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.