~kari-pok'd~ crumbly outside, spicy inside

16 Feb 2008

day 1 - Singapore-Taoyuan airport-Jiantan 剑潭 -Shilin 士林

day started like any other saturda
wake up, have breakfast, come home and mummy "forced' me to mop floor -_-

then, head down to airport

FINALLY! going to TAIWAN!! WOOHOO!!

And (although everyone tells me it's really no big deal, i still wanna say it)
we were departing from Terminal 3 - first time in the newly opened terminal, must take pics la!

mummy keeps saying she is a backpacker....

although she is only 'backpacking' 1 out of 4 backpacks -_-

anyway, i think terminal 3 is beautiful. i like how they used alot of natural lighting.

and the huge open space as the check-in counters makes the place less claustrophoic..

Changi Airport never fail to impress me :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4h10mins later
we arrived in Taoyuan International Airport

somehow forgot to take pics of the airport...except these ones

taiwan is alot 'greener' and 'green'-conscious

after SARS, hand-washing is of vital importance in Taiwan: even social handwash has a standard 5-steps

took the skytrain to fetch Dinnie from terminal 1

unfortunately YQ and i were not very used to the system

(or rather, we've never been on it before)

so we tried to get off the sky train on the wrong side

only to be corrected by an airport personell (though he said it rather gruffly)

and that was our first moment of silliness on this trip

(completed with a bout of giggles from both of us -_-)

met up with Dinnie

then onto the airport bus to go to Taipei 台北
the airport bus was nothing great, but got very strong petrol/diesel smell

along the way we saw alot of 槟榔 stalls, but no 西施.

probably cos it's kinda cold so they are hiding inside the shop *shrug*

then we changed to taking the MRT

Taipei MRT single-trip tickets is alot 'groovier' than sg. u tap to enter, then slot the token into the machine on exit :D

mummy looks excited about taking the MRT

happy singaporeans/malaysians taking their 1st ride on the taipei MRT

it was a 10min walk from MRT station our accoms

accoms#1 in jiantan 剑潭. there're actually 6 beds in this room

******************************************

after a very brief rest, we head down to shilin 士林 for our dinner/supper

shilin is this famous place/nightmarket with lotsa good taiwanese food
臭豆腐，蚵仔煎，大肠包小肠，蚵仔面线，七里香，管材板，超大鸡排 etc etc etc etc

mummy waiting for our orders: 七里香，大肠包小肠

each stall sells many different things, but there are a few which only specialises in a few dishes

if i'm not wrong,

shilin used to be a huge open-air nightmarket with food and many other stalls, including games, clothes accessories, pets etc etc etc etc

game stalls: pretty much the same kind in the funfairs in sg

one of the 'etc': ear candling...or should i say, mass ear-candling

but for certain reasons (i guess hygiene being one of them), most of the food stalls are now housed in a building

food galore! come here with an empty stomach!

so, for food, we head to the sheltered one

but the smell of 臭豆腐 trapped in a building, mixing with smells of other food...

that kinda killed my appetite a little bit (just a teeny weensy bit)

some other stalls continue to be open-air, combined with sheltered stalls (e.g. pet shops)

SO CUTE! there's a indoor 'street' where pet shops congregate, selling all kinds of pets. Dogs being the most popular, and for this year, hamsters too!

but there are still some yummy food stalls in the open-air part too...