Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 1: Taipei (Liuzhangli MRT area, Gongguan area, Roosevelt Road, Shida Night Market)

March 29, 2015

Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 1: Taipei (Liuzhangli MRT area, Gongguan area, Roosevelt Road, Shida Night Market)

This is my 2nd time taking an international MAS flight after going to Tokyo last year. I was really lucky as I was placed next to two empty seats throughout the flight hence I get to throw all hand luggage on the seat.

I also finally got the chance to try the famous MAS Nasi Lemak meal set. Unfortunately, what's a Nasi Lemak set with everything else except kacang. Nevertheless the huge servings of sambal prawns made up for it. The 4.5 hour flight was not as smooth as I hoped for as there were a lot of turbulences along the way that I felt really scared at some point. Anyway being able to type this post meant that I landed safely at Taoyuan International Airport.

After connecting to the free Wi-Fi I immediately called back home with Skype to report my safety. The line was impressingly quite stable. Even at the immigration counter I could feel the coolness of winter, like finally! Everybody was in their thick down winter jackets (especially the Koreans), probably only me in a long sleeve T-shirt trying to soak it all in haha.

The first thing I did after clearing immigration was to get a 3G sim card. At the shop there were 3 mobile operators offering the same packages so I just picked the one with the shortest queue: Taiwan Mobile. It was really worth it in my opinion with unlimited data and coverage was decent all around the island. I think I made my purchase really worthwhile by streaming HQ videos on YouTube and Twitch all the time while I was travelling on the bus/train or just resting in the hostel.

I then headed to the bus station and boarded a bus to Taipei Main Station. It was a mistake to take the cheapest bus (NTD 90) as it was a local bus, meaning that it stopped at a lot of stops before finally reaching the destination. By paying a bit more I could have gotten an express bus instead. At the Main Station, everything just feels so familiar like how it was 3 years ago.

Somehow my Easy Card still worked and I then departed to Liuzhangli MRT station, where my first Couchsurfing host came to pick me from her home which was about 700 metres away, very convenient for me to travel around. Her house is a studio apartment. Small but cozy. The sofa can be converted into a mini bed and it was my place to crash for 2 nights. Despite it's small size (no kitchen no washing machine), the rental is crazily high as it was located in the Xin Yi district.

We spent quite a long time deciding what to eat for dinner. Since Malaysia has its fair share of Taiwanese cuisine I didn't really have any craving we then decided to go for Arabic food instead. The restaurant was located somewhere around Roosevelt Road, which was nearby the National Taiwan University in Gongguan. It was too far to walk so they proposed to cycle there instead using the U-bike. The bicycles are usually placed at MRT stations for the public to rent and you have to register your phone number with the kiosk before you can use the bikes. Surprisingly the bikes was quite comfortable and it was really fun to cycle around when the weather is cooling, which will never happen in Malaysia haha.

After getting lost for awhile in NTU's campus we finally arrived in Gongguan area and parked our bikes. I guess you won't get this kind of experience if you were to travel with tour groups or with your own big group of friends. Only the locals will know the roads and bring you around with bicycles haha.

Before heading to the restaurant we dropped by the famous Eslite Bookstore in the area while my host waited for her friend before we went for dinner together. Everybody in the shop seems intent and focused on reading the books. It felt like a really good culture, only that all the books are in Mandarin, which sorts of limits the perspective of the readers since a good amount of books out there are in English.

Small and cozy.

There were a lot of nice cafes in Roosevelt road as we entered. Probably should come back here and try one day hehe. The name of the restaurant I went too was Sababa Pita Bar. They serve mainly pitas and wraps.

I tried the Pita Beirut (NTD 170) which consists of chicken fillings and some other stuff. Since I almost never eat Middle Eastern food back home it can be considered something new for me as well.

Some nice looking cafe

After dinner I requested my host to bring me to Shida Night Market (師大夜市) since it was just nearby. This night market is more heavily focused on clothes and selling stuff instead of apparel, with the crowd being students as a university is nearby. There's also a distinct lacking of tourists here which makes the place less crowded.

Shop selling Lego

I really enjoyed my first night just strolling through the night market and finally experiencing winter for the first time. There were some stalls selling really innovative stuff. One of the most memorable ones were the guys selling interactive postcards which I bought a few. Before calling it a night we then queued at this shop selling Hong Kong styled custard buns. Yeah yeah I know. First night here and I didn't try any authentic Taiwanese food. Haha. But the bun was surprisingly quite good! They have many branches around Taiwan I thought it was worth mentioning.