Gold, Hotpot, Shopping

Started the day with a lovely brunch from grandma and then travelled to Jiofen with my family friend. It's an old area where gold used to be mined but is now a popular cultural market spot.


A Japanese television crew was there to film some travel documentary actually, so it was quite busy that day!

Such a pretty cave right? Wait til you see what its called..

I visited this place 3 years ago, but it took a while to register my nostalgia. I heard some beautiful music from an Ocarina shop where my sister asked where the sound was coming from and I spotted and instantly replied with, "That lady over there!"

We both cracked up when we discovered that it was a man with long hair, my bad.
I bought a frog Ocarina, green one and a blue one for my friend. I have a duck one in Brisbane so I guess I kind of know that I still won't learn how to play it but we'll see.

Jana and I then bought Mochi and Almond milk to drink in an alleyway as a break.

Throughout the entire market street, my sister and I played the 'We are foreign and interested in everything' behaviour so we got freebies and tastings everywhere.

There are dogs everywhere but they are so gentle and tame - or more correctly said as neglected. I followed this munchkin for like 10 minutes trying to get a photo, it was so cute and fat!


We had Shabu Shabu for dinner and we had a whole pot each! I ate everything on the plate! Towards the end my sister asked why my cheeks were pink but it came out as "Deena, why are your chinks peek?"


GRANDPA and his HOTPOT

GRANDMA and her HOTPOT

Mother.. straining her eyes to read a text LOL

Post dinner, my sister and I went to the popular shopping district for youths, Ximending where we did some shopping.



I went to go buy a mug/flask thing from Starbucks and this girl asked me if I wanted a coffee. I was like.. what? Noo!! No its okay! But she explained that she has a Buy 1 Get 1 Free and she has no one to give it to so she's just wondering if I wanted it :)
So I got a lovely Hot Chocolate from a Malaysian girl named Nikki who was leaving back to home the very next day. She was on holidays for a week on her own. Very cute! Terima Kasih, Nikki :)

There was an Italian and a French guy doing the whole Free Hugs business in the middle of a square. Now I've had one in Japan and Taiwan, COOL! Hahahaha