Taiwan, 2024

A neighborhood in the Zhongshan district lined with old-looking buildings fittingly housing vintage and ceramic stores.
Upstairs of this ceramics store is a quaint café where we had our breakfast.

Pinoy pride
We decided to chill out for the rest of the day after welcoming my birthday in Grey Area the night before. This is in Dadaocheng, a neighborhood filled with cultural shops, temples, and food stalls.
Bobby in his element a.k.a. browsing through ceramics and figuring out how each of them were made
We strolled around Dadaocheng Pier Plaza after. It was a Sunday, and a lot of families were here as well.
A photo of Bobby and I, taken kindly by a couple

We woke up early to catch the train going to Houtong
Taiwan's love for scooter is real and everywhere
Our first stop for our out-of-the-city trip: Houtong Cat Village
One of things I was looking forward to on this trip was to finally see cherry blossoms in real life. Bobby and I argued whether this one is. I'd like to believe it is.
We went on a spontaneous hike to see one of the last few remaining shrine relics that were built when the Japanese occupied Taiwan.
Our second stop: Yu Lu Café, a coffee shop right across the Dahua train station
I was very excited to visit this place. It was everything I expected and more.
Thank you Bobby for taking this really cool photo
Thank you to the owners for allowing us to stay a bit longer in the café past their closing hours.
Our last stop: Jiufen Old Street. We arrived here pretty late and even got slightly lost on our way!

We stayed the night at a hotel nearby so that we could explore the Old Street more the next day.
Had a tea ceremony over at A-MEI
We went back to Taipei in the afternoon and had our dinner at Yongkang Beef Noodles.

This day was ceramics day. We went to Yingge Ceramics Museum first and was completely floored by the works exhibited here.
My favorite is this exhibition of Shen Tong-ning's work that show an interesting balance between organic and structured forms.
We stopped by Yingge Old Street to look for some cute ceramics, but most if not all shops here only sell traditional ones, which was quite a letdown.

We met the sweetest shopkeeper, 邱子, who mans this vintage clothing store that reconstructs old denim garments into bags and vests.
A photo of Bobby in front of a curry house after getting our tummies filled with one of the best curries we have had.