The maxi cab we booked arrived on time and viola! at exactly 5.40am, we set off for the airport!
Since we are taking budget airline, need to make sure tummy is full before boarding the plane. All of us had a heavy breakfast at McDonalds and checked through immigration at 7.40am. Hearing scary tales about how Tiger Airways always have flights delayed, I was expecting the worse..but hey, not too bad, plane took off on time lei! Oh one little tip..bring an empty water bottle in your bag with you if you are traveling on budget airlines. Once you check in and waiting in the holding room just before boarding the plane, you can then take out your empty water bottle and fill it up with water from the water cooler in the holding room. Haahaaa...cheapo because a small tiny weeny cup of kopi costs SGD4/- on board the plane.
Reached Taoyuan Airport at 1.15pm
To get to the telco counters,
once you collected your baggage and exit through the glass door, turn right and keep walking. About 60-70 steps should bring you to those counters. (on your right side). There are a few telcos but I opted for Da Ge Da as I've heard that their signal and coverage is better. For each SIM card that you want to purchase, you will need to produce your passport and IC. You CANNOT buy more than 1 SIM card with a set of passport and IC. I wanted to purchase SIM cards for my kids too, but unfortunately they do not sell it to youngsters below 18 or 21? years old. My parents did not bring their IC but somehow, the counter staff was ok with that after seeing that they were holding Singapore passports. Hmmm...strange...anyway, we got the SIM cards and started our journey to our booked Minsu.
Just to touch a little bit more on the SIM cards in case you too, are blur blur like me and do not know what to expect. They sell 2 kinds of plans - one just for voice and another kind - voice with data. For my parents, I bought the voice only, which costs TWD350 and for myself, I bought voice and 10day data usage for the price of TWD800. If you are there for lesser days, you can go for 3 days or 5 days data plus voice plan. The counter staff are extremely polite and all you need to do is to tell them what you want, pay, pass them your phone and they will do the rest for you. Once done, just test and make sure you can access your internet, emails etc and all is set. If you run out of credit, just go to any 7-11 shops and buy the value-load coupon. Before I travel, I was kind of worried what if I am not able to set up my phone and data access, but all these worries for nothing..silly!
Arrived at Taipei York at about 2.05pm. The rooms were awesome ! From the street view, you will only see a lift lobby, just like you will see a row of HDB shops and suddenly, there is a lift landing. To access the floor you are staying, you will need your room key to activate the lift. Peaceful area and decent people going in and out of the building. There is a karoke and some small scale factories from the 2nd floor to the 4th or 5th floor, but above that, it is all residential apartments, one or two hotels having rooms there as well. Decent place to stay. Only thing I wished is that they have daily housekeeping. But the owner's wife does come in everyday to throw our rubbish, put in fresh towels and tissues. Shampoo, soap is provided for. I thought they don't and brought along our own. Haiz..carry for nothing. Cutlery, pots, pan, kettles and a electric stove are available for our use; I have also requested for an iron and ironing board, which they do provide upon request. The floor was cleaned, but do not look under the bed or sofa...eeeee....you will see that it is kind of dusty. OK lah....cannot complain too much.
Having a washing machine and dryer in the room was a blessing. When we were there, it was raining raining and raining and wet clothes need to be washed and dried. Laundry liquid soap was also provided.
This video shows what you will see when you are at the ground floor of Taipei York. Decent place with lots of human traffic. Directly next to the lift lobby (turn right) is a lottery shop. Turn left is where you will see 三妈臭臭锅。
To get to the train station (MRT), just turn right after you come out from the lift lobby, after lottery shop ( walk another 6-10 steps ahead) and immediately turn right again, walk straight ahead. DO not make any turns..you will reach the train station in approx 5-7 mins. Opposite of the train station will be the main Ximending shopping area. The minsu is in a pretty good location ! However if you have old folks with you and they can't really walk far and yet you are taking train as main mode of transport, then you may want to reconsider staying somewhere closer to the train station. Just a suggestion :)
The security measures are good. You will need an access card to operate the lift - only to the level that you are staying at. You can't go to any other floors. Also to open / close your door, it is all electronic. Take a look at the following video to get a better idea :
After dumping our bags in the room, we went out to look for fooood.....glorious food! Haahaahaa! As it was a cold and rainy day, we had mini steamboat at a eatery just next to where we stay..
No prize for guessing....hahahaah! It's bishop's nose ! Yummy though !
At the side streets, this is an interesting sight. Gambling stalls! Patrons can actually play a quick mahjong game with the stall owner and the winner is determine in a pretty short amount of time. No clue how the game is played...
This poor snake must be having a bad night in the cage! It was hissing real hard and swinging its lithe body hard against the glass. Eeeee.....just the thought of it sliding off its cage onto the road makes me double up and run faster than Mr Bolt himself!
After Shilin, we called it a night as we need to rest early to prepare for our day of guided tour tomorrow.
Day's Weather : Cloudy and drizzling. Not heavy rain
Directions to Shilin Night Market :
Take a train to Jiantan Station and basically just follow the idiot proof sign board. You have a choice to walk underground or just above the streets using the traffic lights to cross the road. Either way, be prepared for at least a five minutes walk.
PS:
The fruit stall that we kana chop is actually located at the very beginning of the Shilin Market street. Assuming you cross the road and not using the underground, once you get to the other side of the road, you will need to choose if you want to take a left turn or right turn. We took a right turn and about 60 steps ahead, you will see the fruit stall I am talking about.
If you choose the left turn, just continue walking for another 2 or 3 minutes and you will reach the XXXL chicken stall. Just next to it is the buiilding that housed all the various stalls selling those famous food stuff that we all hear sooooo much about. :) Enjoy !
That night, we made a final trip to slumberland at rocket speed! zzzzzzzz........ :)
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