Hualien Part 2

Probably about time I finished the posts about our trip to Hualien haha...
  Okay well we stayed the night in the shady hotel and the beds were as I said, surprisingly comfortable after some adjustments. We watched that show about different cat breeds and looked at kittens before we sacked out. When morning came around we went and had these well known dumplings as breakfast. They were bite-size which I guess is what made them so popular because you could just pop them in your mouth. Yue's cousin only ordered about 5 I think but we liked them so much and we ate them so fast he went back and got more and then a few more after that. Something about those little dumplings lol
    Anyway we hung around the town a bit and I bought a book but then we were off driving through the mountains again. I was not feeling those curvy and never ending bumpy roads at all. We were driving for the longest time and stopped only to use the restroom and take in the occasional view. We took a break at one point at a very steep part of the mountain where a Tea House/Restaurant was perched on the edge. They were selling a special peach honey that they served with the black tea I ordered and it was amazing. The tea was especially good because it had become very cold on the mountain and the warmth was very pleasant. The food we ate was so-so but I was not too hungry since I had been feeling ill the whole way up. The view from the restaurant was incredible, it appeared as if we were above all the clouds, like we were floating at the top of this mountain. The staff were friendly as well and they even had a one young man who spoke very good English, I'm thinking what're you doing all the way up on this mountain?!
   Our pitstop only lasted so long though before we were on our way up the mountain again. I had no idea where we were going only that we kept getting higher and the roads got skinnier. I assumed we had reached our destination when we parked amongst a group of travelers and went up to a lookout point looking out into the mountains. It was extremely foggy that high up but the view was truly a sight to behold. Something about the cool air was so refreshing and invigorating. I was super cold of course but it's the same kind of feeling you get when you feel the first cool stream of winter wind, I enjoy that feeling although I really can't stand the rest of winter. The Ed Sheeran song "I See Fire" kept playing through my head as I took in the mountains(~￣▽￣)~
                    

    I assumed we were done then with our mountain viewing but her cousin had told us beforehand that he wanted to take us the longer route home because it was more scenic so our driving did not stop till much later. We drove nearly 4 hours I believe it was and once the sun was down there was not much left to see.. On the way we made a stop at a fancy hotel and got to see a most spectacular view of the city lights stretching across the landscape with the lights flickering off as they moved up towards the mountains. It was completely opposite of our earlier view but equally as beautiful. I of course was having too much fun watching the geckos catching flies inside the lamps, their silhouettes outlined against the light.
  Anyway we made it back to Taipei pretty late at night and bid farewell to Yue's cousin. It was a short trip but the sights were worth it. My only regret is that we weren't able to visit the hot springs and we didn't get to see the sheep that apparently can be found in an area we drove through.

So there you go! Mini mountain trip accounted for

       Savi

Cafe Update

Hey guys,
    We haven't really gone too many new places lately, mostly we've been revisiting usual spots and further exploring them because there's always something more to see. We went back to the area near the Wachifield restaurant and the Sanrio Diner (did I write about that??) so we could finally go to Dazzling Cafe and try their honey toast, which I mentioned before. The outside of Dazzling is very bright and modern looking with large windows that show their dining area that always seems to have people inside, unlike the Sanrio Diner next door.

The inside was mostly adorned with black and white giving it a more classy look. We ordered the Banana and Chocolate Honey Toast along with some drinks. They brought out the toast and it was beautiful. It is pretty much a thick loaf of bread that they have carved out the inside into cubes and then stacked the pieces back inside again. They didn't show us any specific way to eat it, although later we noticed them showing other customers the "right way" I guess, so we just poured honey on top and dug in. It tasted like toast but very good toast, they do bread differently here and I'm certain it can't be at all healthy but it was dessert so oh well. I didn't think we could eat the whole thing but we ate all of it aside from the bottom piece that was kind of soggy from the ice cream. We were happy that we were able to finally try it since I don't think we could get anything remotely similar back home.

      We also happened to go to a cafe that we have passed multiple times before in the area of Ximending. It's called Wa Wa Wow cafe but I think it's mostly known as the Swing Cafe because it has these swinging seats at a few of the tables near the windows overlooking the street. The cafe is also known for it's huge amount of stuffed animals that are EVERYWHERE. They cover the entire place and some are even dangling around the swing benches. The food was decent priced for a themed cafe and to my pleasure it wasn't nearly as dirty as I was worried it would be. I was thinking because of all the plushies around, there would be a lot more dust collecting but it seemed fairly well kept. We ordered some thick toast with chocolate spread and some tea and coffee. My Cappuccino was super strong and Yue's Apple Green tea drink was very sweet but I think that's how they're meant to be. The atmosphere was quiet and relaxing oh and we could reach the free wifi from the computer store across the street! It felt like it'd be a nice place to go and study or just chill out for a while. 

    

  

Yep so that's the end of our cafe hopping fun, soon we will be back to making our own coffee concoctions since I don't really drink Starbucks and those hipster Midtown cafes are kinda pricey.

Bye~

MOCA TAIPEI

 Heyy everyone,
     We haven't really been to many museums or exhibits since we've been here and I've been thinking it might be nice to check out some Taiwanese artists while we still get the chance, so today we made a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei. Admission was 50NT so a little under $2  and they gave us these neat little light boxes as tickets. The first artists' work that we saw was full of pelvis bones and little army men. I didn't really understand the concept though.

The main exhibition was the work by Hsi-Shih-Pin. We were shown fragments of beautiful, masterfully crafted sculptures as we walked through the exhibit. They appeared mechanical and were so detailed. These pieces were meant to be viewed in dim lighting because the reflections casted of the metal created amazing forms on the walls and floor. After walking through a room full of blue prints of these mechanical pieces put together to form a variety of larger pieces we entered a large space where these marvelous creatures took on their ultimate forms.  We were confronted these colossal beasts that looked like horses and across the room was a Griffon and a Unicorn. These creatures were made up of many many pieces with such detail it was difficult to view each part and instead we were forced to focus on the whole but my eyes kept trying to break them down. The title of this exhibit was The Memory Palace and it was the artists goal to challenge the viewer to visualize and interpret the memories brought about by these forms. He wanted people to reflect on them and correlate the small parts to their own memories. It's difficult to try and explain based on what he was saying in a video at the end but it was truly a magnificent sight to behold.

    After The Memory Palace we saw a familiar face that I recognized from the other art museum we had visited. We entered into Chang Chia Ying's solo exhibition called Fairy Tale Reincarnation. Her style is very recognizable to me because it reflects pop surrealist aesthetics which include very large eyes and vivid coloring. Many artists I admire work in this particular style. Ying's work is much less "cutesy" than many others I've seen and instead has a more uncomfortable slightly creepy vibe moslty because they eyes of her characters are very big, but also very creepy. I did not understand the concept whatsoever even after reading the thoughts behind the work. Her aim was to recreate Eastern and Western fairy tales and mix them together somehow. I didn't really get it but maybe I'd need to have a more thorough grasp of the stories behind the work. The coolest part of this exhibit was the presentation. The pieces on the far wall both lead the viewers eyes to a small door blended into back wall. There was a line waiting to get in and once we made it to the front they give us each a fox mask to wear inside the room behind the door. The room was made to look like one of the artist's paintings and you were meant to feel as if you were a part of the work. It was very neat.

This was by far one of the most interesting art exhibitions i've been too and I highly recommend anyone reading to go check out the artists mentioned.

~Savi

Hualien Part 1

2 posts in a row woo!
Okay so I'm going to tell you guys about another spur of the moment trip we went on with one of Yue's cousins(She has many >_>;). He basically said he was coming to get us and to get ready the day of so we packed light and hopped in the car and off we went. And we went and went and dang it was a long drive. We started heading through mountainous areas and it got rather chilly. Neither of us had prepared for cooler weather since it's been hot lately in Taipei so we ended up borrowing some of her cousin's jackets hah. We arrived in a city area that looked like any other city really and we stopped for a bite of food before looking for a hotel for the night. We opted for a cheaper hotel and that resulted in us staying in a super shady motel that was also some kind of council meeting place?? They had a huge congregating room on the lobby floor. The elevator tried to kill me on the way up to our rooms and then the lights were so dim in the hallways casting eerie shadows all around. A great place to film a scary movie lol. On the bright side the bed was relatively comfortable after a few adjustments. We woke the next day and ate breakfast at McDonalds..not our first choice of food but it was sustenance I suppose. The McDonalds was huge though, it had 2 floors and there was a large group of business people gathering upstairs for some kind of breakfast party or something. I guess McDonalds has more space for bigger groups compared to small side street breakfast shops.
 I finally found out where we were after seeing signs everywhere since no one really told me where we were going. We were in Hualien, which is basically this huge chunk of space along the coastline that is covered in mountains and scenic stuff.

After our McDs we drove a while more and found ourselves at Liyu Lake.

We were kind of just dropped off there and encouraged to get on one of these little swan boats you can rent. I hadn't been in one of those since waaay back when I would go camping and do outdoors stuff. So we peddled off onto the lake in our little swan boat.

It was a shady day but not too cool. The sky was overcast and we could see the mountains looming nearby. The lake was pretty large so it took us a long time to cross but we made it to the other side and spotted some lovely cranes as well as an unexpected forest dweller.

The lake was pretty and peaceful aside from the Hong Kong tourists canoeing by that kept being loud and scaring all the birds away.

After our boat was back at the harbor we took a drive further into the mountains to Tarako National park. It was breathtaking to see this massive gorge and a mountain wall towering into the sky. Even more amazing was the temple peering over the edge of the mountain. When looking down over the edge of the gorge we could see pools of the bluest water I have ever seen. It was literally blue. There were many tourists here including more from Hong Kong and a large group of Koreans. Not so many European Tourists on this day though but this is definitely a big destination for the area. We climbed towards the temple and then tried to head up the mountain along a set of narrow stairs but once we realized the stairs never seemed to end, not even small ledges to break on, we made our way back down feeling thoroughly out of shape. 

We had a lunch break in between before going to the beach. Okay so I don't know if this is a uniting factor of all Taiwanese beaches but this one was covered in rocks. Little tiny rocks at first that become bigger as they reach the ocean. These rocks are smooth and polished and the water is yet again blue. Beautiful clear blue water. The rocks were kind of uncomfortable so I tried walking barefoot and boy was that a mistake. It was nearly impossible to walk on the rocks without being in pain! I walked towards the water to stick my feet in and the water rushed in so quickly and much higher than I anticipated so my entire lower pant legs were drenched. I searched around and found a slightly larger rock to perch on too dry and look out at the expanse of water. It was the kind of place where if you wished to retire and live a life by the sea, you could be very much at peace. It was no where near a city so mostly old people and a few tourists were around. There was also a pack of beach dwelling dogs. I'm not kidding about the dogs of Taiwan, either they are pampered pups or they run with the gangs of street dogs and apparently beach dogs as well.

That was basically it for the day since the sun set not long afterwards. We went back into town for some food then took a stroll around the area before calling it a night.

Part 2 soon

~Savi

No candy tonight(ó﹏ò｡)

    Happy late Halloween everyone! I hope if you weren't able to go out that you at least had a fun night watching scary movies or pigging out on something sweet maybe. It was my hope that we could go to one of the Halloween parties I read about, because Taipei apparently has quite a few big gatherings, but we just didn't plan for it. No costumes and no where really in mind to go, we dressed all in black in spirit of the day, and headed for the Taipei main station area. I had seen Halloween icecream advertisements around but couldn't remember which place was serving it. We wandered all around the mall food court area and finally found it at ColdStone.

                                         

They had a deal where if you bought any of the medium sized ice creams and you made a scary face at the register, then you could get a free one of these "Toothless" desserts. I was of course happy to oblige.Yue got herself a tea ice cream with red beans and pieces of pistachio which turned out to be DELICIOUS. It was way better than the free ice cream mostly because it was so much less sweet. The toothless ice cream tasted like bubble gum with little pieces of raspberry or something, not the greatest flavor, but still fun to try. It was topped with gummy teeth and some Halloween cookies. 

Having had our fill of sweet stuff for the day we went to the underground mall which we have frequented a few times since we've been here. They had some decorations up around the mall and they even had their mascots dressed in costumes. We walked through looking at the figures again and the merchandise, never can get sick of looking at everything.

We later went back to the food court for dinner and had the worst food experience we've had so far (aside from the maid cafe lol).

We tried the Indian food place and were severely disappointed. The presentation looked nice, typical curry dish with a side of large naan (it was unusually large).

Sadly the presentation is all this meal had going for it, the curry was bland and the chicken was still pink! The bread was big, but very tough, almost stale when it should be soft and easily tearable. We were pretty horrified and now we know that at least back home we can get good Indian food.

   After our meal we decided to go to Ximen again in the hopes they maybe had something going on for Halloween. There were plenty of people as is typical for a Friday, but not many people were dressed up. I saw a few groups of kids and parents in costume and small groups of friends scattered amongst the crowd, but Ximen was really no different from usual. There were a few more street performers out doing their thing and there was even a foreigner among them tonight. He sounded like an American to me when he spoke and when questioned by the security guy he held up a badge. I guess they have performing licenses people can get so they don't always have to run whenever the security comes by (like the food vendors have to do). Anyway the night was getting late and I suppose all the cool costumed people were at parties so we called it a night and headed back. We ended the evening by watching the Halloween episode of Modern Family and of course American Horror Story. 

What did you guys do this Halloween?


P.S. Yue also got her first cartilage piercing on our trip to Ximen. We pass the piercing shops often and finally just went in haha. Don't know if i'm up for a new one again yet.

WOW FANTASTIC BABY

Hello guys!
Last night we went toooooo....

The YG Family was touring and their last stop was Taiwan!

                       <-On our way!

We got to the concert venue about 4 hours before the show and it was packed. Vendors were selling merchandise all along the perimeter, Bigbang shirts and tons of Winner stuff everywhere. I thought night markets were crowded but the concert people were packed in tight the only difference was that this was pretty much all our age group and their was no stinky tofu smell. Girls wearing jerseys and bandanas lined the walkways and finally some unique fashions emerged, although all generally brought to mind Korean street wear. 

After pushing our way through the sea of people and grabbing a few souvenirs we struggled into the nearby 7-Eleven and ate what we could find (the shelves had been nearly cleared by the mass of concert goers). Time went too quickly and soon we had to rush back to the concert hall. We wanted to use the toilets before we went in but the lines for the port-a-potty's were atrocious. We ended up missing the start of the concert because we were waiting in line for the disgusting squat toilets that for some reason locked you inside and only opened from the outside.

<---This is the "line" for the toilets (>▂<)

    We heard the hoards of screaming fans and raced out of toilet area and into the stadium to find our seats. 2ne1 was the first group up and we could see them on the screens as we entered. We were not too far from the stage but it was still difficult to see through the crowd, especially when there were taller guys wearing hats a few rows ahead. The artists looked so small compared to the stage, this was one of the biggest venues I'd been in and it dwarfed them! The big screens on either side zoomed in on them though. 

Yue was waving her Big Bang glowing rod around and we were bouncing in place to the songs. 2ne1's performance lead into the newest addition to YG, Winner. Even though they are a recent addition, they have a huge fan base and many of the people their screamed even louder than for 2ne1!

Epik High performed after and pumped up the crowd but I felt that they didn't have near the response as the 2 groups before, possibly because they aren't as popular here? They didn't get much stage time compared to the other groups either, but they had a collab with Dara for "Love love love" which I loved haha♥

   Of course the headlining group that everyone knows and loves made a huge appearance. Big Bang entered dramatically with an older song, Haru Haru and then they did some more collabs between groups and even switched out songs. Daesung and one of the guys from Winner I think, sang 2ne1's song "ugly" and later Big Bang came out together and and did a parody of "I love you" which was definitely a highlight of the show.

 (This is not my video as I did not have a camera, credit goes to the sneaky girl filming here lol)

    

   The concert wasn't over yet though, the biggest entrance of all came when PSY made his appearance. Thankfully he did not perform "Gangnam Style" until the end of his segment. At the end they brought all of the artist out and they danced and sang together for the last few songs before closing the show. The groups really did have a family vibe between them and it was great seeing them interact with each other. I don't feel that the Taiwanese fans had nearly the energy that you would see at a US concert but there was some serious fan girls mixed in who tried to bring the crowd up.  

  I didn't think we were allowed to bring cameras so I tried taking pics on my phone but they all came out pretty awful as did the videos but I'll share them anyway.

Lookit all those people! 

With our Big Bang light up stuff

   

       

Minzy shakin it

       

What can be better than Tablo and Dara on stage at the same time ohoh

This concert was truly amazing, they did a great job with the sets and timing and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I am not a huge fan girl when it comes to most things but seeing these artists in the flesh was pretty epic (and I never use that word). T.O.P. is just as handsome in real life and Taeyang has a super funny voice while GD has a surprisingly normal one? All the ladies of 2ne1 were hella sexy and PSY brought the energy. Tablo is freakin adorable and I wish he would rap in english more often! And well, I don't know Winner too well but they will probably be as big as Big Bang in the near future. 

The only problem now is how will anything else in my life ever be that awesome again?

~Savi