KAOSHIUNG & TAINAN

Our hotel in Kaoshiung had this AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG AMAZING bakery on the ground floor... it took everything in me not to buy one of EVERYTHING!

I discovered this really peculiar channel on our hotel TV.  I kept seeing asian people randomly walking up to these phones, place a call and then walk away and I kept thinking "what kind of show is this?? is this like "asia punked" and I kept waiting for something to happen.  AND then I would see people coming in and out of these swinging doors right next to the phones wearing uniforms that looked remarkably similar to the hotel staff at our hotel and  and it suddenly dawned on me that the reason why the uniforms looked so similar was BECAUSE IT WAS OUR HOTEL!!  And these phones were the courtesy phones in our hotel lobby right next to the reception desk!!!!!

So I sent the Hub's down there to pretend to use the phones BAHAHAHAHA!!!!  Look at his facial expression hahahaha.

It was pouring rain so the Hub's offered to go out and hunt for some food and this is what he came back with!  The egg custard tart on the bottom right was out of this world.. the best egg custard tart I've ever had in my entire life... it was so creamy and rich I wish I knew what this place was called ARGH!

Unagi bowl

Later in the evening we had some hotel grub.. Love love a great slab of unagi over rice.. this was pretty nommy!

Club sandwich

Look at those giant slabs of bacon!!  The fries were super delicious as well. 

Buffet breakfast on the top floor of our hotel has this gorgeous glass ceiling. 

The free buffet breakfast was actually pretty impressive they had lots of yummy things to eat and they even had yogurt drinks!!!  I LOVE LOVEEEEEE yogurt drinks!

My Dad and The Hub's... not sure when are why but my dad has started doing this thing with his arm as of late....

Hubs made me take this picture.

Gorgeous hotel lobby!  

A hotel with a Dior store built in.. LOVE IT!

See he does it again here!! bahahah!

The hotel had a HELLO KITTY SECTION!!! YAY!

I wanted to take this home SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD!!!!!!!! 

It's a Hello Kitty toiletries kit with the hotel name embroidered on it.  It had a hanging toiletry bag in light pink and a face towel, soaps, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, lotions, shampoo, conditioner and a couple of other things.  $1080 Taiwanese dollars is roughly $30 US.. so I passed on it.. but it was SO SO CUTE that I had to document it! 

Life size jade cabbage!!!

I have a strange obsession with jade cut into the shape of chinese cabbage AHAHAHAH I DON'T KNOW WHY!!!  But for years and years I have really wanted a jade necklace in the shape of a chinese cabbage hahaha.

The gorgeous hotel lounge!

Delicious iced coffee drink.. the bottom was STRONGGGGG pure black coffee.. I think I was suppose to mix the top part with the bottom.. but didn't realize it until after I'd eaten practically all of the whip cream. OOPS. hahahahahah

Waiting for the mall to open!  

Total sidenote but seriously how fob are The Hub's shoes? HAHAHAHAHA ironically he did not buy those shoes in asia.. they are actually from Quiksilver.  Who woulda thought?!

::WAHHH::  They are opening a Uniqlo store!!!  I hear they are opening one in San Francisco you lucky ducks! 

Why don't I have a Uniqlo store near me :(

Kaoshiung skyline from our hotel room!

City streets! 

What happens when The Hubs has too much free time on his hands bahahahaha.

Various egg custards for sale at the train station.. we tried the milk pudding and it was very delicious.. although truthfully it tasted pretty much like the ones you can get at 7-11.

Lots of adorable train themed toys and stationary being sold in the vending machines at the station.

Lunch @ 7-11 muhahahah.. one of my favorite things to do in Taiwan.. the chicken curry was actually DELICIOUS and we had a couple of tea eggs and slurpees!

Takoyaki

There was a takoyaki stand right outside of my grandmother's chinese pharmacy.  Takoyaki is a popular Japanese street dish and is essentially a savory pancake batter ball filled with pieces of Tako (Octopus) and Tenkasu (Deep Friedd Tempura) and covered in various sauces.  This was delicious and had huge gigantic pieces of Octopus inside.  It was 6 balls for $1 USD!!!  So crazy cheap!

We also grabbed a bunch of salty Chinese snacks at 7-11 my favorite ones from my childhood are the ones on top called "Patata"!

The most delicious fried chicken EVER!!!!!!  I love fried chicken in Asia.. they go a lot easier on the breading and it's usually done with all cornstarch and I much prefer it.  I generally feel the breading in the US is too thick.

Playing with our food!

I was so excited when I discovered my absolute favorite childhood dessert "Pudding" that's literally what we call it in Chinese is now in an ice cream bar form.  I have to say after eating it I prefer the regular "Pudding" version.. in the picture..  It's basically an egg custard dessert.. have you noticed every country has their version of egg custard dessert.   The French have Cream Brulee, The Spanish have Flan.. the English have trifles.. ohh the Japanese have a savory version Chawanmushi.. I can go on for days!!  Muhahaha I think I have a serious obsession with anything egg custard based!

The park directly across my grandmother's house.  I actually lived with my grandmother for a few years when I was a child so I have very fond memories of playing at this park practically everyday when I was a child!

As we got closer and closer to the water I realized there were a lot of children crowded around the lake.  Upon closer inspection I realized....

They were feeding TURTLES!!!  

TONS AND TONS of turtles!!!!  There were DOZENS of them.. here are a few courageous ones attempting to climb the rocks to get some bread!

Taro bun w/ Pear Apple drink

OMGGGGGGGG this drink was SOOO NOMS~!!!  I tried looking for it afterwards but I couldn't find it anywhere ::sadness::  I was in a rush when I picked it and I just grabbed it because I was looking for something refreshing to drink and pear w/ apples looked good but when I started to drink it I realized it had pear jellies in it!! The pear jellies were SOOOOO NOMMY! BEST.DRINK.EVERRRRRRRRRR!!!

Dedicated to Mr. Turtle :)!

Laetitia cream puffs.. pretty decent.. but Beard Papa still takes the cake! 

Samanatha Thavasa!!

The store is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute! OMG!  Everything is so whimsical and adorable.. although sometimes I can't help but feel like a lot of their handbags are sort of a rip on Miu Miu.. like they have a line of bags that look IDENTICAL to Miu Miu's bow bags. 

Giant Teapot w/ Teacups!!! LOVE~! 

Mr. Donut!!  To be fair I don't think I love love their doughnuts.. but they are sooo pretty and so cute the drink however was DELICIOUS!!  It's a blended strawberry and apple ice drink.

Lu Rou Fan

Last meal in Taipei!  Even the minced Pork bowl at the airport was delish!!!

I always thought Shu Uemura went out of business.. because they closed down all the beauty bars in the US but turns out they are still alive and kicking in Asia.. and have the MOST GORGEOUS packaging ever!!  The bottles on the inside are clear with brightly colored flowers and butterfly's on them.. I was tempted to buy EVERYTHING but resisted muhahaha.

But I did however picked up a bunch of Asian mags at the airport for the flight home WOOT! :)  THEY WERE SOOOOOO CHEAP!!  Omgosh all 4 mags came out to roughly $8 bucks US!!  And they are HUGEEE too!!  My favorite mag is Vivi mag (top right) and I've purchased it in Japantown in San Francisco before and it was $20 bucks for ONE magazine!