It’s been over a month since I’ve been to Taipei, Taiwan and I still have not had to chance to post up pictures of my beauty haul!!! Read about my adventures here, here and here.

 

Taipei is renown for its beauty industry- other countries being Korea and Japan! It’s one of the countries in Asia where beauty plays such a large role in their city. From plastic surgerys, to facial masks, to false eyelashes.. you will be able to find hundreds of these stalls in every street of Guangfu Road.

 

During my trip, I made several trips to purchase beauty products, and many of the products I had already opened up to use, but for the ones I have not..

 

I purchased 2 x Skin79 Pink Super BB Cream! I’ve had it before and I know I used to love it! There was a sale at Watsons for buy one get one for $1, so I purchased two as a backup or to gift. Below that, you can see false plastic nails. I purchased these for special events or to stick on for advertorials. I’m quite dedicated to my blog in that way. hehehe ^O^ *selfcompliment*

 

In Sasa, I found gel pencil liners (I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called) by Jealousness. They were also on Buy one get one free (BOGOF) so I got two of them as well – smoked black and sparkling brown.

 

 

 

 

How can I not have bulk bought facial masks!! They were incredibly cheap in Taiwan! I think each box only cost me about 300 Taiwanese dollars which is equivalent to about AU$10! Some were cheaper and some were more expensive of course. I actually walked around the Sasa store with a lady assistant who picked up every box of masks I looked at and helped me store it behind the counter. Poor lady ended up carrying about 5-6 boxes at a time in the end.

One thing I did notice about the taiwanese is that they say “harlo harlo!” alot. Everytime she tried to get my attention, they would “harlo” me. I didn’t know how to react much so I just nodded or shook my head so tell her whether I was interested or not.

I purchased quite a few brands so I can’t name them all, but Sasatinnie, My Beauty Diary, Lioele to list a few.

 

 

Here is the bigger picture from before. I purchased some liquid eyeliners, some drugstore mascaras (which are really cheap btw. About AU$10 when it’s about AU$20 in Sydney). I also got a Cyber Colors eyelash curler because the shop assistant wouldn’t stop showing me how amazing her eyelashes looked with this eyelash curler… and some eyelid tape – which I haven’t really had much of a chance to try yet!

 

 

 

Okay okay okay.. so now it comes to my favourite part of my shopping haul!!!! I possibly spent way too much on false eyelashes, but I do not regret it one little bit!!!

Every corner you walk to, each shop you pretty much step into, will sell false eyelashes! I never thought it could be physically possible to find so many different styles of false eyelashes!!! It almost shocked me! Here is a part of my haul.. and I’m saying this because I gave tonnes of these away to family and friends!!!!

I think each box was about 199 or 300 taiwanese dollars – which is equivalent to about AU$6-10!!!

 

 

That’s about all from my haul. If you love beauty products, I highly recommend you take a trip to Taiwan – but remember to save up lots of money or you might find yourself a couple of hundreds of dollars below your intended spend!!!!

 

 

 

 

And just a quick plug pic of myself in black hair!! I’m really loving the colour now because it’s somewhat faded to a “less fake-black” colour. Definitely need to make a video soon to show y’all, but for now….

 

Until next time!

Sorry for the little mini break. I’ve had quite a bit to deal with in the last week. Coming back to Sydney has been quite hectic.

 

Honestly, Phuket is quite amazing even though we did not stay for long. The main attraction was Fantasea – which is a famous night time cultural theme park. We patted elephants, took photos of the amazing detailed designs of the theme park and watched the show. It’s much like Cirque Soleil for those who are wondering. I’d say you’d have to watch it if you’re in Phuket.

 

 

 

Our second day in Phuket, we actually went to the well known Phi phi island. It’s known for it’s amazingly soft sand and perfect beach. I believe it’s also the beach from the movie “The Beach“.

 

Phi Phi island is great to tour around because there are so many activities to do! I think if I ever come back to Phuket, I’ll most likely revisit Phi phi!

 

We were allowed to feed monkeys, jet boat and swim in the ocean and snorkel amongst the fish.

 

 

 

Because most of the activities were water-based, I didn’t actually get to take many photos. But nonetheless, I had a fabulous time.

 

Our next destination was Koh Samui. This was the island I was looking forward to the most because I had heard that it was relaxing and for old-retired couples!! Perfect for me! HAHA.

 

We stayed there for about 6 days and there was quite a bit of drama there! The resort we stayed at (which I don’t want to mention the name of) was amazing. We had our own private pool villa and I honestly think I could have stayed in the resort for our whole trip.. maybe even for a whole month.

The only reason I didn’t want to mention the name of the resort is because I had an accident there, which I wasn’t too happy about. Although the resort had made up with their immaculate service, I don’t want to make an influence towards their resort by writing about it.

 

During our stay there, we booked a Safari tour where we were able to ride elephants, hold snakes, watch monkey shows and elephant shows!

 

 

 

 

We also took a short bush walk to see the Na Muang Waterfall 2 – a famous attraction in Koh Samui

 

 

 

The rest of Koh Samui was great. We went jet-skiing (my first time!!!) and sunbaked quite alot. Chaweng Beach was a great location to discover great food and great bars. We hired a scooter and I think that was my favourite part of this island! There is minimal traffic and travelling from one place to another was really easy. We did not get scammed by taxi drivers or tuk tuks too!!

 

Koh Samui is more touristy and definitely more friendly.

 

 

Our best night was spent at Ark Bar on Chaweng Beach! This bar gets really busy on Friday nights and the place is really amazing. You get to sit along Chaweng beach on beach chairs and enjoy the view of the waves in the ocean at night. The music was really loud so you sort of feel like you’re in a club too! But it was really chill.

 

There were also lots of performances off the beach! Check this out!

 

 

 

After Koh Samui, I headed back to Bangkok to route back to Sydney. On the way, we checked out Chatuchak market!!! I was really excited because it’s actually one place I’ve always wanted to go to!!! If you go to Bangkok, make sure you visit Chatuchak! You will not regret!

 

The best deals for fashion and anything young and trendy! It is run every weekend next to Mochi BTS station!

 

 

 

Anyway, enough on my trip!

 

Next post will definitely be more beauty related! =)

Bangkok was fun in it’s own way, but it was probably the country I enjoyed the least compared to the rest of the islands/cities I visited – but I will talk about that later.

 

In Bangkok, I stayed in Sukhumvit – which I think is the best area to stay at due to the number of things happening around the area!!

 

We visited Soi 11 alot, which was one of the most busiest streets for bars and street food!

 

 

That being said, what I disliked the most about Bangkok is the amount of people there were on the streets at any point in time! I found it almost impossible to walk in a straight line!! Even when it was possible, you’d be stopped by promoters of Ping Pong shows or street salesmen trying to sell you their tshirts or watches.

 

One of the things I enjoyed the most however, were the tuk tuk bars!! There were so many tuk tuks which were pimped up with lights and music to be a portable bar!! The drinks were about 80B for a cup of cocktail and 250B for a bucket of cocktail! ~equivalent to less than AUD$3 per cup and AUD$7.50 per bucket!

 

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Because we only stayed in Bangkok for two days initially, we weren’t able to get much done! But we did go on a canal tour which was provided by our hotel. The experience wasn’t amazing, but I would recommend it as something you’d have to do for sight-seeing. We saw some amazing temples and the view of some of the “houses” people live in by the river.

 

We also got to see some ladies selling drinks and snacks off their boat!!

 

 

I’ll be coming back to abit more on Bangkok towards the end of my travel diaries, but that was about all we got to for the first few days!!

The next day in Singapore, we had a bit more fun shopping rather than just drinking and sightseeing!

 

Tammy & her best friend, Kiyoko brought us to Universal Studios and the Aquarium (many thanks to the two as they were super friendly and helpful throughout our trip to Singapore!!)!!

We went to dine at the Aquarium restaurant for lunch to check out the fishies.. on a side note, I highly do not recommend dining at the Aquarium restaurant because the food takes an hour to arrive, didn’t taste very fresh at all and was absurdly overpriced!! However, that being said, we were able to experience the whole aquarium without paying for the entry fee!

 

 

After lunch, we decided to go to Chinatown and Orchard Road!

I heard that these two places were the “to-go” places in Singapore so I wanted to check them out!

 

Chinatown was filled with cute Chinese New Year goodies and heaps of food!

 

 

I also had a massive coconut for $3SGD I think – and tried on the QiPao!! I didn’t want to try it on because I was super #shy initially but I’m glad I did!! It’s super pretty!!

 

 

At Orchard Road, the most most most most exciting moment was trying out the Durian Icecream in Pandan bread!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in love.

 

 

 

But the fun only just started!

We went to The Underground and shopped at the girly markets! I found pink hair chalk!!!! And I’ve always wanted to try hair chalk!!! I think I got too excited and we tested it on my hair right away! The only problem is that you need to have wet hair, so we used a bottle of water we had and wet my hair in the middle of Orchard Road. #yesidid #embarrassing #overexcited

 

Here comes the pink hair!!!

 

 

 

More fun at the arcades with skill testers ^O^

 

And finally..

More Singaporean crab for dinner.

 

 

To finish off our short visit in Singapore, we had to swim at the pool one last time!! I miss Marina Bay Sands!!!!

 

 

I think my overall Singaporean trip was very short and rushed, but I still got to enjoy every second of it. I’m glad I got to stay at Marina Bay Sands (thanks again to Tammy) and I’m really glad I got to experience Chinatown and Bugis Street and Orchard Road.

I continually read so much about Singapore in so many blogs but my memory of visiting the country is faint (I went there when I was 13 years old). I’ve been urging to visit since I started blogging!!!

It was a pity I did not get to visit some of my blogger friends in Singapore, but for the time I had, the amount of things I had done was very satisfying!! I’m definitely going to go back to Singapore and will probably stay at Marina Bay Sands again!

 

Onto my Thailand trip next!!! I’m super excited to write about it!!!!!

Heloo!!

 

Sorry for the major MIA!! I was travelling around Singapore and Thailand and did not have an SD card reader to upload photos – hence no blog posts because plain text posts are borrringggg.

Anyway, in Singapore, one of my readers, Tammy – who is also a graphics designer – go check her out on www.tammytew.com - hooked me up with a sweet deal at Marina Bay Sands!! I got to stay there for the 3 nights I was staying in Singapore. The view was immaculate but the daily rates are usually quite high. Their infamous infinity pool was…. breath-taking.

The only thing I did dislike about Marina Bay Sands though, is the fact that they had two sets of lifts which led to you to higher floors. We stayed on Level 17, so to enter the pool, we’d have to switch lifts at Level 22 by walking over the next block and then go up to Level 57. Because the pool was the main attraction of the hotel, we went to the pool at least once a day, and it became overly frustrating!

 

The second day in Singapore, I met up with Clara (Dblchin)!!!

We had a quick lunch (which was thai food actually #awkward #sillyme) and headed over to Millys where I wanted to get my eyelash extensions and nails done!!

 

 

 

Millys service was really great. They had a range of “thicknesses” in lashes to choose from and the application time was only approximately one hour!!! Usually when I get it done in Sydney, it takes 2.5+ hours!!!

 

milly’s @ Bugis Village
New Bugis Street Desl 3,4,5
(s) 188868

For Appt: 63384137 | 8383 5395

 

 

My eyelash extensions after application

 

 

My amazing gel nails after designing! The best thing about Millys is that they have really sweet staff!! They are also really pretty!! And they have hundreds of designs to choose from!

 

 

Here are the girls who did my eyelashes and nails!!!

 

 

And with Clara!

 

 

At night, we headed over to eat our first Singaporean Crab of the trip! I read from Brad’s blog that No Signboard Seafood was a must try so we headed over to Far East Park. It’s such a beautiful area because you can see an amazing view and stroll along the beach before or after enjoying your meal.

 

 

For drinks, we headed to Clark Quay which was an area filled with bars and clubs!!! Singapore really has amazing nightlife!

 

More tomorrow!!

 

If anyone else is heading over and need some recommendations and tips, you can email me on janice@chaigyaru.com

Okay! Yesterday and today have been long ass days.

Yesterday, I took an MRT for the first time and headed over to Xin Beitou which is where all the hot baths were!! Hot baths are super popular in Japan and have been around for years. They have health benefits as the water is somewhat “special” and is really good for the skin!!

 

 

 

Hot bath (which is public) is about NT40 which is abit over $1!!!!

 

 

 

I couldn’t take anymore photos because the baths didn’t allow it. I also went to eat some local food around the area!!

 

 

To be honest, not sure what most of the menu said, but my plate turned out to be intestines and tofu! :o (which I normally eat anyway!!)

 

 

 

For the rest of the day I headed over to Ximen which is a shopping district you definitely need to check out if you are ever in Taipei!! I was originally quite sick of shopping already after the first two days but this place gave me the urge to buy heaps!! It’s almost like… a night market in a whole suburb!!!

Amazing food and cheap shopping!

 

That’s all from me for today!!! Need to head out so I will be back soon!

I’m sitting at Time cafe at the moment – which is near where I’m staying in Taipei. I’m having Seafood soup as my dinner tonight because I need to rehydrate after shopping for 9 hours straight.

Today, I visited Zhonghao Road. This area is supposably the place for fashionistas. All the girls and boys apparently look like models here (quoted by another blog I read) – I would definitely agree that it is the most fashionable but probably not about the model-looking people.

SOGO and Mingyao also live on this road.

 

I also tried some street food today!!! I struggled with ordering food, but eventually got through it!

 

After shopping on Zhonghao road, I caught a cab to Taipei101. At first I thought it was like an observatory tower like Sydney’s sky tower but it is actually a shopping mall with the observatory on the 6th(?) floor!!! I didn’t go in because there was a 30-40mins wait but it’s definitely something worth visiting. I’m just lazy #noshame

Here are some pics from Taipei 101!

 

Just a few streets below Taipei 101 is Linjiang night markets!! I’ve wanted to visit a night markets since I got here so I took a quick cab ride down!!
There are so many little things to buy and eat there!! I had my favourite street snack – Smelly Tofu!!

 

I bought these flats for NT 390~ which is equivalent to about AUD 13!!

 

Okay next (yes I had a longggg day), I went around the streets near the night markets. The Linjiang markets is only one long street btw.
The street intersecting is actually a whole street filled with pets!!! I got overly excited when I found huskies and shibainus!

 

It’s abit cruel that all these pets were in cages, but it was still very entertaining to visit each shop to observe the cute puppies and kittens!! There are sooo many couples here!!

Okayyy time to head homeeee. Last meal of the night.

And ofcourse, a selfie with the beautiful city of Taipei.

Goodnight Taipei. I’m looking forward to a more relaxing day of Hot Springs tomorrow :)

Hi ya’ll!

Today it’s an amazing weather in Taipei! I walked around Da-an district to Sogo and mini boutiques everywhere!!

Really reminds me of Hong Kong (cause that’s probably my only memory of Asia).

I purchased some lingerie and eyelashes today. There are many manu little aisles of stores and I’ve found myself getting lost through all of them!!

I’m currently drafting this post in a restaurant where I ate the infamous Taiwanese beef noodle soup!! It cost NT140 which is equivalent to about $4.50!!! And I also ordered a mango juice for NT30 which is less than $1!! I’m stunned at how cheap Asia is.

Taiwan is relatively safe compared to many parts of Asia. Most people here mind their own business and no one really stares at you like most other parts of Asia!!

I’m struggling with everyone speaking mandarin but I’m surprisingly pulling through with communication! #day1

Hopefully the next few days will get better!! I’ll leave you guys with some pics!