TAIWAN
TAIWAN
Tis currently 09/04/2026 21:51, aproxomitely 14,828 minutes before our plane will land in Taiwan. As far as I know, there has not been any accomodation booked yet. Am I worried? Yes. Do I believe the trip will go swimingly? No. Will it be awesome anyway? Most definitely.
I have not contributed much to this trip, besides finding all the flights, which I suppose makes up 100% of the trip as it stands now... So, if you guys have any GOAT tier Taiwan tips let me know! Then I can take the credit and impress everyone <>_<>
I think What I'm most excited for is the food, but I don't know how much of it I'll be able to eat. Since
November I've given up my pescetarian ways and opted for a vegetarian lifestyle, however I am considering reverting back to my old tendencies for this trip to fully enjoy the food and share some of the culture. We shall see. Low-key think I'll crack day 1 though, can't lie. Call me a shark the way I am a fish fiend.
On the flip-side I'm thinking of going vegan once I go to uni, at least when it comes to cooking at home. I would have to cut out my morning eggs (rip) annd creamcheese on my bagles, but honestly I like the alternatives as well. I think it would just make sense, because right now I don't have that much control over what enters and leaves my shelves, however in uni I'll probably have my own fridge shelf or fridge (if I end up going to LUC, still not completely decided, but it's looking like it's going to be UCU). Anyways, if you guys have any suggestions for good vegetarian/vegan places in Taiwan (or Japan, South Korea or Hong Kong) definitely let me know!
I was without internet for approximately 20 hours, honestly it was pretty nice. I watched two episodes of Chernobyl and three episodes of Alice in Borderland on the flights. Chernobyl was really good, Alice in Borderland wasn’t as good as I remembered, I feel like S3 is a little overproduced. Once we got to the Taiwan airport we took the bus to the hotel. I slept the whole way. After we dropped off our luggage my mom wanted to go to the Amway, some kind of multi-level-marketing (aka pyramid scheme) HQ. Once we got back to check in I slept for about an hour. Then we went out again to a dumpling restaurant where all the dumplings were pork, so I didn’t have one, instead I had some peanut sauce noodles, pickled cucumbers and kimchi. When our belated lunch was over my brother and I went to the playground across the street and ate a matcha mochi bun with red bean filling, pretty decent. This delightful meal prepped us for our next activity which was conquering Elephant Mountain. The hike was pretty good, right when we started there was a guy aura-farming by going past us on the stairs with a 6-pack. The view was good, the stairs were pretty steep, but nothing that a Dutchie like me hadn’t seen before. Once we made it back down again my mom was lured into a buddhist temple. There while we were looking at the Buddha statue one of the monks asked if we wanted a picture with it. I suppose we couldn’t say no so we all lined up next to it and our amazing white people in Taiwan family photo was taken. When we were about to leave the monks started giving us all sorts of things to bring with us. My dad dropped a few lines of Mandarin which amazed the monks and also caused one of them to only speak Mandarin to him from that point forward. That evening we met up at a nightmarket with one of our friends from Montpellier, Ray. It was super fun, the food was delicious, especially the “fire and ice”, which was a bowl of ice with dumplings filled with peanut and sesame. I bought a little prison for Eugene so he could join us on our travels. Back at the hotel I watched another episode of Chernobyl and went to bed.
I got up around 12, I slept about 10 hours which was nice. We went to the place where we were going to have a guided tour. There I got some vegan sushi which had some kind of sweet tofu/something around it from the FamilyMart. I also got a vegetarian tuna onigiri and a salad. The tour was good. It was called the Vintage Tour which took place on the Dihua Old Street. We learned about some of the architecture and its relation to the Chinese and Japanese occupations. Also, apparently the Taiwanese baseball team is on the $1000 note here? The more you know. I bought some chopsticks, tasted some pineapple cake and tried some medicinal tea which was sweet, but tasty. We proceeded to go to dinner at a vegan restaurant. I thought it was going to be traditional Taiwanese food, but ended up being more general Asian food. Still, we enjoyed it! We got a toon pancake, bibimbap, pepper beef wraps and best of all omelette rice. I was pretty impressed with their egg imitation for the omelette rice, it looked really similar and the texture was not too far off from the real deal. For dessert we got a cheesecake and a chocolate mousse cake, those were nothing to call home about, but not bad. There was a cute dog at the restaurant with long white hair, he was definitely the highlight. We took a metro back to the hotel, our “ticket” was a little plastic coin that we could check in with and had to put in a slot to check out. On the way back to the hotel we made a pitstop at a stationary store where I got some pens and a mechanical pencil. We also stopped at 7/11 where I got a Hi-Chew grape flavored popsicle. It tastes a lot like Hi-Chews and you could smell it from a meter away. At the hotel we chilled out for a bit and I wrote a bit for the blog. We ate some late night ramen and then went on a walk to the FamilyMart. My favorite detail about Taipei so far is the crosswalk sign, where if you can go the little Green avatar starts walking and goes faster the less time you have to cross. Here are some drawings I did today on the metro and of the place that had the pineapple cake.
We started off the day with a cheeky 7/11 run. I got a fruit-vegetable juice and a cheese egg pastry. I also had gotten a vegetarian chicken onigiri the night prior, so all together pretty solid breakfast. I thought the pastry was pretty underwhelming though. Then we went off to the National Human Rights Museum. It was really interesting, I found the order to be a little confusing though and sometimes they'd reference events that hadn't been mentioned yet and the order of signs wasn't really chronological. It probably would've made more sense if I had also translated and read all the Mandarin signs, but I didn't have time nor energy to do so, it is what it is. The museum was at an old prison, so we could see the cells, which were shockingly small for the amount of people that had stayed in them. I eventually got a little lost in one of the blocks just strolling past the endless rows of cells. After that I found an exhibition with human rights inspired posters which I thought were really beautiful. Apparently it's a competition, who knows, maybe I'll enter it sometime. When I reunited with my family at the visitors center I found my brother swarmed by Taiwanese high school students. They were all apparently asking for his brawlstars profile (he had been playing it in the lobby). Taiwanese-Dutch-American relations have never been this good is all I can say.
Our next destination was a screen printing shop where our friend Ray, who we met in Montpellier, works. It was super cute, the walls of the staircase going into the shop were covered in awesome prints. The shop itself was huge with a bunch of clothing and prints hanging around it. I had already prepared a design of my cats the previous evening which I was planning to get printed on a t-shirt. I had no idea how screen printing worked, but apparently you can have a gradient of whatever color you picked. Our friend Angus and my brother made good use of this and got a photo (collage) printed on their t-shirts. My cat shirt turned out pretty well, a bit of one of their tails was missing, but I think it added to the handmade part of the experience. I was however feeling like I was missing out by not having gotten a picture screen printed. So, after a lot of deliberation it was decided that my brother and I would share an xs screen, where he would get a Roblox character on one half and I would get my favorite House MD picture printed. I put my print on a small bag for my iPad and drawing materials. Overall it was great, we ended up spending 4 hours there (maybe a little too long haha). If you're ever in Taipei I definitely recommend checking out Retro Jams for a super unique experience! Thanks again Ray for helping us with everything!
The fun didn't end there because we went out for dinner with our friends Angus and Gemma. They both currently live in Taipei and we went to their favorite local spot where Gemma curated a feast for us. The highlight of the dinner was definitely the sweet and tofu, with the fried tofu being a close runner-up. I also had some Taiwanese beer that could only be sold within 18 days of it being brewed. Meanwhile Benjamin probably drank 3 whole bottles of guava juice. After dinner we went to the night market. With a quick bubble tea (that only costs 2 euros omg) pre-game we were ready for our desert extravaganza. We got an ice cream burrito that had some coriander, which was surprisingly nice. Then we got some sweet potato balls with brown sugar and peach flakes sprinkled over them. For the grand finale we got a shaved ice silken tofu soup with red beans and rice balls. I was so full after all of this, seriously haven't felt that full in years, but it was soooo worth it.
As per usual the day started off at 7/11. They had a larger assortment of vegetarian items than I thought, so I bought all of the rice based ones to try throughout the day. I'll just give a quick list and my thoughts on the items:
Then we got picked up by our driver for the day. My parents decided we'd get a driver for the day who would bring us everywhere because we were going to so many locations and didn't have any experience driving in Taiwan. The driver was super nice and we quickly hit the road.
Our first stop was the Arrow Bamboo Forest Trail, which was also home to a dormant volcano. The whole place smelled of eggs because of all the sulfur. The view was great and the hike through the bamboo was short but fun. At the visitors center you were able to get stamps, luckily I had my scrapbook with me so I was able to collect all of them.
Then we went to the Yehliu Geopark. The park had this interesting stone which stuck out of the ground like a ball with this meteorite texture. It was on the coast, where they had a bunch of colored anti-tsunami tetrapods which was really cool to see for the first time. I remember watching a documentary at school where they were mentioned and being super impressed. Once we entered the park an old man walked past my dad and I and exclaimed something along the lines of “You are special!” to my dad and proceeded to insist on taking a picture with my dad and I, reiterating again how handsome my dad was. I actually didn't pay too much attention to the rocks and set my sights on this trail that would eventually bring me to the top of one of the hills. Once I got to the peak it was incredibly windy, so I didn't spend too much time up there. Again at the visitors center they had stamps! Once everybody had gotten their stamps we had a little fried snack outside and were off to our next destination.
After a bit of a ride we made it to the Shifen Waterfall. There we tasted a Taiwanese wax apple from one of the stands. It was kind of strange, definitely the texture was something I wasn't expecting. I don't think I would go out of my way to get one again, but I'm glad I had it! Then we made our trek over to the waterfall. The walk there was nice because we had to cross this wooden bridge that was swaying side to side while a train passed next to us. Once we got half way though it started pouring rain, we definitely were not prepared. Soaking, we arrived at the waterfall, which was beautiful, got our stamps and ran back to the car. There it was revealed that the driver had umbrellas all along.
Next up: Houtong Cat Village. As the name implies, there were a lot of cats living there, my dad says there's more cats than people. Sadly due to the weather they weren't out and about, but we saw a bunch hiding from the rain in the shops and under the roofs. Again, we got some adorable stamps and we're on our way again.
The Golden Waterfall didn't appear as when we visited because of the downpour, but it was a nice little roadside stop. Right after we drove over to the Yinyang Sea, where you could see this neat blue-green color split in the water. I would call this stop short but sweet.
Our final stop was Jioufen, often marketed as the city that Spirited Away is based on. Though this isn't actually true, it did feel like it. The narrow streets were lined with red lanterns and the food smelled delicious. I got a tiny capybara pet for Eugene from a vending machine and we got a huge bubble tea for everyone to share. The staircase back down to the car was honestly magical. If you're in Taiwan this place is definitely worth your time!
We were dropped off at a Taiwanese restaurant back in Taipei and had a tasty meal that cost around 40 euros for all five of us, not bad. My favorite thing was probably the turnip cakes with this sweet sauce. I also found out I had been mistaking scallions for scallops and had been avoiding them for no reason… whoops. All in all a great day in Taiwan!
My breakfast was an egg salad sandwich and I believe a steamed cinnamon bun (obviously from 7/11). After breakfast we headed to Treasure Hill Artist Village. We wanted to take a bus, but were unable to locate the correct one. The one we suspected was ours has a a busdriver denying that it would bring us to the right place. Before going to the Artist Village we went to the temple next door, it had some interesting sculptures and the incence smelled nice, but nothing crazy. The Artist Village itself was neat especially because of the layout. It was on a hill also it had a ton of levels. There weren't too many places that were actually open, but there was a cafe with a bunch of cute cat prints. My sister and I bought a few, I got a medium one with cats eating sushi and she got a large one of cats baking. At the Artist Village they also had a stamp. This one was particularly awesome because it w as multi layer, so you had to go to 4 different locations to get the complete stamp. Eventually we sat down for a bit, next to us was a little art station and we could see a play being filmed in the building across from us. I made a little name tag for Eugene at the art station.
Then we headed over to the gondola, however this was a short-lived experience, seeing as the gondola turned out to be under construction the entire week we were in Taipei. We plan on visiting it when we're back in Taipei on Saturday! We didn't let this get our spirits down though, we continued on to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
I didn't really know what to expect, but it was way more impressive than I had anticipated. The Memorial Hall and the surrounding buildings were massive. After traversing the seemingly impossibly big staircase we went into the hall where there was a huge sculpture of Chiang Kai-shek. My family and I got a picture with the sculpture and went down into the exhibition area. The building looked ancient (in a well preserved way), however it's not even 50 years old. It even has elevators. It's that new. The exhibition area was interesting, it had some Chiang Kai-shek artifacts and an area about democratic revolutions around the world. We walked around for a while, got our stamps (my favorite one so far) and were on our merry way.
We ended up at Creative Park 1914. There was some kind of Canadian music Festival being set up there which looked pretty interesting. There were mainly shops at the Creative Park, most of them were your typical looks-interesting-would-not-buy type of shops. I did find something really neat though! The whole week I'd been struggling with where to put my water bottle. The House MD bag I've started using as my main bag was too small for a water bottle and it was pretty annoying to have to keep asking others to carry it. One of the shops and this handy strap with which you could carry a cup/bottle of virtually any size and clip it to your bag. It was about 7 euros and has probably been my best investment so far on this trip.
It was around dinner time so we went to a restaurant where they had braised noodles, which were recommended by Angus. On the way there (about 30 minutes out from the Memorial Hall) we walked past the guy who had taken our picture with the Chiang Kai-shek sculpture, which was super strange because there's about 2.8 million people living in Taipei. For me the restaurant was a bust, they only had food with meat in it. It was already 20:30 at that point, so I quickly found a vegetarian restaurant that was about a 30 minute walk that closed at 21:30 and hoped they'd still let me get something. I arrived at 21:00, but sadly it was too late. There wasn't a good alternative restaurant, so my dinner consisted of 7/11 and Family Mart food. I'd been wanting to try one of the vegetarian items from 7/11 though, so it wasn't all bad. I ate it at the hotel and it was alright.
This was one of our travel days. We were going from Taipei to Kaohsiung, a city on the southern side of the island. We got our typical breakfast at 7/11 and went over to the train station. At the train station we were able to get some stamps as well. The high-speed rail was super nice. In the train there's 5 seats in a row, split up into 2 and 3. You're allowed to eat on the train and they even have crew come by with food and trash carts. We got stamps at the Kaohsiung station as well (if you haven't noticed by now, stamps are a big part of this trip for me).
My brother, sister and I decided not to join our parents on their trip to the monkey park (due to the risk of rabies and questions surrounding the morality of the experience). We opted for walking to the restaurant, which was about 1.5 hours away) instead. On our way we stopped by a stationary store where I got an eraser and a pair of earrings. Next door there was a claw machine arcade where they had some labubus set up playing Mahjong. We walked a bit further up to Central Park and took the metro for the remaining part of our journey (after collecting our stamps obviously, honestly just assume there were probably stamps at every station we went to).
The station we arrived at was the one by the city’s arena. Outside of the arena there were a bunch of little stands selling what I can only describe as knickknacks. There seemed to be a concert going on by a group named Double Up”. From my brief Google search I actually couldn't find a lot about the band, but the posters looked sick. Outside of the mall where our restaurant was there was a Toy Story themed event where they were showing off scooters with Woody and Buzz Light-year designs. The restaurant itself ended up being packed, so we weren't able to get a seat there. There were windows looking into the restaurant where the chefs looked more like scientists working in a microchip facility with the white white suits they had on. We ended up going to a night market, where I got grilled mushroom, a scallion pancake, plum jelly tea and sweet potato balls.
We started off our day with a bit of breakfast from the hotel buffet. I had a custard bun, which was alright, and some salad. I don't think I've had straight up vegetables since I arrived, so it was about time. We went to a market after where we met up with my dad's college friends, Chung Kai (CK) and Ya Ling. They brought us to a famous breakfast spot where I had a cabbage bun and some porridge. After that we walked around the market. I bought a pair of sunglasses, some figurines and a sick t-shirt with skulls on the shoulders and back. My sister found a cute adjustable bag, which was the perfect size for all her stuff.
We proceeded on to the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum. We drove with CK who took us on the scénique route, meaning we arrived 1 hour later than my brother and mom. I didn't mind though, I just slept the whole ride. Right before we arrived we saw the Buddha statue along the highway, which was massive. Sadly we arrived after the vegetarian buffet had already closed, which just means I'll have to come back some day, because I've heard it's amazing. The entire place was beautiful. It was even more grand than what was portrayed in the pictures.
Besides the architecture and the impressively large and astonishing Buddha statues it was nice to learn more about Buddhism. I would say I still only really know absolute surface level stuff, but it's more than what I started with.
Now it was time for the grand finale. Back in Kaohsiung an all-you-can-eat restaurant was awaiting our arrival. Ya Ling asked the waitress if they had any vegetarian options for me and apparently there was a whole menu that they would just bring out, no need to order. One by one all the dishes started to arrive and I bodied every single one of those damn plates like my life depended on it. I was so full by the end of it, but at least I wasn't a part of the meat-eating party, because CK decided to order 10 more dishes for the second round after everyone was still trying to recover from the first. Safe to say, they did not complete the mission. My favorite thing I got at the restaurant actually wasn't on the vegetarian menu, it was the egg glazed sweet potatoes. They were super soft and had quite a rich flavor. After dinner we took some pictures with CK and Ya Ling and said our goodbyes.
My brother, my dad and I decided to walk over to one of the metro stations 30 minutes out where they had the Dome of Light. It was super cool and they had some cute stamps. I wish the metro stations in the Netherlands were less monotone, the Dome was super colorful and had some wild designs. I wonder if they change the designs or if they stay the same. We took the metro back to the hotel from there, however I had mistakenly put in the other Hub Hotel location, so I added about 10 minutes to our trip back, whoops.