As smoochielicious as it gets

Fascinating Taiwan - Day 1 [XingTian Temple (行天宮) - Shihlin NM (士林夜市)]

Day 1 - 28.10.2010

Mode: Excited!

Our flight departed at 1000 and arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 1440.

            #1  Assemble at LCCT

Our tour agency did the check in thingy for us. Instead of us lining-up, our luggages did that for us…

            #2 Line up according to name list

            #3 From another point of view…

            #4 Yes, yes… Boarding~

            #5 My 1st time with AirAsiaX

The flight itself was super cold! Was freezing all the time!

4.5 hours later….

            #6 Immigration counters

Was a bit culture shock when I first reached the airport. Every single thing is in Chinese, 我的妈呀! I feel a bit lost, to be honest. But thank God, they have proper translations/labels. 

            #7 Tourist service center

We applied earlier beforehand for the Digital Tour Buddy that comes with either a 2G phone or 3G simcard with NTD100 credit in it. 

For more info on Digital Tour Buddy (寶貝機), visit http://youthtravel.tw/ and click on the Digital Tour Buddy under the Service tab.

Besides that, I also applied for Youth Travel card (青年旅遊卡).

            #8 Digital Tour Buddy bag

            #9 Youth Travel Badge

When we landed at the aiport, they announced the weather in Taiwan that time was 29°C, so we dont really bother much about that until… until we went out for our tour bus. The moment we went outside, the wind were so strong, we all were like, “This is 29°C?? or 19°C??!”. 

Shivering lor…

            #10 Our tour bus!

            #11 Interior of the bus

Our tour guide roughly brief us the general things in Taiwan, what to expect and what not, and our itinerary for the day. We only get to check in to our hotel at 1030pm.

From Taoyuan, we travelled all the way to Taipei to visit XingTian Temple (行天宮).

            #12 XingTian Temple (行天宮)

            #13 Praying area

There are a lot of volunteers in this temple especially senior citizens. I did not take much pics of the temple as I feel it is impolite to take pics when others were offering their prayers.. 

            #14 This is 5.30pm in Taipei

Next up will be dinner! So excited just to find out we were going to have Thai food for dinner. Thai food in Taiwan, tell me about it! It’s a halal Thai restaurant as we have to cater our dearie Muslim colleagues’ need as well.

            #15 Food so-so only.

After dinner, we headed to Shihlin Night Market (士林夜市)! with limited time, ok! That’s the bad thing about tour. I think we were given 1 hour only in Shihlin. Sadness. 

Shihlin NM is divided into two part. One is the food area, another one across the road is the well.. shopping area. 

Since we were all stuffed from dinner, we choose to go to the shopping area!

            #16 Random stall in Shihlin NM

Okayy, no more pics coz I’m running out of time to shop, remember?!!

Then we took another 1.5 hours back to Taoyuan, (yes we stay in Taoyuan!) to check in.

            #17 Damage of the day!

In dire need of a long sleeve = NTD 175, 2 tube dress = NTD 100 x 2, Harem pants = NTD 175 and a hat to keep me warm = NTD350

After we settled down in the room, we went out and explored somemore.

            #18 Family Mart

            #19 Milk, anyone?

            #20 Can we all have these in Malaysia, pretty please?

First day in Taiwan, and I’m loving it already!

Check out Fascinating Taiwan Day 2: [CKS Memorial Hall - Matyrs’ Shrine - Le Coral Le Pearl - Leofoo Village Theme Park - FengJia NM]