Went to Taiwan from 14th to 19th May, and decided to do a few blog posts about the trip to share my experience and some useful knowledge which might come in handy in the future!
Pre-Trip preparation
If you are going on your own and are considering taking the MRT to travel around Taipei, it would probably be good if you could download this application:
台北捷運 Taipei Metro (MRT)
It was very useful for me because it did not require users to have a WiFi connection in order to be able to use the application, and it gave rather accurate estimates of the travelling time from station to station, as opposed to many other applications which need Internet to be able to operate. It also made it very clear which stations you would have to transfer at, and provided information such as the first and last train so that you would be able to plan your trips more effectively.
Public WiFi
Sometimes we want to be able to use the Internet while we're on the go, but are too stingy to buy a data-enabled SIM card, so public WiFi would come in really handy in such situations. Before you travel to Taiwan, you can register for a free WiFi account here:
https://www.tpe-free.tw/tpe/tpe_step1_en.aspx
The coverage in Taipei is really wide, and you can easily connect to it with the account you previously registered at the above website, as long as you select "TPE-free" when you search for the WiFi networks around you and also make sure that your account registration has been verified with an SMS. In addition, many places in Taipei seem to provide free WiFi hotspots, so if you are really desperate for some Internet, you would probably be able to find a random free hotspot from a nearby cafe or shop.
My father booked the air tickets and we took a Jetstar flight to Taipei. Paid an extra $15 to sit in the first two rows, which was quite worth it I guess, because you get to go in earlier (typical kiasu Singaporean mentality) and stow your hand-carry luggage in the overhead compartment before others. And because it seems like not a lot of people would want to pay the extra money, you could even end up having the whole row of seats to yourself!
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| First in the plane :) |
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| Very near to the pilot |
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| In the clouds |
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| Finally arrived in Taipei after 4 hours, and was waiting our luggage to come out. |
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| MOS Burger seems to be very popular in Taiwan, we spotted so many branches |
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| Our hotel, Caesar Park Taipei, was located directly opposite the Taipei Railway Station, and that made it a very convenient location because other than being in the center of the MRT system, there were also many underground malls to explore. The hotel has a direct exit which is connected to the Taipei MRT station (Exit M6), but if you are carrying some heavy luggage it might be better if you don't use the underground exits as you would have to lug your luggage (lug lug) up the stairs. |
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| Our first stop was Taipei 101, and we got off at Taipei City Hall station. We then managed to catch a free shuttle bus (comes in intervals of 20-30 minutes) at a bus stop near this departmental store. If you are lost, you can ask for help at the information counter and the staff will direct you to the exit where the free shuttle service can be found. You could also just walk to Taipei 101, but since it was raining quite heavily we decided to take a bus instead. |
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| Free entry for Mothers in light of Mothers' Day |
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| View from the observatory |
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| "Artistic shot" of the 如意 which lined the building. |
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| A free audio (+visual) guide which was very comprehensive in explaining what exactly the many clusters of buildings were, and allowed me to make sense of all the random buildings which we could see. However, I seem to have forgotten most of the things that we learnt at that moment (lol). But it was quite an educational experience. |
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| Happy to see the familiar Merlion |
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| This is the damper of the Taipei 101, which allows it to be stable in the event of earthquakes. |
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| The mascot, which was conceptualized based on the shape of the damper. |
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| You can send postcards to your friends from the observatory (they sell postcards there), so have the addresses of your loved ones handy! |
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| The only mango dessert I ate in Taiwan because i was always too full to try other new food. One of the more expensive ones also, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. |
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| Unique spoon which came with the dessert. |
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| Very intricate sculptures/figurines made from red coral stone or something like this |
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| One of the things I liked about Taipei was the efficiency of its MRTs, the trains always arrived so quickly, and the exact arrival times were displayed clearly at the station. |
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| As usual, nobody wants to sit on the priority seats |
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| After exploring Taipei 101, we took the MRT to Houshanpi (后山埤）station to walk to Raohe Street Night Market. |
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| One of the many different street food that was being sold at the night market |
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| A whole suckling pig for sale |
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| Taiwanese seem to like Guavas a lot, but in Taiwan they are called 芭乐 and not 番石榴 (what guavas are called in Singapore). They also have the pink guavas, which were quite tasty (we only tried them on the last day of our trip in the airport, of all places haha) |
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| They even sold fish, rabbits, cats in the street market |
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| One of the more popular waffle stalls which has appeared on 我猜 before, though its main branch is not at Raohe. I guess one of the ways that these stalls show their credibility is putting up display screens showing videos of their stall being introduced on Taiwanese Variety shows. This is quite different from Singapore, where the famous stalls show their credibility/popularity with certificates from TV shows. |
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| I quite enjoyed the waffle, as it was very chewy and had sugar crystals, giving the waffles a nice crunch. Reminded me of the waffles we had in london last time. |
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| You can find many of such game stalls, though they are often neglected, as with the game stalls in Pasar Malams in Singapore... |
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| A shop with many unique sculptures/figurines |
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| Such as this one which looks like 五花肉 |
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| Dimsum in the night market |
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| Quickly, which was one of the many Bubble Tea shops which opened branches in Singapore during the first bubble tea craze. However, it stopped operations in Singapore quite awhile ago; I guess there was too much competition. I remember drinking so many cups of bubble tea from them at their branch at Bukit Panjang Shopping Centre. |
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| Cheese Potato which we bought and I brought back to the hotel to eat because we were too full. It was quite tasty and unique |
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| A drink from MOS Burger |
That concludes my first night in Taipei!
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