Day 1 [27th Oct]: SG to Taipei

I spotted a good offer for Scoot flight to Taipei and decided to book it just 2 days before departure. The fare came up to be about $142 inclusive of 15kg check-in baggage allowance. And so I took off to Taipei on an afternoon flight and landed in Taoyuan Airport in the evening.  I managed to purchase a prepaid SIM card with 3 days of unlimited internet usage and NT$100 of credit for just NT300.

 
Shortly after, I took the bus 1819 to Taipei Main Station and it costed NT$130 for 1-way and NT$260 for round trip. After about 40 minutes of bus ride, I reached Taipei Main Station. It took me a while to get my bearings and navigate my way to 阿羅國際旅館(Taipei Traveler Hostel Holo Family Home). I checked in to the hostel quickly and made my move out to meet a friend to visit a night market.

We decided to visit Shilin Night Market and tried a lot of food that night, including 大肠包小肠，炭烤臭豆腐 (smelly beancurd)，山猪肉香肠 (wild boar sausage)，fish balls, 柳丁汁， 蛤仔煎 (fried oyster omelette) and finally 阿宗面线 (the famous ah zong pig intestines vermicelli). Personally, I felt Ah Zong Vermicelli was just average tasting. Perhaps it was really overhyped that led to a bit of queue for it. For the night, my favourite food was 大肠包小肠. The rest were just average or probably my expectations were too high because I haven't been to Taiwan for 12 years!

More photos here!