Taipei City, Taiwan 2017

It’s not the first time I’ve been to Taipei City, Taiwan. I first went that food-crazy place last December in 2016 and spent the new year over there with The Boy. That was my first trip there and I absolutely loved it. We ate our heart out until our tummies were decidedly and fairly angry at us, pretty sure we gained quite a bit of happy weight, checked out their booming bespoke bar scene, revelled in the food markets, and took a train out of the city to trek a mountain where we froze and insisted on eating dim sum to warm ourselves up.

Back once again in December but this time with family. As usual, we ate till my body hated me but my heart was as full as my tummy. I don’t think I can pinpoint the exact reasons why I do love Taipei City. It’s a little bit of everything - the perfect blend of old and gentrified neighbourhoods, the honestly good non-gimmicky food, reasonable 4 seasonal weather, a heartening mix of city life and nature, the vibrancy of each lane and district and most importantly, the people - so kind, genuine, family-loving with a stirring pride for their country, culture and cuisine. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody who take such pure joy in sharing their culture and cuisine with people from all over the world.

Funny enough, I’ve never really visited their main tourist attractions. Probably moseyed past Taipei 101 in 2016 on a particularly lovely sunny day. I never really believed in these attractions, as I’d rather live like a local as much as possible. I’m not gonna share an itinerary as this trip was relatively impromptu (we were kinda enrolee to Hokkaido, Japan), but here’s just some visuals of a wonderful trip this 2017.