Taiwan Travelogue: Day 5&6

How can we say we have been to Taiwan if we did not take a picture with Taipei 101. 

Even though we probably took this exact same picture a year ago, I felt that we still had to take it with Taipei 101.

We were over at Taipei 101 because we wanted to get our brunch there and I wanted to get my Belgium waffle, but I couldn't remember where the shop was located at. 

Mandatory #ootd #wiwt shot. 

1 #ootd shot not enough! Need to take a few more. Haha. 

okay, last #ootd shot. I promise!

 

The agenda for that was to go to Xin Bei Tou to visit the hotspring and hopefully experience one. However, I chicken-ed out the day before because I felt that the hotsprings (especially public ones) may not be very clean. But we decided to go ahead and visit Xin Bei Tou anyway. 

Even the trains to Xin Bei Tou are cuter than the normal ones. 

They have pictures related to hotsprings printed on the trains. 

The inside of the train.

Upon reaching Xin Bei Tou station, it was relatively easy to navigate around to get to the hotspring area because there are signs around directing you the hotspring area. 

This picture is probably my favourite picture taken throughout the entire trip. We look so happy together :) 

(and my cheeks colour is so nice! Totally not regretting my Chanel creme blusher purchase)

Then we passed by this library/museum. Can't really remember what, but I guess it's a pretty nice location to take wedding picture with the architecture in the background. 

And we saw a couple doing their wedding photoshoot there as well!

The one thing I dislike about travelling just with your partner alone is that there will be no one to take pictures for you. (especially where there is a nice scenery) 

While walking to the Thermal Valley, we passed by this public "hot spring" stream. And it's free!
Of course you can't be naked and soak your whole body in the stream but you can soak your tired feet in it, and that was what we did!

Initially the boyf was quite apprehensive and thought it would be pretty dirty cause everyone was soaking their feet upstream. But we decided to go ahead and we did not regret it since.

The boyf didn't believe me when I told him that the stream is warm. And after soaking our feet for about 20minutes, our feet felt so great! Our feet didn't feel tired anymore!

Definite must try when you're over there!

Everyone enjoying a good soak of their feet!

And then we proceeded on to our destination which was the Thermal Valley. Thermal Valley is one of the sources supplying the area's hotspring. The temperature ranges from from 80 deg-100 deg!

You can actually see the sulphuric steam rising and because of the blanket of steam, it was actually given another name 'Ghost Lake'.

After our trip to Xin Bei Tou, we were still early for our dinner appointment with the boyf's Taiwan colleagues. So we decided to have tea at Hello Kitty Cafe!

My second time in the cafe but have never tried their main courses, only their desserts. 

Nothing fantastic I would say, but I love that place, for it is so PINK and so HELLO KITTY-ish!

Hehe, made the boyf take this picture with Hello Kitty!

I hope one day he will grow to like Hello Kitty too.

Later at night, we met up with his colleagues at this supposedly famous BBQ restaurant, called "Yuan Shao".

This place is situated a really ulu place and I have no idea how to go there already. But the bbq food is really nice! 

And I love love this dessert! The little strips that you see here, are actually fried spaghetti!

I didn't know spaghetti can be made into desserts too!

Not much pictures of our food because firstly I was too hungry already and secondly, I felt quite shy to take pictures of the food in front of his colleagues.

First impression is always important, you see. 

Day 6 saw us running errands, i.e. buying local food products for our family and colleagues. 

We always go back to Chia Te for the best pineapple tarts in Taiwan. Just googled about it, and Trip Advisor rated it 4.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Chia Te has also a variety of pineapple tarts, like strawberry, melon, cranberry, longan and lots of other variety which I can't remember and they are pretty affordable too. Cost about $32-$37TWD for each piece.

Chia Te

105, Taiwan, Taipei City, Songshan District,

 南京東路五段88號

+886 2 8787 8186

Taking pictures with my Celine inspired bag. hehe.

                                        

Attempting to take a different kind of #ootd #wiwt but failed.

The pineapple tarts were really difficult and heavy to lug back but we managed anyhows (cos we decided to be kind to ourselves and took a taxi back to our hotel), but we really almost died from carrying all of these! 

After putting all the food products back in our hotel, we quickly proceeded to Xi Men Ding for lunch!

And we had steamboat, Ma La. 

And it was really really really good, and super worth it especially if you are a seafood lover. 

This has got to be one of the best steamboat I've ever eaten in my life. 

They also have a wide variety of meat as well. 

There are a few branches around and they can be easily spotted with their red signage. 

Day 7.

The day where we have to end our Taiwan journey. 

7days really not enough for Taiwan! I love Taiwan so much and I hope I can go on a Taiwan trip every year!

Homebound.

It had been a good holiday, made even better with the surprise proposal. And it was the first non-work trip with the boyf. And I must thank the boyf who was so accomodating, went everywhere I wanted,  and shopped with me even though his legs were breaking. I hope that we would have more of such trips so that we can continue to explore the world together. x

With that, I am finally done with my Taiwan Travelogue and I am looking forward to my Korea trip in January 2013!