[TRAVEL] Splendid Taipei series: Day 2

Ajah! Here’s the second installment of our Taipei Trip. The itinerary for Day 2 was to visit temples, a day made especially for Jcel because she loves temples.

But first things first, we just have to visit one of Taipei’s Landmarks which is located in the heart of the City - “Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall”. Though we have planned for Day 2 to visit temples, we just couldn't bare the thought of missing out on CKS since it is one of the most recommended places to visit. The good thing about Taipei is that, even though it has a vast land area; you can reach any places by train in a jiffy just like in Hong Kong. The CKS itself has its own train station so it’s convenient and hassle free, definitely an advantage for tourists and first timers.

The place is grand with two temple-like buildings facing each other with a big clearing in between. As we were taking pictures and did our crazy jumps, many would come up to us and asked us to take pictures of them. One particular tourist wouldn't go away even after Jcel took a lot of pictures of her (on her camera of course!); I realized later, she wanted jump-shots taken. I became her photographer until she was fully satisfied with the takes. Like I said, the place is grand. It's a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the museums, exhibition halls and gardens.

 Afterwards, we went to Longshan Temple but we were put off by the large crowd. We cannot enjoy as we felt it was inappropriate for us to be there while they were worshiping. We walked around Longshan district instead and found an alley where old folks hangout to drink tea and sell old stuffs. After going around, we felt the pang of hunger. We wanted to try Taiwanese foods but apparently all they have around that place are Taiwanese desserts, burgers, cafés and Yoshinoya. We opted for Yoshinoya as we needed to energize ourselves after that long walk. I distinctly remembered we actually had to drag ourselves to walk back to the train station. However, going back to the train station was such a good decision because that is where the “Longshan Temple Underground Shopping Bazaar” is located (and yes that’s how long the name is!). If you’re into shoes, it is the best place to be because firstly they are so cheap, we end up buying 4 pairs of shoes and secondly, I can assure you that they are of good quality. 

Following that, we decided not to go to any temples anymore. We figured it’ll be packed with people as well since it was CNY holiday. Instead, we went to Ximending. When we got out of the station, it felt like “Lost in Translation” scenario. The place was H.U.G.E – huge! What more, it was a bit crowded. There were alleys after alleys of shops and restaurants. They also have a block specifically for all cinemas. Our feet were killing us at that time from all those walking, so we decided to rest – come and behold Starbucks to the rescue. It was a three story building exclusively for Starbucks all we could say was – WOW! After an hour of rest we decided not to go around anymore.

But our adventure did not stop there; Jcel and I decided to go to Taipei 101. We arrived around 6:30 pm in New York New York but then it started drizzling but that didn't stop us. It was quite a long walk around 15 to 20 minutes depending on how fast you walk. This is the place where you mostly see a lot of foreigners (hence the name!) and high-end shops also, some random entertainments. 

We walked all the way to Taipei 101 and arrived at 7:15 pm; fortunately the last tour is at 9:15 pm and our lining up time was 8:30 pm. We resulted to just sit and rest since our feet was already shouting in agony. But before we know it, it was already time to queue up. Though the line was long, it only took around 10 minutes wait and was moving constantly so you don’t feel the stress of waiting at all and the reason for this is the super hi-tech, super speed elevator.

When we got in, all the lights were off except for the small lights that felt like you were in space. I particularly remember us going up to 89^th floor in less than 40 seconds because I was staring at the monitor. It was unbelievably fast! You wouldn’t feel the lift going up to 89^th floor at all, it was that awesome! The Taipei 101 was the highest building in the world for 5 years until Dubai decided to build a much taller one. Though it was already night time, it was still magnificent to see Taipei in 360 degrees. Once up there, you will be given a handset that’ll guide you through out the tour. We bought souvenirs and sent our families postcards. Somehow, we forgot how it’s like to send a letter through mail because where the address was supposed to be written, that was where we wrote our messages. By the time we realized it, it was too late. We didn’t have anymore space to write down our address in HK. We had to squeeze it in. Two weeks later – we received our cards, and we thought it’ll never make it! Hahahaha

 

After Taipei 101, we were hungry but we wanted something Taiwan-nesee. So we ignored McDonalds, Burger King, CPK and other western restaurants that we in fact know we can eat n HK. So we took the courage to walk back to New York New York again, this time it was already 10-ish pm. For us walking back that path was longer than we have projected. By this time, we were not only hungry, our feet were screaming for us to stop walking. By the time we arrived near the train station hoping to find a restaurant that serves Taiwanese food, the only shop that was open was YOSHINOYA! After all that we've been through, we end up “again” in Yoshinoya because apparently, they’re open 24/7. We just kept laughing and laughing because it was as if fate was playing a trick on us. 

After our meal, we had no more strength to actually move. We wanted to take a cab, but were too scared so we walked back to the train station and got home at around 12:30am.

So that’s our day 2 full of laughter and pain from going around too many places in one day, but it was worth it and another day for both of us to always treasure. :) 

Here's our "another" epic-fail jump-shots (hehehehe)

Click HERE for our Day 2 video on Youtube! :) Enjoy watching!

Till Next time! :)

Bex

Mixxed girls parties!

We all know time flies but April went in a blink of an eye for us. We’ve been extremely busy with work and life in general and on top of that we took on another project which was organizing my nephew’s 1^st birthday party. This was the 2^nd party we have organized. But this time it’s a full-blown party with more work since we’ve taken the challenge of doing all the decors, props, etc ourselves so there was a lot of papercuts and sleepless nights. Alongside this our bodies decided it was the best time for us to get sick just a couple of weeks before the party so we were tired, stressed and drugged during the whole preparation, there were moments when we thought we couldn’t make it but we did – yay! LOL

The theme of the party is Superman because the celebrant is a super baby! We made sure that everything coincides with the color scheme of Red, Blue and Yellow whilst making it baby-ish.

First in the list was DIY-ing a Photobooth. This was requested by the mother of the birthday boy and I promised her that I’d make it happen which we did! :D Everything from the props to the backdrop was handcrafted by us. This was such a big hit! Everyone was queuing to get their turns. And by the end of the party all the props were gone LOL

Obviously we cannot pass up posing for the booth as well. LOL

Another request was a Superman Piñata. Because this was hard to come by in shops therefore we had to make it ourselves. Concept and work was by Bex.

The kids ransacked the poor piñata! 

I, on the other hand, was in-charge of the overall decors. Starting with the banner which I have initially wanted my friend to make but due to time constraints we had to improvise. Despite not having Jayden’s picture up in the banner as I first wanted it turned out well and had compliments on it.

 Went for the Superman logo style. 

The leftover cut outs of the letters from the banners I used as added decors in the venue because oddly enough there are 2 big columns on each side of the place and so it would look weird if undecorated plus the scattered letters made the place look more kiddie.

I've also decided it would also be nice to have a guest board for people to write their wishes to the birthday boy as they enter the party. Also DIY-ed this because… well it’s easily done!

 Frame on a frame doesn't look so bad after all.

We also organized the flow of the party. We decided to have a slideshow of the birthday boy’s pictures while everyone is eating.

We also prepared the Games, we wanted to have everyone enjoy so we made games for both kids and teens/adults such as Longest line and Stop the music. The longest line was probably the funniest of all. It was so much fun because everyone got to play. 

 Longest Line

Stop the music

Along with the games we organized prizes and loots bags for everyone as well as the souvenirs which were DIY-ed as well.

 Souvenirs for everyone

Loot bags for the kids

Last but not the least, I ordered a Superman cake and cupcakes from Sofia Sweet Treats which was uh-maze-balls! They were soooo good that I wish I ordered more. Please do check out more of her cakes in Instagram (#sofiasweettreats) and for enquires please contact, Sheryl. 

Super cute and seriously delish cupcakes in Butter flavor.

How awesome is the design?! Cake was Chocolate flavor.

The little birthday boy is taking a sneaky grab at the cake! 
Cuteness overload!

Overall it was a big success so much so that people came to us and told us we should quit our cosmetic shop and be party planners instead, something that we have actually thought of doing even before. Obviously we still need more experience because being party planners is a serious business and A LOT of work especially if we are going to DIY most of everything. Either way we had so much fun doing this and hopefully more parties for us to organize in the near future.

More pictures in our Facebook pages as well the Photobooth shots, unfortunately friends only.

Till our next post…

Ciao bellas/bellos!

jCel♥