Even though the streets were filled with English coming out of the airport, I’ve never felt so lost in a developed Asian country before. Trying to figure out where to eat (or what was even good) was confusing!
 
I now understand why so many of my friends’ parents wanted them to be literate—you wouldn’t be very independent in Taiwan without being able to read a few words. I actually discovered that my cousins learned simplified Chinese in Singapore and actually couldn’t figure out the traditional characters either. It made for some very interesting experiences. (Also, Singaporeans have a very different mandarin accent—must be from all those other dialects that get smushed together.)

Kind of a mashup of Vietnam and Hong Kong—it may not have been as clean as Singapore but it was a lot cheaper and had a lot more character overall. The history of the country is a little strange (well I mean, it’s hard to really say who was right or wrong when you consider what happened in the last century as both Japan and Chiang Kai Shek did do some good for the country). 

Overall most things were pretty tasty and cheap. I’m still biased towards my Singaporean roots, so not every Taiwanese-style dish I tried was my favorite. However their fried donut (yu-tiau) was probably the best I’ve ever had, Ding Tai Fung is definitely better in Taiwan, and the night markets are unlike anywhere else I’ve been. But don’t go looking for fishballs here-- those are better in Singapore.

Best place for traditional breakfast? You can't miss it (with the woks and the lines in the morning)-- it's directly across the street from a fruit vendor and just past the local wet market on the opposite side of the street. 

Jin Din Rou-- we came here because of Uncle Joe's recommendation as this place is supposedly better than Ding Tai Fung, The quality of all the dishes was amazing. 

Ding Tai Fung. Where consistently good xiao long bao can always be found. I swear it's better here than the branches in LA and Singapore. Taipei 101 has a decently large place but be prepared to wait!

Shaved ice is taken very seriously here! Ice Monster (this particular branch is within 2 blocks of Taipei 101) is really well known for its mango ice.

Raohe Night Market; This night market had more food than the other ones we had been to. Definitely worth going to for the fresh mochi, fried pancakes, and pan fried chicken. (There are also outfits for your lap dog....)

Shilin Night Market: Food, street performers, and clothes and stuff. Highly recommend the frog eggs drink and the torched beef here. Fried chicken was pretty decent, too.

Jiufen was a Japanese colony back in the day-- made to be the example colony to show the world that the Japanese were good powers to be under. Supposedly also the village/town that inspired Spirited Away. It did feel somewhat like the movie.....

There are tunnels but I didn't get to them. However I did find a waterfall a little ways on the hill past the restrooms....

Chicken restaurant. Have you ever seen gelatin like this on a chicken? Yum! Located on the main street in the old town sort of halfway up the hill.

Take the regional train up to Ruifen Station from the Taipei Main Station. Don't lose that ticket! (If the machine eats it let the attendant know.)  You'll then need to hop on a bus or take a cab.

Pretty popular to launch lanterns here. (We launched one but I definitely had to suppress my thoughts on ecosystem impact). Didn't seem like a whole lot to do and the stores seemed to repeat themselves. The waterfalls were about a 30 min walk out and no one really felt like walking to see the "Niagara Falls" of Taiwan.

Ok, it's touristy, and I've had better plates of beef. But it is sort of a tradition to go to, and it wasn't bad, though I don't think I'll stand in line for this place again. 
I introduced my parents to poutine (gravy + cheese on fries) and creating sandwiches from mountains of meat and potatoes. The district this place is in is kind of cool, though-- and definitely is worth a walk around!

See? Great area to walk around. These are some fantastic wall murals and great architecture. Oh, and there's no shortage of cured meats along the way :)

Beautiful nighttime scenery along the waterfront. It is a walk back up a hill if you're going back into the central downtown area, so keep that in mind. Old town is very reminiscent of European cities.

La Sauvagine is a decent French restaurant (and wasn't hard to find a table at, either).

Mandalay-- it's like the closest thing I've found to LA in all of southeast Asia.  It's probably the combination of multi-storied buildings with a distinct lack of energy/the feeling that most people don't live their lives on the street. Not sure if it was the fact that Yangon was my first city in Myanmar, but this 2nd largest city just doesn't have the same sort of energy. (Probably doesn't help that we got in on a public holiday-- the full moon of the beginning of Chinese lent.)  Everything is deceptively close on the map. City blocks here are huge! Be prepared to walk a lot.

I can't decide if it's this way because it's been occupied by both the British and the Japanese-- like perhaps it has a grid design because it survived some awful bombings (which is why the grand palace is nothing to look at now since the Allies razed it since it was a Japanese stronghold during WWII). 

So how much time do you need here? 

That totally depends on if you 1) find a good guide/english-speaking taxi driver, 2) What you're interested in, and 3) where you're located.

This city is expensive in terms of acommodation and transport. Hotels will pretty much only direct you to car taxis (not metered, and expensive in comparison to Vietnam-- 5000 kyat for 1-way trip of like 15 blocks). If your hotel has bikes, that's probably a better way to get around since the city is pretty flat and there are at least some traffic lights. Traffic overall was much better than Yangon (at least it flowed in rush hour).

Also, low season + random cyclone that we happened to get stuck in = not fun. Mandalay has 1 of 2 modes (confirmed this with a local): Dry and dusty, or wet and muddy. (I'm sure that's true for Bagan as well.) Some tour companies won't be able to run their usual tours when it pours. Initially had planned to go on the cycling tour of the old capitals surrounding Mandalay but it was too wet to do so! (Our guide who ran the foodie tour we had to take instead told us that the paths had a lot of mud and if you rode on the trails they typically took, you'd be up to your hips in water.)

Places of Frustration in Mandalay:
So... Diamond Plaza might be "the place to go to buy things in smaller quantities than at the Zecho/Zegyo market" but it's incredibly frustrating to get into. There seemed to be only one entrance in (the other entrance goes to a different part of the mall that is more or less deserted after 7:30pm and the floors above the 3rd floor were dark and shop-less), and it's an incredibly large space. I will say that the market in the basement had a good selection of Myanmar music, food, and random goods, like fuzzy flip flops. It was sort of a very compact Walmart.

Places to Eat in Mandalay:
MinGaLaBar Restaurant

Great food, wasn't concerned about sanitation (the food was kept in an enclosed space). Even though we sat in the downstairs non-airconditioned part, it was still quite pleasant. (Yes, air conditioning exists upstairs.) 

Vietnam doesn't need an amuseument park-- Hoi An's Old Town is a major attraction! It's a mixture of old buildings with lots of character, a clothing or bag store almost everywhere you look, and a ton of tourists (really, it felt a lot like walking through Epcot and could be the place with the highest concentration of white tourists in all of Vietnam).  There's even 1950s music that gets played over the loudspeakers in the evening, and a lantern celebration takes place every evening!  And if that isn't enough for you, there are Vietnamese cultural lessons (language and cooking), music performances, and more for you to "immerse" yourself in.

If you're expecting "real" Vietnam, walk a few blocks outside of Old Hoi An. Additionally you can go to Cham Island or the neighboring countryside area (aka. Marble Mountains) or perhaps a less-tourist focused city (Danang). However if you just think of Old Hoi An as its own thing (like an Asian Epcot) then it's quite enjoyable. We bumped into a family we had met in Phong Nha and they were saying that it was a pleasant city to be in because of the pedestrian walkways and they didn't have to constantly worry about their children walking around (here sidewalks are sidewalks, as opposed to scooter parking, as in Hanoi). Lots of great buildings and temples, but after a while you kind of wish there was more to the buildings than just a plaque and a bunch of tourists all crowded around (especially annoying with those selfie sticks).

They're famous for certain things, particularly a noodle (cua lua? it looked like not-so-soupy udon) and chicken rice (Com ga). Frankly I guess I must love Singapore's Hainanese Chicken rice (or maybe it's that chicken skin) too much because the shredded Hoi An chicken white meat just wasn't doing it for me. The other dish that I've always wanted to try (but it's hard to find and I always assumed it was an omelet) was banh xeo, a fried rice pancake with shrimp and pork and beansprouts that gets rolled with a rice wrapper and lettuce and some papaya salad. It's quite good (even if it is pretty oily). 

Places I approve of (I'll put pictures of the rest of the food up eventually):
Morning Glory/Mrs. Vu's Market/any of those restaurants-- has great food from all parts of Vietnam (very very tasty and authentic)

Streets/Streets Too which is a pretty good restaurant that takes in orphans and trains them to work in a restaurant-- they force all the local workers to speak English to each other all the time so that they become fluent enough to be able to work at any other restaurant or resort catering to foreigners.

Bale Well isn't bad-- I think we could have sprung for the chicken rice instead (Joe thought that he didn't need to try the Hoi An Chicken Rice since he's already had Singapore's version). The locals ordered it and it looked really good (though they did make a pretty good version of banh xeo). An ok-decent restaurant. 

Didn't really find many restaurants in the area where the locals went (and I wasn't sure how good the street food was in terms of cleanliness so I actually didn't have a banh mi off the street or try their deep fried shrimp pancake). The one place I found was a bit out of the way (north of Tran Hung Dao about a block west of Lao Cai) there seemed to be a place where a lot of locals were eating (I think it was close to the ride-a-Vespa-through-Vietnam tour agency).

Initially I read that folks would charge $20 (400,000-500,000 Dong) for a taxi to go from Danang train station to Hoi An. These folks stopped me on the way out and had me at 300,000 for a minibus ride-- and then convinced us to go on the back of their bikes (they had Danang Easy Riders on it-- which is sort of a group of folks who guide you around Vietnam on a motorbike). He stopped for coffee and tried to convince us to ride out to the countryside (Ho Chi Minh Trail, Marble Mountains, etc) but I was pretty tired of seeing the same scenery and really wanted to spend time at the beach and so after briefly stopping at a tailor, the Easy Riders dropped us off at our hotel and drove away. 

 

Admittedly I was skeptical about getting anything made (Louisa's previous experience wasn't very good and she didn't recommend it). Our motorcycle drivers were obviously getting a commission from Tuong's (located @ 67 Trần Hưng Đạo). However after some bartering (I didn't get super local prices but all things considered, it was great service throughout the fitting process).  You need to come back for a minimum of three fittings, and they had actually messed up my order (I wanted 1 shirt to be sort of a round neck blouse instead of a button-down, and had asked for non-skinny legged suit pants) but they actually made the shirt for me for free to apologize for their mistake, and kept re-doing the pants until I was happy with them (the tailor even came out to see how the clothes fit me each time I came by for my fitting). They packed my new clothes for me, cleaned up the stitching where I requested, and gave free water and wet wipes every time we came through. Overall pretty impressed with the efficiency and the quality, and now I have some custom silk shirts!

First impressions:

• Flow. It's all about the flow. (At least when it comes to crossing the road.)
• There's a lot of energy, and I'm glad I'm not driving.
• Tourist traps are all over (but there are plenty of people who are actually decent and not trying to rip you off as badly as the nice storefronts.
• Sometimes changing money at a pawn/jewelry shop seems sketchy but hey, if they give you the best rate....
• Crossing in groups is better than crossing alone (though still scary when it comes to major streets that aren't well regulated by lights). Tip: Go diagonally across, not straight.
• Food. Beer. Follow your nose and just be wary of how they wash things. (I drank a cup of tea that obviously was used for coffee and wasn't well cleaned on the rim-- and that was a nice-looking open-air cafe!  Also, some street vendors really do wash their pot on top of the drain in the sidewalk....) Sometimes those reviews on Trip Advisor are really helpful!

I've only been here a little over a day and a half, but this is a remarkable place. Remarkably polluted, yet there's so much of a distinct culture that you can just feel. This is not your sanitary Singapore with air conditioning. This is your 95+ F with 60+% humidity that has you dripping like a ice cold beer no matter what you do, with people who barely speak English, and well, let's just say that neither myself nor my "bodyguards" know enough Vietnamese to get by.  As my Uncle Wilfred put it, we are 4 sotongs (squids = clueless people) wandering through Vietnam. It's the blind leading the blind! Living standards are way different, but it's so fascinating to sort of step back in time into what my sister called "Singapore from the 1970s."

Definitely a mashup between old and new, Bugis is an interesting area full of people, especially at night. From the Malay and Turkish areas (like Malay St) to the little pubs and bars (that were once hip but now not so much a hipster destination) to the cat cafe, this is a pretty unique (and fairly well preserved) area of Old Singapore.

Truthfully it seems that most folks sell online these days (even in Singapore) so it's probably more worth it to go that route. That being said, if you really need something...

Sim Lim Tower-- notorious for ripping people off (or these folks are more commonly called "crooks") you can indeed find most things similar to some of the best electronics stores I've ever been to, like You-Do-It or All-Electronics.

There are certain things that are basically impossible to find though, like voltage converters (eg. no 12V DC to 5V), clear-colored single LEDs, or silicone coated stranded copper wire.  Everything was cheap by my standards (though you should really haggle for at least 10% less).

If perhaps you wanted to buy other goods, like a camera, then go to Alan Photo which is located at 
BLK. 261 Waterloo Street
#01-25 Waterloo Centre Singapore 180261 
It's across the street from the Lasalle school of art.

Definitely something I didn't grow up with: a big enough Muslim population. I had no clue that during Ramadan, folks come out to these night markets to feast! (And buy just about everything else you'd need, from curtains to cars and fake flowers and snacks.)

Most of the stalls were pretty repetitive (as in like they'd be the same on every block) so not sure if I'd want to come back again (I noticed that just outside the Tampines MRT station there seemed to be another night market). This was pretty easy to get to-- it's just next to the Paya Lebar MRT station.

And by exploring I really mean we were on a quest to find my grandma a new boom box and some new CDs with old Cantonese songs.  We managed to find both in this gigantic place. (Didn't have to go to Chinatown, and pretty much stayed cool the whole time!) We were successful at finding everything we needed.

Eating: There are 2 places to eat-- the 3rd floor at Food Republic or the basement. We've been to Food Republic before (it's not bad and has rustic decor) but as a senior citizen my grandma gets a 30% discount at the Kopitiam downstairs so we went there instead.