My excitement was indescribable when my parents booked a round island tour from the 6th to 13th of December last year. The tour covers Taipei, Hualien, Taitung, Kaohsiung, and Taichung. I was super elated when I discovered that I will be going to so many places around Taiwan :D Although I was not keen on following a tour, I guess it is the best way to explore the major cities of Taiwan without much of a hassle.
The trip was about RM3,000 per person, including air tickets and six meals. Quite reasonable I think! Our flight on Friday was at 10 in the morning, but we were required to be at the airport at 7. Am totally not a morning person... I think I only slept for 5 hours that night, which was really not enough for me to last a whole day.
When all of us gathered in front of the departure gate, I came to know that there were only three families on our tour; 19 people altogether. Yay small tour group ftw!
This is our in-flight lunch.
I admit, dining in the air sure is something cool to experience at least once in a lifetime, but I am definitely not a fan of airline meals.
We arrived four and a half hours later at 2.30pm. By the way, Malaysia and Taiwan have the same time zone. How convenient!
At Taoyuan International Airport. Ahhhhhhh! I can barely contain my excitement.
So pretty! I love the uncluttered space, the use of natural lighting, and of course the shiny floor :P
I also love how the tiny light bulbs are embedded into the ceiling.. It is like looking up at a starry night!
We took about one hour to be done with immigration etc. There is a counter at the airport for you to register for free WiFi, which is only for tourists and mostly available in tourist areas. You just need to key in your passport number as the username and birth date as the password. How nice of the government hehe.
As we came out of the airport, the air was cold but not too chilly. It felt like I was in Genting.
The view from the bus.
We passed by this lake on the way to Taipei. Our tour guide - a local man in his late 60s - told us that this is Tamsui River (淡水河), which literally means freshwater river. There is Taipei 101 in the distance!
I had a hard time understanding our tour guide's Mandarin, even though I know the language. His Taiwanese accent was really strong, and most of the time it seemed like he was speaking alien language. I could only catch a few words here and there. Funny thing was, I had to ask my mom (who is English educated) about what he was saying! A Malaysian tour guide came along with us too, to help with any language barrier.
Approaching the city centre.
Our first destination was the National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine (忠烈祠) in Zhongshan District. It is about 50 minutes from the airport.
The shrine was built to commemorate the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the benefit of the country.
Ceremonial guards standing like a statue below the arch. I forever cannot imagine how they could stand so still without moving an inch and not batting their eyelids (wait.. that's impossible right?).
We were just in time for the changing of guards :D
The new guard.. All of them look the same to me, LOL.
We stayed for 30-40 minutes. The wind was colder here than at the airport. The second and last stop for the day was Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) - woots! Located in Shilin District, it is the largest and most famous night market in Taipei. I am no stranger to Shilin as the "Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks" food chain can be found all over Malaysia, so the night market was one of the places that I was looking forward to the most as I wanted to experience the real deal.
I had always imagined Shilin Night Market to be a long, long stretch of food stalls.Well... it was nothing like my imagination. My first impression of the place was - sadly - ruined by the construction works going on at the entrance of the night market -.- The air was heavily polluted with chemicals as well, ughhh.
So, food hunt/dinner began at 5pm!
Taiwanese sausages.
Chicken wings, chicken legs, duck tongues etc.
Japanese food stall. Umm, I know how to read the words but I don't understand what it means heh.
Fried oyster omelette stall.
A different type of oyster, if I remember correctly.
I have no idea what this is haha.
Shilin also has an indoor market! Fruits are cheap here. Many fruit stalls even provide generous amount of samples without you having to ask.
This cup of bubble tea costs only TWD35 = RM3.85! Such a big cup as well. A regular cup of pearl milk tea from Chatime is already RM5.90 lol.
The night market is seriously HUGE. There are so many streets interconnecting - it is like a food maze! I think it is possible to come a few times and still never eat the same food. One night is definitely not enough to cover everything.
Quail eggs.
Muachi! One of my all-time favourite snack :D It is made of glutinous rice flour and coated with peanuts; sometimes it comes with sesame or peanut filling.
The muachi was a little disappointing as the peanut has a weird taste. I don't know if the muachi in Taiwan is supposed to have this taste, because the one I tried from another stall lacks flavour as well. Sorry, but Malaysia's muachi wins :P
This is sweet potato dipped in syrup. Yummy!
We had bak kut teh in this restaurant. Feels good to drink hot soup on a cold night.
Peanut candy... with ice-cream.
Stinky tofu! The extent of the smell actually depends on different cooking styles. This one is not smelly at all :P
"Frying milk" :P Well, I did not try the "frying milk" but I did buy the fried oreos. I had my doubts because... fried oreo?! It is such a weird combination. But hey, since I was already there I might as well try it.
And and and surprisingly, it was good! The chocolate cookie melted a little after deep frying it, so it sort of becomes like chocolate filling :D According to my sister, it is "the best food ever".
We also had dried persimmon, corn on cob, and fried sotong with plum powder.
Within the two hours given (which is really not enough), we had already spent about TWD1,000 lol. I was feeling tired and sleepy by 6pm, at which the sky had already become completely dark like it is 8pm in Malaysia.
We stayed in SLV Business Hotel, which is not far from Shilin. I got fooled by the name - it actually is a motel heh. But quite a fancy one ;)
The room is separated by a corridor.
The tap is so cute lol.
My uncle and his family (who live in Taipei) dropped by our hotel for a while. They bought egg pudding and drinks :D I have never seen such a cute dessert like this (how did they cut the eggshell so perfectly?).
Pearl milk tea and lemon aiyu jelly. Oh my goodness, the drinks are life-changing. The pearl milk tea was way better than the one I had previously. The price is really reasonable for such a huge cup too!
So my first night in Taiwan was spent having cold dessert and cold drinks in a cold room. 冷死我 haha！
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