Tai Nan Street 大南街 – the Taiwan of Hong Kong? Boutique shops, cafes, indie music, and more

I had zero intention of writing this blog post.  Even when I first stumbled across the street, the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.

After having lunch at the prominent and long established名寶石餐廳 Tiffany Restaurant, I had some spare time and wanted to head over to White Noise Records, since I was already at Prince Edward’s.  Google Maps suggested it was an 11 minute walk from where I was.

White Noise Records was one of the few record stores in Hong Kong that sold indie music, from vinyls to CDs to merchandises, featuring Japanese, American, Hong Kong local artists etc.  It used to be upstairs in an unassuming building, but apparently that’s all changed as it has relocated to Tai Nan Street.

Upon arriving to the area, a lot of boutique cafés, stores, leather shops, terrarium shops greeted me.  They stood out because of how its exterior look was far different from its adjacent shops, the newer ones being far more elegant and clean.  What used to be the “ugly duckling” was turning into a beautiful swan. Continue reading Tai Nan Street 大南街 – the Taiwan of Hong Kong? Boutique shops, cafes, indie music, and more

Outskirts of Taipei – Keelung, Jiufen, Houtong Cat Village, Tamsui, Ruifang

In my previous post on Nonstop Eating in Taipei, I again talked about all the different types of restaurants, food stalls, and nightlife places you could check out within the vicinity of the main areas of Taipei.  But the real fun from this trip were during my moments when I was exploring the outskirts of Taipei – Keelung for the Keelung Squid Festival, Jiufen Old Street, Houtong Cat Village, Tamsui, and briefly Ruifang when coming back from Jiufen.

It’s quite nice to visit these areas, just because they offer a glimpse of a different side of Taipei that you don’t really get to see.  Anyway, this post will be broken down into different sections by each area that I visited.

Continue reading Outskirts of Taipei – Keelung, Jiufen, Houtong Cat Village, Tamsui, Ruifang

Nonstop Eating in Taipei

You know you’re really getting a sense and vibe of a city once you start exploring the outer parts of the city.  For example, in Tokyo the first few times I would stick around the areas of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi… you know, all the main districts you have to first go as a tourist in Tokyo.  Then once you’ve been there multiple times, you will want to start to explore other less popular areas.  This usually happens with me around the 4th to 5th time I visit a city.  Taipei was no exception – this time, besides just being around Taipei 101, I managed to go to Jiufen Old Street, Keelung, Tamsui, and Houtong Cat Village.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my previous blog posts, probably did, but I tend to be attracted to places closer to the seaside.  That’s why some of my top favourite cities in the world that I’ve been to include Barcelona, Cape Town, Gold Coast, pretty much everywhere in Japan, the French Riviera etc.  That’s why I would say that I actually enjoyed going to places like Keelung and Tamsui, where I was treated to beautiful, stunning sunsets that left an indelible memory for me (I realised how much of a sucker I am for sunsets, especially the sunsets that morphs the skies from your typical sky blue to delicious colors like pink, purple, gold that occur on a sporadical basis).

For this blog post, I will start off by naming the things I did in Taipei and breaking down by the usual sections – accommodations, foods, things to do, nightlife etc. then I will do each section by each area that I covered.  I will share what I did, my opinions, fun anecdotes etc.

Edit: After writing this post, I realised just covering the main part of Taipei itself was way too long, so the upcoming/next post will focus on the outer skirts of Taipei like Keelung, Tamsui, Jiufen, Houtong, and Ruifang district.  It’s out!  Read more at Outskirts of Taipei.

Continue reading Nonstop Eating in Taipei

Serendipity Moments in Taipei

Just an hour away from Hong Kong, Taipei makes for an excellent weekend getaway for anyone who wants to escape from the materialistic, modern, and hectic culture of Hong Kong.  Although they typically share the same weather, with horrid humidity and typhoons during the summer, their cultures are actually quite different.  You will experience this just from listening to how each of them speak their languages.  Hong Kong people when they speak Cantonese are much more rough and aggressive, whereas Taiwanese speak their Mandarin in a very gentle and polite manner.  Their mannerisms and the way they walk reflect this too.

This trip around, I made it a point not to do any research on what to do or what to eat in Taipei.  Influenced by my cousin in law’s quote about how we don’t get lost and discover anymore, and that we all end up doing the same thing as covered by blogs and Instagram, I decided to just go with the flow and discover any restaurants by chance. Continue reading Serendipity Moments in Taipei

Chinese New Year in Taipei

Taipei’s a great city to go to, especially coming from Hong Kong, as it makes a great 3-4 day trip.  But compared to Hong Kong, everything is so much cheaper there… food, nightclub, transportation etc.  Actually I was very surprised by how much more country side it was compared to Hong Kong.  I can’t wait to go back to Taipei soon.

But one thing for sure, I won’t be going back during Chinese New Year.  This trip was back in 2012 end of January, and because Taiwanese people were also celebrating Chinese New Year, most of the stores there were closed!  In fact, it was frigid and it was constantly raining, so it made everything worse.  The weather was always gloomy as well. Continue reading Chinese New Year in Taipei