Woke up at 5am to get ourselves ready. We arrived at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 at 6.15am to catch our flight SQ 876 to Taipei at 8.30am.
We were early so we took a few shots with the Christmas decorations at T3 just before going through the customs. See the big smiles on the children's faces, cos they are really excited about the trip, especially David. Though this is his third experience, he was too young to remember the two earlier holidays in Hong Kong when he was 16 months and 2.5 years old respectively.
Waiting and waiting outside the boarding gate.
Our flight was delayed for 30 minutes as the aeroplane arrived late from its earlier flight from Taipei. So it was a longer wait than expected, and the kiddos were getting impatient. They literally asked me at least 30-50 times how long before they could get on the plane. And mommy was almost going to pull her hair out answering their same questions over and over again. Haha!
Finally, we arrived at Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei at 1.50pm. When we collected our luggage shortly from the conveyor belt, we were stopped by the patrol officers with a dog. Apparently, the dog managed to sniff out my bag of apples which was packed in a plastic bag in one of our luggage. The officer said that we were not allowed to bring the apples into the country. We are still quite puzzled about it. And so, the mood of our holiday in Taipei was kind of dampened when our apples were confiscated.
Nonetheless, we decided it was not worth gloating over the apples and decided to start enjoying ourselves. We managed to meet our the airport transfer driver at the arrival hall, and took some happy shots while waiting for him to pick us up with his vehicle.
Yes, you did not see it wrongly... that's how many bags / luggage we have at the start of our holiday.
Somehow, Deborah started posing for photos in this way (very much like her former Sun School Teacher, Pr Yun Tshin).
And off we went to Cosmos Taipei Hotel.
Taiwan was under Japanese rule for 100 over years, and so much of their infrastructure are similar to the Japanese. I was amazed at the number of 7-Eleven convenience stores in Taipei alone. You can spot one almost every 50 metres.
We checked in at Cosmos Hotel Taipei around 3.3pm. It was about 50 minutes away from the airport.
At the hotel lobby, we spotted this tall luxurious chair.
Then, we went to check out our room. It proved to be the best hotel stay we had in Taipei.
The bathroom
Coffee corner in the room
This hotel's location is excellent. Our room window even overlooked the Taipei Railway Station. It is where we will set off from when we head to Hualien in three days' time.
The entrance to the Taipei Metro is also just 4 shops away, less than 5 minutes walk. It is just above the Taipei Main station, so getting to any part of Taipei by MRT was really convenient.
After the unpacking, we headed out to Shilin night market which starts at 5pm.
We took the Taipei MRT from Taipei Main Station and travelled on the Danshui line (AKA the "Red Line") to Jiantan Station. It was about six train stations away.
The trains are clean and less crowded compared to Hong Kong. Getting on and off the trains is a more organised affair compared to Singapore and Hong Kong. Throughout our holiday, our experience on Taipei MRT was always very pleasant. Taiwanese are very friendly and kind, they would give up their seats willingly when they see us with our young children.
When we arrived at Jiantan station, we took exit 1 and walk towards Jihe Road.
Then, diagonally cross the street to the left to enter the night market.
That night, the temperature was 15 degrees celcius. Perhaps, it was our first night in a cold weather country and so it felt really cold for the children and me. By 5.30pm, the sky was already dark. We felt as though it was already 7.30pm.
When we crossed the road over to the night market, there was already a queue at this "Prince Cheese" stall. So mommy queued for it and bought a Hawaiian flavour. It was mashed potato with ham and cheese topped with bacon and corn. The orange sauce is the cheese. The children like it very much.
Papa went to check out the other stalls and came back with the skewed meat. It was really so nice to eat something real hot on a cold autumn night.
When daddy tried to take a bite of the skewed meat which David was holding on to, he accidentally pressed on David's thumb against the hot meat. This caused the boy to wail really loudly in the middle of the street, and so we suddenly became the centre of attraction for a few minutes.
The not-to-be-missed in Taiwan is of course, the famous (or infamous, for some people) "Smelly Tofu. I had it once in Johor Bahru, Malaysia almost fifteen years ago, but due to the strong ammonia taste I didn't really like it. But this time, I find the authentic Taiwanese smelly tofu really delicious! Yummyz...I love it and now profess to be a fan of this dish!
David tried having a bite but shook his head the moment it touched his mouth. Haha.
We shall see if he will learn to like it when he is older.
As for Deborah, she never like any kind of tofu.
The next we tried their friend squid with mayonnaise. We ordered a small portion but got quite a lot of it. It tasted really nice! And four of us were literally snatching for more.
This "Bing Tang Hu Lu" was actually cherry tomato with a layer of sugar.
Daddy's favourite food in the night market was this 'Big and small sausage" It is actually glutinous rice covering Taiwanese sausage with some vegetables.
Yes, the kiddos love it too!
Then the kids saw a long and big watermelon, which they had never seen before.
Daddy tried the cold noodles which had some wasabi taste,
Then we tried this potato skewer, which can be found in Singapore's pasar malam these days.
This is some kind of puff which you can choose the filling - meat (beef or pork), cheese, etc.
And what is night market without some fun.
The kids were pestering us to let them play this because participant can use a pistol to shoot at the balloons. Even the stall holder could see that David was really excited about shooting with a pistol.
And children at this age gets easily fascinated by any thing that is round. We tried so hard to get them to stop spinning this wheel and continue the walk.
We didn't want to tire the kids out too much on the first day and had woken up early than usual to catch our flight, so we headed back to the hotel for an early rest by 7.45pm. By then, we could see the crowds flowing in slowly.
We took the Taipei MRT back to our hotel and did some shopping at the shops in the train station.
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