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.
I would say it would be recommended to go with someone who speaks mandarin there, although I think you can get away by speaking English there as they kind of can speak English. Also, Taiwanese people have been one of the most friendliest, nicest people I’ve met as well.
Accommodation – don’t have the details of the hostel we stayed in, but I believe we used http://www.hostelworld.com/ and booked somewhere near Taipei 101.
Transportation – you can take taxi, bus, or Taipei railway.
You purchase these blue tokens to enter into the stations.
You can see the view from outside as well.
Buses
Food – since this trip was before I started blogging, I don’t have any details about the restaurants / places I went to unfortunately. But I’ll still show you the pictures to make you hungry.
Din Tai Fung!
You get to experience a lot of street eats just about everywhere in Taipei.
And the rest of these food pictures are from Taipei Tonghua Night Market (they have many night markets in Taipei):
Things to Do
Like said, we went during one of the worst times to go travel since everything was closed.
Taipei 101
Taipei 101
We also did some biking.
Nightlife
Of course, not everything was closed! We went to a few nightclubs as well. Here are some pictures from our nights out.
Try this alcoholic drink, I dare you.
Luxy (closed down)
This used to be one of the biggest and most popular nightclubs in Taipei.
Club Myst (website) – one of the more upscale nightclubs around the area
So yeah, that pretty much wraps up my Taipei trip the first time I was there. Whenever I do go again, I promise I’ll update this post / make another post if there’s anything new that wasn’t included here. I repeat once more, don’t go during the Chinese New Year! Since it’s got the worst weather during that time.
Another cool place to go is Forestmosa, when I went to Taipei the second time and stumbled upon Fujian street with a lot of boutique shops and cafes and really well designed. Unfortunately they are moving out of the street soon and not near Taipei, so you may have to check the website for the new area.
Update (Jan. 9, 2018)
Apparently those clubs mentioned above are not as popping anymore, and recently I’ve gone on a Taipei trip and the two hottest clubs are now Elektro and Omni. Omni’s clubbing environment is sick – great music ambience, modern design, high tech features. I only have pictures of Omni not Elektro, see below.
Omni, second floor
Omni club layout
Last update: Jan. 9, 2017
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