go Taiwan - Part I

I have visited 台中 Taichung, Taiwan during my high school exchange programme. 台中 Taichung is the third largest city on the island after 新北市 New Taipei City and  高雄 Kaohsiung. The exhange programme is almost two weeks experience full of activities. In the meantime, I have went to 高雄 Kaohsiung for half day and realise there is nothing much to do except for the shopping mall (夢時代 Dream Mall). Since this have been some years, I decided to visit 台灣 Taiwan in sudden. Yet, I decided to travel to most of the top attractions in 台北 Taipei and so called must-visit. 

Day 1

 

The first day of our trip to Taiwan is traveling by AirAsia X that depart from Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA 2) to 臺灣桃園國際機場 Taoyuan International Airport. The whole journey approximately takes 4 hours 40 minutes. On the other hand, I'm taking this opportunity to explore the new airport (KLIA 2) that opened in May 2014 which can capable more capacity up to 45 million of domestic and international passengers per year. It have 225 retail outlets at KLIA2 which consists of 118 lots allocated for retail offerings, 81 lots for food and beverages (F&B) and 26 lots for services.

Tips: Be early to reach the terminal because it will take some times to walk to the departure gates.

KLIA 2, Sepang

Getting Around: 

1. Purchased the 悠遊卡 EasyCard in the metro station unlike last time in 7-ELEVEN due to the recent law changes. But, for the high speed railways tickets (High Speed Railways to Taichung/Kaoshiung) that have been reserved can be collected in 7-ELEVEN.  
2. Get the 国光客运 Kuo-Kuang Bus Corp. - bus tickets in the Arrival Hall to the city (Taipei Main Station) and alternative transfer to metro or taxi to the hotel for check-in. This will be much cheaper compare to a direct taxi from airport to the city. 

Where to Stay:
If traveling to Taiwan, everyone will be headache of where to stay that make the most convenient journey. Yet, my friend introduce to stay around the Shilin Night Market (士林夜市). No doubt, I would say that the stay was a pleasure where we could go to the largest and most famous night market in Taiwan within few minutes walk. Even I could shop more than going to the famous wholesale garment market Wufenpu (五分埔) for my personal opinion.

Twin Room

Beauty Hotels - Star Beauty Resort

Add: 1, Chien Kong Street -Shilin District,, Taipei, Taiwan
        ( exit from 劍潭站 Jiantan station)

After check-in to the hotel, we then go Dazzling Cafe for dinner which is well-known with the honey toast dessert. But, I found to be nothing special about it until the surprise happened in the end when I have the bite of small square toast hidden inside. Other than that, most of the restaurants need to be queued and to be honest, I have queue up for the entire trip of my dining time in Taiwan.

Dazzling Cafe

Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce  NT$  260

Mont Blanc Honey Toast  NT$ 300

Dazzling Cafe Pink
Add: 台北市大安區忠孝東路四段205巷7弄11號
        (捷運忠孝敦化站的出口2）


Opening Hours 
Sun - Thurs : 12:00pm - 11:00pm 
Fri - Sat : 12:00pm - 12:00am 


After dinner, we head to the wholesale garment market - 五分埔 Wufenpu. As my traveling partner got four days here, yet we decide to have shopping first and do price comparisons for the clothes. However, we feel dazzled looking around the clothes. So, we walk over to 饶河街观光夜市 Raohe St. Night Market as the night market in Taiwan is the must-visit. The reason is because each of the local night market have their own signature foods.

饶河街观光夜市 Raohe St. Night Market

with my traveling partner

芭樂汁  Guava Juice

胡椒饼

 五分埔
Add: Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
(捷運後山埤站1号出口，步行約 10 分鐘 / Houshanpi station exit 1, 10 minutes walk away)

  

饶河街观光夜市

Add: Songshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 105 
(during my visitation the station is closed if reopened take exit 5 from Shongshan station/ 捷運松山站5号出口)

 
Meanwhile, we can visit 彩虹桥 Rainbow Bridge that near to 饶河街观光夜市 Raohe St. Night Market. By the time we visit is almost late night, we then back to hotel to rest so that ready for tomorrow explored.

彩虹桥 Rainbow Bridge

赏彩虹桥的风景 Enjoy the view of Rainbow Bridge

Good night.