Apartments in Taipei, Taiwan

Prices for apartments in Taipei, Taiwan are ridiculous.

The price of a new 150qm apartment in this building is 1.4 million EUR (56 million NTD).

The building has 14 floors. Of course it includes an elevator as well as a doorman. The price also includes 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, and 1 large living room including an open kitchen.

If you want the parking lot to go with this apartment, you've got to pay even 62000€ (5.6 million NTD) extra.

The price is especially ridiculous if you think about what a freshly graduated master earns: 500€ per month.

 

Skin Conditioner

This is a must-have beauty product for going to tropical countries or for hot summer days or nights. This is my second bottle. The first I bought in Japan, the second in Taiwan but I haven't seen anything like this in German drugstores... It kind of looks like a toner because it's clear but it's not. It nourishes the skin but it's very light which is perfect for summer, maybe not for 2014 but normally it would be great.

I refilled the liquid to a mini spray bottle of 30ml for light traveling which I got in Muji.

 

 

Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese franchise restaurant with high-quality food. They are especially famous for their mini dumplings (Xiao Long Bao 小籠包).

Do you see the people outside this restaurant? That's during lunch time and they all wait to be seated. Don't imagine how dinner time looks like...

I've been to one in Beijing with my cousin and his wife and this one is in Taiwan. But they are also located in Australia, USA, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other cities in China. I can't wait for them to come to Europe.

It's also easy for foreigners because their menu has pictures and is written in several languages including English.

Anyway a must-eat is the dim sum dish Xiao Long Bao 小籠包

 

 

Taiwanese Snacks

Lays is my favorite Chips brand. Whenever I find some new sorts, I need to try it out. In Taiwan, they have Lays Kyushu Seaweed, which is quite delicious. Can't compete with my favorite Barbeque (US) or Thai Sweet Chili (Germany) but it's still pretty great.

That noodle snack next to it isn't my favorite. It doesn't have enough spices to keep me interested. I wouldn't repurchase it. Actually, eating instant noodles before cooking is quite a great snack. Probably isn't healthy though.

 

Talking about healthy, seaweed is a great substitute for chips! It has only few calories (3kcal per g) and it weighs like nothing. That's like one of these little plastic packages which contain about 5 seaweed papers. There's also no fat. Of course, there's a lot of iodine salt so it's not healthy to eat the whole box but a couple of these little packages are great...

 

Dried fish or dried meat is also a very famous snack in Taiwan. There are lots of different styles and spices around them... It's typical for Asian food to be both salty, a little sweet and spicy.

If you find a Carrefour in Taiwan, you can go to the snack bar and try out each of them. There are little cups in front or next to the stuff, so don't be shy... Unless you're vegetarian ;-)

 

The next snack is sweet and sour... These are dried plums, Suanmei. There are also quite a lot of types... They vary in their intensity of sourness or saltiness, depending on their purpose: eating or cooking...

You can also pour hot water on top of them to get Suanmei Tea. It's popular as well but I'm not a big fan of the beverage but the plums themselves I love...

My mom said, they're also great for pregnant women because of their weird cravings for sour and sweet food.

 

The next snack is made of peanuts and roasted black sesame. It's coated in sugar like almonds at the Christmas market... I love these nutty snacks.

 

Another sweet but somehow salty snack is this little cake. They taste a little like moon cakes because they also contain egg yolk in the middle. This isn't a light snack though... I think one of these little cakes has about 300kcal. It's quite filling. I wouldn't be able to eat more than one at once...

 

At last, I found Hello Kitty chewing gum with strawberry flavor from Wrigleys. I'm not a big fan of the gum because it's too artificial and sweet but I love the packaging... Isn't it cute ^.^

 

 

So what do you say? Would you try out some snacks?

 

Glasses from Taiwan

Glasses from the optician are THE shopping tip for those traveling to Taiwan with bad eyesight.

 

My eyes aren't the best, either. I'm shortsighted with -1.75 in my left and -2.5 on my right eye. With contact lenses it's even -0.25 worse.

As glasses are freaking expensive in Germany, my last pair was like 250€, I went to an optician in Taiwan. After retesting my eyes (still same old shortsighted), I decided to buy one extra pair of glasses and another pair of sunglasses. For both, I only payed 95€ (3800 NTD), including frames and glasses. Of course, if you buy frames from some fancy label, it will be more but the glasses themselves aren't expensive at all.

The other great thing about my new glasses - they fit my Asian nose perfectly. Normally, glasses really hurt my nose after awhile.

 

I especially love the sunglasses because I don't like to wear contact lenses when going swimming... Also, it's better for the eyes to give them a break from the contact lenses and let them "breath" ;-)

To my outfit:

I'm wearing a black coat from Primark (Fall 2012), black leggings, black suede boots from Deichmann (Fall 2011), beige dress from Forever18, coral belt from the Dominican Republic (3€), a black bag from Taiwan (15€), of course also the new glasses as well as a dusky pink and gold necklace (5€) from the Shilin Nightmarket in Taiwan.

 

Ballerina Love

While I was in Taiwan, there was an incredible shoe sale. Almost every pair was only 5€ (200 NTD). Of course I had to buy these cute ballerinas... Unlike the cheap shoes that one can buy in these cheap stores in Germany, they are quite well made, very comfortable, and don't stink like glue and plastic. Normal prices would be 380 NTD, a little less than 10€.

 

If you go to Taiwan, you find these kind of shoes at the mall of the Taipei Main Station and at Shilin Nightmarket. You can try to bargain, if you buy several pairs of shoes which are not on sale. If they are on sale, I'm already happy ;-)

 

Taiwanese funeral

My grandmother became 97 and hasn't been sick or anything. Look, she even wore flip flops a couple years ago. Wasn't she cute and adorable? Well, but she was also very strong - a true matriarch. I thought we would still celebrate her 100th birthday but unfortunately, she died one day...

She got five children, four boys and one girl, three living abroad in Germany and Brazil, 11 grandchildren in total. Everybody gathered within 48 hours after her death. I even met cousins I didn't even know I had. A sad reason to gather but mostly nice to see everyone.

She used to live in Germany for a year or two. I don't remember because I was too small.

 

The funeral was not as I expected. It drove me nuts that I didn't know about the customs and what to wear. My Chinese friends told me white. The Internet blue for family, light blue for grandchildren. My dad wasn't of big help either. He just told me, whatever will be fine, just no red... My aunt told me, also no pink, not even the slightest hint of rosé. So I ended up packing way to many things into my suitcase just to be surprised with a black gown which my relatives gave me for the funeral...

 

All close family members get a black gown with a beige bow on the right shoulder, while further family members either get a red towel or a pink towel depending on the father's or mother's side. The priest wore some purple gown. He threw it on and off all the time probably because it wasn't too comfortable.

Saying goodbye in Taiwan takes a long time. My grandma has been in some kind of fridge for a week so that people could moan and look at her. Since there are no mortuaries, the corpse are preserved in these special fridges... Also for preservation and against the smell... I didn't take pictures from the fridge, as I thought it's disrespectful.

The funeral itself was loud and colorful. There was a large colorful pavilion.

Big colorful flowers, food, drinks, and money for my grandmother. Everybody burnt incense for her. A band played some music... It was horrible, btw.

The money was burnt for my grandmother's afterlife. Taiwan also has a holiday for all the spirits, when money has to be burnt for all the dead family members and also so that the devil spirits stay away... It's in summer, I think...

 

On the run

2013 has just started but I've already visited three continents. It's almost like an involuntary world trip. I just arrived in Taiwan for my grandmother's funeral. She became 97 but Monday morning was her last. Now, my whole family is on its way to Taiwan for a big reunion - unfortunately not for a happy reason.

Taiwanese Woman at the Beach

As much as people from the west like to tan, Asian women mostly want to be fairy white and luminescent. So either way, there is a lot of effort and sometimes suffering... here there are sunburns, tanning studios, tanning lotions and early skin ageing and there are umbrellas, whitening creams, long sleeves and masks for the face and body at the highest temperature and humidity...
So for example here you might think, it was a cold day at the beach but not at all... this was in Taiwan at about 35˚C in the shadow and about 100% humidity. Just an hour earlier there was sunshine and no clouds but that's during the wet season... but don't be fooled, rain after a humid day doesn't freshen the air in tropical countries, neither does the night.

in Taiwan at the beach (2005)

Some even wear these masks and visors:


Long sleeves can also be added