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Taipei 2023: Ending on a good note
posted : Saturday, January 06, 2024
Final day in Taipei.
Technically my flight is the next morning but it was a morning flight (9am), I didn’t fancy waking up early in the morning and plan the logistics of catching a train or whatever to the airport during wee hours, so I re-employed my Seoul strategy which was to go to airport the night before and spend the night in a capsule hotel. Which means I had to check out from my room in the morning, and left my luggage at the front desk as usual. Drizzling in the morning so I sat at the lounge area for a while sipping my soy milk while waiting for the rain to stop. It being the last day so I was unwilling to buy an umbrella, could have borrowed hotel umbrella and spend the day outside with it too but I try not to because I don’t trust myself to be able to return it in one piece lol, so I decided to wait a bit and see. And the rain did stop in good time so off I go.  Waiting for rain to stop. Actually more like planning day’s agenda. I had packed in a couple more cafes in my agenda including one that was recommended by a friend, but because it wasn’t very 順路 for me in the previous days so I left it to the last. First up is a trip to the 華山1914文創園區 which I meant to explore a cafe in the area plus the surroundings - it’s a more artsy kind of place which isn’t exactly my thing I thought, but I do like how the place looked.  The place (I’m a bit lazy to type out the whole name again)  Refurbished from old warehouses I believe  I like this cottage shop  Many instagrammable spots  Rustic charm  Aesthetic book shop cum cafe  Exposed bricks always look good  Black themed cafe. Very pretty, but coffee is probably a 6-7. That food item is a charcoal pineapple tart, decent  Had lunch at one of the cafes and foolishly spent stomach space on Singapore Seafood Laksa Pasta. Looks correct but there is nothing laksa about the taste  BBT fix Made another trip to Taipei 101 lol coz I wanted to buy more Sunny Hills - I counted and realized I was a bit short on food souvenirs and the only convenient outlet was the Taipei 101 one - airport one did not open early enough. And found myself in a sea of paraders - it’s Pride Weekend in Taipei and it’s huge, lots of people travel there for it, but I think parade hadn’t started or maybe I wasn’t on the parade route but my bus still managed to go through. But I didn’t think I have a reason to join and I had more things planned anyway, so it’s really just grab and go.  Passed by this art installation underneath a flyover and it reminded me of Float  One pic of the centre median BRT style bus stops. Always hated crossing two times. Weather was really cooling the whole day (and it didn’t rain anymore for the rest of the day) so it was very nice to walk from one place to another, considering my schedule was really flexible. Especially if you can only take certain buses from certain bus stops to somewhere that wasn’t quite accessible by MRT, which was the case for my next destination.  Flugel Studio, recommended by an acquaintance.  茉莉花慕斯西班牙甜橙磅蛋糕 with a 紅馬可波羅無咖啡因 coz they had a minimum order of a drink again and I scared I cannot sleep in the airport tonight Cake was good, and I kinda agree that everything sounded somehow nicer in Chinese lol. The other thing I really wanted to eat in Taipei is oddly, Japanese food. Maybe inspired by chains like Sushi Express which originated from Taiwan haha and they supposedly do have their own take on sushi flavors. I entertained the idea of omakase and I did see this supposedly good and cheap place while scrolling, but it had closed down when I half heartedly try to search for online reservation. And I didn’t think that I have that much stomach space anyway, but small pieces of sushi I can still take so off I go to one of these conveyor belt sushi chains in the vicinity of Taipei Main Station.  Quite decent, would love to eat more actually  Return 5 plates and you get to play a game! And won on my only try woohoo Sun was setting and the bus that I was gonna take to go to my next destination had very wonky schedules (I was to wait up to 45 minutes?) so had to switch plans a bit and walk more than what I intended to. So while I was holding out hope to catch sunset (because even though it was cloudy the entire day, there was a bit of sun towards the end) at 大稻埕 initially, that fizzed out pretty quickly. And it turned out to be my only regret of the trip - not discovering this place earlier. I probably would have made a couple of trips here if I had discovered it earlier hahah. What I did not regret was coming here in lieu of yet another night market, because the one the night before was so underwhelming so I wanted to go another one (臨江夜市), but this place sure beats another night market. Strolls along any waterfront area are kind of my thing these days hahah and this place had very good vibes. And random busker sang a few songs which were to my liking too so that sort of adds on to the experience, capping off the trip perfectly.  迪化街  Approaching the pier  Pretty! Should have been here earlier in my trip, especially past couple of nights  Container food truck park was very lively but again not much stomach  Had to get one of these, quite enjoy it. Name’s 毒蘋果, made up of 青蘋果酒, 荔枝酒, 茉莉花酒, 蘋果萊姆汁. Contemplated getting another one actually but didn’t in the end  I feel like I need to get one large chicken cutlet before I leave  Pretty artwork Back to hotel to grab my luggage and off to airport! And one last wow in store - you know how I was singing praises about Uber earlier? This last ride (to the Airport Express station - because I decided that I don’t want to be dragging luggage around Taipei Main Station) - tops it all. I didn’t even realize the car model when I booked the ride or when it pulled up at hotel driveway or when I was loading luggage to the bonnet, but when I was entering the passenger seat I realized. A bit of awe but ok la not like I was a Musk fanboy or anything (quite contrary in fact). So off to the airport I go, and I think I will leave the capsule hotel experience to the next post.  Tesla, don’t know which model la |
