KK & TAIPEI TRIP (14th-20th Jul 2010) - DAY 2 (TW-Part I)

We woke up early at 2.00am in the midnight (we only had 2 hours of sleep that night!); got ourselves ready, checked out the hotel, hopped on pre-booked taxi and headed to airport.

Half way during the trip to airport, our taxi driver's hand phone rang but he did not answer. And it rang again which he answered the call this time. After answering the call, he then asked us if we had left any luggage in our hotel room. Then bro and I just recalled that we did have a luggage which we had forgotten and left it in the room we stayed. Left with no choice we requested the taxi driver to drive us back to the hotel to collect our luggage which this to-and-fro trip cost us RM50 taxi fare.

KKIA Terminal 2

Finally, we arrived KKIA Terminal 2 (which is also known as LCCT or AirAsia airport) at 3.30am. It was so empty but still there were few guys sleeping on the benches in the airport. We were quite bored so we began to explore a little bit of the tiny airport and found the self check in machine. Thus, we used the machine for self check in and at 4.15am, crowd started to flock in the airport. We felt blessed that we arrived earlier and had used the self check in machine but when we wanted to check in our baggage for cargo, we met a rookie staff attendant who took more than 20mins to handle our baggage and caused really long queue behind us.

Our flight departed punctually at 6am.

Having waking up in wee hours and rushing to airport, we didn't manage to grab breakfast in KK (Note: the eateries and shops at KK airport were still closed). And I've actually predicted this could happen thus we pre-booked in-flight meals months ago through the AirAsia website and ordered 3 combo set. In which, the combo set includes a rice box and 100ml mineral water. It cost RM8 each and was actually cheaper than buying the food/beverage on the spot from the flight attendant.

Chicken Rice


Nasi Lemak; the sambal was really spicy!


Nasi Briyani; surprisingly, it was delicious!


The 100ml mineral water that was included in each combo set

We arrived on time at Taiwan's Tao Yuan International Airport and before we exit the customs hall, we changed some National Taiwanese Dollar (NTD). Just an extra tip, the exchange rate in the Taiwan's airport was quite high comparing to our local money changer which was within the range of BND1 to NTD21.5 - NTD21.9. At Taiwan's airport, it could go up to NTD22.8. But of course, I don't think they would accept BND so you would need to prepare Singaporean notes if you wanna change there. And the staff would charge NT30 as service charge.

When we were at the arrival hall, there were few taxi drivers who approached us and wanted to offer us ride to our hotel in Taipei city. The price range usually falls between NT1000-NT1200. But we didn't go for that as we had already decided to take the express bus.

After rejecting those taxi drivers, we searched for the Visitors' Information Counter and applied for the Youth Travel Card. It was free of charge and with this card, user would be valid for some discounts such as entrance ticket to Taipei 101 Observatory floor, ferris wheel ride at Miramar and etc. The application procedure was simple, just need to fill in the given form and you would receive a tag/keychain as well as a handbook listing the discounts and benefits you could get from using this card.

Extra information: The tourism board of Taiwan had actually released 500 units of Digital Tour Buddy which are sorta like hand phone or walkie talkie that could aid foreigners to do English to Chinese translation and vice versa. This device provides 24 hrs service hotline to aid the foreigners if they are encountering some problems in Taiwan as well as taxi service. As mentioned, there are only 500 units available (and circulating) thus it's always better to apply it online weeks before you fly off. Not to forget that, it would require you to submit some documents such as copy of passport when you wanna collect the device from the counter at Taiwan's airport and also it must be returned before you going back to your own country. We didn't apply for this as I thought it was quite a hassle to pre-apply it online, printing and bringing copies of our documents and returning it to the counter before we left Taiwan. If you wanna know more information bout it, you can read here.

After applying for Youth Travel Card, we searched for the Bus terminal to purchase the bus tickets.

Directions: It's quite easy to find, when you've just exit the custom hall, just turn right and walk to the very end, the bus terminal is at the corner.

Our hotel is located at Taipei Main Station area thus we bought bus tickets for Guo Guang Bus (国光). If you're heading to Xi Men Ding, take FreeGo bus. It cost us NT$125 for each ticket which was hella cheaper than traveling by taxi (a taxi driver offered us NT$1000). We were quite lucky as just a min after we bought our bus tickets, the bus arrived and we quickly hopped on it (there would be one bus coming every 15 minutes if not mistaken). Don't worry that your luggages would get mixed up with others as the bus conductor would ask how many pieces of luggages you have and give you a set of coded stickers. There would be two stickers of the same code which one is for sticking on your luggage and another is for your own reference. It was about 50minutes bus ride from Tao Yuan Airport to the Taipei City.

Inside the Guo Guang Express Bus, NT$125 per person

Rechecking my itinerary

View outside the bus window


This is the Youth Travel Card which I've mentioned earlier


The handbook that came with the Youth Travel Card

The bus stopped at the Taipei Main Station and after asking directions from the bus conductor, we walked to our hotel using the underground pathway so we didn't have to cross the roads (Taiwanese drivers are scarryyy! I almost got bumped a few times and I do admit my reaction was quite lagging =.=|||) and it was summer in Taipei so using the underground pathway was a wiser choice.

Our hotel is located at 3F of this building. It's called SayLove Hotel or 玺爱旅店(the second signage counting from the top). I will do a proper review regarding this hotel in upcoming entry.

After arriving at the hotel, the petite and cute receptionist told us that the normal check in time for their hotel is 2pm and it was only 11am at that time. So we left our luggages in the hotel and went out to explore the nearby area.

We visited Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Departmental Store and KMall which were both just a block or two away from our hotel. After that, we decided to visit Taiwan Storyland which was located at KMall's basement. The entrance fee was NT$200 for each person.

Similar to museum, Taiwan Storyland displayed a lot of old schooled toys, car, bikes, motor bikes during the 70s or 80s as well as different types of stores such as Photography studio, Boutiques, Dental clinic and even class room. It was really a fun place to visit and photography was allowed.

Purchase your ticket at the counter before entering which cost NT$200 per person.

Old schooled Darlie Toothpaste commercial poster; it's rather scary haha

All sorts of old cigarettes brands which were available in Taiwan during old times

After spending more than an hour at Taiwan Storyland, we went on roaming in the nearby area and there were plenty of eateries and stores. The streets were really busy with teenagers walking here and there. Probably most of them were there to attend tuition or summer classes. The area where I stayed is also named "Tuition Street" as there were quite a number of tuition schools located there.

So cute! It's actually a stall selling Baked Cheese Rice

One or two units away from this stall was a stall selling 刈包 (also known as Chinese steamed sandwich) which I was so tempted to try! There were different types of fillings available and I choosed lean pork meat fillings. Other than meat, the other ingredients of the fillings included pickled vegetables and some peanut powder thus this made the steamed sandwich flavourful and have a mixture of saltiness and sweetness taste. It's really worth trying!

This is the stall where I bought the 刈包 (Steamed sandwich) from.

This is how the Steamed Sandwich looks like

While walking on the busy streets, I spotted "许记" (pronounced Hsu Ji) which is one of the popular eateries in Taiwan that serve Shanghai Dumplings (上海生煎包).

许记 (Hsu Ji) on the left

The staff busy preparing the dumplings; 1 for NT$7, 5 for NT$30 and 12 for NT$72

We stopped by and I bought 5 Shanghai Dumplings to try out how good was it as several bloggers who visited Taiwan stated it's a must try when you're in Taiwan. And it appeared that they were right! It's quite similar to Pot Stickers but in different shape which this look more like "Xiao Long Bao" but is pan fried and topped with sesame. But inside the dumpling, the fillings was really juicy and meaty, not to forget it was really hot too! And after purchasing the dumplings, there was a tier shelves placed nearby the stall where you could get the sticks for eating the dumplings and special chili sauce made for the dumplings.

Xu Ji Shanghai Dumplings

After buying these snacks, we walked back to our hotel.

Outside Nova Mall, we spotted this Merc and Hubby said it's kinda different from what we see in Brunei

Spotted cute Minis nearby our hotel

Till here, will continue our first day in Taipei in next blog entry ;)

Hunnie Signing Off~