THE WORLD WON'T BELIEVE TAIWAN LOOKS LIKE THIS 🇹🇼 (Taipei 臺北 )

If you'd have told me that Taipei would end up being one of my favourite cities, I'd have called you a liar. Our first time in Taiwan got off to a strong start. We flew in with Starlux, Taiwan's premium new airline which is genuinely the best airline we've ever flown with. Quick train into the centre with wireless phone chargers and we arrived in the middle of a city with the most 7-Elevens we've ever seen. It was raining but you can rent umbrellas all over the city. Super cheap and super simple metro with a queue-in system and we were at our first stop, Taipei 101. When you think of Taipei, you might think of the tallest building in the world between March 2004 and March 2010. You might think of the country that founded bubble tea or that popularised night markets. But beyond that, there is a vast, rich culture and apparently some amazing food. So if you only have 24 hours to explore the city of Taipei, where should you go? We're going to a night market which has over 52,000 Google reviews. But we had a whole evening of food and festivities first, followed by a packed out day two. Our first stop had to be Din Tai Fung, Taiwan's most famous restaurant chain available all over the world and known for its elite soup dumplings and Taiwanese classics. We then soaked up the festive spirit of Taipei, which was pretty magical to be honest, before taking one of Taipei's reliable and affordable buses back to our hotel, ready for an epic full day tomorrow. That's so much good pork. We're here in the walking district, which is one of the best areas in Taipei to walk around apparently. Although, just bare cars. Like, why are you interrupting my walk? You said walking district. Why am I driving? We're now in the Red House, built in 1908 by a Japanese architect. This was the first government-built public market in Taiwan. Today, it's still a market, but serving a slightly different purpose to what it would have done over 100 years ago. Right opposite the Red House is Rainbow Road of Taipei. And no, that's absolutely nothing to do with Mario Kart. There's so many yellow cabs here. It's kind of like New York. I was expecting from the city of Taipei, but this definitely isn't it. 2.5 million people in the city, 7 in the metro area. And it just feels calm. It feels relaxing. It feels peaceful. It's not chaotic like another city of 7 million people. You have all these side streets that are just beautiful with cute restaurants, cute cafes. And then this amazing wall art graffiti. So impressive, so cool, so unique. Staying on brand of this channel, we got hungry. Gan Mei Alley serves up modern twists on traditional dim sum, all made in-house, and you pick the ones you want. We couldn't read this at all. Thank goodness for Google Translate. Then they arrived at your table with unlimited Taiwanese tea. We got the house special, pork and leek dumplings on an iron plate, which gives this crisp around the edge. We've walked about 20 minutes from the Xiamen district where we were before to this 19th century historic area with a load of markets and some traditional architecture and temples as well. So we're going to explore the history here, but we're also on the hunt for some bubble tea and some sweet treats. Street Delight Tea House, and it's super cute. So we just brought over this menu and also this box. And it seems like each tea has a number. So you find it on the menu and then you can have a little sniff of the tea. So it'll help you decide which one you want. It does taste a little bit like bubble bubble. We've just been doing some Taiwanese tea etiquette research, and it seems like good etiquette is to down the tea in no less than three sips, which we failed to do already. But you start with a small sip, then the main middle gulp, and the last one to enjoy the aftertaste. Sounds to me like how British people drink their beer. It's hot, man. That tea, as amazing as it was, and it really was amazing, was quite expensive. Like $17 or $18 for two teas. Unlimited refills, though, which is a nice bonus. So you could sit there for hours and hours if you wanted to and some really nice snacks. Now we're going to be exploring a little bit more of the historic area. And then later we're going to a night market, which has over 52,000 Google reviews at a 4.2 rating. Never seen so many Google reviews on anything ever. So this has to be good. By the river, on the dockside, and we found this little spot behind me. It's kind of got all those little containers with bars, food outlets, a variety of different food. People just chilling, taking in the vibe, just enjoying the atmosphere. This was definitely our favourite area in Taipei. A classic old meets new, packed with everything from cake shops to cafes to incredible-looking restaurants. This was the moment we realised that we'd underestimated the city. Tiny pork bun for tiny cake. We got hungry, of course we got hungry. We haven't eaten enough today already. And how can you not eat everything that you see when you're in Taipei? The food's incredible. So we've stopped at this place here everyone was sitting outside at. It's called Ho Shing 1947. And the thing to get seems to be this sweet pork, of course, or sweet ham bun. And then there's these little pork buns as well. Let's get into it. There's a little dumpling. A filled dumpling. Kind of like a cooked sweet ham rasha. And then what I can only assume is like pork crackling. It's like a Sunday roast bao bun. I have no other explanation than that. If you'd have told me yesterday when it was raining, bleak, disgusting, that Taipei would end up being one of my favourite cities in Asia, I'd have called you a liar. But today? Look at what we've done, look at what we're doing, look at where we are. This area where we're walking towards the temples right now is beautiful. It's like a Brooklyn kind of hipster vibe. There's confectionery everywhere. This temple, the name of which I'll put here because I do not want to offend anyone, was built in 1856 and is one of the city's oldest temples. It was dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of the sea, and it is just stunning. The temple showcases southern Fujian architecture. It must have been serious talent to get something like this. As the sun set, we finally made our way to the now 57,000 review night market, ready for some more taste of Taiwan. We thought you might want to see us eat a little bit more food today, so we've come here to Ningxia Night Market to try a little bit of everything. We've already done a once-up walkthrough and we're very spoilt for choice. Lots of desserts, lots of savoury treats, so let's see what we get. Look at the size of this avocado. OK. Cumin? Taiwan pepper salt. Taiwan pepper salt, please. I've never seen anything cooked that quickly. Not meat, at least, anyway. Taiwan pepper salt. 150. Thank you. Xiexie. OK, thank you. Xiexie. That is ridiculous. I feel like normally when you get affordable cuts of beef, it's really chewy. This is melt in the mouth. Rule number one of eating while travelling. If you see a place with a queue, don't ask questions, just get in the queue. Just get in the queue. We saw this place earlier that had a queue for chicken and rice. The chicken and rice is 50 Taiwanese dollars. I think that's like $2 or $1 or something. It's packed out, so we've got some takeaway because there's nowhere to sit. It tastes healthy, that's what I'll say. It tastes healthy. You've got these caramelised, sautéed onions and a little bit of, almost like a gravy, drizzled on top. The chicken is shredded. It's nice, it's juicy, and then you've got the rice underneath to bulk it out. Better than Hainanese chicken rice. Don't comment me in the comments. We sat and ate our food and were already planning our next trip to Taipei. Not just because of the food, although you probably wouldn't believe that from watching us pig out all day. One strawberry. Very tricky to eat without making a mess. It's delicious though. Super sweet. If you're not into sweet, it's not for you. Luckily, we are. We're back. Can we get one of the passion fruit, please? Look how cute they are. These ones. Tiny, tiny. After we secured our first ever Taiwanese bubble tea from the most friendly vendor, we took a stroll to the other part of the market before getting an Uber back to our hotel. First Taiwanese bubble tea. Tried it in the UK. Didn't really rate it, but it was probably a bad place. What did we get? Passion fruit green tea with coconut something. That's delicious. Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble. The bubbles are chewy. I thought they like burst open or something. Shows how much I know about bubble tea. Okay. Yeah. This is the best. I get it. And there's like so many elements to the drink. So you're not just drinking, you're just like getting flavours, there's textures. Okay. It says on it, hits the spot. Hitting a spot, for sure. We're spending three weeks exploring some of the most expensive but culturally unique cities in Asia. We'll be immersing ourselves in everything that they have to offer. Eating, drinking and endlessly exploring without breaking the bank. Hit subscribe to come along for the journey.