Taiwan 11 Days Trip (1)

15th November 2014 - Day 1

This was my first and only trip in 2014 and provided me a chance to clear my annual leaves. I planned for this trip with a friend of mine and decided on the date end of 2013. I bought my flight tickets on February 2014 after Air Asia offered some discounts for 2 people travelling together. The initial price for return tickets for single person was RM900.00 ++, and with the discount, the initial price for return tickets for 2 persons was RM1074.00 ++. So, I just bought the tickets, after adding meals and charges for everything else, the total bill was RM1666.00 for two person.

On that morning, I had difficulty waking up because I worked very late the night before, and had to finish packing my luggage after I went home. I went to KLIA2 with a very tired body, I think I only managed to get three hours sleep. The queue to check-in the luggage was short, so after me and CY check-in the luggage, we still had a whopping three hours to kill before we board the flight. I had no appetite, but CY haven't had her breakfast, so we went to Bibik Heritage, me to have a cup of coffee and CY had nasi lemak and coffee. I forgot the exact amount of the bill, but I think it's quite reasonable and the the cup of coffee was huge, so satisfying!

After that, we passed the security check and walked towards the boarding waiting room. Well, that's the time I understood why a lot of people criticised the KLIA2 design. The route was long and many shops were squeezed along the way. For shopaholics, maybe this won't annoyed them. However, for me, it's too much.

Anyway, this was my first Air Asia flight, but not the first low cost Airline flight. Well, it's ok, not bad, I missed the in-flight entertainment though. For a flight around 5 hours, after read the in-flight magazine, the rest of the time was quite unbearable. Although CY was next to me, talking for a few hours straight was not really an option too. So, we talked, rested our eyes and waited for the Nasi Lemak Pak Nasser. Well, the nasi lemak was really nice, thumbs up!

After some time, the time passed by slowly when one was in a confined space, so five hours plus later, finally, we reached Taiwan! Well, the Taoyuan International Airport. After we reached there, we registered with the free iTaiwan Wifi service. Then, we decided to be more secured, we bought a temporary Taiwanese number. Since CY was the planner, she kept the Taiwanese number and I used my Malaysian number. Well, just in case if someone wanted to reach us. To make things easier, CY also became the treasurer, we both put 10,000 New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) each to our travel fund to pay for the meals and transports. For others, we will pay from own pocket.

To buy a Taiwanese phone number, one can do it right after go through the immigration. There are 3 major telco booths in the airport, all the offers are more or less the same. We chose the one with less queue. Hahaha! We got a 10 days unlimited internet package with certain amount of talk time. I forgot the price, but I think it was around 600 NTD, the employee at the counter helped to set up everything too, very convenient. Well, it is a right decision because we found out later that the iTaiwan Wifi was not as widespread as we thought earlier.

queuing up to buy a temporary SIM card

After settled the phone thingy, we left to catch a bus to HSR Taoyuan Station. Then, bought the tickets to JiaYi Station. From Taoyuan to Jiayi, the high speed rail ticket costs 1005 NTD. Initially, we wanted to take bus or normal train, but since we reached Taoyuan Airport after 2pm, it would be too rush for us. So, high speed rail it is. There were not many people in the station during that time, and when we boarded the train, it was not fully seated too. I wondered what would be the condition during weekdays. The internal of the train gave me a deja vu, the layout and the colour scheme looked like a replica of Japan Shinkansen. Oh, I miss Shinkansen, I used to take Shinkansen for work and pleasure quite often in Japan. Hehe!

inside a Taiwan High Speed Rail train (the interior looks like Japan Skinkansen) 

It's November and the day turned dark quite early, around 5.30pm, when we peeked through the window, outside were dark and all the street lights were on. We reached Jiayi HSR Station and only found out that the HSR Station is not the Jiayi Station. It's quite far actually. Luckily, there's a shuttle bus service from the HSR Station to normal station. For anyone who hold a HSR ticket, the shuttle bus is free of charge.

Our hotel is not so far from the Jiayi Station. After getting the Alishan information from the tourist information centre, we walked to the Chiayi King Hotel. Near the information center, there were private operators who kept peddling their businesses, transport from Jiayi to Alishan. Frankly, I hated it.

the interior of the room (King Hotel in Jiayi), the fruit was not included! hahaha

After check-in, me and CY left to the Wenhua Night Market, it's near the hotel. Well, I have heard and read so much about Taiwanese Night Market, especially in the romance novel. Apparently, it's a very popular place for dating. In almost all the night market scene, the hero and heroine would buy and eat so many things in the night market, it made me hungry and salivate. Well, when I actually walked there, I found out that I was not attracted to the street food at all, too many fried stuffs, not a fan!

the land of scooter

CY and me walked around and we saw a braised meat shop, they have braised duck head! It looked special, we were very hungry then, so we had our first meal in Taiwan, braised meat. We chose braised duck neck, tofu, etc, then the staff would cut it into smaller pieces. We ate inside the shop, most people just take away. After we finished the initial batch (it was delicious!), we decided to order a second batch. It's a regrettable action, I felt "nauseous", not sure what's the word to describe it, the feeling was like eating way too much creamy cake. We should just stop and find other things to try.

a braised meat shop (with braised duck head, neck, etc)

delicious braised meat (duck neck, tofu, etc)

After dinner, we walked to a nearby park, there's a puppet show. Many people were watching it. The response was definitely better than the traditional Chinese opera show the temple near my house was staging every year during the anniversary celebration.

a traditional puppet performance near the night market

Then, we walked back to the street and looked for stuffs to buy. Basically, the night market was full of shoes stalls, fruit stalls, fried food stalls, etc. We browsed here and there, finally, I saw a pair of red flats, it looked comfortable and it's only 190 NTD. I bought it on the spot.

my first haul: a pair of red shoes

Then, we bought some cut fruits before we went back to the hotel. The room was quite comfortable. However, although I didn't sleep well the day before, surprisingly, I still couldn't sleep well that night, probably it's not my bed! 

Day 1: Reached Taiwan
Day 2: Fenqihu
Day 3: Alishan 
Day 4: Sun Moon Lake
Day 5: Cingjing
Day 6 & 7: Taichung & Changhua (1, 2, 3, 4)
Day 8: Taipei
Day 9: Taipei
Day 10: Taipei
Day 11: Home