♥ firstlove88 ♥: Taiwan Trip Day 1 - 31/5/2013 (Singapore - Taoyuan - Taipei Shilin Night Market

The day has come for us to travel to Taiwan! Have been looking forward to it ever since We booked the tour at Natas Fair in February.

Our flight was at 10++am. I can't really remember the actual time but I remember there's a delay in flying off because there's too many planes taking off at that time. Got to wait another 1/2 hour before our plane took off. It's not the first time such thing happen to us, the previous time when We went BKK, this happened too. I fell asleep even before the plane took off.

We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 1 around 8:30am. Contacted the person in charge who help us to checked in our luggage. There's not a need to queue because we are under group check in. FYI, the queue for checking in of luggage was super long but thankfully for the group check in, save us a lot of time.

Our luggage :)

By the time We were done, it's not 9am yet. Derp got to check his final semester result before we fly off to Taiwan lol. The result only release at 9am on that day. So much of a coincidence. We found the free internet computer after walking around awhile and so Derp login to check his results.

His expression after checking his results haha! And yes he has offically graduated and found a job whereby he's starting work next week after our staycation at MBS :)

Photo of me before We head up to Burger King for our breakfast.

We share the BK platter but We didn't finish it. Actually, I think Derp was just craving for BK breakfast though both of us ate before leaving house that day.

On the plane. :)

We chose to fly with China Airline and I must say the overall experience was not bad.

I watched a few movies throughout my flight but I skip after watching for 5 minutes or so. I ended watching a very complicated show haha! Perhaps, it's complicated hence I bother to watch it for long.

I can't really remember the name but it's about this old couple who divorce and met up during their kids graduation ceremony and the love between them sort of come back again. The husband have already remarried to another young woman, so yea "messy" is the word to describe the whole show. I didn't manage to finish watching the whole movie though.

We chose the beef with mash potato set lunch instead of chicken rice. I love the dessert the most :) I think it's passion fruit cheesecake, a combination of sweet and sour.

We reached Taiwan at around 4:30pm. We were told that there were another 8 people in our tour, and not wanting to let people wait for us, We rushed to queue for the custom and got our luggage quickly. Our tour guide was there waiting for us just as We push our luggage out. To our surprise, We were the first to reach haha! 2 kan cheong spiders, okay perhaps only me la.

But anyway, We went to get our 3g sim card :)

The telcos were easy to spot, once you step out of the arrival gate, just turn to your Right and there it is. There's 3 telcos to choose from but I did a little research online that Chung Hwa Telecom is the best in terms of reception even when you are in the mountain areas.

There's 1 day, 3 days and 7 days unlimited card. We got the 7 days unlimited data plan card. It costs 500 NT which is around $25 sgd. It's really worth it because other than unlimited data plan, one can still make calls or sms. The 3G network in Taiwan is indeed faster than Singapore even when you are underground taking their train, the connection is still strong.

We boarded the tour bus after everyone has gathered and headed off to High Speed Rail Taoyuan Station to board the bullet train to Taipei.

Our tour guide went to buy the tickets while We head to 7-11 to explore and get drinks.

All these yummy food are sold in their 7-11 but I didn't try it because I'm saving my stomach space for shilin night market.

Me posing with yy's favourite roasted barley tea. I was wondering what so nice about it so I decided to try it. I bought one bottle of it back to singapore for her and intend to courier it over to aussie for her when her birthday is nearing. :)

Our tickets. If you've notice, the train ride is around 20 mins from Taoyuan to Taipei. It's so fast la!

We went down to wait for the train and took some photos while waiting.

Here the train comes..

Derp is figuring out the map.

We arrive at Taipei Station and walked around a little before boarding out tour bus again. Our luggages were in the tour bus while we took the bullet train(So that we need not drag our luggage here and there), hence it will take sometime for our tour bus to come pick us up again.

Took this photo of the busy street in Taipei while on the tour bus to Shilin Night Market.

Arrive at Shilin Night Market at approximately 7pm.

There's this new air-con place which also sell night market food located at the basement of Shilin Night Market. There's a counter which count the number of people going in and out and the maximum capacity of people it can hold is 1400. We didn't went down because I do not want my hair/body to get smelly! Confirm no ventilation and probably the food will be more ex. It's quite crowded though cause there's like 700 people down there already.

Long queue for the chicken but you need not queue for like 1/2 hour or so. Probably 5 to 10 minutes.

Ta Bao-ed the Hot Star Chicken back to hotel to eat that night. So full lor. Anyway, there's Hot Star in Singapore too just that in Taiwan it's definitely cheaper. Less than 3 bucks in Taiwan!

Auntie prepping 大腸包小腸 for us.

Kind of cheap, it's like 2 bucks for it :)

Actually, nth much la. Just glutinous rice wrap with sausage.

Smelly tou fu which tasted so-so. Prefer the one in Feng Jia Night Market which I will blog about it later on :)

Fried Sotong!

It tasted good and we opt to add black pepper to it :)

One Piece merchandise are very commonly seen in Taiwan.

Chance upon this bubble tea shop and decide to get the chocolate oreo to try it. It's without pearl so it's safe. Glad that I've quitted bubble tea addiction if not I'll probably die craving of it when I'm in Taiwan.

The fruits are all so pretty!

Anyway, other than the shilin chicken, we also ta bao something else back to the hotel. More pics below.

Checked in to Amain Boutique Motel near to 10pm. We got a chance to check out our tour mates room too because everyone room is of different design! So cool! I did a little research of my whole tour and wrote it here before. Do read it to find out more.

We were given rooms on the 5th floor.

The bed which is facing the TV that you seen in the previous pic.

The bathtub with spa function! You can even change the lighting while you are soaking inside.

You can watch TV when you are enjoying your spa.

All my close friends know I'm a TV-addict, I can on TV without watching it but I just want to on it. lol. I can watch my TV while soaking. So happy lor! Btw, there's another hotel throughout my trip whereby there's sound system in the toilet. So while you are bathing, you still can hear whats going on the TV though you can't see it. Quite good eh, maybe I should consider it for my future house haha! Surround sound system in the toilet lol.

The water tap.

Part of my Supper which I didn't finish it. The drink is not bad but I still prefer those in night market. The "milk" taste of this drink is too strong.

The muah chee which tasted weird. The peanut is those bitter type. Guess the auntie didn't add sugar to it so it's just pure peanut.

Xiao Zhu advertising for WeChat :)

I watch Kang Xi Lai Le everynight when I was in Taiwan.

Even if I missed it, there's a replay at 12am. The only problem is when I'm at different part of Taiwan, the channel numbers are different even for the same channel. So every night, I got to slowly hunt for the correct channel for my Kang Xi Lai Le. But at least, I can catch it when it's play on Taiwan TV every night hehe.

Be back soon for more updates on Taiwan :) Happy weekends everyone!

Read my other post on Taiwan Trip here:)