Alone And Hungry In Taiwan (48 Hours in Taipei)

Alone And Hungry In Taiwan (48 Hours in Taipei)

So, I just checked into my hotel here in Taipei 
where I’ll be staying for two nights as part of my solo adventure. Um, I was previously 
in Hong Kong with my family for a while, and then we all came over here to visit some 
family, do some fun things with with my nephews and celebrate my sister’s 40th birthday, but 
they just flew back to Hong Kong, and I decided to stay an extra 2 days to do some exploring by 
myself. And if you are wondering where Note is, he actually didn’t join this trip because I 
wanted to try to do a bit of solo traveling. He was happy to stay back in Koh Samui in Thailand 
to take care of our cats and dog that we somehow adopted over the last month once we moved back to 
Thailand. So, the hotel I am staying in is called Meander 1948. It is in a heritage building right 
near the Taipei main station. So, it’s a great location for just walking around by foot, but 
also it connects to the Taipei metro system, the train system as well. And I think this is 
actually a really nice hotel. I don’t remember what I paid for my room, but I’ll pop the price 
somewhere down here. I booked a double room, I believe, but they have upgraded me to 
a triple room for the next two nights, which is very, very spacious for me. 
There’s also like a common area upstairs, perfect for me to like do some work and also 
chat with some people, which is kind of usually outside my comfort zone to make friends by myself 
when I’m traveling. So this is kind of part of the challenge I think for me solo traveling is to 
just chat with people and meet some nice friends. So this is the place I am looking 
for. It’s called Dadaocheng which is braised pork rice. There is a line 
up here so it’s probably going to be good. So braised pork rice is a very famous dish here in 
Taiwan. It’s basically like minced pork made into a sauce over rice. It’s like local comfort food. 
And the hotel gave me some food vouchers that I can use at some of the restaurants around here 
and this was one of them. So I plan to eat here. Interesting. They have like another 
location around the corner. So, she told me to go over there 
and sit at table 17. Okay. Okay. Maybe it’s this one. I saw another 
couple come in here, so I’m going to go ask. It’s kind of nice getting a free meal. 
It’s actually a breakfast voucher, but a lot of the places are open till late. So, they 
said you can use it basically any time that the shops are open. And because I got upgraded to a 
triple room, they gave me six vouchers to use. So, afterwards, I can go grab like a drink 
or something from another shop near here. This is actually really, really delicious, 
especially with their chili sauce. Super spicy, but it’s really good. And it comes with this 
fatty pork leg. I believe I chose less fat. You can choose like very fat or less fat or all 
lean. It’s up to you. And it has some pickles and some cucumber. And together it’s really really 
good. Too bad they’re playing music. I’ll keep this short. A quick thank you to today’s video 
sponsor, Airalo. I honestly can’t remember the need something to cool down my mouth instead of 
a drink maybe it will be better to go and get a little dessert around the corner, which will also 
be free because it’s another one of the partners with the hotel. I just realized something. I 
don’t mind eating by myself or solo traveling, but filming by myself is actually quite difficult. 
I noticed that Note does a lot of the B-roll. He does all the drone shots. He does all the, you 
know, the close-up shots of different things. And I really just enjoy my day and and he captures 
the moments. But then now sitting by myself eating a simple bowl of rice. I’m thinking about what 
shots I need and where to put the camera and that is a lot of work that I’m actually not that 
interested in doing. I just really want to eat the food. But Note did all of that hard work 
for me. So I’m really excited to go back home and film together again cuz filming by myself 
is not so fun. But solo traveling I do enjoy. This is the kind of stuff that they have. Tofu 
pudding, ice grass jelly or taro paste shaved ice. I got the tofu pudding. More protein and less 
sugary. So, it’s just tofu pudding with red beans, tapioca pearls, and also taro on top. Let me 
see if it’s sweet. Not too sweet, which is nice. That’s actually delicious. It’s super 
silky and smooth and it kind of cuts through that spiciness that was in my mouth 
earlier. So, now it’s pretty much gone. So, this one was also free because it cost only 
$60 Taiwan dollar. The coupon was 80 TWD. So, she asked me, “Is this all? Did you want 
anything else?” I was like, “No, no, no. This is this is plenty of food for me.” The 
way they make the shaved ice is actually really interesting. They basically have these ice cubes 
at the top and right away they shave it into this really fluffy fluffy ice. It’s not mixed with milk 
or anything, but the color of it looks creamy milk color. Why does it have to be that huge? Three 
kids are sharing one right now. I don’t think I can finish it by myself. If I change my mind, then 
I have coupons to come tomorrow to give it a try. So, I’m actually back at the 7-Eleven just 
underneath my hotel. I always enjoy checking out the different convenience stores when I’m 
traveling to see what they have that is different. I feel like Taiwan definitely wins in terms of tea 
selection. All of this whole fridge here is just teas. Different types of milk teas, green teas, 
red teas, barley tea. Lots of sandwiches, which kind of remind me of Japan. Like fruit sandwiches. 
Oh, I like this too. Sesame oil chicken rice ball. So, initially when I came in the room and saw 
this, I thought, okay, maybe this is some sort of like machinery for wheelchair accessibility or 
something. So, I didn’t really take a look at it until at night. And then suddenly, I see an escape 
sling and these very complicated instructions about hanging a speed controller and then there 
is a belt and then putting the belt around you and then sliding down, propelling downwards. 
So obviously if something was to happen, I’m supposed to open this window and propel down 
to the ground. But this wasn’t the only kind of weird thing because there was also this light 
that was bright when I turned off all the lights and it’s this here. So that obviously is an escape 
sign or an exit sign or something for a building. There’s also something kind of interesting 
about Taiwan hotels. I was talking to my family about this like earlier yesterday. 
That’s why it stuck in my mind. There’s quite a few haunted hotels, like haunted stories 
and my brother-in-law mentioned that sometimes they build these rooms that are not actually 
rooms for people to live in, but like extra rooms to house the spirits so they don’t bother 
the other guests. So then when I came in here, I was like, is this like a human room or is this 
like an extra room? Because they upgraded me very last minute. And then the lady was like, you 
can go up by yourself. You have the key. Even though the reception was like she will bring you 
up, but then the lady’s like, “No, it’s okay.” Yeah. Nothing scary happened. Just kind of a 
weird room for me to be staying in by myself. It’s actually still raining a little bit 
today, but not as bad as yesterday. And not everyone’s using umbrellas, so it’s just like 
a little drizzle. But my umbrella yesterday was really flimsy. So, I’m going to stop at 
this store called Rain and Shine. It says it’s a fourth generation umbrella maker. 
I saw it when I walked past yesterday. So, maybe I’ll get a better umbrella cuz my mom 
also mentioned that she would like a little umbrella souvenir. I think my dad wanted 
a little umbrella souvenir from Taiwan. Oh, this is much better than the 
one I had yesterday. Yeah. So, this one is good because outside waterproof, but 
there’s also the UV lining inside. And he said the size is perfect for putting in a girl’s 
bag, which is true. My bag is not humongous. I think Taipei is a very charming city 
because there’s a lot of kind of old shops, really nostalgic shops, places 
that are still selling, you know, the one thing that they are passionate in making. 
It could be food, it could be crafts, could be umbrellas. I really like this kind of old school 
charm. And it’s everywhere. Everywhere in Taipei, probably all of Taiwan, too. But 
I can only speak about Taipei. This is it. Li Ji. It’s like Mr. Lee’s soy milk. I think I need to grab a pen and write 
my own order here. They actually do have other languages, too, like English as 
well, Korean, but I’m okay with Chinese. So, I got my large soy milk here. And this is 
like a crepe almost with egg and pork floss inside. This is one of my favorite breakfast 
foods. I remember I had a Taiwanese classmate in high school, Tina. And her mom used to 
make these wrappers, these crepe wrappers, and then she would distribute it to 
some of us because we loved it so much. This really brings back memories. We had 
lots of Taiwanese classmates in Vancouver. Thick soy sauce. I’m not actually sure 
what’s in it. Hoisin sauce maybe and soy sauce. It’s almost like a diluted soy 
sauce taste to it, but makes it so yummy. This is one of my favorite breakfast. It’s 
actually pretty light because it’s just egg and pork floss. The crepe is a bit chewy and 
combines everything together basically. It wraps everything together. I think it’s a great 
idea for the hotel to not have their own breakfast included cuz it’s a hostel, but 
then using these different vouchers allows you to try different things around here. I 
think it’s also great for the businesses as well because when I was reading some of 
the reviews, a lot of them mentioned that they came to the shop because of staying at this 
hotel and then they had a great experience. So, more hotels should do this. The ones that don’t 
actually have breakfast included should pair up with businesses around them to really promote 
each other basically. I think it’s time to try out my dad’s new umbrella. So, I’ve now made 
it to Dihua Street, which is Taipei’s oldest street. It dates back to the mid 19th century in 
the Qing dynasty. So, this was a huge trading hub back in the day. You can still see that a lot 
of the buildings look quite old and there are traditional kind of medicinal herbal shops, also 
tea shops, and temples kind of scattered around. I can smell the incense coming from 
this temple in front of me already. I just saw the sign for tea set 
and right now it’s 2:30. So I thought why not enjoy a little tea set 
by myself here in this heritage building. It’s a really nice place actually. Beautiful 
green walls with the wooden accent. This is the old Watson’s pharmacy building. So the first 
western pharmacy in Taipei. So they’ve preserved the outside of it and renovated the inside. 
Very beautiful. So my tea set comes with a black tea and an oolong tea scone and a plain 
scone. And then I chose cream cheese and lemon curd. I think it’s 360 Taiwan dollars. Probably 
on the more expensive end. I think because it’s in a heritage building, but it’s quite nice and 
the environment is quiet and peaceful. I might just stay here for a little bit while I read 
some of my book that I brought on this trip, which I think is really good, The Women. 
I was actually initially planning to go to the cat village, which is about an hour 
away from here. It’s called Houtong Village, but it’s getting a bit late and I don’t want to be 
stuck there. I don’t know what the last train is to get back. The thing about solo traveling is 
that you can always change your plans and it’s completely okay. It doesn’t affect anyone. So, 
yeah, I just enjoy this aspect of travel. And just even this morning, I completely took my time, 
super slow morning, listened to some old Taiwanese pop music from the 2000s. Yeah, I think this 
is actually the type of travel I was hoping to accomplish this time. Not the most exciting, but I 
think it’s what I needed as a woman in my mid30s. It’s still a little early to go to 
the night market. I’m going to kill some time here. I’ve been influenced 
by my nephew to check out these shops. I’m going to try to get this chocolate snack. I got it. Makes me wonder though, if I went to pay 
for it, would it be cheaper if I went to 7-Eleven to buy this instead? It tastes like victory. I 
don’t really have a solid plan for what foods I want to try. So, whatever looks good and whatever 
kind of has a lineup is the vibe I’m going for. That place has a humongous 
lineup all the way down here. And they sell oyster pancakes, I think. 
Which is a Taiwanese specialty. Yeah, egg and oyster pancakes. Let’s take a look. The 
thing is that’s a lot of food for one person to eat. And most people are ordering that to sit 
down. That’s why the the lineup was huge. If you get it to go, it’s actually pretty quick. 
But I can’t possibly finish that by myself. That’s the hard part with eating by yourself or 
night markets is I want to try a lot of things, but it’s a lot of food. There’s a little bit of 
a line up here, but I haven’t seen this before. It says it’s a deep fried taro cake. This is 
what it looks like. Let me see what is inside. So, it is like deep fried taro and then 
inside there’s an egg yolk in there. It’s not sweet. I would say it’s a bit neutral or 
savory. There’s also a little bit of salty um salty and sweet pork floss inside, too. It’s 
quite interesting. I’ve never had anything like this. And two of these came to 60 Taiwan dollars. 
So, walking along here, you see a lot of Japanese influence in the food. Like there’s a couple 
takoyaki shops. Also, yakisoba. There’s like matcha desserts, lots of mochi. Could be because 
Taiwan was colonized by Japan for about 50 years. So in 1895 till the end of World War II which was 
1945. So some influences remain in the food and the historic buildings maybe the obsession for 
cute things and anime and all of that as well. Even this shop here this is called going back 
in time pinball machine shop. So, it’s adults and kids who are playing these pinball machines, 
which remind me of pachinko in Japan, actually. So, I invested 100 TWD in tokens. 
She gave me the instruction book cuz they have it in English, the 
instructions of what to do. 171 tickets. Let’s see what I can exchange. 
Even socks are 250. I only have 170. I could get these cockroaches. They’re only 100. I could 
get Pokemon cards for my nephews. They’re only 80. So, I’m back at the hotel now where I started my 
day. I thought I would use this opportunity to sum up what I learned during my two three weeks of 
solo traveling just as a reminder to myself when I look back in the future and why I did this and 
why it was important to me. Oh, I didn’t expect to feel emotional about it. I was really happy with 
my life and what we’ve been accomplishing over the past couple years. I’m doing my dream job. I’m 
traveling the world making content. I married my best friend who I love to travel with and recently 
we even have cats now. So, everything is great. But I knew there was something missing. and 
traveling by myself this time has enabled me to really connect or reconnect with those different 
roles in my life. So being able to spend quality time with my parents, my family, being auntie 
to my cute nephews for the past couple days, spending time with my sister just makes me feel 
very fulfilled inside. And now I know that when I’m missing being those roles in my life, I just 
need to go and spend time with them. I thought maybe I enjoy adventuring by myself. But actually, 
I enjoy adventuring with Note. He makes everything more fun in my life. So I don’t need to go away 
to find happiness and fun and joy. I have that all when we’re together. But sometimes I need to 
have time away to be able to be fully present, to be a daughter, to be an auntie. And this 
is what I learned during this trip. And I think that’s a really good thing. And I’m really 
happy that I did this. And now I’m so excited to go back to Koh Samui to be back with Note and our 
little family of cats and dogs and our community of friends there. I got what I was looking for 
from solo traveling. So, thank you for sticking around the last two episodes as I went through 
this journey of mine. And stay tuned for the upcoming adventures where we will reunite 
and do more fun and amazing things on our channel. Thank you for watching and as always, 
have a wonderflo day. See you in the next one.

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The last stop of my solo travels brings me to Taipei, and I’m ready to eat my way through the city! From a comforting traditional soy milk breakfast to rich braised pork rice and all the irresistible snacks at the night market, Taipei is the perfect place to wrap up this journey. Along the way, I share what makes solo travel so rewarding… and the challenges that come with it.

LOCATIONS FEATURED:
📍Meander 1948: https://www.trip.com/t/gL0gZnxt1R2
📍Dadaocheng Braised Pork Rice: https://maps.app.goo.gl/QVRPijas2NDfHVwdA
📍大方冰品 (dessert shop): https://maps.app.goo.gl/QH83nsrtA2E3STa79
📍雨洋工坊 (Rain & Shine): https://maps.app.goo.gl/kFaEjxK4iGtJWEvK7
📍Li-Ji Soy Milk: https://maps.app.goo.gl/m9MeBqNaHvHmmX117
📍Dihua Old Street: https://maps.app.goo.gl/BiqKDsZ1x7GCwUT1A
📍ASW TEA HOUSE: https://maps.app.goo.gl/q2q9ZtZjuLEBi3Qu5
📍Ningxia Night Market: https://maps.app.goo.gl/HPZEmThaj9JNsqXL7

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Video Breakdown by Chapters:
00:00 Where I’m staying in Taipei
02:16 Eating free food!
10:04 Would you change rooms?
12:12 I love the old school charm of Taiwan
14:40 My favourite breakfast
17:20 The oldest street in Taipei
21:07 Food and fun at the night market
25:50 What I learned from solo traveling

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#floraandnote #taipei #taiwan