Taipei Trip - Day 1

26 April 2008

[Changi Airport --> CKS International Airport --> Rainbow Hotel --> Tong Hua Street Night Market]

Met my friend at Changi Airport at 11am for check-in. Was really happy when we were told that we can sit next to the emergency exit. Cos I remember from my last flight with Jetstar that the seats next to the emergency exit are really spacious! But this came with a price, we were expected to help the air stewardess in the event of emergency! Thank God that did not happen, else we would have to struggle to throw the 15 kg window out of the plane! Don't believe? Read this yourself. (*Click to see enlarged picture!)

When we finally arrived at CKS Airport in Taoyuan at 5.40pm, we spent some time browsing through brochures on Taipei. Good thing we did not spend too much time there, else we would have missed the Freego bus that was almost leaving. At NTD140 per trip, I thought the ride to the hotel was really cheap as it was a 25-seater coach.

The trip to our hotel was not that long. We checked into our hotel even before 7pm! The size of our hotel room was a disappointment though. It was really small as many reviewers have commented. Shortly after, we headed off to our first night market of our trip - Tong Hua Street NM.

Here are some interesting pictures I have taken in Tong Hua Street NM.



On our way to the NM, we saw this shop selling helmets... wah... they look really cute! Unfortunately, I don't ride motor bike in Singapore!



This giant squid is quite expensive, around NTD150 I think! But it is really delicious!



I think the first night was our lucky night, cos the stall owner BBQ the 2 tiny fishes (at the bottom of pic) and gave to us for free!



We bought a cup of Big Boops Milk Tea (菠霸奶茶), actually, it is just Milk Tea with Pearls with a fancy name. The nice stall owner gave us a cup of sample to try their new creation.



A nice guy who could tell that we were foreigners gave us these 2 sweets! Wah... so many free gifts that night!



WK, I think you may buy this bag if you were there... so you! Only NTD590!



This funny man carried his cat on his shoulder!



This stall sells all kinds of fries! Looks yummy!





Happened to pass by this shop selling desserts made of yam, the shop looks nice with quite a long queue outside, but the thing we ordered tasted so so only. What's more, that was their speciality!



This was the dessert we ordered... sorry ah... forgot to take picture until we have eaten half of it. So it did not look that good.

After eating and roaming around the night market, we were both so tired that we headed right back to our tiny hotel room and Zzzzz....