Taichung HSR to Taipei HSR
Our booked driver drove us from Cingjing to Taichung HSR Station, which was a 90-minute drive. We all fell asleep during the journey and upon waking up, we saw the HSR Station. My first impression of the station was that it reminded me of the exterior of the departure hall of an airport as there were many vehicles and taxis dropping travelers at the entrance with their luggage.
The Taichung HSR Station was of a much larger scale than Taoyuan and Chaiyi HSR Stations, and much busier too.
We bought ourselves THREE tickets this time (NT$700 each), after our inconvenience during our maiden HSR ride with Dar sitting on our laps. He would also be more comfortable too throughout the 1-hour journey. We then headed to the MacDonalds located within the station planning to have a quick meal before boarding the train, which was arriving in about 30 minutes’ time.
The HSR train arrived reliably on time and we found our seats easily. Dar took the window seat so that he could admire the scenery throughout the ride. I also started munching on my burger while we gave Dar some snacks we had bought from the 7-Eleven at Cingjing.
Arrival in Taipei Railway Station
Taipei Railway Station consists of the HSR Station, TRA Station and Metro Station, thus it was one complicated network down there.
While Cat and the boy waited at a safe corner, I headed to the TRA Ticket Counter to collect the return tickets to Hualien (花蓮), which was meant for our itinerary planned for Day 7 and 8. We had booked these tickets two weeks in advanced on their website as we had read that these tickets were high in demand and would be taken up quickly. It seemed that TRA train tickets run out quickly in general, since I noticed that even all train tickets departing on that very day to all destinations had already been sold out (it was only around 3pm that time).
I then proceeded to purchase two EasyCards (悠遊卡) from the Metro’s Station Control. These are like the Ezlink cards we have in Singapore, and we could use it for a variety of transports in Taipei, such as the Metro train rides and other bus rides. We chose this over those allowing unlimited rides since we knew we were not going to travel that much and those tickets wouldn’t be worth it for our case.
We then headed out of the station (took us a while to find an exit) and flagged a cab by the roadside, so that we could get to our hotel for our stay in Taipei for those four days — Shin Shih Hotel (新仕商務飯店).
After some interesting turns (into alleys even) and navigation, we reached our hotel and our meter was only NT$100, about SGD$4.00. Our check-in at the hotel was hassle-free and we took a short rest in our room before heading out to explore Taipei.
Miramar Entertainment Park 美麗華百樂園
The nearest Metro station to the hotel we stayed in was Shuanglian Station (雙連), which was a 7-minutes walk away. This convenience was one of the main reasons behind our hotel choice.
To get to Miramar, we could either: 1) Take metro to JiannanRd Station (剑南路), which required us to transfer two times and travel through many stations, or (2) Take metro to Jiantan Station (劍潭), which was only three stations away, and wait for the free shuttle bus which would take us to Miramar.
We opted for the second option and hopped on the metro to head Northwards, and soon reached Jiantan Station, which was also near where the famous Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) is located. The shuttle bus stop was located near the exit of the station, where a short queue was already formed up. The shuttle bus frequency was quite long (15-20 minutes interval) so we waited quite a while before the bus finally arrived. We were getting increasingly tired and hungry every moment. Maybe it was not such a great idea to have chosen Option (2) after all?
The journey to Miramar Entertainment Park took quite a while too, as it was further than we had expected. We might not have gone there if we knew the journey would be so long. Anyway, our main motive for going there was for the toy level which Cat had read about, where we could find nice toys for Dar which we could not find in Singapore, like replicates of Taiwan’s trains. We were disappointed with what we saw on the toy level as there was only a small section selling toys and most of which could be found in Singapore. The prices were comparable to ours too. We soon left the place to see what else we could find in Miramar which is just like a typical shopping mall in Singapore.
We arrived at the foot of the enormous ferris wheel, a landmark that is hard to miss in Taipei. It did cross our mind to buy the tickets for the ride but looking at the limited time we had (we still need to go Shilin Night Market after this), we decided to skip it and headed for our dinner instead.
We had to eat some ‘proper meal’ first for Dar as the street food there might not go well with his stomach. We came across some food stalls in the basement of Miramar and decided to dine at a Japanese stall (there was also a food court but we only noticed it after our dinner). The food was of large portion, delicious and reasonably priced.
Thereafter, we decided to head for Shilin Night Market since there was hardly anything else interesting at Miramar. Instead of waiting for the shuttle bus, we flagged a cab and off we went to Shilin Night Market.
Explore Shilin Night Market
The place was crowded with a lot of people and we had to stroll through slowly. However, it was cooling in Shilin and we did not perspire regardless how crowded it was.
The first stall we patronised was the ‘frog eggs’ – Aiyu drink stall, which Cat had read about it from websites. We did not know exactly what to order so just told the lady that we wanted the ‘signature drink’. It tasted like the ‘Grass Jelly’ drink in Singapore, plus the pearls (aka ‘frog eggs’ as Taiwanese call them). This nice drink soothed our thirst and dry throats.
Other snacks we tried:
- Clam Omelette (NT$50) — Compared to the Singapore’s version, the Taiwan’s version was less crispy and more starchy. We would still prefer our local version over theirs although visitors to Taiwan always deemed it a must-try.
- 鹹酥蘑菇 (salty fried mushroom) — Fried mushrooms with a salty taste. We didn’t want to put the chili powder to minimise sore throat so it could have tasted even better with it. There were three types of mushrooms to choose from and we opted for a mixed combination of all types. It is somewhat like the ‘salty chicken’, just that they fried the mushroom instead.
When we needed to look for the restroom, we headed through an alley to get into a large sheltered area, supposedly a more ‘modern’ part of Shilin Night Market. We checked out the stalls there and the games stalls caught our attention, something we would hardly see in Singapore since our night markets locally focus more on food and items. The Taiwanese seems to enjoy them though, with most of the stalls having brisk businesses. The ‘Guess the Mahjong Tiles’ stalls left quite an impression to us though we did not try any of those stalls out.
When we felt we had covered enough of Shilin Night Market for the night, we started to walk along the road and came across more stalls and some interesting items. There was this particular shop with unique name where the staff do massages for people on their neck using something like a knife chopper. We actually stood there for quite a while to observe as it was quite ‘odd’ to us.
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Taiwan 30Oct – 6Nov 2012: Day 4 Nantou / Taipei Itinerary
- Cingjing Farm Green Green Grassland
- Taichung HSR to Taipei HSR
- Shin Shih Hotel
- Miramar Entertainment Park
- Shilin Night Market
Read More on Taiwan Itinerary 2012: 8-day Taiwan Itinerary (Chiayi, Taipei, Hualien, Nantou)
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