Good mornight, moon!

Certainly, the spectacular scenery from up there in the Taipei 101, are from these vivid and exciting areas of the urban street life from the ground.

 At night, Taiwan has a couple of interesting places to visit, they're called-- the night markets! Where a fashion enthusiast and a somewhat self-proclaimed food-adventurer like me, would pretty much feel elated.

Among those we've visited to name a few were: Raohe Night Market, Shillin Night Market and Ximending Night Market. (The rest can be searched on Google.)

Taiwan's night markets are the go-to places especially for tourists. In these spots where you could find stylish clothes; souvenirs or long crafts to bring home; authentic local street foods and a bunch of milktea stalls and shops, which they are also known for.  

May I take a pose in here with the common yet sensible catchphrase for every people who needs to read this.

Do you know what's the coolest thing that happened during our trip to Taiwan?

It was meeting these awesome souls out of the blue, on our way to our destination until going back home.

Justine, her brother Jexter plus her friend Lovely became our company for the most part of the trip. 

We couldn't have truly enjoyed and survived if we hadn't met them.

From dealing with all the airport mishaps until the last night of catching the final train and rushing to our flight back. I'll never ever forget. 

It was fate and we were really glad because they turned out to be one of the best personalities we've crossed paths with in this lifetime.

I supposed this is Taiwan’s own version of bacon wraps.

      Aside from milkteas, flavored juices were also everywhere. 

I had snatched two images of an old local man while he was complaining about how we were blocking his merchandise. In spite of his grumpy reaction, we still found him funny and cute. If he was my grandfather, I might have already pinched and squeezed his cheeks then run ahead. lol

With all the walking and roaming around, our legs were pretty much on the verge of giving up. However, seeing this man blankly staring down for God knows how long, it was clear that the physical exhaustion were a lot more better than the soul that is.

The aesthetic view of the railroad to Maokong.

Unfortunately, the Taipei Zoo was temporarily closed upon our arrival. But, it did not break my heart so soon because the Maokong gondola wasn't, and I've been looking forward to experience riding on one.

This one, I think was the second most memorable experience of my trip, after the Taipei 101 visit.

Goes to show how ironically find it relaxing to watch the metropolis view from above despite the fact that I have acrophobia.

So here are a couple of photos I took of the city by day.

Train stations are a thing to me as it makes me feel like I'm being taken into the actual scenes in a movie. 

Call me uncivilized but, I'm always facinated with trains, especially in several countries where crimes in train stations are less likely happening and people are busy and rushing here and there. I get so many random stories in my head as I'm just there observing people without blocking their way as much as possible. There are just much art going on in train stations that I could bear staying there for hours looking around and snapping photos.

During our trip, adorable dogs will never be gone elsewhere. 

As much as I wanted to smooch them, my sensitive lungs wouldn't be pleased. So thank God for digital and handy cameras that I could be able to take some photos of them just for me to freeze the moment and share their "cuteness overload" in my blog. 

Mood most of the time. 

              

When you know you're cute-- wink!

Tough outside, softy inside.

"Wow! That's a cute bum."

When you can't stop thinking about that delicious lunch you can't afford because you're just a dog.

June 18, 2019

The whole reason why I needed to request for a week leave from work and get away from it all-- yes you got it! It's your gurl's birthdayyyy.

 And during this trip I met four year-old lovely little Caela.

Not to mentiom, we were also able to meet new kababayan friends who were just easy and fun to get along with.

Caela could rarely be captured smiling. Although she was always camera-shy, the camera has nothing but love to her cute face as she would just look nice in whatever emotion she expresses.

 Caela was like a cherry on top of my cake during that day, even though, unfortunately, I didn’t have one.

All in all, without a doubt, we had a great time spent with everyone.  

Kids in Taiwan

So I took random photos of adorable kids eating just because they were irresistibly cute to just miss.

Jiu Fen Old Street

JiuFen is a village inspired by the Japanese anime film Spirited Away.

I wish I had already watched the film before I was able to visit this place, it might have been a more magical feeling because this, too, is one of the places that tourists shouldn't miss to visit.

The lanterns, which represents the emblem of Taiwan's traditional temple or abode designs were all over the places (not in a messy way).

The crowded alleys, the castle- which was actually a temple, and the teahouse were all just so picturesque.

If we only had plenty of time, we'd probably stay until the moon rises for people said that the lanterns were a lot lovelier during the night.

This is our tour-guide. We call him Sir TJ.

He is a Filipino-Taiwanese, so he could speak both tagalog and mandarin fluently.

 You can trust him to bring you to places of your interests around Taiwan, especially when you're also a Filipino. 

Sir TJ is an accomodating and approachable agent, you wouldn't have to worry with asking informations and all that.

He caters his van to use as our transportation.

I totally recommend him for those who are planning to go to Taiwan.

(I'd like to give you his information as soon as I’ll get to update this.)

Kaohsiung City

We took a little stroll and saw a local lady sketching the temple.

I wish I was able to take a shot of her magnificent sketch; she was pretty good- one blink she was just beginning to glide her pencil in a blank page, then another blink, she's done. 

The last trip we missed was going to Taichung where there are more colorful artsy views to capture, we cancelled it for the reason that we were already exhausted to travel for longer hours, let alone our pockets and wallets, too. lol 

Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that we will still be going back to Taiwan, as it is indeed  the heart of Asia.