4 days 3 nights, and I just came back from Singapore two weeks ago. I've spent the first two days with my best friend, Ss which currently studying in Singapore, and the last two days with my sister, Irisa which currently living in Singapore too.
I love exploring new hangout spots in every city I've visited. While I have not go back to Penang for nearly a year, I spent part of my time here by exploring new and interesting hangout places. Cafes, restaurants, exhibitions, historical places, painting or baking classes, whatever. (Read more at my previous post.)
Saa-waa-dee-kaa.
In case you don't know yet, I am a Thai food person. I've visited Bangkok 2 years ago and guess what, most of my spendings is on food, local food. From the 5am morning market, to my second breakfast at 10am, 12pm-8pm for lunch / brunch / afternoon tea / dinner and still having heavy food as supper at 11pm. Serious confession, Thai food is to die for.
What are you going to do when you have 4 days holiday? Instead of doing nothing, we decided to go on a trip to Hualien city, Taiwan to soak up nature. Hualien city has the most natural, unspoiled environment and a very slow pace. We arrived in Hualien by train from Yilan ( some things came up so we took uber from Taipei to Yilan ) and it took us around one hour.
After checked-in at Shan Shui Hotel which is nearby to the train station, the adventures begin! Public transportation in Hualien is very inconvenient as they don't have an MRT system and take a taxi to travel around will be quite costly. So we decided to hire a private driver aka tour guide to bring us all-around the second day and I guess it's the best choice ever.
Here are some places we went and photolog of our trip:
Moli Cafe 小巷茉莉
I went here all the way for their souffle pancake, but too bad we didn't make any reservations and it's fully booked. So we went to a cafe nearby to have some coffee before we heading to the night market.
Address: 花蓮市三民街62號
Business hour: Tues - Sun 12PM - 8:30PM / closed on Mon
E-zuo Cafe 伊坐咖啡
It's a waffle party!
Address: 花蓮市三民街35-1號
Business hour: Mon - Fri 9:30AM - 6PM / Sat - Sun 9AM - 6PM
Dongdamen Night Market 東大門夜市
We ate a lot... like really a lot but I just took some pics of them. My most favourite food goes to 燒麻糬冰！as shown as the photo at the right.
Address: 花蓮市中山路50號
Business hour: Mon - Sun 5:30PM - 11:30PM
Four-eight Highland 四八高地
This was the first stop on the second day. From this height, we were able to see the whole view of Qixingtan beach. And... I've reached a level of clumsiness which I totally forgot to bring any pairs of pants/shorts for the trip ( LOL ) !
Qixingtan Beach 七星潭
It's really beautiful even though the weather was gloomy.
Swallow Grotto 燕子口 & Qingshui Cliff 清水斷崖
Honestly you have to travel here by yourself to believe these places are not photoshopped.
周家蒸餃小籠包
We finally have our lunch here at a very famous local food store. It's quite crowded and we queued up for about 20 minutes, that's still fine, good things take time!
Address: 花蓮縣花蓮市公正街4-20號
Business hour: Mon - Sun open 24 hours
貨櫃星巴克
Yes, it's a very special Starbucks at Hualien until it has become a tourist place. It's Instagram perfect but the fact was it's too crowded to take photos. We couldn't even find a table and the queue was craaaazzzy.
Address: 花蓮縣吉安鄉南濱路一段505號
Business hour: Sun - Thurs 9AM - 9PM / Fri - Sat 9AM - 10PM
Komod'z 谷慕滋
Komod'z is a bistro owned by an aboriginal Taiwanese rock musician——張震嶽，they have the most friendly waiter/waitress here to explain every single dish to us. Also they have ntd380 minimum spend, anyway we had a great dinner here.
Address: 花蓮市博愛街 108 號
Business hour: Mon - Sun 6PM - 1AM
Anna Coffee 安娜咖啡
This was the last stop of our trip. We decided to have some coffee and brunch before we left Hualien at Anna Coffee. Thumbs up for their french toast!
Address: 花蓮市國聯 5 路 137 號
Business hour: Mon - Sun 12PM - 11PM / closed on Thurs
I'm currently living in Taipei but I spend most of my time at school, workplace and my house. I only go for brunch, cafes hunt or tourist places on weekends, else I will be studying/working/lazing at home. So, last Tuesday, my stewardess sister, Irisa "stopped by" Taipei for about 20 hours and we decided to explore some places like how we usually did. And yeah I have my chance to sneak away from school!
I think I am quite a good planner (hahahaha) plus she is a big fan of Taipei city! Of course, [ no-rush ] is the key to our whole trip, take it slow and we wouldn't mind if we missed out some places on our list. Just talk about random funny things, take pictures of each other/selfies, good food and enjoy the vibes, stroll around the streets and that's it.
What can we do in Taipei for less than 24 hours?
Let's see!
Fish Bay 鯛魚燒霜淇淋
Address: 台北市大同區承德路二段1巷11號
Business hour: Mon - Sat 1PM - 9PM / Sun 1PM - 8PM
KlassiC. Eyewear
Address: 台北市中山區中山北路二段16巷9號1樓
Business hour: Mon - Sun 1PM - 9:30PM
Sugar Miss
Address: 台北市光復南路290巷4號1樓
Business hour: Mon - Sun 12PM - 8:30PM
Drunk Cafe 爛醉咖啡
Address: 光復南路116巷9號1樓
Business hour: Mon - Sun 11AM - 5PM, 6PM - 12AM
Tonghua Night Market 通化夜市
The photo on the right - 御品元冰火湯圓
Address: 台北市大安區通化街39巷50弄31號
It's been a while and weekends favorites series is back!
Yay, here's the weekend activity that isn't brunch. Forget cafe hopping and all your shopping plans, baking is a good idea to fill up your weekends. I love cakes and cookies, why not bake one for myself?
Lazy u+u studio - lazy kitchen for unique you, located at Da'an District, Heping East Road and it's 3 minutes away from Science and Technology Building MRT Station. I've been there twice and I am loving it! Why am I not doing it more often... it's way more productive than brunching, which I've had them to last a lifetime.
Not a good baker? First time making pastry and have no idea where to start? No worries, Lazy u+u has provided all the materials, tools and e v e r y t h i n g. What you need to do is, make your reservation at least 2 days before through their website, pick the pastry you want to make and they will reply to you within 24 hours to confirm your reservation. That's it!
Address: 台北市和平東路二段259號9樓（科技大樓站）
Instagram: @lazyuustudio