I Survived 8 Days in Taipei (and came back to tell the tale)

Part 1

Day 0 (18/10/2009)

The clock is ticking… 4 hours before the time to leave our house and yet I still have not begun to start packing seriously. All I did was procrastinating, checking the ‘net and chatting with friends. To hell with it, I think I will stay up tonight to pack my stuff. Besides, I can sleep inside the plane…

Day 1 (19/10/2009)

6.30am. It is time. Bid farewell to Toto our family dog and HERE WE COME TAIPEI! The flight took approximately 4 hour… Touchdown at Tao Yuan （桃园）International Airport at 4pm+ with bloodshot-eyed and lack of caffeine… Damn.

The time zone for Taiwan is more or less the same as KL, which is convenient. The weather during this time of the year is very nice; breezy… it is autumn here by the way. Our hostel is at Jian Tan (剑潭); to go there we took a bus for 30 minutes to Shih Lin (士林) and took MRT for one station. Oh yeah, before I forgot, our trip to Taipei is all by our own, we did not follow any tour group. What this mean is we have to find our own way to go to the places we want to go and to find our own food. Kind of like survival in the concrete jungle, no?

We finally reached our hostel which is just a few blocks away from the famed Shih Lin Night Market (士林夜市) at about 6pm. The owner of the hostel is kind enough to provide us with advice and suggestion as to how to explore Taipei. The room we are living in to be honest is not that big, just about the size of an apartment room in KL, but with its own wash room. There is a double size bed and 2 additional bed for me and my sister’s boyfriend, Henry. Obviously my mom and my sister will sleep on the double size bed. Hey, I’m not complaining, eh? It’s not like we are going to stay here for a very long time. Just a place to sleep and shower is good enough; no need for penthouse or anything, no?

So, we reached our hostel and put down our luggage. What next? Hit the Night Market of course, you silly. The Shih Lin Night Market is basically the same as our very own Petaling Street, but 3 times as large. I tell you, I had been here for 8 days but I am still never been able to fully explore the Night Market. Stuff here is quite cheap, well, girls clothing most of the time anyway. There is a lot of junk food to choose from here that you do not know which one to try first, but the bad thing is that these junk food is mostly deep fried.

Sometime I wonder if woman’s legs are born to shop… How can they shop for 5 hours and still does not show any sign of fatigue? I guess this mystery can never be solved by science and logic; it is just what the nature intended to. My own legs however, are starting to feel numb. I can’t go on any further… please let me fall here and remember me as a war hero… Remember, I want Karma Police by Radiohead as my funeral song.

Anyway… my first day in Taipei ended with sore legs and bloodshot eye. Time to recharge...