TAIPEI TRAVEL VLOG: What to see, do, and eat!
hey fellow explorers welcome to Taipei Taiwan we just got here we're spending five days in this amazing City and in this video we're gonna take you along for the adventure all right let's go so my first feeling Taipei is at my favorite pot sticker restaurant but I clearly ordered way too many pot stickers but the only thing this place sells hot stickers it's amazing it's in younger Hub right in front of the little Fallout Market all right so for dessert after those pot stickers we went to get some Shave Ice what's special about the shave ice the ice here down below isn't made of water it's made of sugar cane juice in fact what do we got on top we got Boba barley Taro Taro paste if you've never had taro it's like sweet potato and the Marley a little bit like a texture oats like if you're having like an oatmeal with refined oats I'm not eating at all myself is our princess for second dessert I got a peanut roll with ice cream 50 Taiwan dollars right here this has three ice creams in it and cilantro and like a shade peanut block it looks like a mini burrito here in the Night Market oh wow ice cream and crunchy and cilantro which makes me feel like I'm having an actual burrito it's good though a Taiwanese delicacy is stinky tofu and you will know it when you pass by because you smell it our daughter she just started to go what does that smell stinky tofu so as I'm walking back to the MRT to get back to the talents I was thinking how late like these stores are staying open this Bakery right here behind me they stay open until 10 pm I mean Taipei is a pretty late night City and so if you are a night owl this is the place for you now this store has some interesting hours they close at 10 30 but they open at 10 40. really 40. and it's nice when you're crossing the street here they got a little walking man it counts down how much time you have to go and as it gets like closer to the time running out like he actually starts to run you know like run run run faster all right if you see in this video that a lot of people are wearing masks in Taiwan they just kind of um relax their mask mandate now it's only required in public transportation uh but still a lot of people wear them almost everywhere so if you watch this in the future this was kind of like in that transition period now after that MRT read by the way I love how cheap the MRT or the subway is here it's like a buck each ride for like 10 minutes that's pretty nice um but so exit out Junction exit three to the hotel that I'm staying at which is right here the MGH mitsui Garden Hotel it's a Japanese hotel and on their website they advertise that it is a 30 second walk from the MRT station oh 30 seconds looks to me 45 seconds to get over there maybe if I stop vlogging and walk a little bit it it'd be quicker here's the quick room tour because the whole room tour will be in the hotel review video uh coming out soon two twin beds yellow Chase in the corner interesting bathtub that's behind this glass thing so like you can't really close off the bathtub I mean there's this currently you can close off the bathroom from the rest of the room uh but it's a big soaking tub but you know it's a Japanese hotel and so of course there's the fancy Toto toilet that you don't have to even open the lid yourself you just push this button right here and that opens and you want to flush it and you push that on the remote control too super fancy good morning from the mitsui Garden Hotel here on the 12th floor look at that view isn't that pretty amazing from here you can see all the taxis streaming by all the scooters streaming by I could definitely sit here for quite a bit Chris what are you wearing I am wearing the hotels fancy pajamas it's a Japanese Hotel Japanese hotels love to provide pajamas to go to the public bath there's a public bath up on the 17th floor so what do you think should this be my my new attire it's even got like the hotel name on it that's pretty cool I just finished up breakfast downstairs in the breakfast restaurant really interesting Taiwanese Japanese Western fusion um like they had pizza for breakfast it's a pizza restaurant so why not have pizza for breakfast all right but I think Taipei has called me to go outside so I'll see you out there our first full day we are at the National Palace Museum we took the MRT to get here and the bus and she did really good on both those and now she's really happy to just run round because that's what toddlers like to do because in particular she really likes the map this is what this trip is going to be a lot of it's going to be a lot of me chasing her around so if that's not what you're here for then watch another video so after walking up all those stairs to the museum we were hungry so we stopped at the dim sum restaurant by the front gate all my favorites joshuao hargo shrimp dumplings shumai you know but what's really cool they have some of the famous food that's in the museum there's a jade cabbage we're gonna see it a little later and here you can actually eat the cabbage and they also have the pork Rock what's the pork rock look like I'll show you in the museum and then right here we have the specialty Taiwanese beef noodle soup spicy and not spicy in the same Bowl so at the National Palace Museum OC girl and I we split up OC girl did the audio guide checked out the Jade cabbage the pork Rock the Ceramics the statues and the princess and I came to the children's museum where they've got like this neat boat you can walk around and Fishes you can interact with and this puzzle that we're gonna play now it opens up and it's got all these different pieces in here and then we can put this together most museums in Taipei have like a little kitty children's area like this are you having fun here yeah you want to do the puzzle all right let's do it so after exploring the museum we came down to visit the Chinese Garden just down below which I think is probably one of the most peaceful places I've been to in Taipei running water feeding fish probably peaceful till I got here and started talking loud in front of a camera anyway I heard you're hungry princess so you're hungry all right let's go get some potato chips and definitely get up to the water and see all the koi fish that are in there oh and they look like they're hungry for sure all right well right here under the train tracks the princess is sleeping she's pretty tired after all of running around the museum in the garden but we decided to get a snack this is a green onion pancake with basil chili sauce an egg they call it Taiwanese pizza right here out of sheilan station let's give this a go [Music] um it's crunchy soft it's flavorful it's Savory it's spicy it's eggy it's a lot of flavors all rolled into one no cheese in this one but you can add cheese maybe we'll get that next time and uh it's funky princess when she wakes up we've got some potato chips for her she was hamstring for we've got a milk tea as you would and then uh like a uh it's like a cream puff like a matcha cream puff right here anyway this is like about midday Taipei snack so for dinner we went to a Shanghai style food restaurant Which is popular cuisine in Taipei Taipei classic which by the way like the specialty for these is a Din Tai Fung which originated in Taipei often long lines uh but this one it's got soup inside it's got some pork it's got some veggies oh I think crisp fresh veggies and we also got the braised pork the specialty you'll often see in Taipei this one came served with some buns till I put it in but we ate all of those it's pretty good just with rice too super tender pork you can just bite it right away how are the noodles good and after dinner we came out to the rauhus street Night Market to just get a few more snacks to fill up our belly before bedtime nobody wants to go to bed with an empty stomach we love Uniqlo uh they have tea here because in Taipei everybody loves their teeth and so even Uniqlo sells teeth but to buy this tea you have to scan a QR code then paint by Apple pay and then it dispenses your tea so like you got to use the internet to buy the tea it's pretty good though it's got like tea bag and tea Leafs in it and it's even like a special edition bottle it says Taipei in it right here so I think it's a great souvenir for 49 Taiwan dollars like a dollar fifty U.S now Uniqlo has pretty cheap clothes but in Taipei if you're looking for some of the cheapest deals it's going to be in the informal economy that are out in front of these stores they usually come out once it gets dark boxes on the bottom boxes up on top whatever you want socks jackets shoes Combs it's all out here on the stream and a good drizzly Saturday morning to you here in Taipei instead of having a hotel breakfast again today I decided to venture out into the local neighborhood to this little breakfast shop here with the yellow orange and red that's like how you know like a little Breakfast Cafe in Taipei they typically serve sandwiches but also like green onion pancakes that you can get egg and bacon which is what I got along with an almond milk for the bargain price of a hundred Taiwanese dollars about three dollars U.S super tasty today is uh daddy
daughter fun day OC girls having lunch with a few of her friends so it's just gonna be the princess and I cruising around looking for some fun things to do in Taipei all right we started our slightly rainy morning of daddy and daughter fun day a dondon donkey because it's just so much fun to run through there and to get something to drink this is just like two blocks from our hotel really convenient especially because it's open 24 hours and uh princess got some strawberry milk that she's really they go into town on how is that good good and for lunch we stopped into a yellow Taiwanese food restaurant where we got braised pork rice 45 Taiwan dollars and we got a big bowl of mushroom noodle soup for Taiwan dollars you ready to eat and after lunch we took the MRT to City Hall to the shiny District which is home to Taipei 101 that really tall building back there why because this is taipei's like most vibrant shopping district uh so on a rainy day good place to run around and there's also a lot of these neat like Second Story Bridges you can walk on that just connect everything all right together and on the fourth floor of A8 shinkong mitsukoshi are these little moving animals they cost 30 Taiwan dollars it's a one dollar U.S for a 60 Second Ride [Music] there's even a sand pit and some little slides up here for some reason her favorite Direction on this seems to be backwards [Music] for 50 Taiwan dollars she was able to go on the little train all by herself wow that's so much fun just inside they even had a real life-size cat bus that you could go inside you ever been in a cat bus before no first time for everything and then going up one more floor to the fifth floor is a gigantic toy store and it's even got another train you can drive so after like the couple hours about the toy floor and the play floor we came down to basement level two to the mitsukoshi uh boot haul to get what ice cream what do we got we got vanilla and we got watermelon strawberry flavor 270 Taiwanese dollars so like 10 US dollars for two scoops of ice agree [Music] and boba tea is here if you need to take it to go they give it to the bag though to I guess cut down on a waste they charge you one Taiwanese dollar for the bag but it was pretty convenient Terry strap I like this and then we found this store called Q space which is like Electronics but just everything cute I mean like where you can get like a cat mouse pad or a Pikachu Mouse I think I definitely need a penguin-shaped wrist threat and they've even got toys too this yellow car right here we put it on and it goes down you know the toy stores here they remind me of when toy stores in America were cool before toy stores were just like Target and Walmart man look at that [Music] the princess has figured out how to push the button to change it to selfie camera so one of the best parts about coming to the shiny District on a rainy day is there's all these covered second floor walkways so you can get between the MRT and all of the buildings in Taipei 101 without going in the rain all down there where down there down there doubt there and no visit to the shinny District to be complete without a visit to Taipei 101 and while it's raining so not a great day to go to the observatory the shopping mall is pretty cool and they often have special exhibitions in the center where today they had a special exhibition for spring and our princess was out here smelling the flowers so it's dinner time and we're looking for some food and a rainy Saturday night Taipei 101 everything's really busy this looks appealing it's a vending machine that you can get bored with Japanese curry rice I wonder how it tastes I don't wonder enough to eat it though I think we're gonna keep looking so we decided on for dinner was Thai Town a restaurant on the sixth or seventh floor of the breeze Plaza because they had seating and this place is super high tech to order you scan the QR code but you can also push these buttons to call the waiter on over we've got some big shrimps here with vermicelli noodles some green curry and a Thai tea and we got a very interesting papaya salad this papaya is deep fried total price 1400 Taiwanese dollars and on the fourth floor of this Plaza we found some apple trees why are these apple trees here they're an advertisement for Amore Apple land in Japan and before turning into the night we stopped into the supermarket in the basement of Taipei 101 there aren't that many supermarkets in Taipei and this one is one of the nicest they also have a really nice produce section with some reasonably priced things and some not this box of oranges is 3 400 Taiwanese dollars for over 100 US dollars and to cap off the night before going back to the room watermelon juice from the Night Market sweet all right so as I'm walking here on the sidewalk I had to take a double take at this store because it has so many cats in the window everybody stops to look at this take a picture uh and if you don't know the story of the waving cat you know you might see these cats and windows of a lot of establishments and you might think they're waving at you they're not waving at you this potion in Asia in the East is the beckon come over it's like in the west we do this we want you to come over and what it's beckoning for is it's beckoning for money to come into the establishment so this store must be rich and I also just love how brightly lit the streets are in Taipei I mean in many cities I'd be concerned about walking around at 9 30 at night but but not really here I mean a because it's bright beak there's a lot of people around and um see because the stores are still open at 9 30 and they're still going strong like most of these stores on this street are still open today even the to-go-ish sushi shop is doing good business at 9 30 at night and you know frankly I feel the same way about the subway rightly lived busy 9 30 at night nothing to be worried about here good Sunday morning to you we took the MRT theater intersection if you want to see the most scooters per one place it's right here so we are here on dehwa Street this is the oldest street in Taipei and it's where a lot of the center of European trading was so these houses are like from the 1600 to 1700s great place to take pictures and as you can see here there's even stores in here where you can rent traditional Chinese clothing to dress up princess do you want to dress up like that yeah she wants to do it maybe next time for lunch we stopped into rice and shine which is like a restaurant trying to be Taiwanese food of days of old but classic Taiwanese dish braised pork rice right here 370 Taiwan dollars for the set but what's notable is what they give you with it um to pour on the rice they give you well this is soy sauce but what's in this jar is very interesting this is a jar of lard Chris it's it's a Jarred liquidy it's hot it's hot lard and so back in the day people didn't have a lot of money so what they would eat is they would eat lard with soy sauce [Music] on their rice because they didn't have money for meat or those other things and apparently this is making a comeback as like a Nostalgia feast and tasty I understand and what does the princess like to eat she likes to eat rice with basso this is a English translation dried pork floss and so we got rice and then we got some of that Balsa on the side and mixed all together oh and also the tea comes in a really interesting setup a teapot like a beaker and then these little cups so you pour it from the teapot into the beaker and then the beaker into the cup and then you drink it like the smallest Cups ever but tasty tea and then this little mountain here I thought it was cottage cheese but it's actually uh tofu after lunch we stopped into the pastry shop just a couple stores down called Li Ting Shang and they sell this salted plum cake the princess has pineapple cake which is a classic Taiwanese delicacy it comes in this little box and then inside the little box it's wrapped like this this is like days of old in Taiwan right here it's to be nostalgic as the whole neighborhood is so we'll open up this little guy and then it's got something to preserve it it's wrapped very well it's like a Christmas present it doesn't want to be opened okay it's white it's in like different little slices and so let's go in for a bite of this mmm it's very light it's delicate it tastes a little bit like chalk it's very chalky but with a hint of blood then you drink some tea now but these right here pineapple cakes this is basically like the National Dessert of Taiwan you'll find them all over if there's like a souvenir to bring back home to your friends and family pineapple cakes they're moister and then they have like a kind of thick pineapple jelly filling inside can I have a bite see how this one is oh my God you got this place is a like industrial store where they sell like wholesale mushrooms they've got like five pound bags of peanuts and even like gigantic garlic bushels out on the street this was the Industrial trading area in the past and some of these stores are still here back from the day now definitely the most popular souvenir item on this street are these classic Taiwanese bags this is how uh people in the day would go shopping they'd bring bags with these colorful patterns with them to the market you can pick one up now and bring it back home and they come in lots of different colors but the classic pattern is this one that's red green and blue what do you think you're bringing one home no not today but I feel like the coolest vendor here was this guy selling coffee off a bicycle drip hand corn coffee too neat and after thinking about it for a little while our princess decided the answer was yes on the bag how much did it cost 35 Taiwanese dollars about one dollar U.S best bargain you're gonna get in Taipei now definitely the best days to come down here are on Saturdays and Sundays because a whole bunch more Street vendors come out here really makes it much more of a spectacle on the weekdays because it is an industrial area there's more just kind of like General business going on but on the weekends it's just touristy stuff and you know we even saw a guy walking his Pig so this is definitely the kind of tourist destination that if I was left reading English websites online would have totally failed me and you on this place you read all the English language websites and I think they're all cut and paste from the same thing that somebody must have written 10 years ago that says the only reason to come here is during Lunar New Year but as you can see every weekend it is quite popular and uh OC girl you know she actually took a walking tour of this week ago and said we need to come back to see this place and it is pretty awesome so don't just read the same cut and paste of all the websites now these bags something really neat is they got like everything here made of these bags including bags not just to put your stuff in but bags to carry cups in you've seen I've had these little plastic bags to carry my Boba teas well you can get a bag carrier made out of this to carry your Puppeteer maybe even your Starbucks back home turns out the bag makes a good hat too rainbow a rainbow color yeah well now that it's about three o'clock our princess has started to go for a nap but uh she was smelling what we have over here and uh look at this incense over here in this big Temple this is kind of like the central Hub of D Hua Street around this Temple uh there's the bells in the background free to go in and explore pretty neat really behind the incense the incense the strong uh is a factory that makes Fabrics which is why all the cheap pal vendors and things like that are popular here okay to chillax a little bit and to finish her nap we stopped into the Starbucks Reserve this is a three-story Starbucks that has some neat like pineapples on The Motif outside because apparently this was a building of like a wealthy pineapple salesman that's been turned into a three-story coffee shop and an amazing high-rise in the middle and you know what Starbucks in Taipei has just like a much better menu I think than in the US we had a really interesting Yuzu iced tea to drink MRT Station this is like the new hip and up and coming neighborhood Netflix is promoting a movie here it's like super busy over that way I've seen people practicing their K-pop yeah this this was not as exciting last time I was here five years ago so this is uh you know I think we're we're the young people like to hang out I feel really old right now am I old [Music] all right so it's dinner time we are in yonshin tea and Cake selection bar this is on the second or third floor of shinkong mitsukoshi a Japanese department store in this neighborhood this place is known for their teas pretty good milk tea with without or with Boba as the case may be but they've also got dinners and mange we got the prawn noodles right here and these they actually look peeled which I like we got noodles because uh that's what our princess likes to eat um popcorn chicken that like that one of the national dishes of Taiwan fried chicken spicy with some sauce you can dip it in on the side and this one right here I've been seeing this in all the night markets on my trip this time these are deep fried sweet potato balls I've yet to have these you know the thing about I love night markets but there's no place to sit and so um I want to sit down and eat these Pleasant it's definitely clean but it's fried a little bit of crunch soft Center like a sweet potato set like it's not super fried like a french fry you still get that soft sweet potato taste I see why these are all over now and as we finished up our main courses here they brought out a complimentary dessert uh and it's like a little tea here and they even bring a thing that tells you it's the alishan Jin Shon tea and what do we got here the National Dessert pie napple cake well let's see how refreshing this tea is very floral light and delicious so taking an after dinner stroll around the little Lanes this neighborhood it reminds me either of like hongdae in Seoul or maybe Harajuku in Tokyo just like it used to be residential neighborhood but like turned into shops now and there's more people than there are sidewalks but still a great neighborhood too Explore isn't it a great neighborhood to explore yes yes good thank you and no day in Taipei would be complete without a visit to a toy store for our princess and on the sixth floor of shinkong mitsukoshi is a toy store not as big as the one yesterday but still pretty fun right we're working in the kitchen right now well a good Monday morning to you good news it's sunny today bad news we came to the presidential office to take a tour they offer free tours of this thing close on national holidays turns out today April 3rd is a national holiday one of the things I should know is to look up holidays as to whether they're open their website said nothing about being closed today but apparently they are so you know the best trips are made of plan B's and today is definitely going to be a plan B sort of day all right Plan B is visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall uh here's the big gate the halls of the building in the back reminds me of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC except memorialized in there is Chiang Kai-shek he's basically the guy who brought the Republic of China Army and government from mainland China to be here in Taiwan well and by the way I was shooting that seen in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and I was looking at these coconut trees that were in my way wishing that like they cut one down so I had a better view of it but the coconut trees those come from the Japanese they really like Southeast Asian things and so on all the important streets in front of important buildings they planted coconut trees so if you see coconut trees think the Japanese you'll know it's now an important place in Taiwan so we took the MRT one stop to dongman station and we're gonna look for something to eat here but first something to drink this place specialized in sugarcane juice we're waiting for our drinks but you can see they fresh pressed the sugarcane to get the juice out this is also home to the original Din Tai Funk home of the soup dumplings oh there was a like a little dog Meetup where a whole bunch of women were taking pictures of their little dogs um today as a holiday and then just down that way the yellow building I'll call your attention to is the Smoothie house they make some really good fruit shaved ices and if you find the original Din Tai Fung location to be too crowded just walk like a block and a half down the street towards Taipei 101 and you'll find this new modern three-story Din Tai Funk with a lot more seats looking for some need this neighborhood we didn't know where to eat but we saw a sign that said it was recommended by CNN and they served one of osei girls favorite Taiwanese Foods Taiwanese meatball there's a sauce in here and then there's a big gigantic meatball in here that as we break it apart so it's got meat on the inside like a starchy outside filling with some cilantro let's go ahead and dive into this meaty morsel of hot deliciousness it's good it's good meat spicy as well the flavor of the cilantro really fresh all together thank you CNN I'm usually suspect of places that put up signs like world's best something like that but you know I'm glad we stopped on in here and I'm also glad that we bought our drinks because they don't they don't sell any here and it's spicy so I'm thirsty and the sugar cane juice it's sugar cane combined with tea it's really good so apparently everything here is recommended by CNN this like noodle shop is recommended by CNN but that's a pretty neat neighborhood to walk around it's another one of these like residential neighborhoods turned into shopping eating Street there's like a children's playground just over there um no sidewalks so just kind of like walk along the side of the street but lots of cool things to see and eat uh this store sells like lamps and fabrics and rugs so for dessert we came over to one of taipei's most amazing Doha slots by suede Doha this is like a it's tofu soybean toy food chilled as a dessert with uh boba tea and they tell you to drink it taste it first you can taste it it's very pleasant they've got these little canisters for the sugar water that you pour in to like sweeten it right up let's give that a taste now good 80 Taiwanese dollars and those are pretty pretty healthy dessert I like this place interesting how you order they have you pay outside an order and then wait five minutes and then sit down and then we sit down and put your food on your like counter area as soon as it's ready which is like a minute after you sit down our princes need to blow off some steam so we found a little Park that had a fun playground in it the slides here they're made out of cement and so they actually go like really really fast uh but then it was time for a snack she loves the Taiwanese snack stores also known as 7-Eleven what are you eating potatoes potato chips and I don't know are they do they taste better here in Taiwan yeah yeah they taste better here in Taiwan Papa uh is thirsty and hot after running around the playground so I got a Thai tea from this place that like that's all they sell Thai tea and it was pretty great to like make it fresh and it's a pretty legit tasting Thai tea before dinner we came over to the Hua shun creative Park this is a whole area of like 1914 old Japanese Warehouse industrial area that's been turned into a really neat artsy place we just went to a pretty awesome playground that's right next door but incredibly busy they had this neat like toddler zipline that everybody was having a great time on including her there's a baby shark Museum here there's a really neat like bunny exhibition or bunny art and they sell really good strawberry milk popsicles with the Kiwi inside how's the popsicle for dinner we stopped into basement level two of the sin Trend shopping mall so they got like a big food court here no seats in the middle of the food court but each of the restaurants has food too were ordered at this um like katsudan Express Restaurant but to order a QR code that you scam to order the food so while we wait for the food I want to tell you about this mall it's really neat if you're looking for electronics in Taipei this is the place to come it is like 12 floors of nothing but electronic shops everything that I didn't even know existed was here including like bizarre home massaging things anyway if you're a tech here and geek this might be 12 floors of heaven in Taipei and then directly connected by a couple Sky Bridges to that Swanky Electronics mall is like the original one this is uh three floors of small vendors that sell everything under the sun Electronics you can see this is a map of the second floor with 98 vendors on it I mean this is really crazy from video games to monitors to gaming mice to gaming chairs no electric cars or massage chairs in here but if you are a computer Builder this is a pretty interesting spot well a good Tuesday morning this is our last day in Taipei today we are at the Taipei Zoo it is oh so busy because today is children's day where not just children are free but adults are free to go with them too for Taiwanese residents we're here in the Children's Zoo playing on some frogs and we just had a really good ice cream cone I've never seen a busier line for McDonald's crazy busy and it's really interesting how you get into the zoo you use your easy card to paint the same one you used to ride the MRT you just tap right in 60 Taiwanese dollars or three dollars U.S and a princess after seeing the meerkats was doing her best meerkat digging impression but her favorite thing at the zoo definitely the yellow poop emoji after exploring the zoo for a little bit we needed more cold things we got some popsicles here that are shaped like eggs minus passion fruit flavor and hers is watermelon flavor Taiwanese dollars 25 how many dollars each like 80 US cents good deal yeah well fellow explorers that's going to bring our five days in Taipei to an end it's been a fantastic visit if you enjoyed this video and you want to check out our previous five days they were in Singapore you'll find that blog right here or if you want to check out our adventures in Japan after this as soon as they're done I'm gonna stick them up right here well fellow s'mores as usual I won't say goodbye because I'll see you in some of these videos links are also in the description below
2023-06-19 03:03
