Being in my final year in university, I don't have a lot of wiggle room to travel. Too many papers and reading to get through that I don't have much choice than to be stuck in one place. While I've tried my best to nurse my travel bug wounds by perusing all the lovely eateries and cafes and nooks and crannies the city of Seoul has to offer, I've been bit hard. I think a four month long semester is long enough to be stay stuck, so I bought a ticket to Taiwan.

Not much was done or seen on the first day -- just a lot of commuting from the airport and settling in, but all the moving around did leave me feeling weathered and hungry. It definitely called for one of Taiwan's famous foot massages and some gooood eatings from one of M's favorite restaurants, Tu Hsiao Yueh. 

On Day 2, I woke up hungry and in search for what they call traditional Taiwanese breakfast.

There were lots of options to choose from from doughnuts to freshly steamed dimsum, but we opted from something more simple. Here we have "Lo Bak Gou" or fried turnip cake, "Dan Bing" a doughy pancake with scrambled egg and ham in the center, and a tall glass of chilled soy milk. 

After our tummies were filled, we took the metro (look how cute their tokens are!) towards...

Taipei 101! Kinda looks like a stack of Chinese take-out boxes, huh?

Actually we saw the Sun Yat-Sen memorial, which is just a few blocks away, first then walked over to 101, but I didn't get to snap any photos... The memorial is beautiful and the surrounding garden is very peaceful, so I recommend it to anyone who's interested in the history of China and Taiwan. Sun Yat-Sen was, after all, the founding father of the ROC. 

There are also soldiers guarding his statue, and the change of guards happens every hour, which might be fun to watch! Shame I didn't get to see it. 

At 101, after wandering the many floors of shops, we headed to the Din Tai Fung for their world famous 18-fold xiao long bao soup dumplings. I was excited, but a little hesitant. I always somehow burn my tongue when eating soup dumplings... But those thoughts dissolved after WAITING CLOSE TO 45 MINUTES FOR A TABLE! Suddenly... a burnt tongue doesn't seem so bad when your stomach is rumbling every 15 seconds.

What do I have to say after waiting about an hour? Meh. It's pretty good, but kind of oily. I'm not sure if it was the dumplings, but I didn't feel too good after lunch. At least I can say that I've tried it.