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Penny in Taipei
posted : Sunday, April 27, 2025
So I made a spontaneous short trip to Taipei for a concert.
A few interesting aspects of this trip - the furthest I flew just for a concert - there are very few artists who would induce such a thought - the spontaneous aspect of it, because I really didn’t think I would be going for another one of her concerts anytime soon considering I just went one last year, but le BFF said he didn’t mind so that got me all excited. It was a day after ticket sales open though and I didn’t think she was that popular, but tickets are almost sold out so we had to make very swift decisions. Or rather I had to make very swift decisions with respect to air tickets, spotted a somewhat reasonably priced ticket via China Airlines (although it was a red eye flight) and just heck it. Our seats weren’t the best either but that’s okay, can watch on the big screen. And with that the trip was set in stone. Oh and because Penny was sort of a guilty pleasure for me (I can’t explain why) I decided not to advertise my trip, and eventually since I had to spend on souvenirs I just cooked up a story that my parents went Taipei instead lolol. Was a pretty chill trip though! Considering I arrived as a zombie I didn’t plan to do much, and these days for cities I’ve been to in the past I’ll skip the attractions and work in stuff like cafe hopping instead. Boss Su was also in a remote working mode as usual so the pace suits him as well. There’s only a couple of components I wanted to work in which was a visit to a night market, a hotpot experience, and a revisit to 大稻埕 but sadly with just two nights and one of it dedicated for concert I couldn’t quite make the latter happen. But oh well there’s always chance for another weekend getaway.  Had wanted to visit the revamped SATS lounge in T3, and this coincided with (sort of) the end of my cutting phase where I had two months of bland food so gosh everything was nice to me.  CI uses an old A330 plane for this flight, Flighty app tells me this plane is 19 years old wah. And it’s been a long time since I last saw an IFE screen this small  Crew woke us up for meals and it was a full dinner meal at 330am uhhh. I mean I do want my meals on a full service but on a sleeper flight, really?  Manage to catch another couple hours of interrupted sleep and sun rising as we descend  I got lucky this time! Chose the 7-11 card which turns out to not be the best choice because there are many places that don’t accept it. Accommodation voucher or easy card would have been much better.  Didn’t Uber because don’t know how to choose the correct pick up point. Instead took cab and there’s this screen for passengers where 李洋 and 王麒麟 kept making appearances in multiple ads  First order of business is lounge breakfast with Globalist Su. My chin was at its sharpest from the two month cut damnit why are the fats gone from there instead of my stomach.  Caught a couple hours more of sleep while KH worked and eventually we made it out for our lunch reservation at Wu Lao hotpot. The mala soup base wasn’t too bad actually, fragrant rather than numbing but I still got irritated coz smell like a walking hotpot afterwards. All in all pretty nice food but I won’t call it mind blowing haha.  Went to self print and collect tickets at a machine in 7-11  Made it back to lounge for evening cocktails  Room had a view of 101!  Night market! Went to a nearby one, 臨江夜市  First BBT of the trip  I missed this 冰火湯圓! Had it at their 饒河branch last time round and this is their OG shop, but somehow the wow factor had gone haha there I was still trying to hype it up to KH  Breakfast next morning, we decided to go downstairs for the much larger spread.  Then proceeded to laze in room while KH worked, it was really about 1pm when we headed out. Went to explore the 中山area  Random cafe that we stopped for lunch. Sat at the balcony for the feels, it was starting to get warm actually so that wasn’t the best idea.  This daifuku from a stall at the pop up market  Oh hey 30kph  This was a viral spot, I didn’t even know that this is the area where they are at. And KH finally remembered that he was here at his last trip too because prior to that he insisted he had never been here before. This was a grape americano and it was good.  Also a random spot for a more fancy daifuku  小巨蛋. After all I heard about this place, I thought it was underwhelming honestly, like not as grand a venue I thought it would be, actually I think it’s even smaller than Axiata arena in KL? Either that or coz Penny only used like 3/4 of the seats.  Her entrance surprised me.  When she got closer to our side  Low key disappointed at her choices of guests, when she said the next guest performer is singing 別再想見我 I literally thought 許光漢 was coming out but no. They were funny though.  All time favorite song.  KH kept saying she looks like Hebe with this look.  Another concert checked off The final day I had a bit of solo trip time because KH’s flight was early afternoon which meant he left after breakfast, and the rest of my day was a bit messy too coz I didn’t really plan well, but again it’s all about chilling even if I ended up rushing a bit to the airport because it was hard to get a uber in town apparently on a Sunday.  Drop by 101 for a bit of window shopping.  Went back to 永康街 and settled for this cafe coz 油飯 caught my interest  Of course got coffee  Cafe interior  永康街  白水豆花 which I didn’t manage to try last time. Interesting, smooth but there’s added texture by shaved peanuts and what’s with coriander? Sorry it doesn’t belong in a dessert. 7/10  Soma milk tea which I have had the instant version but first time trying the actual one  Slightly newer plane for the flight home so the screen was correspondingly slightly bigger  Meal was alright again  Highlight of my meal  Bye Taipei. See you again soon. So that was a short and fun trip! And it did got me thinking that trips like this are rather feasible, that together with getting influenced by travel influencers like shutterwhale lol. More trips in the making then? And at this rate I won’t even have time to update this blog with other life happenings already (I am already severely behind on my updates haha). Let’s see! |
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Taipei 2023: The end
posted : Sunday, January 07, 2024
Going home!
Picking up from the last post, opted to spend the night at airport capsule hotel. This was another one that was very nicely done, from concept to execution to service, and I shall let pictures do the talking.  Entrance  They have this area to store your shoes, and beyond this area you are only supposed to wear the slippers they provide  Corridor to the rooms. The place is tea-themed, and they executed the theme throughout from deco, names, amenities, to souvenirs (they gave us vacuum packed tea leaves to bring home), and also provided free tea  The pod. Not stuffy at all!  The room interior  It’s so simple but I loved this detail and thought. A plastic cover for your amenities or any other stuff that shouldn’t get wet in a shower cubicle. Such a simple solution yet people rarely do this  Tea flavored bathroom amenities The one quirk is that they don’t provide towels, only renting them. However, you can like their social media page and rental will be free, so I still got a towel. The unfortunate bit, and a pretty big one actually, though it was no fault of the hotel’s, was that I ended up getting only an hour of sleep zzzz. No idea why because I didn’t even have that much caffeine during the day (I even deliberately have a decaffed one during the tea), maybe it was the alcohol? Didn’t think it’s all the snoring from roommates either, have been accustomed to dad’s snoring from a few days ago, and ventilation was alright. But either way, I tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep, resigned to the fact that I couldn’t sleep and even sat up in my bed to play games on phone, finally managing to get a bit of nap an hour before I was supposed to wake up, which was about 530am. Because apparently check in queues will be long and I still want some time in lounge, so I wanted to reach the counter 3 hours before flight. But turns out they only open 2.5 hours before so I was still very much on time, so I went and grabbed a few last minute snacks from convenience stores to bring home haha. And also to use up remaining credit in the sister’s stored value card.  Checked out and wandered around the airport  Bought some chips, interesting flavor but I think in the end they don’t taste spectacular  Mandatory passport shot  Another reason I wanted to be early is because want to go lounge.  Pretty interesting one. They had XLB but obviously over steamed coz not made to order so can’t complain, the bacon was so addictive though. Even the fries lol which I don’t know why it’s on a breakfast buffet line  This is made to order though, 鹵肉飯. Quite nice. And they also have a few other made to order items like 牛肉麵 which I can’t have.  Starlux to bring me home again! Brunch item is a black pepper chicken dish.  特調again and this one is so-so hence I didn’t order a second one. Sci-fi Cosmos 2.0 - Gin / Lactic Acid Drink / Blue Curacao Syrup / Tonic Water  The sister set me a mission so I even sat on the aisle seat so it’s easier to go to the galley to get one. We thought it’s a marvel/spidey one which we saw on XHS but it’s just a normal one. So that is the end of the trip! Pretty unique one in that I mixed a family trip with a solo trip, both parts equally memorable with new experiences, and tinge of regrets here and there but nothing major. Reflections in the earlier post so I’ll leave this post at that. To the next one!
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