Taiwan Holiday

Booked my trip in March for a short break as I will not have another break till year end.. Despite many cautioned against going Taiwan in July due to the summer heat, I was like, "ok bring it on", boy was I wrong!

It was scorching hot! 

No joke!

I flew in on Friday on Malaysia Airlines Flight 366, despite a slight delay, the flight landed on time through a turbulent flight (must be from the tail of the typhoon).. I took a chance and did not pre-assigned my seat, luckily got a good aisle seat 8C, despite row 8 does not have a window at 8A!

Yeah I was this bored I imagined there was a window

On the flight, I watched Isle of Dog, god damn it was such a boring movie I fell asleep right away.. I did not know what the movie was about, all I know is, it's like dogs vs human in a very monotonous dialogue between a dog and his master.. no doubt there's some funny and stupid scenes, but not enough to keep me awake.. Thank goodness I didn't watch it in the cinema..

Yawn

Then it came to food, not a lot a choice: nasi lemak or yongtaufoo.. I did not want to take any chances with MH spicy food so I opt for yongtaufoo instead..

Yongtaufoo breakfast

Upon reaching Taoyuan, my bag arrived before I cleared immigration, hence it was quite quick for me to move along..

I have prebought the airport MRT token through Klook (as it was slightly cheaper than it is to buy at the airport) and I have some agent discount through Klook as well.. If you don't buy the token, you can also use your Easycard to pay for the fare..

Well I could have used any sites to buy but I don't have the time to log in and search each one, so I just look into one, compare it against the fare if purchased at the airport, as long as the total comes to be cheaper, I'm good to go.. Nothing to lose..

Airport MRT route

Airport MRT token.
It can be used any day once bought, as each token is a single journey (you need to decide from where to where)

A one way journey from Taoyuan to Taipei Main Station is NT$160 and takes approximately 40 minutes, including walking from airport to platform (and vice versa).. it's a long walk..

He left a welcome note

Oh ya, I stayed in a place booked from misterbandb.com very last minute (in fact just about 2 weeks before my trip) and the host kept asking me if I am sure I wanted to stay there due to the distance away from downtown.. Since I don't mind sharing a place with the host, I chose his place. As he's currently away in Mexico, we arranged for the keys and he taught me how to go to his place, how to get the keys.. If he is around, he would have met me by the door (or at least that's how I imagined it to be hahhahahaaaa)

I said I don't mind really, as long as it's near the metro I'm all good.. True enough, his place is just next road from the metro, a slow 5 minutes leisure stroll away along a nice small park.. And it has a private hotsprings tub that's big enough for a few guys, I reckon, measuring myself in it..

The total journey from airport to his place in Xinbeitou involved 2 transfer: one at transfer in Taipei Main Station and another transfer in Beitou, and takes roughly 1 hour 40 minutes..

Well, it did rain 2 whole days on Saturday and Sunday and it just spoiled all my plans.. It was not a heavy one, just light drizzle that just irritatingly won't stop until the sunsets (there goes the beach and pool and nude sunbathing plans *shucks*).. It only stopped at night, making the night quite cool..

I was already sweating the moment I stepped out of the room and walk 20 metres to the lift..

It takes about 15 minutes to fill up the tub, I reckon it can fit 3-4 guys of my size comfortably

After settling down, I took the train to the other end of the Tamsui-Xinyi line to Xiangshan Station and hike up 15 minutes to the first lookout point, overlooking Taipei city..

The amount of people here is just painstakingly annoying..

All drenched in sweat, from the hiking actually.. see how my clothes stuck to my chest..

Coming down from Xiangshan, I walked to Taipei 101 for some free aircond to cool down, and then take the metro to Shilin to grab something to eat.. with my limited Mandarin, I think I did pretty good, ordering dinner and taking away food to bring back to eat..


Next, do you want to know which saunas I went to in this Taipei trip? I went to 2, and over next 3 days 
Stay tune!