Day 1- 29/12/06 SIN --> TPE
The start of my holiday! On arrival at CKS airport, we were looking for the sign that would point to the Freego bus, but before we could find such a sign, my dad had been persuaded into taking a 7-seater private mini van which cost NT$1400. we felt a bit bu4 shuang3 cuz we felt that the freego bus would have been cheaper and after we had spent time researching on it, now it was in vain (later we found out that taking freego bus would have cost $200 per person, so actually taking the van was not much more expensive). but anyway the good thing was my dad had a good time chatting with the driver. We also took the chance to fire a few questions at him about the place. we were thinking since we spent so much money, may as well get more info from him... haha.
Paradise hotel - pretty decent. the lady at the reception was quite friendly, they provided us with maps and told us the direction to Ximen station, and she tried to allocate us two rooms on the same floor although it meant that one of the rooms she gave us had two double beds. we actually booked two triple rooms and triple room includes a double bed and a single bed, so in a way we zhuan4 dao4. although there are no water boiling facilities in the room, there was a water cooler on every floor which could dispense hot and cold water, so it was not bad at all.
after dumping our stuff in the room, we set off in the direction of the ever famous ximending, however surprisingly we din really find much food stuff, there was lots of lu3 wei4 stalls around but what we wanted was somewhere we can sit down for a proper meal. afte
r hunting for a long time, we finally came upon a small eatery along one of the streets leading towards Ximen station. there were actually no table for six, but a kind soul who was alone gave up her table to us and shifted to join up with another table, presumably with pple she din noe. me, XW and RW asked for lu3 rou4 fan4 while my parents and CY asked for e2 rou4 mian4 (goose meat noodles) which was actually duck meat noodles. we were quite surprised it was so cheap - only NT$20. when our food came, we finally realized why it was so cheap. the so-called lu3 rou4 fan4 is actually juz rice with lu3 zhi1, with some small bits of meat. i think their lu rou4 fan4 is like our chinese rice, u are suppose to order other stuff to go with it and not juz eat it alone. but of course if u want to save money, u can do that. we ordered veg, more goose meat (duck meat) and gong4 wan2 tang1 (soup with meat balls) and shark meat, but nobody could really appreciate the shark meat accept my dad, we suspect it's actually raw, but my dad insisted it's cooked. after our late lunch, we walked in the direction of Taipei main station. we realized that not all the roads were labelled on the map, esp the smaller roads, so we often din noe what road we were on. midway we stopped to eat dou4 hua1 at a shop. there was dou hua with ginger juice (jiang1 zhi1) which most of my family ate. i was more daring and tried this fen3 yuan2 with dou hua. but in the end the fen3 yuan2 turned out to be flour balls with no filling inside. en route to Taipei main station we passed by the presidential building as well as chong2 qing4 south road which was also nicknamed bookshop street.
Actually we felt that the area around Taipei main station had more things to see than the XMD area. there were q
uite a lot of shoe shops and clothes shops and definitely had more proper eating places than XMD, but maybe because it's only our first day here so we din really walk in the 'correct' areas in XMD. Anyway at Taipei main station we saw the tall shinkong mitsukoshi shopping centre (xin1 guang1 san1 yue4) and the east and west bus stations. the east station will be where we take the bus to Keelung. Taipei main station is quite tourist friendly cuz it stated very clearly which exit leads to where.
from Taipei main station we took the MRT to jian4 tan2 station to get to Shilin night market. it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to walk.we ate hot dog, you2 cong1 bing3 and pao4 bing1 (dessert that resembled crushed ice with topping). we actually wanted mango pao4 bing1 but the stall holder told me in a "how-come-u-dunno" tone "this is not the mango season!", in chinese of course. in the end we couldn't really appreciate the ingredients in the pao4 bing1, i could only recognize red bean, other than that i dunno what were the rest. we also ate the famous fried chicken but i dun think we bought from the famous stall. anyway, i am no chicken expert so it probably wouldn't make a difference to me. on the way back to the station we passed a whole street of food and we realized that juz now we were walking along the wrong street, no wonder there was so little food. anyway, i am sure there would be other chances to come to shilin again.
the mrt is really quite impressive, on the escalators, the taiwanese really bother to keep to one side (in taipei, the norm is to keep to the right and the left side is for pple who want to move quickly). i think if singaporeans bother to do that, i may not be late for my lesson so often, but of course that is also partly my own fault. on the platforms, there are lines drawn to indicate to pple to queue up and when the train doors open, one side is for commuters to come out and the other side is for commuters to go in. and there are station 'marshals' who help to control the crowd with their 'light sabres' at busier stations and during peak hours. so on the whole, the station was quite an orderly place. the only thing was i thought that the beeping sound to signal door closing seemed to start sounding very soon and pple will be scrambling in. but the station marshals will give the all clear signal so no one will get trapped. Oh and they have very nice mrt cards, we bought 6 single trip cards and we can have 6 different designs.
i guess lesson learnt at the end of the day is that something good always comes out of any seemingly unpleasant station.we were indignant abt taking the pricey private car ride to our hotel cuz at first we thought we could have taken the cheaper freego and it would have been a form of experience too. but in the end the whole family had a rather comfortable ride to the hotel and my dad certainly had a good chat with the driver and we also managed to get some free information as well. taking the airport shuttle would have been good if u were with a small group of frens and u are on budget. but gg with family is a different thing. actually there's really no need to scrimp so much, as long as everyone was comfortable, that was most impt.
The start of my holiday! On arrival at CKS airport, we were looking for the sign that would point to the Freego bus, but before we could find such a sign, my dad had been persuaded into taking a 7-seater private mini van which cost NT$1400. we felt a bit bu4 shuang3 cuz we felt that the freego bus would have been cheaper and after we had spent time researching on it, now it was in vain (later we found out that taking freego bus would have cost $200 per person, so actually taking the van was not much more expensive). but anyway the good thing was my dad had a good time chatting with the driver. We also took the chance to fire a few questions at him about the place. we were thinking since we spent so much money, may as well get more info from him... haha.Paradise hotel - pretty decent. the lady at the reception was quite friendly, they provided us with maps and told us the direction to Ximen station, and she tried to allocate us two rooms on the same floor although it meant that one of the rooms she gave us had two double beds. we actually booked two triple rooms and triple room includes a double bed and a single bed, so in a way we zhuan4 dao4. although there are no water boiling facilities in the room, there was a water cooler on every floor which could dispense hot and cold water, so it was not bad at all.
after dumping our stuff in the room, we set off in the direction of the ever famous ximending, however surprisingly we din really find much food stuff, there was lots of lu3 wei4 stalls around but what we wanted was somewhere we can sit down for a proper meal. afte
r hunting for a long time, we finally came upon a small eatery along one of the streets leading towards Ximen station. there were actually no table for six, but a kind soul who was alone gave up her table to us and shifted to join up with another table, presumably with pple she din noe. me, XW and RW asked for lu3 rou4 fan4 while my parents and CY asked for e2 rou4 mian4 (goose meat noodles) which was actually duck meat noodles. we were quite surprised it was so cheap - only NT$20. when our food came, we finally realized why it was so cheap. the so-called lu3 rou4 fan4 is actually juz rice with lu3 zhi1, with some small bits of meat. i think their lu rou4 fan4 is like our chinese rice, u are suppose to order other stuff to go with it and not juz eat it alone. but of course if u want to save money, u can do that. we ordered veg, more goose meat (duck meat) and gong4 wan2 tang1 (soup with meat balls) and shark meat, but nobody could really appreciate the shark meat accept my dad, we suspect it's actually raw, but my dad insisted it's cooked. after our late lunch, we walked in the direction of Taipei main station. we realized that not all the roads were labelled on the map, esp the smaller roads, so we often din noe what road we were on. midway we stopped to eat dou4 hua1 at a shop. there was dou hua with ginger juice (jiang1 zhi1) which most of my family ate. i was more daring and tried this fen3 yuan2 with dou hua. but in the end the fen3 yuan2 turned out to be flour balls with no filling inside. en route to Taipei main station we passed by the presidential building as well as chong2 qing4 south road which was also nicknamed bookshop street.Actually we felt that the area around Taipei main station had more things to see than the XMD area. there were q
uite a lot of shoe shops and clothes shops and definitely had more proper eating places than XMD, but maybe because it's only our first day here so we din really walk in the 'correct' areas in XMD. Anyway at Taipei main station we saw the tall shinkong mitsukoshi shopping centre (xin1 guang1 san1 yue4) and the east and west bus stations. the east station will be where we take the bus to Keelung. Taipei main station is quite tourist friendly cuz it stated very clearly which exit leads to where.from Taipei main station we took the MRT to jian4 tan2 station to get to Shilin night market. it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to walk.we ate hot dog, you2 cong1 bing3 and pao4 bing1 (dessert that resembled crushed ice with topping). we actually wanted mango pao4 bing1 but the stall holder told me in a "how-come-u-dunno" tone "this is not the mango season!", in chinese of course. in the end we couldn't really appreciate the ingredients in the pao4 bing1, i could only recognize red bean, other than that i dunno what were the rest. we also ate the famous fried chicken but i dun think we bought from the famous stall. anyway, i am no chicken expert so it probably wouldn't make a difference to me. on the way back to the station we passed a whole street of food and we realized that juz now we were walking along the wrong street, no wonder there was so little food. anyway, i am sure there would be other chances to come to shilin again.
the mrt is really quite impressive, on the escalators, the taiwanese really bother to keep to one side (in taipei, the norm is to keep to the right and the left side is for pple who want to move quickly). i think if singaporeans bother to do that, i may not be late for my lesson so often, but of course that is also partly my own fault. on the platforms, there are lines drawn to indicate to pple to queue up and when the train doors open, one side is for commuters to come out and the other side is for commuters to go in. and there are station 'marshals' who help to control the crowd with their 'light sabres' at busier stations and during peak hours. so on the whole, the station was quite an orderly place. the only thing was i thought that the beeping sound to signal door closing seemed to start sounding very soon and pple will be scrambling in. but the station marshals will give the all clear signal so no one will get trapped. Oh and they have very nice mrt cards, we bought 6 single trip cards and we can have 6 different designs.
i guess lesson learnt at the end of the day is that something good always comes out of any seemingly unpleasant station.we were indignant abt taking the pricey private car ride to our hotel cuz at first we thought we could have taken the cheaper freego and it would have been a form of experience too. but in the end the whole family had a rather comfortable ride to the hotel and my dad certainly had a good chat with the driver and we also managed to get some free information as well. taking the airport shuttle would have been good if u were with a small group of frens and u are on budget. but gg with family is a different thing. actually there's really no need to scrimp so much, as long as everyone was comfortable, that was most impt.
posted by WeiYun at 2:51 AM
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