Background

Welcome! If you’ve seen my other travel docs, this one will be a little different. I will not be talking much about cafes, restaurants, bars, hikes, or arts venues in Taipei and the surrounding area — all things that I would usually yap about.

Much of my experience in Taiwan has been shaped through my 6-8 (direct) aunts and uncles here, who all live in Taipei. What you’ll find below may skew a little more tame and family-friendly because of that.

The first time I came, I was still quite baby-brained and didn’t document much of our trip through the mountains. In 2018-19, I walked around with a lil go-pro and a cam (lol):

https://youtu.be/FJcUX3M_edA

Taiwan side A (4:42) and side B (3:53), recorded 2018 and published in Feb-Mar 2019.

Below is more of a splattering of notes based on my trip in 2024, along with what I remember from visiting the places in the videos above.

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Shopping Notes

Outside of the main touristy areas, a lot of smaller shops are closed on Mondays. That includes places in Little Burma.
The country as a whole is still pretty dependent on cash. You probably won’t use your cards much. This also means the gacha machine economy is alive and thriving so you can spend all your coins trying to win cute stuff. </aside>

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Transit Notes

You’ll want to buy an Easypass card to use on trains and buses, they don’t support things like Apple Pay. You can buy them at stations or places like 7-Eleven (which also offer cute keychains that function as Easypass.)
Do not eat or drink in any MRT trains, buses, or waiting platforms. It’s illegal and comes with a fine. You can technically eat/drink on high-speed rail (HSR) and Taiwan Rail (TRA), although it’s still kinda rare.
MRT platforms have waiting lanes in front of the platform gates FYI, pls wait in those lines and be aware that some gates are priority (similar to priority seats on the train.) </aside>

Regions

Little Burma

My family is ethnically Chinese (Hakka), but they were born and raised in Burma before migrating to several different continents.

“Little Burma” in Taipei sits within the Zhonghe district in New Taipei City, centered around Huaxin street. Located at the end of the yellow MRT line, this neighborhood is home to a largely Chinese-Burmese demographic (that’s us!) It’s a great place to go for foodies who want to eat authentic Burmese cuisine, which is at times most reminiscent of Indian and Indonesian/Malaysian south asian cuisine, but also has its own distinct dishes and flavors.

Mohinga at 阿薇緬甸小吃店

Curries at 母親的恩情

Curried bitter melon!

Falooda at 金鑽亞洲美食