Bright and early at 4:00am we had our flight from Manila to our newest country, landing in Taipei, Taiwan at 6:00am. A short direct flight for a travel day is always a nice convenience, although I am sure there are better ways to start off a 30th birthday. Happy birthday, Nick!

Our hotel was in Ximending, which is an area with a ton of cafes, food stalls, shopping, and many pedestrian friendly walking areas. After leaving our belongings we began making our way through our food wishlist.

To start, we got the brown sugar bubble tea from the flagship Xing Fu Tang location. It was fun to watch them make the bobas and they burned the brown sugar on top with a dinosaur torch. The best way to drink it was to mix it really well, then it was incredibly delicious.

Nick and I walked all different areas of Ximending. We found lots of street art in different alleyways, saw small temples, and some cute cats. There was a street crossing painted rainbow, which was also nice.

Finally it was time to join the long line at Liangshanpo for the Xiao Long Bao, which are soup dumplings. The waiting time was incredibly worth it. They ended up being the best soup dumplings we had and they were reasonably priced.

After our soup dumplings we went to Dog Japanese Restaurant, which wasn’t on our wishlist but looked super yummy. We were right. There we shared scallop sashimi, french style scallops, and a sushi roll. The scallop sashimi was served with lime and it was so soft, sweet, and delicious. The french style scallops were raw served with truffle, caviar, and roe. The sushi roll was the salmon one which had cucumber, avocado, and egg inside, with scorched salmon, a mustard and roe sauce on top. It was one of the most delicious sushi rolls I have ever tried.

Next on our do it yourself food tour we tried Star Fruit Ice. Nick got the classic star fruit flavor ice and I got the plum one. It was served in cups with small ice shards, juice, and chunks of the fruit of choice. The juice itself was tart and salty. We both liked the uniqueness of it, thought they were refreshing, but agreed that the serving was too large. It was really a less-is-more treat.

With full stomachs we headed to the National Palace Museum. We started off by getting the ruby black tea soft serve ice cream outside (not too full for ice cream it turned out). It was fabulous, but Nick could not understand how I was still hungry and wished we had shared one instead of each getting our own. I for one was happy I did not need to share.

Outside of the museum was a large park we walked around. There were many pagodas, bridges, ponds, a creek, and trees.

The walkway to the museum entrance itself was incredible: there was a large gate, lion statues, and a grand staircase. We tried our best to visit most of the exhibits of the museum before our dinner reservation, which took a few hours. It was a wonderful museum with lots of jade, pottery, and statues amongst other things. It was quite busy. For dinner we went to the Silks Palace museum restaurant. It was recommended to us for the duck. We tried the duck and the beef noodle soup. Both were okay. It was not the same level of the food we had earlier in the day, but much more expensive. It goes to show the fancy stuff isn’t always the best!

After dinner we slowly made our way by foot to Shilin Night Market. This place is a foodies dream come true. We tried Hot-star fried chicken first. The process to get one was hilarious. The line zig zagged in order to get more people in tighter (very long line), then someone from the stall came and gave each person a plastic bag. One by one as the chicken was done frying they would season it then place it in your plastic bag. Each person would walk forward, hand over the money, then get their chicken. It was an efficient and fun process. The chicken was crispy and juicy but way too big for the two of us.

There were so many food stalls up and down each little street. Next we tried tanghulu, which is strawberries on a stick covered in a thin layer of candy shell. They were large, juicy, and delicious.

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed our neighborhood by night.

As we only had two full days to explore the city we hit the ground running after a wonderful hotel breakfast of gua bao, a steamed lotus bun with roasted pork belly and pickles. First was walking Dihua old street. There were many shops selling dried fruits, fish, rice, tea shops, and food stands. It was raining on and off which made for beautiful wet reflections on the dark road. Nick also enjoyed a huge gua bao from a street stall.

We stopped for lunch at at Din Tai Fung where we enjoyed some soup dumplings before heading back over to Ximending for more food. There we tried some crispy milk donuts after an incredibly long wait that was worth every second. They are fast at making them, but they are so good that people will order 5-20 at a time which clears them out fast. The perk, though, is that you are guaranteed to get a hot and fresh donut. They were so good; not too sweet and with a unique milk flavor.

Next was the 228 Peace Memorial Park. The park was small but nice. It had a few ponds, some statues, and a small water fountain show that lasted a few minutes. We walked most of the park in a short amount of time.

Following the park we headed over to Liberty Square and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. This area was beautiful with its large gate, wide entrance area, beautifully detailed buildings, and grand memorial hall. At the hall we got to be front row for the hourly changing of the guards. It was unlike any changing of the guards we had seen. There were no guards at a post to begin with, so it was more of a ceremonial show. Guards marched in to a roped off area, then performed a choreographed routine of steps and gun twirling. It was incredible and we did not see it coming.

We then made our way to the other side of town where there is a famous photo spot. We got some photos there at both sunset and after dark. It was not very busy and the park we walked through to get there at the subway station was full of kids playing. Dinner was a conveyor belt sushi place which was unsurprisingly delicious, just like all the other food we had in Taipei so far.

The evening continued with a journey to Itiengong temple. It had many lanterns, dragons, and offerings of fruit inside.

Our last temple of the evening was Lungshan Temple. It was a beautiful building but there was construction on the front so we couldn’t see the entire thing. They had a few water features in front as well.