We took Cathay Pacific from Changi Airport and arrived Taipei Taoyuan Airport in the afternoon around 2.30pm.
After collecting our luggage and exit the custom, we turned left and walked towards the end where all the airport bus counters are located. There are many of them but we chose Freego Bus as it goes straight to our hotel. Freego bus counter is the last counter at the right side. The lady told us that it is cheaper to buy return ticket so we paid for the airport bus return ticket that costs us NT$140 and NT$120 each. The staff manning the Freego counter is very helpful and friendly. It didn't take us long to board our Freego Bus.
It took us about 1 hour to reach the Taipei city. The city is quite congested with traffic even though it is a Sunday.
We were one of the last ones to get down the bus. Freego stopped us right in front of our hotel. It was really convenient. We checked in to Neijiang Hotel without any hassle. The hotel provided us the same breakfast every morning. It is a packet of drink and a sandwich. They will hang the breakfast on your room door. The sandwich is nice but after a few days you will get sick of it because it is the same sandwich every day. There were no rooms left so the 5 of us had to squeeze into a quad room which is just enough for one person to walk about. The extra bed that they provided looks more like a big wooden table than a bed. The mattress was so thin that you feel like you are practically sleeping on the wooden table. My poor brother was aching after the second day.
After checked-in, we head to our first destination - Ximending which is only a block away from our hotel. We can't wait to try the famous mee suah that was much talked about. Just ask any locals in Ximending and they will be able to direct you to the Ah Zhong Mian Sian shop.
Finally found the mee suah shop. It doesn't have tables or chairs, exactly as what I read in the internet forums and there is a long queue of people. We joined the queue which cleared very fast and ordered our own mee suah. We stood and eat like everyone else. It was a disappointment to us as we really don't find it any extraordinary at all. Perhaps we have raised our expectations too high?
Next we went to the MyPhone shop a few doors away to buy our local sim card for use while in Taiwan. It costs us NT$345 and we still have some balance when we left Taiwan.
The nearest MRT station was Ximen MRT. We took the MRT to Taipei Main Station to buy our train tickets to Hualien. The lady at the train station wasn't very helpful. We wanted the 8am train to Hualien and she told us there is no more ticket. She didn't know how to give suggestions and we have to keep asking her questions to find out the other available time. It's like you ask one question and she will give you a Yes or No answer to your question only. So we had to play the question and answer game with her which was very frustrating.
We took the MRT again to visit Shilin Night Market after that. Shilin NM is the biggest NM in Taiwan. It was very crowded on the Sunday that we went and we did not spend much time there as there were too many people and we could not walk without people rubbing into us all the time. In fact from all the night markets that we have visited in Taipei, Shilin appears to be the best market as they have a variety of goods and food. You would find that many of the goods sold at Shilin is not sold at other markets. So if you looking for some latest trend, then head to Shilin. One word of caution though, it is not cheap at Shilin.
After we had enough of Shilin, we head back to the MRT. On the way, we passed by a shop that sells "Or Ah Chian" or "Or Chian" which is fried oysters. We ordered a plate to try and when it arrived, we stared at it for a while before eating because it was so different from back home. The taste is very different too - sweet and sour.
Upon arriving back at Ximending, we were a little hungry so we went hunting for food. It was a rather disappointing experience as we stepped into a few local restaurants and nobody wanted to attend to us. Their menus were in Chinese and since we can't read Mandarin, we requested for them to explain to us what they served. Instead of helping, they walked away. We felt so discriminated. We finally found one shop that briefly told us what they have and we ordered a simple meal. It looked simple but it was simply delicious.
Day 2:
We hired a driver recommended in Tripadvisor forum for our day 2 trip to north east coast. We left the hotel at 9.15am and our first stop was Yehliu. It was a very beautiful place and we spent about 2 hours here. The entrance fee is NT$50 per person.
Can you tell what the shape of this rock resembled?
Next stop is Jiufen. We were already hungry when we reached here so when we saw the first restaurant at the entrance, we did not hesitate to go in and have our immediate beef noodle lunch. Haha....hungry people. Jiufen was very crowded on that day. There were many school children and they were noisy and running about. We did not spend much time here because of the crowd that made it difficult for us to walk and view things. We left quite soon after.
The following is a short stop at the Golden Waterfall. We took a few shots and we left for the next place.
Next is Bitou Cape. It took us 1 hour to hike up and down this cape. It was a scenic hike and the weather was fantastic, cloudy and breezy. All the way up and down you will see the beautiful coast.
Our last stop was at Nanya Rock.
This is our driver, Meeky Yang. He has truly lived up to his reputation of being an excellent service driver. He charged us NT$3,500 for the day trip and even sent us to the train station the next day at no extra cost.
That night, we visited Taipei's 24 hours Carrefour and bought some maggie mee for supper.
Day 3:
3rd day was a free and easy day. We visited the Hochezhan wholesale accessories center which is somewhere opposite the Taipei main station. We were quite disappointed as even though it is a wholesale center, the accessories are not cheap. To us it is like retail price and we may even get it cheaper back home. The highest discount they are willing to give is 20% if you purchase NT$100 and above.
We had our lunch at the Breeze food court at Taipei Main Station. Actually there were a few food courts at the Breeze center but we didn't know. We stepped into the first food court that we saw because we were so hungry and they were selling foreign country's food. It was only after we had our lunch and we went for a walk that we found there were two more food courts on the same floor that sell many local dishes. Cis!
Next we visited another wholesale center at Wufenpu. Wufenpu sells wholesale clothings but then again it is also not cheap. Brother bought a few t-shirts that cost about RM25 each while sis also bought 2 ladies blouse that cost about RM22 each.
That evening we visited Raohe Night Market which was opposite Wufenpu. Though it is opposite, it is actually quite a distance to walk. We also had a very delicious dinner at the market.
Day 4:
Our train was at 8.30am and our driver picked us from the hotel at 7.15am. We took the Tze Chiang train to Hualien. In between there were a few stops. We reached Hualien station in abut 2 hours and 1o minutes.
Our Hualien driver is Mr. Lu. He brought us to this take away shop to order our bento rice set. We decided to eat there and then.
Our first stop is at Cingshui. Many people stopped here to take pictures of the beautiful coast.
Then we headed to the Tarako National Park and the first stop is at Shakadang Trail for a short hike.
Swallow Grotto (Yanzhikou) is beautiful.....
Coming up is the Tunnel of Nine Turns.
After that he brought us to walk through a very dark cave. He gave us a torch light and asked us to wait at the other end for him. Our driver was quite an adventurous man. He also wanted to bring us for a 1 hour 40 minutes hike to the waterfall but we were tired and it was already about 5pm so we didn't go for it.
Since we didn't opt for the hike, our driver took us to experience the hanging bridge. It was just a short one and it was quite fun. This was the last stop before we head to Hualien town to check-in to the hotel.
This is Hualien town, just like any other small towns. Upon reaching, our driver recommended us a famous local delicacy made from lard. He helped us to place order through the phone and lucky he did because there was a long queue there and when we reached we had priority since we have pre-ordered. It was delicious.
We stayed overnight at C'est Juene Hotel in Hualien. It is a nice small boutique hotel and the lobby is decorated with many pieces of arts. The hotel also has a 24 hours coffee machine at the lobby and provides a few selection of breakfast which guests have to pre-order and will be delivered to the rooms in the morning. They also provide free transfer to the train station. Their service is good except that their location is not very convenient as it is not in the center of the town.
Since it takes a distance to walk to the town center where all the shops and food are located, our driver insisted that he send us there. We chose to eat at this restaurant that serves goose meat. Well, it tasted like duck meat and it wasn't really appetizing.
Day 5:
The next morning there isn't really much that we could do there. We had wanted to go cycling but the traffic is quite high so we aborted the plan. We took a shortt walk around the hotel and went back to check out. We left at 12.30pm train back to Taipei. This time we took the Tze Chiang-Tarako train which is the newer, faster train and most scenic route. It took us about 2 hours to reach Taipei.
After we checked in to Neijiang Hotel again, we took the MRT train to visit Taipei 101. Taipei 101 provides free shuttle from the City Hall station but we chose to walk there since it is a short walk and the weather is good. Along the way we saw many bicycles for rent. You can rent the bicycles by tapping your MRT card and the rental amount would be deducted when you return the bike.
We didn't want to visit the observatory floor as it costs NT$400 per person to go up so we just hang around the ticketing booth on the 5th floor and took some photos. We also visited the Taipei 101 mall for a while.
That night we visited Gongguan Night Market and had a good dinner at one of the shops there. Gongguan NM is located near to the universities and there are lots of univerisity students here. The NM is very small though compared to Shilin.
On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the Arts Theatre and decided to go in for a look. This theatre exhibits all the arts and crafts made locally. The price is also not cheap.
That night we had our last visit to the 24H Carrefour to buy the maggie mee that we like. Our luggage was nothing but Maggie Mees and Mua Chees.
Day 6:
Today is our last day at Taipei. Our flight is at 3.30pm. That morning we went to try out the very famous Taoyuan Street Beef Noodle which is a short walk from our hotel at Ximending. The shop opens at 10am but we were already there at 9.50am and obviously we were the first customers. Haha...We ordered 3 bowls of beef noodle to share. It was quite large and very expensive. One bowl of noodle costs NT$150. It was again quite disappointing because the noodle was nothing extraordinary.
Our last walk at Ximending before we checked out from the hotel and say bye to Taiwan. The hotel arranged for the Freego bus to pick us from the hotel at 12pm and the bus was very punctual. The bus dropped us at another location and all of us have to transfer to another Freego bus that goes to the airport. It was a smooth ride all the way. Bye Taiwan.....
