March 19, 2016
It was another rainy morning in Taipei, but at least it’s a lot warmer than earlier in the week. Nate was in a good mood this morning and asked to sit in his stroller after breakfast and said to my sister, “Go!”. My sister and I took him to Daan Park to walk around, but as we began walking there it started to rain even harder. So unfortunately for Nate, he wasn’t able to play in the park.
When we got back from the park, Tim and I went to grab breakfast for everyone from a restaurant down the block that has since become our new breakfast/lunch/late night eats joint – “Ya Meile”. Once we walk in, the lady behind the counter recognized us and welcomed us in. She gave us free soy milk and said it was her treat (we think she’s the boss lady, she’s really friendly and very in control of everyone). We brought some dumplings, XLBs, lo bak go (fried turnip cake) and rice rolls to bring back to the apartment. It was our second day eating at this place and it’s probably one of the cheapest restaurants we have found for good eats (for breakfast, lunch and dinner). We could feed all four of us for less than $10 CAD.
The rain was coming down really hard at this point in the morning so we decided to just chill out and let Nate nap. The guys stayed back at the apartment to rest while I went with my sister to walk around a bit and get some bubble tea. We headed towards Daan Park and stopped by a Coco Bubble Tea. My sister really likes their passionfruit tea with coconut jelly and pearls – it’s really refreshing and only 40 NT = $1.60 CAD! We were discussing that this drink in Vancouver would likely be around $5. We also went to try to look for a KFC so my sister and Noel could try their delicious egg tarts. We had no luck because the one I looked up that was close to Coco closed down.
After our failed attempt to find a KFC, we walked by a beautiful indoor flower market – if only we actually lived here I would buy fresh flowers and an assortment of succulents.
On the way back to the apartment, we stopped by a restaurant that looked like a very popular lunch spot a few blocks away (Tim: Ruei An Taiwan Buffet). It was a self-serve lunch bar but we weren’t sure if they charged by the box/plate or if they weighed it. We didn’t see any signs with a fixed price so we assumed it was by weight, as people weren’t going crazy filling up their boxes/plates. We picked a few things to share and went to the counter to pay. There wasn’t a scale, but the cashier counted everything with her tongs and charged us for what we had. For a pretty full box we paid 90 NT = $3.60 CAD.
When we got back to the apartment, Nate was waking up from his nap (such good timing). We got ready and headed to Zhongxiao Fuxing to go to SOGO (Japanese department store). I’m always impressed by children’s toy floors at department stores here. They have a huge selection of toys and a variety of arts and craft stations around- like sewing, embroidery, clay making, painting, etc.
After SOGO, we walked down Zhongxiao Road towards Ice Monster. We wanted to stop by before dinner to get a popsicle as we wouldn’t have enough time before meeting the Ho family for dinner. As it was a Saturday afternoon, there was a huge line up for Ice Monster if you wanted to eat in. We got two popsicles (passionfruit and mango) just to try. They were perfect for Nate – super mini popsicles for 30 NT = $1.20 CAD.
We met Auntie Sandra, Uncle Dave and Kris for dinner at the original location of Shin Yeh. They were in town for the weekend so it was perfect timing that we were all able to meet up. Uncle Dave ordered a lot of classic Taiwanese dishes for us to try (I forget to take pictures).
After dinner we headed back to the apartment to put Nate to sleep before heading out to the Tonghua Night Market. My sister was exhausted so she decided to stay back and just go to bed early (it’s hard being a Mom…). We’ll come back to this night market again with her when we get back from Kenting – it’s close to Tim’s uncle’s apartment, where we’ll be staying for their last night in Taipei.
Now we’re back at the apartment, all ready to go to sleep. We’re planning on going to church tomorrow at the Holy Family Catholic Church close by (on the other side of Daan Park). There’s one English service there on Sundays at 9:45am.
Our total step count for today was 21,045 (I walked a bit more than Tim because I had two separate walks to Daan Park without him 😛 )
