14 days around Taiwan

I am writing this blog especially to my friend Juni who is visiting Taiwan soon.



I and my friend reach Taipei on the 17th August and finish our whole trip on the 30th of August. Taiwan is an island and is famous for their bubble tea and also their super fun night markets where you get to eat delicious hawker food and drinks.

• Taipei

- Is a must to visit the first Din Tai Fung restaurant for their famous xiao long bao. Be sure to be there by 6pm or earlier as  the line gets longer

- If you have the chance to visit the Starbucks in Taipei 101 and get the perfect view of the whole city but semi-formal wear is required for some reason which I myself did not go due to this reason.

- Xiangshan (Elephant Mountain) to view the sunrise or sunset. Reach the six giant rocks for a perfect view of the city. Wear comfy clothes and shoes as you have to hike up. 

- Maji Maji Square 

- My favourite night market Shilin Night Market

- Ningxia Night Market

- Raohe night market

- Tonghua night market  

- Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall

- Red House Theater 

- Shi-men Ting

Food to try in Taipei:

- Fuhang soy milk

- Hangzhou Xia Long Bao

- Liu Mama rice ball

- Jinfeng Braised pork rice

- Ah chong shi mien  

• Taoyuan (rented a car started from this place)

- Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf

- Yamingshan National Park 

- Yehliu Geopark

• Keelung

- Keelung Mountain Peak

- Yin-Yang sea (different shades of blue)

- Golden waterfall 

• Jiufen 

- Shifen waterfall

- Shifen old street 

- Pingxi old street

- Sky lantern

Food to try:

- stinky tofu

- sweet Glutinous balls

- fish ball

- mocha on a stick 

- A-zhu peanut ice cream roll

- Taiwanese meatball

- Bubble tea 

- beef noodle

• Hualian 

- Shuilian 

- Niu Moutain 

- Jiqi Beach 

• Taitung

- Chih-Shang

- Taitung brown road

- The giant tree in Brown road

- Amis folk centre 

- Donghe steamed buns 

- water running upwards

- chen's mochi

- jialulan 

- forest park (bike)

• Taimali 

- checheng fuan temple

Food to try:

- Yam ball shave ice

- Green bean soup 

• Kenting

- Maobitou park

- kenting national park

- kenting beach

- chuanfanshi 

- eluanbi park 

- kenting night market 

• Kaohsiung

- sunny hills pineapple pastry at pier2 art district

- tiger and dragon pagodas 

- love river

- ruifeng night market

• Tainan

- garden night market

- dadong night market 

- shanghai hao wei dao xiao long bao

- anping tree house

- anping fort

- anping old street 

- chihkan tower 

- fo guang shan 

The 2 night market take turns to open on different nights

• Chiayi    

- city market 

• Alishan 

- sunrise train (purchase from front desk hotel)

- forest trails

- giant tree of mt. shuishan 

- buy their tea (assam tea, oolong tea, black tea, green tea)

• Sun Moon Lake 

- xuanzang temple

- ita tao street food

- ci-en pagoda 

- sun moon lake ropeway

- shueishe village

- cycle around the lake

- antique assam tea farm west

• Taichung 

- chun shui tang (1st bubble tea shop)

- fengjia night market (biggest in Taiwan)

- miyahara 

• Daxi old street 

• Wulai 

- wulai falls

- wulai old street

- maokong gon dola

I had a great time in Taiwan and would totally revisit this country but the next  time with a better Chinese. Make sure to know some chinese words before visiting as most of the locals speak their own language.

Should you visit turkey?

Turkey was never on my travel list. It was an impromptu decision between the country Brazil or Turkey. We ended up with Turkey because as a traveller to Brazil we were highly recommended to get injections for health purposes.
And I never regretted that decision. Turkey was an awesome country! We covered 4 towns in Turkey each by using domestic flight which was around 1 to 2 hours each flight. In each town, we joined the hotel city tour to travel around.
Before making this decision safety was one of the main topic discussed as two years ago we all know that there was an attack in one of the big city. But guess what! Among all the recent country I visited Turkey has the most friendly people I ever met.
1. Istanbul ( used to be the capital city ) We join a full day tour from Best Western hotel and lunch was included. The whole tour was roughly from morning 10am to 5pm. The tour bus will fetch and send you back right to the hotel. A tour guide who speaks fluent English is provided.

 Blue Mosque 

Hagia Sofia

3 days 2 nights in Istanbul.

Must try their street food corn.

2. Cappadocia. Cappadocia is my most favourite place of all four. This is the famous place to have a wonderful adventure in a hot air balloon. We booked the tour online and chose the ride to see the sunrise. It was just amazing! If riding on a hot air balloon is on your bucket list I highly recommend this place. Don’t forget to spend a night in a cave hotel. We spent two nights here and booked a private tour to visit the fairy chimneys and Derinkuyu underground. For this tour guide was not included.

3.Ephesus. Ephesus we too travel with a private tour but this was included with a personal driver and tour guide. We covered the house of Virgin Mary, the temple of Artemis, Basilica of St. John and Ephesus the old ruin city itself was full of history. We booked an Airbnb to spend a night here. 

4.Pamukkale. This town is famous for its natural thermal pool and also the ruins of Laodicea and Hierapolis. For this town, we mostly walk but Laodicea, we travel using the local minivan that comes every 15 minutes as was told by the locals. Ephesus to Pamukkale is only about 3 hours drive but we took the flight which is longer due to 2 hours stayed over at Istanbul airport. We stay in an Airbnb. Almost all type of food is seen available in this area.  

Do try out some of the local's food. My favourite was the pide which is their local type of pizza. Turkey is famous for their pomegranate juice and also tea. The people there are super friendly and makes you feel at home. 

internSHIP

" Should I just delete my blog?"

Hey how's everyone doing? 

Internship?

It makes me mature a lot as a person. In my thinking and making of decisions.

Honestly, I am enjoying internship at the same time slowly dying mentally and emotionally. Maybe I am just overthinking. I miss home. I miss friends. I miss church (kinda haha). I miss the free time where I can just derp around and not do anything. People say Mandarine Oriental Hotel is like a prestige hotel and I should be grateful for that but so what. Is not like I am going to work there in the future. Make my resume nice? I bet so.  Staying at a friend's house was not that bad but I just feel that I am interfering with their daily life. Overthinking again. Meeting new friends was the best part of the internship. It helps me see that no matter who they are regardless of their race, religion, gender, the country there is so much to learn by opening up to these people. And I felt a sense of belonging. Weird but that's how I felt. Is only the second month and three more months to go till it ends.

 Hope I don't die by then. 

:) 

De BIG Apple diary

                      took this picture from the observotory tower
How's everyone doing? Have been super busy with university life and almost forget that this blog still exists. In the month Of March, I was lucky to have the chance to travel all the way to New York City for three week. And yez this blog will be a very very short summary about my trip there.

Things i love about NYC:
- Even though the city is filled with high rise buildings you still can somehow find nature around you. Central Park is located in the city itself.
- Public Transport is supper convenient
- Shop, shop and more shopping
- Variety of food can be found. From italian to chinese to japanese to korean. And they taste pretty good
- There have different towns like chinatown, small italy, korean town and yes the place is legit filled with their own stuffs from restaurant to desserts to fahsion to convenient stores and markets even people. Walking down korean town the whole street is filled with koreans who speaks their own korean language.

There are so many more stuff just to like about that city. I mean who would not. Is a whole new experience and a dream come through for me. The biggest part of the trip is the people who brought me there and took time off to show me around. I guess it was the family who took me there plus the city itself which make this trip really unforgetful for me.

Things i dislike about NYC
- The subway is really dirty (i saw rats) and if you go during rush hour it can be a nightmare. But for an experience you should try hehe.
- The taxi drivers can make you have car sick even if you never had one in your life.

Honestly, i even like the dislike. Don't make sense i know. In conclusion, NY is a fascinating city and is freaking Beautiful. There are so many adventures and things to explore right in the city itself. You can never get enough from trying all diffeerent type of food especially their desserts will make you want even more at least for me.

Hands down THE BEST salad i have ever tasted in my whole entire life. The dressing combine so well with the salad that it became so addictitive to eat. Not exergerrating.

20 no 21 things 2016 taught me:

- Make a "to do list" and most probably you will stick to it.
- Silent is gold. Sometimes is better to shut up.
- Always help to speak for those who are wrongly accused.
- Eat more fiber to avoid constipation.
- Let go of people you know you should let go.
- Sing and just keep on singing even if it is lacking. It really helps to distress.
- Before wanting to scream, count 1 to 10 and most probably you will calm down.
- Give to the poor even if you do not have that much.
- Never study last minute. NEVER EVER.
- Ask clearly before starting any assignments.
- Shopping alone is not that back. It's kinda fun.
-Friends you least expect to get a bf first will turn out to be the first.
- Coffee tastes better without sugar.
- What people think about you is none of your business.
- If you really care about something do it with all your heart if not just give up. It is a waste of time.
- Do not judge till you know the full reason.
- There is no coincidence. Everything happens for a reason.
- Family before friends.
- Your squad is still the best.
- K-drama, bingsu, Korean fashion are all so addictive.
- Care less. You will be so much happier.
- Always say your prayers before sleeping despite how sleepy you are.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2017 be an awesome year for everyone :))

smile?

smile?
do you know that a fake smile can hide a million tears?
if you are force to do it is better you don't smile at all
you can lie to people by smiling
but you can never lie to yourself
they say just a smile you can make a friend
just a smile you can make somebody's day
but.... i start to wonder what's behind people's smile

she fakes a smile and says she is okay
but in reality she barely make it through the day
and she continues to do it
even though she is hurting badly
because to her faking a smile is much easier
then to explain herself

i really feel for her that is why i wrote this blog
till then
bye :)

look passed

" You want to know what living life to the fullest also is? It's waking up on a Monday morning with no complaints even though you know you have a hard week approaching. It's knowing you deserve to smile and laugh. It's doing what you want to, no matter how stupid you think you may look. It's about being yourself, cause no one can tell you you're doing it wrong. Living life to the fullest isn't always buying a plane ticket and travelling, sometimes it's the small things we easily look passed. "

    

                                                                                                                                -unknown-