Cxindy Chin: Taipei 2013 - Day One (实在好湾)

First time to Taiwan! Took P there for 7D6N as his birthday treat.
Chose to fly with Jetstar again. Took cab to Changi Airport T1 at 5.30am
After checking in we went to have breakfast.
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The journey is about 4.5 hours. I regretted not getting the extra leg space seats.
Because we have to wake a lady up when we need to go to the toilet. She look really pissed with us and is very rude.
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After we touched down at TaoYuan Aiport (桃園機場), The first thing we did was to look for the tourist service center. We filled a form which took us last then 5 mins. And we got the youth card, which is FREE.
You can get discount for attractions entrance fee etc. Taipei 101. For more benefits, visit the website : www.youthtravel.tw
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You will also see counters selling prepaid phone card and car rental.
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We chose Taiwan Mobile which is highly recommended online. True enough, the unlimited internet speed is super awesome. We get to do last min research on places to go, get to places using GPS.
Can't imagine life without internet nowadays.
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We purchased the 10days package for NT$800. The balance can be used within 6 months.
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This is how the airport looks like, with nothing much to see. We proceed to purchase coach tickets that will bring us to our mingshu.
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The coach ticket counters are located at the basement of the airport.
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We chose FreeGo, because of the drop off and pick up point. (It's right beside our mingshu)
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The seats are good, bus is spacious and clean. Took around an hour to reach Ximending from the airport.
The only con is that the driver will announce the station verbally. So if you couldn't hear him, you might take the bus straight to TaiChung. LOL. So I suggest you sit behind him lah.
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When we reached XiMenDing, we called the inn keeper. He sent someone down to pick us up. We stayed 7D6N at the same place.
The name is Taipei York and is located at XiMenDing. For more info you can visit the website : http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/taipeiyork

The above is the pricing list for the room. The room is beautiful from the pictures. But the actual place is a bit dirty. We spent only $68 for a night stay. (Due to the low exchange rate)

I was a bit shocked when the person told us, 到了. (Reached) KTV at level 2?! What the..
Our room is located at level 5, so thankfully we didn't get affected by any noise at night.

We have to scan the card to operate the lift. There is a problem with the card scanner, so P and I had a hard time using the lift everyday.
When we are at level 5, we have to scan the card to open the first door. And when you get in, there's 2 rooms inside.

We stayed at Room 2. (Beach style)

Pleasant looking I must say. This is one of the reason why I'm sold.

Beautiful eh?

The bathroom is kinda small, but no complain. The shower water pressure is big. And they changed the towel daily.
Everything is okay until I checked the bed.

The bedsheet and blanket is dirty! Strands of hair and stains on them. I feel itchy when sleeping. And they charge if you want to change the bedsheets! GRRRR. So you can decide for yourself if you still want to stay there.

Outfit for Day 1. :)
P and I were dead hungry. It was around 3pm and we haven't had anything other than the breakfast at Airport. We randomly picked a shop just below the inn. And they served very good lu rou fan! (braised pork rice)
We ordered pig intestine as the side dish. Not bad at all. But not the best.

After the filling lunch we stopped by another shop that sells 小吃. (Finger food) P wanted to try tempura. (NT$20)

Honestly the food isn't nice. :x Night markets food are way better! But they do delivery if you order more than NT$100 (SGD4) *jaw drop*
CHICKEN KINGS 台北市昆明街138号 Tel : 2311-3311
After which we walked around XiMenDing. Bought our EasyCard (YOYO卡) to take the public transport. (NT$100) It's easier for them to understand you when you say Yoyo card. Some of them couldn't understand the word EASY.

We took the MRT to Jiantan (剑潭) to Shilin night market! Woohoo~

Shilin night market is just in front of the station. If you reached after 5pm, you just have to follow the crowd from the exit and you'll see Shilin in no time.

The first store that caught my attention is the Prince potato! 王子起士马铃薯~

Ordered the one with ALL the ingredients! (NT$60) Damn shiok. You can request for separate packing if you are not planing to eat it on the spot.
The most enjoyable thing about night market is that you can spam foods and shopping. You won't get judge bringing food inside people shops.

As it is only day 1, I controlled myself and didn't get anything there. Wanted to compare the price with WuFenPu first. *Auntie mode*

Bought grass jelly milk tea at a random store. And the cup is Large in default, and it only cost NT$30!!!!(SGD1.20)
I've decided to stay there for good.

We only tried the stores that are recommended online. Because we were quite filled with milk tea. LOL.

Tried this pork bun. Mad nice sia. It's like normal bao but with crispy skin.

Then we chance upon this shop selling huge fried cutter fish. (NT$120) One thing I loved about Taiwan, their cutter fish are super fresh. (But expensive) I had one almost daily.

Tried orange yakult. (NT$50) I always thought my Chinese is mad good. But I cannot read 柳橙.(Orange) -_-
Anyway P loved the drink, so do give it a try when you see Tea's原味.

We went to the new part of shilin night market. Now the rain couldn't spoil our trip.

Some stalls hire really enthu workers. They yelled non-stop to attract attention and pulled you in their shop.
We noticed that every shop sells almost the same thing so we sat down at the shop who make the most noise. I regret it immediately. Ear drum spoil.

Decided to try oyster omelette (orh jian) and stinky tofu!

They never anal say no outside drinks. So yup! Really love Taiwan.

The stinkiest, the best. LOVE IT TO THE MAX.

Somehow P and I dislike the orh jian. We ate a few mouthful and left. Unlike Singapore crispy egg with chili, it's sticky chewy egg with tomato sauce. (-.-) We didn't want to eat any orh jian for the rest of our trip.

After we exited the basement, we saw a lot of fruit stalls. TAKE NOTE : Never go over to them just because they offer you free fruits to try. They will ended up asking you to at least buy a bag from them.

This bag consist less than 8 pieces of fruits cost us NT$250!!! (SGD11) The fruits in Taiwan is really nice, but you can get cheaper on at roadside stalls instead of the stall located inside Shilin. Heart damn pain FML.

Our last stop is to dabao the Hot Star XXL chicken. (NT$55) It's really huge. But I don't really look forward to eating it. Because Singapore has it. (Located at Tamp1)
After filling our stomach we took MRT back to XiMenDing.

There is a 24/7 shop that is selling facial product. So I decided to buy something from there. And we went to the 7-11 just directly below our inn to buy the huge ass bottled Yakult.