15052011 Venturing into Taipei

Woke up to this.

The mist was so thick that it covered the whole carpark behind our hostel. I had thought that it was already noon, but I met the lady boss of the hostel and she told us that it was only 9am. Decided to head out to the town and see if we could get ourselves any breakfast.

It was still rather early, and visitors were still scare, so the streets were empty and a little haunting. Instead of buying ourselves proper breakfast, we bought tickets to Zhudong. We had no idea what we were actually heading to, so randomly asked this lady who was sitting next to us in the station for directions to Taipei.

She was very nice and explained to us that we had to take the train till Zhudong, then switch to a bus which will bring us to Hsinchu. Apparently the train tracks which runs between Hsinchu and Zhudong were going under repair and maintenance, so they had to resolve to using a feeder bus while the works were still underway, or else we could actually head to Hsinchu station directly. A dog came by when she was explaining it to us, and it wanted a pat on its head before walking away satisfied.

The train came and it only had two carriage. Our boss had called it ‘小火车’, literally a mini train. It reminded me of those trains in Japan which I used to take while I was staying in Osaka.

It made a few stops along the way, but there weren’t much people getting up. The gloomy weather outside didn’t help at all. After about 30 minutes, we reached Zhudong, the terminal station.

A bus was waiting outside the station, and we had to ask around before being directed to the correct one. Bus ride to Hsinchu took another 20 minutes to reach the Hsinchu station, and it dropped everyone off in front of some shopping street, so we had to walk the remaining distance to the station, which include crossing one of its very busy main road.

Went to the counter and asked about tickets to Taipei, and they sold us ones on some express trains with designated seating. Since we had about an hour to spare before the next train, went walking around Hsinchu in search of things to eat.

This was the first stall we chanced upon, ran by an 80 years old lady who totally does not look her age! Wandered a little further down the road and found this stall opposite Kentucky which sold really delicious 鲁肉饭 (minced meat and rice), and ordered a meat ball to top it off.

With our hunger satisfied, boarded the train which would bring us to Taipei. The journey took about an hour and 10 minutes, which makes it close to 4 hours since we left Neiwan.

We were confused and dazed in the main capital of Taiwan, so we did very random things. Walked out of the Taipei main station on to find that it was raining, so ran back in to keep out from the train; saw a lady selling umbrellas outside of the station, so ran out again to buy umbrellas from here, then ran back in into the station again to head to the information counter to ask them for a map and directions. We asked her for places to shop, and she directed us to a shopping mall which could only be access by taking a large pedestrian bridge.

Unfortunately, there was nothing interesting we found in the mall, except for hot buns filled with abalones and cheese, and a guy dressed in a dog suit to take pictures with.

Wandered around randomly further and found this underground mall which runs for kilometers long! The stuffs on sale were much more interesting, and we also chanced upon a bunch of guys which were very fixated on their games, and also, things which appealed to the otakus.

Came across the subway, so hopped onto it to head to the Shilin night market. There was a huge food court just directly opposite the stop, so headed there first to see if we could find any food, and the alarming number of stalls left us very spoilt for choice.

Bought drinks like bubble tea and lemon juice, food after food which were packed in plastic bags, and also joined the queue for the XXL sized fried chicken breast. Managed to find a o-jian (friend oyster pancakes) stall where the owner allowed us to sit and have our dinner, but we got terribly ripped off for a slab of papaya, which then suicided on me by jumping to the floor.

It was still raining outside, practically it has been that way the old day, but we still went on to visit the night market. The only problem was that the rain had made everything exceptionally sloshy, and dirt kept getting stuck onto our legs.

Living up to its name as one of the most popular night markets in Taipei, the Shilin night market stretched on and on, and one could also try slipping into the side alleys which would lead you different sorts of shops and stalls.

Probably not very nice, but we found it funny when we saw this which read ‘If you simply throw your rubbish, your whole family will die.’

After walking around endlessly, decided that we had enough of this dizzying Taipei and started our long long journey back south. At Taipei station, they informed us that they had ran out of seats for the train back to Hsinchu, which was kind of a bad news, because you would have to stand for the next hour and a half back.

Fortunately after boarding the train, we found a carriage which probably once served as a kitchen and was pretty empty, so we helped ourselves to seating on the floor of the carriage along with other youngsters who weren’t able to secure seats like us.

By the time we got to Hsinchu, realised that we had missed the bus which just left, so we had to wait for the next one which comes at 9pm.

Reached Zhudong station just in time to catch the 9:40pm train back to Neiwan. All the shops were already closed for the day when we reached the Neiwan station, and walked back to our hostel in the dark while being extra careful with the stairs. Found the lady boss still up and waiting for us, and we told her that we had just got back from Taipei. She said we were crazy before retiring to her bed.

I don’t know, but Taipei exhausted me a lot, and a hot shower was what I needed the most after being mostly drenched in the rain for most of the day since morning. My first impression of Taipei would forever be that rainy gloomy day.