Incredible 24 Hours in TAIPEI, TAIWAN - First Impressions, Food, & MORE 🇹🇼

Good morning you guys. We officially made it to Taiwan. We arrived a few days ago here in Taipei from Cebu City. We are super excited to be here. So far I have to say the food has been so delicious. Some of the highlights have been beef noodle soup, the pork dumplings. Also all around the city they have a bunch of fancy brunch areas which we've been taking advantage of. We're just walking to breakfast and I love our neighborhood so much. So we're staying in the Ben Chao area which is a little bit outside of the tourist area. We don't mind commuting so it's fine. We just passed through this beautiful little park where everybody's like having a morning walk. They're doing like some kind of dance with like relaxing music. It's just really nice. So the plan today is to see some of the top sights in the city. Of course we want to go hike Elephant Mountain and eat lots and lots of food and first up on the agenda is breakfast. So we just arrived at our breakfast place. There's a line which is always a great sign. They're making the fried donuts right outside. It smells so delicious. Wow got hungry very quickly. Came to this very local place to have a traditional Taiwanese breakfast. You order on these little pans. Everything's in Chinese so I just google translate it and I have like a list of things I want to try so hopefully I'm going to order the right things. It's so crispy and airy. Yummy. Oh these are good. We love fried bread so we're very excited about this. This is interesting. Hot soy milk huh? That's pretty good. I did not think I was gonna enjoy this but it is a great pairing actually. I think some people have been dunking. Oh I can see that. I'd do that for sure. Dunking in there. I really wanted to order a scallion pancake with like green onion but I think I ordered like an egg omelette so that wasn't quite right. I did get this steamed bun. Look how fluffy it is. It's pretty good. It's pretty plain like fluffy bread with like a meatball in the middle. I think this would be really good with some hot sauce. All right the last thing we ordered are some potstickers. We're not sure what's inside them yet. Let's find out. Wow. Besides the fried bread this is the highlight. I think it's stuffed with pork. These are so good. So juicy in the middle. The meat's so tender. A little crisp on the outside. I love these. The lady that works here brought us this. I think she knew we needed help ordering something more traditional so she brought us this in here. It has some of the fried bread that we had tried cut up with green onions. It has to be something soy milk or something soy milky. This is heavenly. I could eat this for breakfast every day. It has a little kick to it. That's amazing. The food here has never disappointed yet. It's so impressive the food scene. Okay I am so glad we went there. That little place is serving up some good breakfast. All right you guys so picture this you're out exploring the streets of Taipei phone in hand relying on it from everything from finding the best Taiwanese breakfast to navigating all of the confusing alleyways. And as you're tapping away connecting to free public wi-fi your online data could be unprotected. But we have the perfect solution for you. NordVPN. Your digital guardian angel ready to keep your online presence safe. NordVPN is the partner of today's video and if you don't know what a VPN is it's a virtual private network. So what that does is it helps keep your online presence safe and secure by encrypting the data sent between your device and the internet. Not only does a VPN keep your data safe but one of our favorite things about it is it gives you access to entertainment that's unavailable in your area. So for Tommy and I we get to still watch our DVR recordings from back home which is one of our favorite things about it. We bought the two-year plan back in 2022 and we use it across all of our devices pretty much every single day. Right now every purchase of the two-year plan gets you four extra months for free. Nord also has a 30-day money back guarantee so whether you're scrolling looking for the best bubble tea or just trying to find your next hotel stay NordVPN has your back. You guys can go ahead and click the link in the description box below or you can go to nordvpn.com forward slash sammy and tommy to get started and keep your online journey safe and secure. Okay that was really fun to film now let's go hike Ellicott Mountain. Wow what a delicious breakfast. I forgot to mention though that whole entire breakfast was only $150 which just blows my mind. I think they gave us the soup for free though they were all so sweet. The public transportation here has been so easy and so convenient. It's been really nice being able to get around but just in case you do have any problems like we couldn't figure out what bus we were supposed to get on because of course we were taking the one bus that didn't have a number. The lady in the bus station she was so sweet she just like took a picture of the symbols that I was like supposed to be looking for and it actually made it really easy so yeah everyone's just been so nice and helpful. We decided to come do Elephant Mountain right after breakfast because one to work off our large breakfast and two because we heard that everybody comes up here for sunset so we're thinking that maybe we'll beat the crowds a little bit. Outfit change got a little hot on the way up. The weather here changes so quickly here in Taipei. All locals are like just be ready for everything. We have brain jackets, long sleeve, and t-shirts. Just no shorts today. That was probably the rookie mistake. Make me nervous. And thanks to my awesome wife Sammy for carrying all my stuff today. I was wondering. We can finally see the tower. Oh I know. Oh excuse me this is the first day it's not raining. It's been like the clouds have been like so like halfway down every single day except today. Pretty awesome actually. Yeah it was really cool like spooky. It's nice. All right Sammy how you doing? We met so many friendly people on this trail. A couple from Singapore, a couple girls from China, and then a dad from Germany. Many friendly people that's for sure. We're definitely on the tourist trail. Yeah tourist trail for sure. No wonder it's everyone's top thing to do. Just enjoying the day huh? Nice to meet you guys. Have a good one. Okay so we officially made it on top. The official peak. Such beautiful views up here. Sammy what'd you think? Wonderful. A little bit out of breath but it's worth it and it's only like 20 minutes so. Okay we're heading down now. This might be actually tougher than going up. Just because the stairs are a bit uneven. Some are like very thick and some are like very tiny. And you get old you got bad knees you know. That's my complaint. All right we're down. Wow that was a great way to start the day. I think now we're gonna get some water, coffee, and I'm very excited for where we're going to lunch today. Okay do you want water or do you want one that's in green water? So we just got our water from here and coffee shop. How convenient is that? So this trip is super exciting not only because we're in a new country but because Sammy planned 100% the entire thing so it's all a surprise for me and I have no idea what's to come. So thank you. That's really sweet. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. What was your name? My name's Jensen. Jensen nice to meet you. Welcome to Taiwan. Thank you thank you appreciate it. Oh I can't be trusted. Cheers! We're having our little afternoon slump. We needed some coffee. So we just met the sweetest local couple here who gave us so many suggestions of where we should travel, what we should see, a bunch of great hikes and they also they gave us this little dessert it's called New York Perfect Cheese. She said it's a little treat that's made in Japan so the name is kind of deceiving. That is not what I was expecting. That's phenomenal. This is so it's like salty savory and sweet. This is delicious. No this is mine. No no we're gonna share them both. You're trying to down it? Okay you can try it. You're so sweet. Way too sweet. Thank you. I'm so glad you come to Taiwan and because of your YouTube you can kind of promote Taiwan. It's a lovely country. You're the one promoting it being so kind and sweet. Thank you. Thank you very much. No thank you. Enjoy your day. So nice to meet you. Can we get another one? You snuck one more. I don't know. I mean we tried saying no but she wanted to give us another one and it's too good to actually turn down more than once. And the seat service. The Taiwanese people are so sweet. I was inside the bus asking them for a photo and they even waved and gave me a shot from inside. That coffee did send me a lot of good. So we just got off our what third or fourth bus of the day? I love walking through the parks. People are just dancing and doing exercise. Ballroom dancing was so that's so fun. We love big cities but I love big cities that have lots of greenery and parks and people enjoying it. Yeah Taipei is very organized, clean. Love it. Okay so we decided to come to, can you see it? The name? It's called Addiction Aquatic Development which is a very interesting name especially because we are addicted to seafood. It's a fish market so we decided to come here for lunch to get some sushi. So let's go check it out. This is what we're getting for lunch. I know if we can afford it. It looks so good. Look at all the lobsters. This is like seafood heaven. My favorite food of all time. Crab legs. Looks like king crab too. Grilled scallops on the skewer. Steak bites. You can have your own like elite surf and turf dinner. This market is pretty incredible. You can buy so much here. So there's fresh fish, freshly sliced sashimi by the pound. You can buy meat, buy ingredients for hot pot. They have vegetables. They have a flower market. There's a stand-up sushi bar. There's just so many incredible things that you can get at this one market. It's pretty nice. The way I have zero self-control and if Tommy would let me, I would drop 40 bucks on that packet of crab meat right now. Wow this is nice. A hot towel on arrival. You know we're about to spend a lot of money. Perfect and we'll do a glass of um okay thank you thank you for our first day exploring Taiwan. I love you. I love you too. This feels so special. Cheers to our feast. Okay we did not realize it was going to be this much food. No and I'm actually a little bit nervous to try some of this stuff. Okay first up we're which is always my favorite. Yum that is fantastic. It melts in your mouth. Best piece of fish I've had all all year. Amazing. Are you going for a little shrimp? Why not? I don't think I've ever eaten a raw shrimp before. Is it good? I love it. A raw shrimp? I know you like shrimp but that was amazing. Oh yeah that's right. You love shrimp. That's so good. What? It's better than any cooked shrimp. It's like butter. It's like you just ate butter. That was fantastic. Look how big this bite is. We're in heaven. I know. There's another thing we've never tried before and that is the sea urchin. It is so creamy with a little salty soy sauce. So good. Lobster. Find a bite sir. That's fully mine. We're fighting over the lobster of course. Bottoms up. Wow you're gonna love that. I'm sorry. I know. You want a little taste? Oh you're so sweet. I'm actually glad that that did not taste like lobster. This is so good. That salmon is amazing. Favorite bite? I think so. Favorite bite. Yeah. An excellent feast. Wow what a delicious meal. Now it's time to go see some sightseeing. See some sightseeing. Go look at the sights. Go do some sightseeing. One of those. Okay so we just paid our bill. It was $80 which definitely not affordable but if you're looking for like a special fun time out in Taipei or like a unique experience I definitely think this is it. So if you're on vacation and it's like a one-off I feel like this is worth it. Okay it's been a while. I'm gonna try to scare Sammy a little. See if we can pull this off. Finally I got you. That was mean. That was really mean in front of everyone. That stressed me out. I was hiding that little bush right in there. I should have known. Beautiful family you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The thing I love about eating sushi and like fresh fish is that I feel like we ate a ton of food and I don't feel like overly stuffed or like sick to my stomach. So true. It's one of the healthiest things you can eat. It just always feels so refreshing. We're trying to make the changes in the guard since every hour we have one minute. One? I was like what are we saying? Yes one minute. Don't think we're gonna make it. Okay we made it to Liberty Square. We have the arch behind me then the concert hall. No the theater. The memorial hall and this is the theater. Aren't these buildings huge? They don't translate well on camera but they're literally massive. I think this memorial hall might be the biggest memorial I've ever seen. It is massive. All these buildings are so beautiful though and there's gardens nearby. Oh yeah. Everybody's so friendly. It's so fun. That's my favorite part. I just walked by the koi ponds. They have like fish and turtles and you can hear the birds chirping and the flowers are so pretty. Show me that. I want to see. Yeah show me that. So this is pretty cool. You can buy fish food but it says for the fish's health fish food is limited so when the red light is on the fish like the food is sold out for the day so you can't overfeed them but the red light's not on. So we're getting some food. This is so cute. Look it says don't eat. Look at her. She's waiting. It looks like a little puppy dog. Look I'm just gonna look at her. What an amazing setting this is isn't it? Oh my god. I think the gardens in this area are my favorite part. Like right in the middle of the city. It's so relaxing. So we missed the first change in the guards at four o'clock. We're like oh what are we gonna do for an hour. We're waiting around but oh it flew by. An hour is not enough time to explore this beautiful area between all the gorgeous buildings, the super friendly people, and the beautiful gardens. Great place you can spend at least an hour here. I'm glad we waited for the change in the guard. Sammy doesn't quite have the patience for it. Sometimes it's just so slow for me. Oh my gosh. Just go a little quicker. So much dedication for those guys to stand guard so still for over an hour and then their slow methodical march. Very cool experience. Sammy you seem pretty excited. What's happening? I found this place for us to go have a sweet treat. It's mango shaved ice which is like a Taiwanese dessert here. Anyway the reviews look amazing. The portions look huge. Mango, strawberry. I'm excited. She's been talking about it all day. Sammy just keeps taking more and more and more pictures of flowers and people and flowers and people and buildings and flowers and people. Time for ice cream. Shaved ice. Shaved ice. Another line with always good news. So yummy. So it's basically a big pile of shaved ice. I think it's covered in some kind of cream. Mango ice cream, mango, and strawberries. I'm so ready to dig into this. That is so freaking good. That mango ice cream is so flavorful. Look how layery the ice is. That must be the technique. The Taiwanese technique. Everything you hoped for? Everything I hoped for. So good. I've had like three brain freezes already. It's that good. This cost 260 NTD. As we walked up to our shaved ice place, this place right across the street was super packed. We just looked what they had, like green onion pancakes, what we wanted to try this morning. The line is super long so we're gonna have to check it out and see if it's any good. Oh she's so efficient. The gal just came down the line and took everybody's order that way. By the time you get up to the beginning of the line, your order's ready. The line's going quickly. It's like Chick-fil-a. That's what I was gonna say. Does that remind you of anything, Sammy? It reminds me of Chick-fil-a. She's obsessed with Chick-fil-a, people. You'll see it now. We went where the whole crowds were and ordered this green onion pancake. It's just like flaky dough with sliced green onions in it and she poured hot sauce over it. There's a lot of options and some people are ordering it with egg and corn and ham. We just got the original. Let's go for it. That is so good. It's like a savory pancake with onions and hot sauce. This is amazing and I'm glad I wanted to order this for breakfast so I'm glad we're having it now. It's actually the perfect little after-dessert snack, I guess. I guess this is our dinner tonight after our huge seafood outing earlier. We're ending it at No Nonsense Bar and I thought no better way to end it than have a local IPA here from Taiwan. It's a hazy IPA too, which is my favorite. Awesome day. Salud you guys. Not only is the food amazing, but the beer is fantastic as well. Oh it reminds me of home. It's so good. I haven't had a good hazy IPA in seven months maybe? It's been a long time. Something wrong with that. It has gin, tea, cream, and blackberry. This is so good. Seriously? No taste of gin? No. This is the kind of drink that'll get you in trouble. Cheers to a great day. Oh it's such a great day. Cheers you guys. Thanks for coming along with us on our awesome first day in Taiwan. Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys in the next one. Cheers. What is it? It's gin. Gin? Well thank you my man. Thank you. Cheers. That's good. Very comfortable. Good thank you brother. You're so awesome. Thank you. The best service. Make sure you guys come here. Thank you. Have a good night man. You too. Don't work too hard. The bartender was super friendly. He wouldn't let us leave without giving us a free shot of gin. I know he's so sweet. Everyone here has been so nice to us. They have been. Such a great day. Thank you guys for watching. We love you guys. Can't wait to show you where we're heading next.