The weather forecast was promising rain and chilly temperatures all throughout the 4 days we were to be in Taipei, so I was fairly surprised to see a moderate amount of sunshine upon arrival. My friend and I met at Incheon International Airport at 7:30 and arrived in Taiwan around midday of March 24th, 2017. After purchasing a 5-day SIM card for 300 NT, we bought tickets for an airport bus from some machine for 125 NT each, which turned out to be for the wrong bus. It was heading to Taipei Main Station, which was close to our hotel anyway, so we boarded and after consulting Google Maps, got off at an appropriate stop and walked about 15 minutes to CK Servied Residence. This isn't exactly a hotel; it's a serviced apartment that includes a kitchen and washing machine so that basically you can make it your home if you plan to stay long-term.
The place is located about 10 minutes from Minquan W. Road station.
Directions: Walk straight from exit 9 (10 if you want to take the escalator instead of stairs), turn left at Starbucks, then turn right at 7-Eleven.
It's located in a building called KT Star, which is a hotel building that is shared with different companies. Therefore, the front desk was not staff of the 'servied residence' we were to stay in. This didn't pose much of a problem, as I'd been contacting our own staff via WeChat, who was ready to greet us when we arrived.
We were about an hour early before check-in time, so we walked around the neighborhood to look for a place to eat. We wandered into a Japanese place, which attracted us because they had huge slabs of salmon displayed at their window, and had some sushi and sashimi over rice. I found it interesting that all we heard at this restaurant was K-pop!
After lunch, we took a short break at our room and headed out to take the metro to Beitou, famous for its Japanese-style hot springs. We purchased a 3-day MRT pass for 380 NT, which we made phenomenal use of during our stay.
Getting to Beitou is fairly easy; take the red line to Beitou station, then take one more stop to Xin Beitou. From there I recommend you take a walk to the Thermal Valley, where you will pass streams, nature, flowers, and steaming hot springs that smell of farts due to sulphur.
After another bout of walking, we arrived at Spring City Resort, where we were able to rent a private room for a hot spring bath. We bought tickets in advance at the 7-Eleven just outside the station; just ask the staff to help you buy tickets and they will help you work the machines. Price was a little under 600 NT per person, if I remember correctly, for 1 hour. One hour was more than enough, as I found I couldn't stay more than 30 minutes in the hot water. It's not healthy for you anyway. Shampoo and toiletries are provided, as well as towels.
We then took the free shuttle bus to Beitou Station, where we took the metro to Shilin Night Martket, which is not too far away and on the same red subway line.
Shilin Night Market directions: Get off at Jiantan Station (NOT Shilin) exit 3 and cross the street diagonally. It's not hard to miss!
At Friday night, the place was packed. We could barely walk, and were too tired to wait in the long lines for all the street foods. We managed to buy one snack, which said "Taiwanese Pizza" in English, so I don't know what it's called in Chinese. It was basically a fried dough pancake with different options; the one we went for was cheese and egg, which turned out to be scrumptious.
And then, believe it or not, after walking around a bit we went back to our room to call it a night. I wasn't exactly jet lagged since there's only a one-hour time difference between Taipei and Seoul, but I was exhausted from waking up at dawn to catch the flight and probably too relaxed from the hot spring bath. So I fell into a deeeep sleep at 9 (which, in my defense, is 10 in Seoul) and woke up around 7 the next day.
So here's something I missed out big time on: most of the foods at Shilin Night Market are underground. You'll see a big neon sign pointing to the entrance, but because we saw a bathroom sign right underneath, we thought it was a sign for the bathroom. But NOOOOO you need to enter and that's where you'll find all the food. We didn't know, and though we even went the next day we didn't find out until way later and felt such a hollow despair we decided to go again on our last day, but gave up because our weak asses were too tired lol.
Well, so yeah. This sums up my first, rather uneventful day in Taipei!
The place is located about 10 minutes from Minquan W. Road station.
Directions: Walk straight from exit 9 (10 if you want to take the escalator instead of stairs), turn left at Starbucks, then turn right at 7-Eleven.
It's located in a building called KT Star, which is a hotel building that is shared with different companies. Therefore, the front desk was not staff of the 'servied residence' we were to stay in. This didn't pose much of a problem, as I'd been contacting our own staff via WeChat, who was ready to greet us when we arrived.
 |
| I would highly recommend CK Serviced Residence. It was clean, had a balcony with a view of the mountains, and although housekeeping is supposedly not provided, we found our room organized and amenities replenished each day. |
We were about an hour early before check-in time, so we walked around the neighborhood to look for a place to eat. We wandered into a Japanese place, which attracted us because they had huge slabs of salmon displayed at their window, and had some sushi and sashimi over rice. I found it interesting that all we heard at this restaurant was K-pop!
After lunch, we took a short break at our room and headed out to take the metro to Beitou, famous for its Japanese-style hot springs. We purchased a 3-day MRT pass for 380 NT, which we made phenomenal use of during our stay.
Getting to Beitou is fairly easy; take the red line to Beitou station, then take one more stop to Xin Beitou. From there I recommend you take a walk to the Thermal Valley, where you will pass streams, nature, flowers, and steaming hot springs that smell of farts due to sulphur.
After another bout of walking, we arrived at Spring City Resort, where we were able to rent a private room for a hot spring bath. We bought tickets in advance at the 7-Eleven just outside the station; just ask the staff to help you buy tickets and they will help you work the machines. Price was a little under 600 NT per person, if I remember correctly, for 1 hour. One hour was more than enough, as I found I couldn't stay more than 30 minutes in the hot water. It's not healthy for you anyway. Shampoo and toiletries are provided, as well as towels.
We then took the free shuttle bus to Beitou Station, where we took the metro to Shilin Night Martket, which is not too far away and on the same red subway line.
Shilin Night Market directions: Get off at Jiantan Station (NOT Shilin) exit 3 and cross the street diagonally. It's not hard to miss!
At Friday night, the place was packed. We could barely walk, and were too tired to wait in the long lines for all the street foods. We managed to buy one snack, which said "Taiwanese Pizza" in English, so I don't know what it's called in Chinese. It was basically a fried dough pancake with different options; the one we went for was cheese and egg, which turned out to be scrumptious.
And then, believe it or not, after walking around a bit we went back to our room to call it a night. I wasn't exactly jet lagged since there's only a one-hour time difference between Taipei and Seoul, but I was exhausted from waking up at dawn to catch the flight and probably too relaxed from the hot spring bath. So I fell into a deeeep sleep at 9 (which, in my defense, is 10 in Seoul) and woke up around 7 the next day.
So here's something I missed out big time on: most of the foods at Shilin Night Market are underground. You'll see a big neon sign pointing to the entrance, but because we saw a bathroom sign right underneath, we thought it was a sign for the bathroom. But NOOOOO you need to enter and that's where you'll find all the food. We didn't know, and though we even went the next day we didn't find out until way later and felt such a hollow despair we decided to go again on our last day, but gave up because our weak asses were too tired lol.
Well, so yeah. This sums up my first, rather uneventful day in Taipei!
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