Taiwan here we come 台湾 。。。吃喝玩乐记

游亁桂 说过 “我们入戏太深，演技不錯， 却老演别人， 忘了自己是谁了”。 我们这一次离澳三个月，希望我们不会忘记这警堤，继续充实自己； 好好利用时间， 快乐的度过日子。

1/4/12 We wake up at 5.45am, pack frantically and grab a cup of coffee at 7.00am at a nearby coffee shop. My cabbie, Wu, comes to pick us up for our flight at 7.30am. At 10 o'clock we take offfor Taipei.

We land at 2.40pm Taipei temp is 23 C. My impression of the Taipei Tao Yuan airport is that it is not the one that I used to know like 10 years ago and so I think this is a fairly new airport extension? Because we did not have our lunch we decide to head to the airport food court on level B2 from arrival hall level 1 before making our tracks to Taipei city. We are surprised there are quite a number of good local Taiwanese stalls selling delicious meals; other than the standard fast food stalls i.e. Mac Donald's and Starbucks. Their prices are pricey though, at NT$140 per meal.

鲁肉饭 - basically 猪油 mixed in with rice

客家板面 The lunch is quite costly by Taiwan standard at NT$140 each

We catch an airport bus to Taipei Main Station and then  transfer to our Hotel by cab. The process is painless and the transport staff are very very efficient. The bus fare costs only NT$125 per person (the journey takes 55 minutes but I slept through it!) and the cab fare is NT$95. All very very reasonable. 

Saual Keh is a boutique hotel and we like the hotel and its location. It is located in the Taipei Zhongzheng district 中正区 and is situated between two MRT stations - Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall 中正纪念堂站and Guting 古亭站 on the Tamsui (淡水）line. It only takes 5 minutes' walk for us to reach the CKS Memorial Hall station on foot from the hotel.

We catch an MRT to Shilin night market 士林夜市 which is located near the Jiantan 剑潭station. The night market is the biggest in Taipei. One finds all kinds of 台湾小吃 at night markets.

The night market is 人山人海。 It's like in Shinjuku or Causeway Bay. We try the 蚵煎 (pan fried oysters) which is too starchy in texture for our liking, 十全排骨汤 （nice chinese herb soup), Kaoshiung 肉圆，豆花， 阿宗腼缐 which is a must eat dish by any visitors to Taiwan. All at very reasonable prices between NT$30 to NT$70.

 

Naturally we are not keen to spend a long night out and decide to head back to our hotel and call it a night. And the muggy weather does not help. It's late spring in Taiwan but the weather has started to warm.... So much for today.My overall impression of Taipei is that it is progressive and well run. I like it.