Welcome to Taiwan: Day 1 - 20th March 2011

Finally the time has come. Been waiting for this time since I booked the flight ticket via Air Asia promotion in September 2010. That time, it's kinda painful to race to be the first one to book once the clock went past 12am. Managed to get in but the price is not updated...yet. Tried again 30 minutes later and still not updated. The same thing also 1 hour and 2 hours later. Frustrated, I hit the sack.

Later that day, I tried again in the morning and still not updated. Been browsing through Air Asia Plus and no update yet. Sien. After lunch I tried again and walla, it's there. Without any hesitation, I quickly searched for the right date that fits in with the promotion price. Finally managed to secure bookings from 20th March 2011 to 26th March 2011, Sunday to Saturday so that I have an extra day off after I come back. Finalizing the booking, paid via CIMB fund transfer(save the convinience fee that you need to pay if u pay by credit card) and there you go. I managed to get RM174 per way per person. Altogether with tax, meal and baggage charge, it's RM1084 return for 2 person all in.


Most Air Asia flights are the same. The plane will depart from LCCT at 10.00am (mine was 9.55am) daily and will reach Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 2 at approx. 2.30pm. Since I couldn't find anyone to fetch me to LCCT, I had to actually book a taxi to LCCT from Puchong. Airport Limo taxi from Puchong is RM56.40 one way to KLIA/LCCT. The return journey will be RM64.60. So, return ticket will be RM121.00. I scheduled the taxi to fetch us about 7am. He reached 5mins past 7am which is not too bad considering he's first time coming to my area. Departed at 7.15am and reached LCCT about 7.5oam.


We don't fly a lot and this is the first time we fly by ourselves and first time at LCCT, so there are a lot of things that we need to explore ourselves. Went to the self check in kiosk and printed out our boarding pass. We didn't buy the seats, so we let the system chose for us. The seat is next to each other, so we thought we're lucky not to be assigned far from each other. Then we proceed to check in our luggage. Quite a queue as Taiwan is a hot package at the moment. Even the radiation risk from Japan doesn't affect our travel to Taiwan. When it's our turn, I only realized that I can straight get my boarding pass here instead of doing it at the kiosk. Must remember this next time.

After checked in our luggage, we went to McDonalds for breakfast since there are still some time before they allow us to board. After breakfast, we proceed with the SOP to get to the plane. There were a long queue at the boarding gate so, it took some time there. Finally reached the place, searched for our seats only to realize that we were separated by the aisle. Well, it's not too far away right. The place took off at 10.15am. The journey there was ok, nothing bad happened. There were small turbulence here and there but no big deals. My neighbour was an elderly couple who are with tours. Had some small chat with the auntie as her husband was quite a quiet person.

2.15pm finally touched down at Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 2. Slightly earlier than expected. Went through all the necessary clearance smoothly. Baggage was a bit slow to come off the tunnel. Anyway, after everything is cleared, went to the Tourist Service Centre to collect my Digital Tour Buddy which includes a telephone and a sim card, preloaded with NT100 for you to make call to service centre. I used it to call my accomodation people. If you are 30 years old and younger, you can apply for this for free. There are other services also. You can check it out at Taiwan Youth Travel website.

After getting my free phone, we head towards the express bus counter to purchase ticket to Taipei. We get our ticket at Kuo Kuang Bus Express. It cost us NT125 per person. We boarded the 3pm bus to Taipei city. In the bus, we called Kevin, the owner of the Fun Taipei Backpackers to let him know that we're on our way.

Since Fun Taipei Backpackers is located within walking distance to Jiantan MRT Station, and with the bus passing through Yuanshan MRT Station, we request the driver to drop us at Yueanshan MRT station. It's only 1 station away from Jiantan MRT Station compared to from Taipei Main Station where the bus' final destination will be. But the bus didn't drop us directly in front of the station, we still need to walk awhile to the station. Stopped halfway to buy mineral water from a convenience store. Small bottle charge us NT18.

At Yuanshan Station, there were a lot of people there because it's near one of the entrance of Taipei International Flora Exposition. Since we're rushing to check in and have an appointment later that day, we quickly hop on the MRT and head towards Jiantan Station. At Jiantan Station, I'm quite familiar on the route to Fun Taipei Backpackers as I can see the real photos through google map. After researching for weeks, it's not hard actually to locate the hostel. But first we need to stop by at OK Mart which is one of the convenient store. Kevin left the keys with them, and we paid the balance of the room charge to the store. The hostel is actually 1 minute away from the store.

Front door of Fun Taipei Backpackers. Closed all the time. Got one uncle sitting inside during daytime. It does looked a bit rundown outside but CCTV is everywhere. You'll feel safe walking at night. Even the lifts have CCTV. The room is at 5th floor.

Room a bit small but the bed is soft and comfortable. That's a 22" TV if I'm not mistaken with DVD player. There is a small window just by the racks(hidden on the left side) with mosquito netting. If you close the window, you don't need to close the net. Taipei was cold when I went so I didn't use the aircond at all, not only here but for all my nights there :) The remote below the airond unit has indicator to show the temperature of the room (I think :p) It hovers around 21 to 23 degree at night.

Small little table with kettle and cups. I requested for universal adapter since I need to charge my phone and camera. Taiwan's power socket is different from Malaysia. So please request for Universal Travel Adapter whenever you book a room. They sure have it.

This is the bathroom. Quite ok. Surprising to see that their toilet bowl comes with water spray to spray your anus after completing your big business. Not bad for a hostel huh. (Other 2 places I went don't have this). And they don't have toilet rolls, more like tissue paper(see the yellow plastic bag). Hairdryer is included. The box above the toilet is their water heater.

Shampoo and bath foam is included also. One not good thing about this room is the power for the heater tripped quite frequently. So, you may suddenly get cold water in the middle of shower. If you experience this, just open the fuse box and reset the tripped power. Caution: This may happen few times. So don't shower too long.

This bread shop is just opposite the entrance for Fun Taipei Backpackers. If you see this bread shop, you're in the right place.

Fun Taipei Backpackers is just minutes away by foot to Shilin Night Market. Jiantan MRT Station is the place where people stop to go to Shilin Night Market. When you walk from Exit 2 of the Jiantan MRT Station to the hostel, the building on your right which looks like a car park is actually Shilin Night Market indoor part where mostly are food items. This 豪大大雞排 is one of the stalls in there.(See pics below)

Prepare for a long queue here. NT55 per piece. You have option to choose spicy or black pepper. We took the latter. Not bad. There's another branch stall at the outdoor part also.

Basically, I think you can find lots of news and details about Shilin Night Market in the internet, so I won't elaborate more. You can just stroll along the road and just buy/eat what your instinct says. Whether it taste nice or not, it depends on people. One man's meat is another man's poison.

I'm signing out on my day 1 experience in Taiwan. Weather today is not bad, not that cold. A bit cooler than KL at night.

Bye.

Procrastination

I need to stop procrastinating... need to really update this blog regularly... Check out for new postings soon ya :) Real soon :)