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Weekend Getaway: Taipei
Thursday, 13 March 2025 00:51One day in February, my friend came across a really decent promotion with Air Macau, so we got flight tickets to Taipei. The tickets were like, less than USD $100. And the timing was a bit crazy-but-useful.
I had to depart around 5.30am, and since everyone else was sleeping, wrote down instructions on which Lai See (hongbao) to give to who and how to feed the cats (I've got new wild cats - there are two cats in my car park, I've started feeding them, and they wait for me to get home now LOL)
Got to the airport before 6am, got checked in, got pleasantly surprised that Starbucks was open this early, got some breakfast. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:30am, but we were all boarded and taxi-ing off the park area at 7:10am, and actually took off earlier than scheduled. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Landed, dropped bags in the the hotel, then off we went for our first meal in Taipei: Brunch. I promised my friends I would be taking it easy on this trip, so I wasn't pushing for any itinerary or where to go, and squeezing. Brunch was at a place called Nook. Interesting, but nothing to write home about.
After brunch, we walked all the way to Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi because my friend's target was to get new glasses. I wasn't really looking to replace my glasses, but they had something interesting. J!NS has a crossover with Dragonball (the anime) and they've got some really cool colors. I immediately fell for the Piccolo green-and-purple combination which I decided to get. But instead of blue-light lens, I got those that turn dark in the sun. My other two friends? Both got 2 pairs of some frames they chose each.
One of my friends was dejected that she was going to miss out on a lunch at a certain restaurant, because it had "break hours" between lunch and dinner. I got distracted by a Pokemon sign on a lower floor (I saw through the escalator gap) and went down there to look. Friends followed me then the dejected one screamed OMG. Apparently, the restaurant she wanted to go to had a branch restaurant in the mall's food court. So she was happy again. Thank ME for chasing shinies LOL.
Then we went to another building (Shinkong Mitsukoshi Xinyi has a couple buildings next to each other) and we saw another glasses shop, OWNDAYS. They also had their own line of Dragon Ball crossover, and that I found weird for Dragon Ball... would a brand crossover with two same industry at the same time? IT was weird. But this set of crossover did not catch my eyes.
So while one of my friends went about getting another 2 pair of glasses, my other friend accompanied me to go upstairs to the POKEMON CENTER TAIPEI!
You bet I got something LOL. I got something functional though. I knew my Sis was looking to replace her thermos bottle, so I sent her a photo and she wanted a black bottle with a Pikachu silhouette on it. I got an outright Pikachu yellow bottle one LOL. I have to sort out my bottles... i have too many, and some are actually too old and should be replaced.
We next went to a place called Ronjing Gorgeous Time. It's just a street and some buildings are being converted/adapted for new businesses. The area was actually a Japanese prison.
Dinner was at Uncle Shawn, it's BBQ and the staff cook it for you. The food was good, and some really, really, really good items. But overall it felt a bit pricey for the little food we ordered.
One of the actually good items that wasn't BBQ-ed. A scallop burger (scallop for "buns" and Uni and Crab... gunk? for the insides)
That dinner wasn't filling enough, so we went to Shida Night Market...
More crap to see but i didn't buy any!
And we had "Lo-mei" (soy sauce braised food?), this was sooooooooo satisfying, yum yum!
The hotel wasn't anything to write home about either. Breakfast was abyssmal! We first went to the Taiwan National Science Education Center because there was an AI Art exhibit thing going on. But geez, it was a total rookie move to go on a Sunday, because, KIDS. To be fair, when I did the research, it did say the last day was on 9 March Sunday, and so we went there on the last day, but then found out it's actually extended up to April.
The science center itself was pretty cool though.
Where there's a dangerous-looking bridge but obviously it's safe to walk on, I'd go LOL.
There was also an AI Sports exhibit but we didn't go. Hippos showing you how to exercise LOL.
AI Art Exhibition.
First we've got some trick-eye trickery.
Here you become the conductor and wave the baton around. Apparently, the imagery does follow your lead.
Here you pull the ship and the line also follows your pull, I think.
Moses dividing the sea at a wave of a stick also.
We were famished after that, so went to have lunch. We were in Dongmen area and walked along that hip shopping street.
Green bean milk ice fleecy thingamajig.
Next we went to Huashan Cultural... something 1914. It's a whole park area and they put artsy exhibits year round. We went first because of the Ghibli exhibit (but it felt more like an Animage magazine exhibit)
Nostalgia galore LOL
I always thought the mask in Naussica made them look like they were pretending to be dogs.
Apparently one of my friends is deathly afraid of the... giant bug thing in Naussica.
Oh boy, I haven't really watched the whole Graveyard of Fireflies but I know the gist of it and know what happens in the end.
Hey, the Ghibli museum thing in Tokyo has a Cat Bus that you can't go in (age limit, over 6years old not allowed) but this one here I GOT IN!
Almost the end of it.
Yeah I heard about the new park, so I should check it out for my next trip in May!
There was also a Peanuts exhibit hall.
So cute and sweet!
Still, some plushie crossover(ish) designs are still... questionable... such as this Snake Snoopy LOL. I didn't buy anything but did pay to play 2 gachapons. I got a reusable bag (by the size it looks like a bento bag, which I may give my Sis) and last year's Bunny Snoopy crossover LOL.
A friend really wanted a certain Omakase, but I guess the good ones are hard to book. This one was... totally underwhelming... or have I turned into a snob?
I'm not going to post everything.
And another friend wanted to try cocktails (I think it's sort of part of her job?)
Interesting menu, but the boy (waiter) failed at first meet.
We were 4 people. Only 2 of us ordered on the first round. Guy doesn't have a pen and paper, and just "remembers" the order. We wait a really long time (too long for a cocktail, but I didn't time it either) and he brought us 2 totally wrong drinks. He knew he made a mistake because as he brought the two drinks (one of them was wrong), he asked, "You did order something else, right?" And I really don't know what to comment on.
oh, and they relied on photo trickery... these two below are the same drink...
Anyway, next day, we go to Ximending for some final shopping (and breakfast, because hotel breakfast sucks)
Roamed Eslite bookstore as well. Found a hilarious book where they replaced main imagery of famous paintings with... Chihuahuas haha!
We had a quick final lunch at another BBQ place, this time grill it yourself, and stopped by a couple more stores for souvenirs.
oh, I forgot to say, those new glasses felt so good that on the second day, late at night, I decided to get another pair, this time the Supreme Kai color (it's a turqoise and pink I think) but this time with blue-light glasses, so now I have a proper pair of glasses for weekend and driving, and a pair for the office.
And then, we made our way back home.
I had to depart around 5.30am, and since everyone else was sleeping, wrote down instructions on which Lai See (hongbao) to give to who and how to feed the cats (I've got new wild cats - there are two cats in my car park, I've started feeding them, and they wait for me to get home now LOL)
Got to the airport before 6am, got checked in, got pleasantly surprised that Starbucks was open this early, got some breakfast. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:30am, but we were all boarded and taxi-ing off the park area at 7:10am, and actually took off earlier than scheduled. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Landed, dropped bags in the the hotel, then off we went for our first meal in Taipei: Brunch. I promised my friends I would be taking it easy on this trip, so I wasn't pushing for any itinerary or where to go, and squeezing. Brunch was at a place called Nook. Interesting, but nothing to write home about.
After brunch, we walked all the way to Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi because my friend's target was to get new glasses. I wasn't really looking to replace my glasses, but they had something interesting. J!NS has a crossover with Dragonball (the anime) and they've got some really cool colors. I immediately fell for the Piccolo green-and-purple combination which I decided to get. But instead of blue-light lens, I got those that turn dark in the sun. My other two friends? Both got 2 pairs of some frames they chose each.
One of my friends was dejected that she was going to miss out on a lunch at a certain restaurant, because it had "break hours" between lunch and dinner. I got distracted by a Pokemon sign on a lower floor (I saw through the escalator gap) and went down there to look. Friends followed me then the dejected one screamed OMG. Apparently, the restaurant she wanted to go to had a branch restaurant in the mall's food court. So she was happy again. Thank ME for chasing shinies LOL.
Then we went to another building (Shinkong Mitsukoshi Xinyi has a couple buildings next to each other) and we saw another glasses shop, OWNDAYS. They also had their own line of Dragon Ball crossover, and that I found weird for Dragon Ball... would a brand crossover with two same industry at the same time? IT was weird. But this set of crossover did not catch my eyes.
So while one of my friends went about getting another 2 pair of glasses, my other friend accompanied me to go upstairs to the POKEMON CENTER TAIPEI!
You bet I got something LOL. I got something functional though. I knew my Sis was looking to replace her thermos bottle, so I sent her a photo and she wanted a black bottle with a Pikachu silhouette on it. I got an outright Pikachu yellow bottle one LOL. I have to sort out my bottles... i have too many, and some are actually too old and should be replaced.
We next went to a place called Ronjing Gorgeous Time. It's just a street and some buildings are being converted/adapted for new businesses. The area was actually a Japanese prison.
Dinner was at Uncle Shawn, it's BBQ and the staff cook it for you. The food was good, and some really, really, really good items. But overall it felt a bit pricey for the little food we ordered.
One of the actually good items that wasn't BBQ-ed. A scallop burger (scallop for "buns" and Uni and Crab... gunk? for the insides)
That dinner wasn't filling enough, so we went to Shida Night Market...
More crap to see but i didn't buy any!
And we had "Lo-mei" (soy sauce braised food?), this was sooooooooo satisfying, yum yum!
The hotel wasn't anything to write home about either. Breakfast was abyssmal! We first went to the Taiwan National Science Education Center because there was an AI Art exhibit thing going on. But geez, it was a total rookie move to go on a Sunday, because, KIDS. To be fair, when I did the research, it did say the last day was on 9 March Sunday, and so we went there on the last day, but then found out it's actually extended up to April.
The science center itself was pretty cool though.
Where there's a dangerous-looking bridge but obviously it's safe to walk on, I'd go LOL.
There was also an AI Sports exhibit but we didn't go. Hippos showing you how to exercise LOL.
AI Art Exhibition.
First we've got some trick-eye trickery.
Here you become the conductor and wave the baton around. Apparently, the imagery does follow your lead.
Here you pull the ship and the line also follows your pull, I think.
Moses dividing the sea at a wave of a stick also.
We were famished after that, so went to have lunch. We were in Dongmen area and walked along that hip shopping street.
Green bean milk ice fleecy thingamajig.
Next we went to Huashan Cultural... something 1914. It's a whole park area and they put artsy exhibits year round. We went first because of the Ghibli exhibit (but it felt more like an Animage magazine exhibit)
Nostalgia galore LOL
I always thought the mask in Naussica made them look like they were pretending to be dogs.
Apparently one of my friends is deathly afraid of the... giant bug thing in Naussica.
Oh boy, I haven't really watched the whole Graveyard of Fireflies but I know the gist of it and know what happens in the end.
Hey, the Ghibli museum thing in Tokyo has a Cat Bus that you can't go in (age limit, over 6years old not allowed) but this one here I GOT IN!
Almost the end of it.
Yeah I heard about the new park, so I should check it out for my next trip in May!
There was also a Peanuts exhibit hall.
So cute and sweet!
Still, some plushie crossover(ish) designs are still... questionable... such as this Snake Snoopy LOL. I didn't buy anything but did pay to play 2 gachapons. I got a reusable bag (by the size it looks like a bento bag, which I may give my Sis) and last year's Bunny Snoopy crossover LOL.
A friend really wanted a certain Omakase, but I guess the good ones are hard to book. This one was... totally underwhelming... or have I turned into a snob?
I'm not going to post everything.
And another friend wanted to try cocktails (I think it's sort of part of her job?)
Interesting menu, but the boy (waiter) failed at first meet.
We were 4 people. Only 2 of us ordered on the first round. Guy doesn't have a pen and paper, and just "remembers" the order. We wait a really long time (too long for a cocktail, but I didn't time it either) and he brought us 2 totally wrong drinks. He knew he made a mistake because as he brought the two drinks (one of them was wrong), he asked, "You did order something else, right?" And I really don't know what to comment on.
oh, and they relied on photo trickery... these two below are the same drink...
Anyway, next day, we go to Ximending for some final shopping (and breakfast, because hotel breakfast sucks)
Roamed Eslite bookstore as well. Found a hilarious book where they replaced main imagery of famous paintings with... Chihuahuas haha!
We had a quick final lunch at another BBQ place, this time grill it yourself, and stopped by a couple more stores for souvenirs.
oh, I forgot to say, those new glasses felt so good that on the second day, late at night, I decided to get another pair, this time the Supreme Kai color (it's a turqoise and pink I think) but this time with blue-light glasses, so now I have a proper pair of glasses for weekend and driving, and a pair for the office.
And then, we made our way back home.
