My Sketches
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Travel: TAIWAN
Taiwan (6 - 10 December 14)
This trip was very hastily planned, or rather unplanned. I must admit that my main reason for scheduling it was to tick a new country off my (long) list of places to visit. What I achieved at the end of the trip was much more than that.
We took the cheapest flight options available. Our flight from Singapore made a stopover at Kuala Lumpur, before arriving in Taipei eight hours later. When we reached our hotel at around 12am, it seemed that we had spent the entire day sitting in a plane. We hadn't had dinner yet. All the shops at the airport was closed and it turned out that the hotel doesn't have a restaurant; it only serves breakfast! We duly went out to look for a 7-Eleven store to buy some cup noodles for the night as we reckoned that no restaurant would be open at that hour.
The roads were exceptionally clean and even the narrow alleys had a path demarcated for pedestrians (in green). Houses were lined up on both sides of the alley; they all had a different look and were decked up with hanging plants etc.
We couldn't find the 7-Eleven despite receiving excellent directions from the hotel staff (we would stumble upon this particular branch on the night of our 2nd Day). However, we found a similar shop called FamilyMart and bought a couple of cup noodles, before heading back to the hotel and retiring for the day.
First Day - 7 December
We got up early (by Kapila's standards ;)) and set out after breakfast. Luckily, it was a bright, sunny day. We bought one-day passes (NT$150) at the nearest MRT station and set out for the day's adventures.
The MRT was very 'user-friendly'. It is easy to navigate as long as you have a map of the city and the various MRT lines. (NOTE: Maps of Taipei in English are hard to come by. The hotel had a sole copy which we took and I had half a mind to return it to them for future travellers while checking out).
What happened next was not unexpected...we lost our way. Completely by chance, we came upon an art exhibition. It was full of innovative and cute curios. We had to sum up all our mental strength and come out of there without our wallets being any lighter.
Second Day - 8 December
Last Day - 9 December
This trip was very hastily planned, or rather unplanned. I must admit that my main reason for scheduling it was to tick a new country off my (long) list of places to visit. What I achieved at the end of the trip was much more than that.
We took the cheapest flight options available. Our flight from Singapore made a stopover at Kuala Lumpur, before arriving in Taipei eight hours later. When we reached our hotel at around 12am, it seemed that we had spent the entire day sitting in a plane. We hadn't had dinner yet. All the shops at the airport was closed and it turned out that the hotel doesn't have a restaurant; it only serves breakfast! We duly went out to look for a 7-Eleven store to buy some cup noodles for the night as we reckoned that no restaurant would be open at that hour.
The roads were exceptionally clean and even the narrow alleys had a path demarcated for pedestrians (in green). Houses were lined up on both sides of the alley; they all had a different look and were decked up with hanging plants etc.
We couldn't find the 7-Eleven despite receiving excellent directions from the hotel staff (we would stumble upon this particular branch on the night of our 2nd Day). However, we found a similar shop called FamilyMart and bought a couple of cup noodles, before heading back to the hotel and retiring for the day.
First Day - 7 December
We got up early (by Kapila's standards ;)) and set out after breakfast. Luckily, it was a bright, sunny day. We bought one-day passes (NT$150) at the nearest MRT station and set out for the day's adventures.
The MRT was very 'user-friendly'. It is easy to navigate as long as you have a map of the city and the various MRT lines. (NOTE: Maps of Taipei in English are hard to come by. The hotel had a sole copy which we took and I had half a mind to return it to them for future travellers while checking out).
What happened next was not unexpected...we lost our way. Completely by chance, we came upon an art exhibition. It was full of innovative and cute curios. We had to sum up all our mental strength and come out of there without our wallets being any lighter.
Second Day - 8 December
Last Day - 9 December
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