Our First Time in Taiwan: Ultimate Taipei Travel Guide

[Applause] Taipei is a complex City blending tradition with modern conveniences creativity with history and Innovation with resilience it's our first time here so let's experience it together we share everything you need to know including prices at the [Music] end I'm Judy and I'm Kevin welcome back to fine gen and Marie where we share our lives this fulltime Travelers and the connections we make along the way the taian airport is physically connected to the mass transit system so the first thing we did was follow the MRT signs in the airport to the train station Counter selling the easy card for the MRT and bus system which made it super easy to get to our Airbnb we're going to need a transportation car going to be here for 4 weeks if you buy one way get in the car together you can say they said to get these cards for using the Metro while we're here and then these are for the ride into town to we get to use these once and it was a discount for getting both of these we love a city with world class transportation and taipe is no disappointment this is taipei's main station which is only about a 10-minute walk from our apartment which makes it really convenient yeah we've been really happy with being able to get all different parts of the city without any trouble at all the trains are running pretty regularly too they're not disciplined like Japan but no complaints and right here we can actually get to the airport really quickly from this station the ups and downs that you see here to get into the subway system are by Design Taipei incurs a lot of flooding especially during the monsoon season and there's also tsunamis so it's important that they protect the train infrastructure yeah we were confused at first we thought well this is inconvenient if you got to get up some steps just go down some steps but now it makes a lot of sense if you want to get around on two wheels download the app ubike it gives you info for finding bike stations and checking availability or you can bump into one and just decide to ride rentals are all around we use Apple Maps to get around and they show both the Bus and Train routing as well grab isn't available but there is Uber here and plenty of yellow taxis we stayed in the affordable and well-connected zong Zang District it was very close to several historic landmarks most notably 228 pie Memorial Park and also the national Taiwan Museum we appreciated all the Green Space around us and we were super close to a major bus stop and train stop at the national Taiwan University Hospital Taiwan uses the new Taiwan Dollar one thing that's a little confusing is that things cost dollars that you'd expect to be cents for instance the washing machine in our Airbnb cost $30 per load which really is only 93 CS so you have to take a moment to process that in your head we've been using our Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa via Apple pay almost everywhere and we've only needed cash at the very local food places and at night markets we had no problem finding and using ATMs Banks and 7-Eleven stores with ATMs are everywhere Japan colonized hiei from 1895 to 1945 and you can see its heavy influences in the food Ramen Sushi tempura and ton KATU which are everywhere the train system feels very similar to Japan but it's not nearly as crowded as Japan and especially the efficiency convenience and ubiquity of a 7-Eleven are family Mar on every street corner is influenced by Japan one thing similar to Japan is these crosswalks that let you split the intersection normally a bus isn't right in the way but you know we can walk around this I really think these should be all over the place it really saves a lot of time and a signal so we started off our trip as always trying to find a coffee shop that we like because coffee's critical and right near us was a Louisa coffee and a 1667 coffee and a little further away was Notch we like them all they were all great but we end up taking the long walk past Tai main station morning the dreamers coffee which is a chain but it's a really good chain and the people at this location have been so kind to us they've been giving us free food because we keep showing up here which is very nice they're they're food is primarily vegetarian they also have great baked foods and that's been a lot of what we've been eating I've been eating salad sometimes too taipe has a huge Coffee Culture with ethically sourced beans local creative coffee roasting artisanal Brewing methods and coffee workshops many locations are used as co-working spaces the stones are warm yeah yeah the heat the sces our friendly staff has helped us dreamers have helped us so much during this trip thank you so much for all your kind attention we have an entire video coming out next week with all the night markets and Foods we tried there so don't miss [Music] it so we are at a place called the doodle of the king and it is very difficult to find uh probably not a place that I would have maybe felt comfortable coming into cuz it looks it's very local and yeah cuz it's in an alley that looks really local yes yes um this is your napkins which I got a love um look at that bowl I'm not this is small yeah and she really wasn't a ban of having us uh split one split one but um so we'll just do our best it's really good is quite tasty um so tender so so tender that is very spicy so I see this here and I'll just add a little bit that's a lot so what do you have there Kev I think mine is the actual just called beef noodles your meat is completely different it's minced yeah this is this is a very Savory kind of a not that like a gravy we like a OU is very much comtable I'm really enjoying it and I don't know how need the exra brought there's there's enough really count yeah it's like two meals right see a family of four yeah good though this second beef noodle restaurant's name which is an all Chinese characters is translated as Z Ki won King we arrived after rush hour so before they gave us a seat they let us know that they only had one thing left on the menu so our choice for tonight was beef no the SP or beep spicy yes they said the lines are the longest after five there was no line but there was also no choice in the food which is fine we wanted spicy so and this is a big bowl so wish us Lu if you leave the main streets you get on some of the side streets or the smaller streets there's plenty of little restaurants dotting all along them to miss those because there's a lot of good stuff up there across the street from taipe main station is Caesar Park and there's a mall down here which you'll find a lot of malls in this area that have restaurants and shops down there so if you're looking for some Japanese food tonkatsu Ramen a lot of times are in the underground malls check them out just have to find the little stairways down our two favorite soup dumpling restaurants were hyoi water dumpling specialty store which really is written completely in Chinese and Deon shulu the atmosphere of each couldn't be more different though hyoi has a very local while Dian shulu is extremely upscale a few locals suggested this place instead of the super crowded more touristy D taiu and dumplings here are called XA long bow this one so spicy very good flavor got some spicy Seafood it really is flavorful lot of spice which it's kind of nice cuz the spicy ones we wanted to order they weren't making tonight I'm having some spicy I bet those are the Truffle said it's a house specialty yeah the truffles that as flavorful as the seafood ones but enjoying the spice of that was okay I mean it's a shame to the most expensive one and this is pork and basil we were hoping for spicy pork but that's the one that they don't have today um Basil's nice flavor but honestly after having the spicy one kind of kind of looking forward to more of the spicy one so all good but it's for the spicy one and we've got some steam buns that are coming up later you can book online but we were lucky enough to get in without a reservation lul dumpling place we ordered two sets of dumplings you have a ticket right how many of each you want found one that has some English on it which really helped and Judy got a couple sauces here for us spicy and just St and these look like the shrimp ones we got some pork ones coming too and here comes our see how the spiciest not more I thought it was I think I could understand that that's got more gck than I thought it would it's also very hot heat and spicy so so how would you rank them I don't know these are great very juicy it's a nice consistency like it's really sturdy enough to keep everything together when you take a bite it's got um two different kinds of soup a hot and sour soup and it has two different kinds of of dumplings hay yoji's pork dumplings were a little dense so we preferred the shrimp um a pretty limited menu but I feel like like their secret SAU they do dumplings really well and they don't deviate a whole lot that's the best way to do it and it's crowded and so you know you're at a place that is popular and it's [Music] tasty one of the most exciting things we did in Taipei was not something that we had plan to do at all and that was to experience an earthquake here we have an entire video you might want to watch talking about helping to plan and prepare for natural disasters while you're traveling if you want to check that out below taipe 101 may not be the tallest skyscraper anymore it was for a time but it's still pretty cool it's designed to resemble a gigantic bamboo do a symbol of everlasting strength in Chinese culture and consists of eight segments of eight floors each the number eight is associated with prosperity and luck in Chinese traditions so you bought your tickets online right on well I used the cluke app and I got a small discount so I think that they would normally be $20 a person and I got them for 38 and change for both of us so not much of a discount but cluke has a a lot of uh coupons that you can get so it can be worthwhile cool you're buying the tickets here at TA 101 on the fifth floor there is a ticket booth that you can go to and if the ticket lines are long here you don't want to wait you can go to the ticket kiosk and basically do the same thing [Music] the elevator to the observation deck on the 89th floor is the third fastest in the world climb 84 stories in 37 seconds starting from the fifth floor don't forget to look up and see the light show on the ceiling [Music] we're walking up to the tuned to mass Stamper which is what keeps this building from wobbling too much and this is not it but he's adorable wow that is big that is so much bigger than I expected seen videos of it but it's just so impressive be this huge but of course it would be of course [Music] [Applause] [Music] our Observatory tickets gave us access to floors 88 through 91 you can see how close to the top we are here for more money you can spend an hour inside floor 101 and if you're willing to Shell out even more additional cash you can get unobstructed outdoor views on the 101st floor but you need to be strapped to a harness if you can St in the crowds Taipei is an epic place to visit for New Year's Eve the building features LED lights and with added fireworks it creates a spectacular light show the exit CU is short today just a few people ahead of us okay well there's the queue for the elevator going up not too bad today yes just one just one great thank you see what it looks like oh very pretty ice cream too so our daughter found this place when we were in Japan and it was fabulous and I wished that I had come across it sooner so the fact that they have it here I'm ding in enjoy one really creamy and delicious as good I would say so kind of really a deep chocolate Taipei 101 mall is known for its Ultra high-end luxury shopping experience upscale restaurants an exclusive Whiskey Bar our Airbnb location M we we passed by 228 peace Park nearly every day it was originally built during the Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century and named taipe new park but its role pivoted toward memorializing the people who lost their lives in the 228 incident in 1947 the name 228 comes from the date February 28th it was a violent suppression against anti-government Uprising that ended with thousands of people being killed and severe political repression this event significant ly influenced taiwan's journey toward democracy so the stone foot path pop off those shoes Judy you walk on this path which definitely will give you some ACU pressure okay I'm a win spicy very spicy ow ow ow ow ow ow ow okay I think I'm done how's it feel P I'm not even going for it no we've walked back and forth for an entire month past this National Taiwan Museum and we've only got a few days left and we're finally going inside regular ticket just 30 pretty I love that it's gorgeous the oldest Museum in Taiwan is the national Taiwan Museum it's housed in two buildings one across the street from the other the main building is the oldest Museum in Taiwan we only made it to the main building but we wish we would have had time for both it's a First Rate museum with really wellone exhibits including an interactive area in the basement for children one of the first things we noticed is how beautiful it is and also how welld designed and maintain the spaces are I was fascinated by the explanations about the formation of Taiwan and geological diversity you can see the diversity of its various life forms as well there are plants insects and certain mammals that aren't found anywhere else in the world There are 16 officially recognized indigenous peoples in Taiwan who have inhabited Taiwan for thousands of years and the museum features many of them our next off was to check out Liberty Square which is a large Public Square used for major national and cultural performances that was built to symbolize peace freedom and democracy this building behind us is exquisite it's so much bigger in real life than I could imagine I we saw it from Super far away and I thought what is that big uh building that looks like a temple it's not it's a national concert hall and across from it is an equally large building and that is the National Theater so we walked into this Square and it comes with this beautiful gate in the beginning and then you get these which humongous yeah huge in its own right you get these two big buildings for the Theater concert hall and back there is the memorial as we get dizzy yeah well we have to walk a long way to get to the memorial looks small from here but it really is it's so big aome okay we walked for a bit now we're closer to the m it's still massive it doesn't even look as big in this video as it should it's a lot of steps up I'm to count them the Memorial Hall honors the polarizing leader Chang Kai Shak for his role in developing Taiwan and maintaining its separate identity from communist China every hour on the hour is a Changing of the Guard ceremony but our timing never worked out to see [Music] it the official count is 83 stairs and there's three platforms that allow you to break some of the tension in your knees from just going up and up and definitely worth the walk up inside the memorial are shops and restaurants if you want a meal drink or [Music] souvenir we're on our way to the 1914 creative Park and I don't know the bus schedule doesn't run on time so either it was late or we were early but whatever it's not Tokyo it would be just as easy for us to walk now so that's what we're heading to [Music] do I have no idea what this building is but it certainly looks fancy it's got a gate in front of it s s thank you so much sh sh okay one of the guards told Judy that the Temple's on the second floor it's one of the largest and most prominent Buddhist temples in the city oh wow it's beautiful so you could kind of see from all of the chairs that are inside that not only is this a place of worship but it's also a place that is sponsoring Buddhist and Chinese culture it's doing educational work and there's also meditation that happens here as well yeah and it's not exactly like the temples we've seen in other countries where shoes have to come off shoulders have to be covered this is more businesslike right yeah I was quite surprised that we didn't have to take off our shoes who sh 1948 creative Park is a former Winery and sake Distillery that has been repurposed you can find art exhibitions here music concerts shop for Unique souvenirs Simona Lisa Oh Girl With a Pearl Earring Pearl Earring all the great art I didn't realize you could make these yourself and catch pop-up art installations if you're visiting just do a Google search to see what's happening in the city there's even indie films that are screened here from local and even intern International filmmakers okay so I didn't originally notice this and I'm ashamed of myself this Snoopy exhibit is inclusive of Van goof one of my absolute favorite artists here's another wall with sunflowers on it that's making my heart Happy oh I'm mon over here [Music] another repurposed industrial site we recommend visiting is s Shan cultural and creative Park which is a former tobacco Factory its current purpose is to spark creativity and Innovation one of our favorite things here is called trash kitchen it's not food related at all this upcycling shop allows you to bring in certain types of trash and book a workshop to convert them to useful household items they also have upcycled items you can buy design pin is a cool Shop with a lot of interesting Innovations as well I got a cross body bag to hold my cell phone while we were here but they have a bunch of interesting creative areas and Exhibits you can walk through during your visit oh yeah all the stars are very sparkly kind of like having a little psychedelic moment here is that a penguin I see two oh I found a penguin found a real one well not real I mean real Statue before we talk about prices we're excited to share that we've started our own absolutely free community Forum that we are calling La Familia you can ask questions about trip planning and all things related to travel there a video with the details is linked in the description [Music] below so let's look at how much we spent in Taiwan our zong Zang District Airbnb apartment for a month cost us $1,293 38 or $431 per night we got a free cleaning Midway through our stay but that could have been compensation of the earthquake here the easy card for the MRT and bus system cost us 445 NT a piece and that included one card that cost 100 NT with 200 NT loaded for train travel and buses plus a we token for the airport express train to the main station worth 150 NT two people riding up to the 89th floor of Tye 101 cost $35.70 us 30 NT per person is the entry cost again into both the national Taiwan Museum main Museum and the landbank exhibition building across the street our meal with two different types of bowls from beef noodle of the King was only 235 NT for both of us in order of 10 shrimp dump dumplings at hyoi Water dumpling specialty store were 90 n and their shrimp dumpling soup was 110 n which filled us both up truffle soup dumplings at Deon shulu were 400 NT their spicy shrimp were 220 and the pork basil were 150 NT their small Trio of steamed buns with pork were 170 NT Zhao Ki wanan King Cornish spicy beef soup was 110 NT for food at taipe 101 Kevin's cappuccino at Cafe D was 150 NT and my creia ice cream also was 150 NT Tomkin taipe station Ramen inside Caesar Park was 710 NT for both of us so overall we've had a really great time here in Taipei uh earthquake aside and so if you've enjoyed this episode we hope you'll subscribe if you're not already the best compliment you can give to us is to recommend our videos to your friends and family and check out finding gen.com got a community for there lots of Articles and some new stuff so take a look until next time next time

Channel: Finding Gina Marie – Travel the World

Views: 13,001

Keywords: travel vlog, travel, slow travel, full time travel, full time travelers, world travel, finding gina marie, what to do in a natural disaster, taipei taiwan, travel disaster stories, taipei 101 damper, taipei 101 fireworks 2024, taipei night market, taipei vlog, taipei airport, taipei food guide, taiwan vlog, taiwan restaurant, taipei restaurants, taipei mrt

Id: rFLfGIIvnWk

Length: 25min 8sec (1508 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024