Making Each Day Count

We woke up to a good start on our second and third day in Taipei, Taiwan. I bookmarked quite a few destinations for us to cover during these two days, and the experience we had from Day 1 set us off with excitement. The Ximending hotel we stayed at provided breakfast vouchers for two restaurant options: MOS Burger and Louisa Coffee. We got to try both restaurants on each day, where we enjoyed light breakfast at each of these places. At MOS Burger, we had a bacon and egg sandwich, a burger and iced black tea. At Louisa Coffee we had blueberry bagel and hot americano. These were enough to energize us as we would be exploring Taipei on foot throughout these two days.

We walked around 15 minutes from our hotel to the Bopilao Historical Block. It is a preserved block made of historical brick buildings with traditional architecture. Some of the buildings date back more than 200 years ago, used for commercial purposes. Now the buildings are used for exhibits, as museum, and for cultural activities. I read that it also played an important part during the COVID days. In May 2021, it became a center for COVID screening for Taipei.

We then walked on to our next destination: the Lungshan Temple. Built in 1738, it is one of the most popular temples in Taiwan. Its main hall was bombed during the World War II, yet the Buddha statue remained untouched. After the war, the temple was restored. There were many tourists and worshipers when we went to Lungshan Temple. I was amazed by the intricacy of the temple’s design.

After our trip to Lungshan Temple, the rest of Day 2 was spent walking around Ximending and enjoying Taiwanese cuisine and street food. While exploring the streets, we came across a themed 7-ELEVEN shop. Cute souvenirs could be bought here.

On Day 3, our morning itinerary comprised of checking out the Taipei Botanical Garden and the National Taiwan Museum.

We had a lovely quiet walk under the canopy of trees in the Taipei Botanical Garden. The sounds and sights of different species of birds were a delight to hear and see. There were also some ponds in the garden. My favorite is the biggest one, the Lotus Pond. I was captivated by the pretty pink lotus flowers in the pond. I think this spot is quite popular to photographers because I see many of them lined up in an area near the pond. If I’m not mistaken they were waiting to get a macro shot of butterflies.

Our last stop for Day 3 was the National Taiwan Museum. Outside the museum, D and I took a breather watching the swan and the turtles in a pond. Close by, still outside the museum, is a lovely pagoda. The pond surrounding it also has turtles, and my heart breaks as I could not find rocks nor grass that the turtles could mount on. They were just swimming in the pond, I don’t know how they could rest! D was speculating the turtles get to be moved to other ponds on a regular basis, but I doubt it. I messaged them in Instagram to request for this, and I am hoping they will consider the suggestion.

The ticket to the National Taiwan Museum was for 30NT, and it allowed guests to visit another building across the museum. We liked the exhibits showing the natural history and the history of Taiwan.

After our trip to the museum, D and I walked around the streets of Ximending once again, and had a blast tying out food from kiosks once again.

This wraps up our short visit to Taipei. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and we look forward to visiting other parts of Taiwan, perhaps annually moving forward. I also plan to write about the highlights of our food adventures in Taipei in the upcoming blogs.