trippin`taipei~

traveling, holidays, breaks, vacations, whatever you name it, is increasingly becoming more as an avenue of escape for me.

and i'm not too sure whether that's good news or bad. well, let's just be happy enuf that i still have something i like doing, and the means to do it.

yes, 'the means to do' it 'cause; the pc-tech-guy from office was askin' me about my recent one-week off work. to which i briefly replied that i went to Taiwan. he then went on to load me on his plans, yes, plans only, to Langkawi island. plans only, cause seriously, he would have to consider all expenses and costs to be incurred for his entire family: wife + 2 kids + parents-in-law. Gosh. with all those $ to Langkawi for 6pax, i'd be able to fly to Taiwan again~ ~ ~

that's just sample calculations, not that i do not advocate family life of any sort =)

now back to my trip. it was great. a very free & easy itinerary, well laid (i do think) by myself, and some add-ins by Sis (which was great, i especially liked her agenda on Eslite's bookstore at Dunhua South Road, Daan District). the long walks were worth every bit of it, not just for the sake of Eslite, but also for the entire trip. wrong turns and extra leg-work where they had actually been silly mistakes, turned out to be memorable parts of the trip... something worth chuckling about~...

and the freedom to just walk, and walk, and stop and sit, and then walk some more, with no constraint of Time.. hmm~

apart from the pics loaded on my fb, these few are the ones that i especially liked.

no faces, just spaces.

we stayed at this Star Beauty hotel at the Shilin area. MRT station to our home for those 5 nights? JIANTAN Station (Danshui, Red line). which was also the stop to get to the Shilin Night Market and the Shilin Food Square. they are in fact just opposite each other by a street. not unusually, we'd discovered the food square first, before actually asking for the shopping streets... ehehheh~ the food square, by the way, was our most frequented for dinners and late suppers.


this, is just outside our hotel. every morning, after breakfast, we'd make it a point to just sit by the benches at the park and watch as the local folks go about their daily business. for our 6-days' trip, 3 of it fell on a long weekend there. and for the remaining 3, we got to see the local workforce walk about in their working garbs.. which was distinctly different from the weekend outfits. yes, even guys there put much emphasis on their looks...


Taipei 101. no, we did not go onboard their observatory deck. we didnt feel like we wanted to, plus, with clouds like that, who needs to waste the precious new taiwan dollars yeah~??

Monday-QingMing-National holiday-we didnt know. and so we happily went onboard the TRA (Taiwan Railway Administration) train bound for Hualien. our stop: Ruifang ... solely for Jiufen. i'd fell in love with this place the previous time i visited taiwan on a hurry-hurry tour trip. but this time, as much as i had like to relive the old streets charm of Jiufen, it was simply, just too packed. bummer~

the Ruifang station was a cute one. open aired, nothing like the city's well-concealed MRT stations.

inside Ruifang station. very quaint indeed. this was after all, used to be a mining town. coal perhaps, i didnt really find out.

impressive pics inside the hallway of Ruifang station. yes, we made time to stop and stare. lovely.

yes, finally, a quiet street at Jiufen. without the famous red lanterns, this is definitely one street less frequented by the crowds.

towards Beitou. conveniently reachable via the city's MRT lines, we allocated a day entirely to explore Beitou. do you see? 'back to the Past'? wow wee~~


just luved the mist-drenched, moss-covered walls along Beitou. they were everywhere! i gotta say, Tuesday @ Beitou was my most enjoyed part of the entire trip. my winner!


a stop by the roadside. yes, the entire Beitou hotspring area runs by a hotspring stream. gosh~.. i would luv to be back again~!!!

my faithful Rubi shoes. takin' a break at a hotspring private room.


quaint steps towards the Beitou branch library. fuhhh~!!! is our library here anything like that?


the skies in spring taipei was unforgiving. on most days, it was cloudy and greyish. we had our umbrellas with us all the time. but this, was successfully captured by Sis. nice~!

our last night in taipei. back to our fav Shilin food square for supper. a Wednesday night, the place was finally clear of snackers.

the familiar crossing toward our hotel from Shilin night market and Jiantan station. we'd have to cross this street everytime gettin in and out from our hotel. i dont think sis wanted to leave at all. well, neither did i but still~....

these, some of the stuffs i brought back ... for memories.

another itch scratched...