I have mentioned before how noisy a city Taipei can be, and as much as I enjoy alone time, I don’t always want to spend it in my home. Luckily, there are still spaces within the city that have managed to create relaxed but open spaces for leisurely down time. Whether you are traveling and need a cultural space of quietness or are attempting to navigate the loud city lifestyle, here are my top five places to read a book or score some silent recovery time in Taipei.
How many of my readers use VSCOcam to edit photos? Within a few minutes of using VSCO a year ago, I was hooked. I have used many editing tools, but VSCO won out hands down. I still use other apps to edit for particular needs, but VSCO is my go to app for up-to-date photos, urban adventures, or travel moments. Currently, I am obsessed with the newest set of presets, The Alchemy Collection (Q1-Q10). I have yet to use any other preset.
The moment you set out beyond your own front yard, you realize two things. The first is that you are more than capable of thriving in a variety of lifestyles and environments. Everyone struggles with components of their day-to-day life; expats just face them in new surroundings. The second realization is that the intimate experience of home is just as enriching as experiencing the new. Having yet to be back home in over two years since moving to Taipei, that meet-you-at-the-door feeling has largely been missing in my life: that is, until walking into Ounce Taipei.
Living in Taipei is a lot like living on campus during college. You’re bound to run into people at any hour, the streets and sidewalks only clear during national holidays with more than a week of vacation days, and before you know it, you’ve carved out what is essentially ‘your’ neighborhood. At first, this way of living seemed oppressive and exhaustive to this Texas native. Completely escaping the Taipei scene was never really a possibility. Even at night, the sounds and heat from the streets floated upward and soaked into the walls and sheets that only served as mere illusions of partitions.
Continue reading A Tea Time Escape: Mandarin Oriental Taipei
Commuting to and from work may seem like a dull experience in which we are half asleep, hoping we don’t miss our stop in between all of the yawns. But around the world, architects, designers, and artists are redesigning public spaces to capture our imagination and reawaken our spirits.
Backpacks & Blackboards 