Spring 2018 : Cherry Blossoms in Taiwan

Yeyy, the first installment of my Spring 2018 posts is here 🙂 Hope I can keep this up, especially since I failed to finish my Taiwan Winter 2017 photo diary last year.  I did finish it this year, tho… a few days after I went home from Taiwan for the third time 😛

And yup, it’s my third Taiwan trip already! It’s still my favorite country so far.  There’s just something about Taipei that makes me want to keep coming back.  You now know who to invite for your next trip 😉 I will most probably go with you as long as 1. I have enough funds 2. I don’t have travels booked already and 3. there is no SEVENTEEN or BTOB concert on the day of the trip– this one’s the most important! LOL.

I’ve always wanted to go out of the country during spring because hello~~ cherry blossoms! Pink flowers everywhere!! 😀  How can I resist? But Korea and Japan are both expensive and I’m not sure if I can afford to go to both countries in an instant.  A year ago, I already know Taiwan has areas where cherry blossoms bloom (lol) so when I finally had the chance this year, I booked our trip right away.  It’s been less than a month since I booked our flights so we had barely three weeks to prepare.

Luckily, my friends are not picky at all 😛 I guess all those years of being roommates since high school really paid off 🙂 Thank you guys for trusting me with our itinerary! Hahahaha.  We still missed a few tourist spots but given the short time we had to prepare and only 3.5 days to tour Taiwan, I think we went to pretty awesome places already 🙂

We went to Yangmingshan National Park on the fourth day because other areas  with cherry blossoms are either too far away (originally planned to go to Alishan but it will take loooong hours of travel, huhu!) or the flowers fell off already.  Yangmingshan is the most accessible and the flowers will still be there until the first week of April. I’m a tiiiny bit disappointed that we didn’t see a lot of Sakura, but I guess it’s all right because it would have been more heartbreaking if we saw none at all.  Honestly, it’s better in pictures than it is in person but I’m still happy to have experienced Taiwan in another season 🙂 Oh and if you’re curious about the weather, the coldest we’ve experienced is 19 degrees but it’s usually 22 degrees in Taipei for our four-day stay.  And yes, it still rained so better carry your umbrellas just to be sure! I remember reminding my friends to bring one and yet, I was the one who forgot so… *shrugs*

Channeling Bea Alonzo but failing big time XD

I will now forever be obsessed with these pink flowers.  Whenever I see it on my feed before, I shrug it off because I don’t see anything special about it aside from being pink and pretty.  But I saw two trees in a row and fell in love instantly.  How much more if I saw lots and lots of trees with Sakura petals everywhere?  Aaahh, hope I get to see cherry blossoms in Japan and/or Korea in the near future!

The obligatory #shoefie I swear we didn’t plan this!

On the way to the Yangmingshan, we also passed by the Calla Lily farm.  I had no pictures there because we got lost (heee).  The bus drivers didn’t speak English too so instead of waiting for almost an hour for another bus, we hopped onto the next one for the next tourist stops.

I’ll post the complete four-day itinerary soon plus an updated list of expenses.  You guys, I LOVE how cheap it was when I went to Taiwan for the first time, but two years later, I was shocked by how much everything got so much more expensive.  Oh well.  At least there’s no visa anymore?  I’m torn because it sucks to pay Php 2,500 for a visa and complete all the requirements but now that it’s visa-free, I noticed how tourists made Taiwan the new Hong Kong.  I know it’s a selfish thought but Taiwan used to be more quiet and exclusive two years ago? I always recommend it to family and friends but now that the night markets and tourist spots are getting too crowded, I’m not so sure anymore.  But yup, that’s just me being possessive, heh.

Not sure if I’m coming back again next year but as of now, I have no plans yet.  I just need my Osaka trip this September to push through before I decide to go again or not 🙂

Next post : Modern Toilet and PS Bubu (aka themed restaurants you should consider checking out when you go to Taiwan!)