taipei weekend

Last weekend, we headed to Taipei, Taiwan, for a little R&R. It was my first time and I loved it! It was a great mix of modern design, tropical flavor, and city community all blended together.

We met up with Sue, my good pal from CCA and headed to the SongShan cultural park to visit the Taiwan Design Museum.

They had a Barbie exhibit- a private collection of every Barbie ever made (?) It was fascinating, impressive, and creepy all at the same time. Fascinating that they had so many extremely detailed outfits and accessories, and basically every imaginable personality and more. The 1970's delta airplane interior playset, a princess for every culture that ever existed AND more, and also celebs like Michael Jackson and Michelle Obama.  Even the above creepy mustache doll.

A late lunch outside- a typhoon was coming so it was quite windy. We went to Chun Shui Tang, notorious for their naicha (milktea) with beef noodles and 萝卜糕 lobakgo. YUMMY!! Milk Houses, by Taipei 101 is known for their cream bun- which is basically filled with butter!!!!

Then headed to Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world (2004) 449.2 m. (For comparison, SH's WFC is 494.3 m) As it was a Sunday afternoon, there was a 1 hr wait. Nearby we also checked out the very cool Eslite bookstore - which was several floors combining fashion and designy pop-up shops, and books. Timon: This is a bookstore? Where are the books?

 Raohe + Shilin night market. Raohe had more food, and shilin  was twice the size but had mostly clothes. Cheap clothes- like $5 usd racks of  Polyester neon tops and a 100 TWD shop.

 Above images show a dessert crepe filled with peanut toffee shavings and fruit ice cream. 

Handmade food, on right, we are playing this traditional pinball-like game. You use a plastic ruler to flick metal balls up and try to get them to line up horizontally or vertically to get a prize. We just won root beer candy.

Custard in egg shells, Taiwanese pineapple and mango beer, and corndogs covered in french fries.

5 dime boat house resturant: paper mache cavern and iron anemones in a Gaudi-meets-Simon Rodia style. The artist/architect of the restaurant is Xie Li-xiang who was inspired by drift wood, and desiring to upcycle it into art. The ENTIRE resturant is doused in details of enormous proportions. Huge anemones and stautes mounted all over- you really have to watch where you are walking! The cuisine was traditional Taiwanese fare.  here

We also visited the Palace museum- which was huge, and very well done. Great english descriptors, arrows to help traffic flow, and docent roping off areas so they wouldn't get too crowded. It farther up north and we had to take a cab there (no metro), but only 5 min from where we were staying in Jian nan.

We headed to Beitou in the evening to visit the hotsprings. It was about 35 minutes from the Palace museum (both north of where we were staying) We didn't have a place in mind, so we asked the cabbie for a recommendation. For ordering about $12 USD of food per person, (Tempura platter, BBQ beef, and veggies) we got unlimited time in a private hotspring! It was a little room with a stone tub, with faucet for the hot spring to fill it up directly!

We LOVE the tripadvisor app- so well thought out and tremendously helpful!
We stayed in Jian Nan metro area, via Airbnb- a newer neighborhood, very residential/commercial which meant it was very quite but also no street snacks, and even fewer cabs. Fortunately, the mall nearby had a free shuttle to Shilin night market!

In hindsight, we should've flown in Songshan airport, which was much closer to town- and metro accessible.

neighborhood

Some buildings with window washers. This one has wall gardeners!

on Panyu Rd, the whole wall is covered in mirrored window boxes overflowing with green. 

to do!

After reading Apartment therapy's article 10 things to  help your home be happier!
I realized we don't have enough photos on our walls! We have art, fish and bills that need to be paid. I've been working on our wedding album for some time now- I've got the photos chosen and roughly divided in sections, but still have to color correct, crop, and layout. (2+ years later!)

I make a point to snap at least 1 photo at every "event" we go to. I just have to do something with all of them!

Below are the two I hope to start:

3. Display sentimental items around your home. One reason that experiences (and memories of those experiences) make us happier than material things is due to the entire cycle of enjoyment that experiences provide: planning the experience, looking forward to the experience, enjoying the experience, and then remembering the experience. Make your home a gallery of positive memories.

4. Start a one-line-a-day gratitude journal. Before bed, simply jot down one happy memory from that day. (If you have kids, you can ask them, "What was the best part of today?") Reflection is an important part of happiness, and pausing to reflect on a positive event from each day cultivates gratitude. (An added bonus: Later, when your memory is defunct, you will already have all of your meaningful adventures recorded!) If you have trouble getting started with journaling, consider buying a book to guide you. Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach, is a great one.

bracelets

While watching sherlock this weekend, I made/finished these bracelets. The blue one was inspired by braided raw silk bracelets I've seen on pinterest, and the the green one inspired by faux suede version (I do not like wearing faux suede) I was going for upscale friendship bracelet- mostly since its hard to tie them on yourself and they fall over so easily! In hindsight I should've put more loops by the clasp- its a bit hard to squeeze with the big metal thingy in the way.

And Sherlock (british series) was good! (Thanks Georgia for the suggestion!)

hidden gem "hakka" style resturant

We went to this cool little cafe off nanjing xi rd, hidden inside an old lane house complex of apartments, it was on the ground floor, with a bitty patio and a HUGE rabbit.

Our friend had a photography show in their "gallery" of her 3 month trip all over the west coast of africa and other places- morocco. She learned how to do the boat stuff- with just 4 people, they each took turns taking the watch shift. 

They have one main table- minimal- with antiques, and only a few things on their menu.

We had this rice dish, served in shiny bronze buckets and we each got a hot mitt to hold the pot with, while we scraped at the crispy rice on the bottom. It was yummy! The mitts and trivets on the table were all homemade. It was adorable!

Pop corn man

The pop corn man: he yells a warning before it explodes! Burning scrap wood, he's got a caldron thing he fills with rice or corn or shrimp chips, and turns it over the fire, until it builds up pressure and BAM! explodes all puffed up into a mesh bag. Its kinda like air popped corn- and rice krispies. A neighborhood fixture!

He's been doing it for 20 years. Here he is on Wanhangdu @ Changning rd. We also catch him at Anxi @Xuanhua occasionally too. 

The pop corn comes out inside out! All the white fluff is on the inside.

And the "rice krispies"- which make great cereal! its not as krispy as the brand name cereal- and its much puffier.

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