LQJO travel to Taiwan Day 1 - Depart SG -> Xi Men Ding -> Shida Night Market
JO&LQtraveltheworld 8.10.15
YAY! We are heading to Taiwan in few hours time.Checked in at 5am at JETSTAR and took many wefie"s".Most of the photos cannot make it due to our sleepy face.
So after we board the plane and it sets off, i admire the vast horizon of the fluffy clouds. Then, we repeatedly fell asleep and woke up.During half of our journey, we were told that we had $10 voucher each, so we bought drinks and snacks.Didn't know we had this complementary. Great news is our plane reached Taiwan ahead of time, thus we had ample of time. After getting our luggages and exit, we turned right and there are 4 telecommunication service counter selling various 4g/3g packages depending on the days you stay in Taiwan. We purchased Taiwan Da Ge Da,based on our research/reviews that their signal is good.Their service is good too, they helped to change our sim card and placed our personal sim card nicely onto a card so that we wouldn't lose it because it's so tiny. The price between the telecom services are the same.
After we settled our 3g/4g, we head right to take the Taipei shuttle bus to Taipei Main station.There were signs everywhere(seen at the background of our photo), doubt anyone will get lost.
Took the travelator down,go straight and turn left. There is a whole stretch of bus services.
We purchased Kuokuong bus 1819 that includes free transfer to Xi Men Ding.Hehe, so cheap, can save on transport. Apparently, it has the longest bus queue but we waited awhile before our turn to board the bus.There are 3 compartments to store our luggage ,categories by destination, thus have to ensure that our luggage are placed at the correct compartment. A paper will be given for exchange of the luggage later on.
The kuokuong bus seats are comfy too and there's a metal lever to place on legs in a comfortable position.After the shuttle bus stopped at Taipei main station, we were quite lost(including those who were heading to XMD),not too sure if we need to get our luggage and walk to where to get on the XMD shuttle bus.Luckily when one of the traveller took her luggage, the nice bus driver asked if we were heading to XMD, and asked us to put back our luggage and return to the bus. He drove us straight to the XMD shuttle bus stop and pointed us to the shuttle bus we had to took next. We all waited for the bus driver to come though and hopped on to it after our confirmation that he is bringing us to XMD.
We reached XMD!! Here's a map of it:
On our way to our hotel, we passed by Ah Zhong Mian Xian and give their popular Mee Sua a try!
And so the taste of it was not as fantastic as being stated in reviews. Perhaps, it's being popular because it's just popular.
We reached the Wan Nian Building(left building seen in the photo above) and took a lift up to the 6th floor.That is where the hotel lobby is.And yes, our 8 days stay is at ECFA WAN NIAN hotel.The service staff is super friendly. They checked for vacancy and gave us a room almost immediately. #Room 810
A room tour of the hotel.
We placed our luggage and head out to explore XMD. We found a long stretch of stalls selling the popular food snacks that bloggers recommended and there isn't a queue.
We tried the Chocolate muah chee, it tasted quite good.TWD 30 each for all flavours.
Next is the BBQ beef cubes, price TWD 100. This is super disappointing!! Does't taste good at all; hard to chew and it has those fats that can't be swallowed.
Next is the Cheese Potato, price TWD 70.Apparently this is the nicest among those 3 food that we ordered. There's cheese and lots of ingredients in it. It just taste super good. Cheese lovers will love this!
We skipped buying the Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang and 50 Lan, as we are saving our stomach for more food at Shi da Night Market.There are even more food stores near the Starbucks Coffee. We will never get hungry at XMD lol.
Went to 7 eleven to have a tour and get their coffee!
Got ourselves Mandheling and Latte.Both taste good but Mandheling definitely taste better.The coffee has a very nice fragrance.Their bottle is pretty too.Regret not buying more of this.
The XMD surrounding.
The night sky of XMD but it's just 5 plus pm only! The sky grew so dark already.
We took MRT down to Taipower Building Mrt station. And guess what? there is no escalator out and up to the MRT exit, you have to walk the staircase. I'm like omg, i hardly walk this much distance the whole day and now i had to climb the stairs. We followed the sign and head for exit 3 to Shi Da Night Market.
The Shida night market map that shows the popular snacks location. Credit: the owner of the photo.
We tried the pudding milk tea from this stall and the pudding is super smooth and the tea has this fragrance almost similar to Gong Cha.This is a must try! Though it's not considered as "Popular" by famous bloggers. Realised many people just try those that were reviewed as "Popular" by famous blogger and didn't try the other stalls which ends up missing the good food.Some of the "popular" food doesn't even taste good at all.
Another Must try food is this Po Luo Bun.Saw many taiwanese queued for this stall and we decided to give it a try.When we receive the bun, it's fresh from the oven thus it's piping hot, and this is so delicious.The aroma of the bread ;crispy crust and the soft texture inside.
The streets of Shi Da Night Market. Apparently the clothes were almost the same price as sg and everywhere sells long sleeve clothing which doesn't suits SG humid weather. In conclusion, i bought nothing but food here.
We found Ah Nor Crepe, forgot how much it cost. We bought the choco banana crepe. And it's not bad and can try. The crepe is crispy and it includes large portion of the ice cream.
Another night snack : Sheng Jian Bao - something like Xiao Long Bao but bigger version?or actually it's the same size. The skin is quite thick but there's quite a portion of meat filled in it. But it tasted normal. Can try this though.
We head back to XMD again.
Bf dapao this Xiang Xiang Ji back to our hotel to eat.It's crispy and taste like chicken nuggets with bones but looks like popcorn chicken. This taste delicious apparently.
That ended our day one in Taiwan. :)
