core of cloudee: my 1st day in taipei

finally, i'm back from taiwan!!! haha... my initial plan is to blog about my taiwan trip right after i was back from there, but, secret garden totally attracted all my attention, followed by my girlfriend is gumiho, then start cleaning house and preparing for chinese new year ....... now only i get to start blog about my taiwan trip (after i was back from taiwan for a month).

on 28th december 2010 around 2.30pm, i finally reached taoyuan international airport, first of all, we go to the visitor information center to get the digital tour buddy(phone) + sim card that we apply earlier on through online. For young backpackers who are going to taiwan, i strongly advice that you visit http://youthtravel.tw/ , there contains a lot of information that you may need. This is the website that i apply for the taiwan sim card, it's free and the sim card given contains NTD 100 to be used. It is more than enough if you are just going to use it contact the hostel owner that you are going to stay. At least for me, i didn't top up throughout my 10 days in taiwan.

so, now, we need to get ourselves to taipei city. the cheapest way is by bus. There are signboards that lead you to the place where you can purchase the bus ticket. We chose guoguang bus (国光客运), which cost us NTD125 to reach taipei main station.

Taipei main station is somehow like kl sentral in malaysia, but a way bigger version. it contains all types of public transport system, such as taiwan railway, high speed rail, bus station, mrt ... You can totally experience the hustle and bustle of taipei city here. everyone is walking in super fast pace and this place is always crowded. In order for you to travel more conveniently in taipei city, i encourage all the travellers to purchase an easycard, which will cost you NTD500 (contains $100 deposit).

throughout our trip in taipei, we decided to stay in ximending(西门町), the place that had been called as "Harajuku of taipei", the source of taiwan's fashion and japanese culture. A lot of nice food, cinemas, etc.... that's why this place is always full with youngsters. One thing that you must try out when you were in xi men ding is the Ah Zong Mi Sua(阿宗面线), a small bowl costing NTD45, super damn nice. You can see a lot of people are eating outside the shop, there is no table, only chairs provided, and normally it's not enough and many people will need to stand while eating.