Taiwan 2014 Day 4 - Taipei Fish Market, Yongkang St, Daan Park and my birthday at Taipei 101
It was my birthday (16 Dec)!
The boys greeted me with Happy Birthdays hugs and kisses in bed (prompted by Papa). I really missed my littlest baby back in Singapore though!
That day, we had a very flexible agenda with a few new places we wanted to check out.
Our first stop was the Taipei Fish Market (Addiction Aquatic Development) for breakfast.
It was nowhere as mucky or chaotic as Tokyo's Tsukiji Market. In fact, it seemed a bit like a high-class fish wholesale market (there were a lot of Japanese patrons). The boys had fun looking at the big tubs of fresh crabs, sea urchins, octopus, lobsters, fish, prawns, etc. All I could think of was... sashimi!!!
There was a fancy little restaurant inside but they only had high bar stools as seats so we opted to buy food from the supermarket and just eat standing at the tables outside (which was much cheaper too). The sushi and sashimi was super fresh and yummy. The kids had rice with grilled teriyaki gindara and Japanese jellies :)
Then, we cabbed to Yongkang St.
Inspired by this hip café list, we thought we would spend the morning wandering the small alleys checking out trendy boutiques and café hopping. Turned out the cafes were quite hard to find and it was really not easy dragging two antsy boys along the streets or into the quaint little boutiques with owners who would frown when they see our rowdy boys.
We ended up in a random playground in the area. The boys loved going up and down the concrete slides. Later, we took a break in a fancy little French dessert shop and had some tea and macarons.
All in, Yongkang St was a bit of a letdown for us. Anyone been there? What did we miss?
Then I remembered reading about a big children's playground in Daan which was actually within walking distance (about 15 mins) from where we were.
The Daan playground (at Daan station) was such a treat for the kids. It was not the least bit crowded and there was lots of space to run around and many structures for the kids to climb and play. My boys would have spent all day there if they could. We had a lot of laughs racing the kids down the big concrete slides. So nice to be outdoors in the cool weather.
I would highly recommend coming here with kids!
Later, we took a train to Taipei 101 and did some shopping around the area. Sean was actually really sweet all day and kept asking me what I would like for my birthday. He said I could buy anything I wanted in the shops and he would pay for it (!!), haha. I told him I didn't want anything; I have everything I have ever wanted in my life already :)
Foops booked a really fancy surprise dinner at Diamond Tony's 101 Observatory Tower on the 85th floor of Taipei 101.
The view of Taipei city at night was amazing. There was even a live band playing old classics.
We had a wonderful 3-course Italian dinner with wine. The kids had spaghetti bolognese, played with Lego we had brought along and talked way too loud - that's about as romantic as my birthday dinner could get!
Foops gave me a beautiful rose gold necklace from Cartier and the boys sang me the birthday song before I blew out my candles. Love 'em. I called home to speak to Jojo Potato too - I missed him so much!
So ends our four days in Taipei. Next up, a little road trip!
The boys greeted me with Happy Birthdays hugs and kisses in bed (prompted by Papa). I really missed my littlest baby back in Singapore though!
That day, we had a very flexible agenda with a few new places we wanted to check out.
Our first stop was the Taipei Fish Market (Addiction Aquatic Development) for breakfast.
It was nowhere as mucky or chaotic as Tokyo's Tsukiji Market. In fact, it seemed a bit like a high-class fish wholesale market (there were a lot of Japanese patrons). The boys had fun looking at the big tubs of fresh crabs, sea urchins, octopus, lobsters, fish, prawns, etc. All I could think of was... sashimi!!!
There was a fancy little restaurant inside but they only had high bar stools as seats so we opted to buy food from the supermarket and just eat standing at the tables outside (which was much cheaper too). The sushi and sashimi was super fresh and yummy. The kids had rice with grilled teriyaki gindara and Japanese jellies :)
Then, we cabbed to Yongkang St.
Inspired by this hip café list, we thought we would spend the morning wandering the small alleys checking out trendy boutiques and café hopping. Turned out the cafes were quite hard to find and it was really not easy dragging two antsy boys along the streets or into the quaint little boutiques with owners who would frown when they see our rowdy boys.
We ended up in a random playground in the area. The boys loved going up and down the concrete slides. Later, we took a break in a fancy little French dessert shop and had some tea and macarons.
All in, Yongkang St was a bit of a letdown for us. Anyone been there? What did we miss?
Then I remembered reading about a big children's playground in Daan which was actually within walking distance (about 15 mins) from where we were.
The Daan playground (at Daan station) was such a treat for the kids. It was not the least bit crowded and there was lots of space to run around and many structures for the kids to climb and play. My boys would have spent all day there if they could. We had a lot of laughs racing the kids down the big concrete slides. So nice to be outdoors in the cool weather.
I would highly recommend coming here with kids!
Later, we took a train to Taipei 101 and did some shopping around the area. Sean was actually really sweet all day and kept asking me what I would like for my birthday. He said I could buy anything I wanted in the shops and he would pay for it (!!), haha. I told him I didn't want anything; I have everything I have ever wanted in my life already :)
Foops booked a really fancy surprise dinner at Diamond Tony's 101 Observatory Tower on the 85th floor of Taipei 101.
The view of Taipei city at night was amazing. There was even a live band playing old classics.
We had a wonderful 3-course Italian dinner with wine. The kids had spaghetti bolognese, played with Lego we had brought along and talked way too loud - that's about as romantic as my birthday dinner could get!
Foops gave me a beautiful rose gold necklace from Cartier and the boys sang me the birthday song before I blew out my candles. Love 'em. I called home to speak to Jojo Potato too - I missed him so much!
So ends our four days in Taipei. Next up, a little road trip!