ok so i decided to stop procrastinating and start doing a travelogue of the taiwan trip before my photos become obsolete! :/
Because we’re cool like that, we booked the flight slightly more than a fortnight before we left because SIM was being lazy and refused to let me know my schedule till 1-2 weeks into dec and there were no hotels available on the dates that we wanted to go on. So therefore, once everything got settled, hotel rooms and flights, it was exactly 15 days before departure because i was freaking out that Jetstar was going to screw up our payment for our flight! and can i just say that charging 70bucks for admin fee for paying for the airtickets is a TOTAL RIPOFF! as if the $500 airfare wasn’t bad enough :/
Our flight was good because it was early in the morning at 7+am and by the time we touched down at taiwan, it was close to noon so quite alot of time to shop or whatsoever (:
So Jetstar wasn’t that bad…here’s the brother and I after the flight, i half dead (because of lack of sleep) and half frozen and the brother just having a slight allergy to a camera! hahahaha.
Here’s a funny story: the mother and I lost the brother & father after we left the plane because they were supposed to wait outside the toilet for us and when we came out, we didn’t see them so we obviously thought they went ahead. so we trudged to the immigration counter and all the while grumbling how they don’t understand instructions. once we were there, we searched the truckload of people and they weren’t there so we went back to the toilet and realised that they both went back into the toilet with our hand luggages to ‘suit up’ because they were freezing. ok not very funny. hahaha.
Taoyuan International Airport looked the same in the arriving hall as 2 years ago but the departure hall was really different and pretty! can’t wait for their upgrading to be complete! (:
Oh and HUGE TIP: remember to sign up for the Youth Card – If i’m not wrong it’s for people up to 20something or something like that? hahaha it’s free plus there’s alot of discounts like Taipei 101 and Taipei National Museum entrance tickets
So because the mother heard that there was free shuttle bus services to Taipei, she made us go on a wild goose chase to find them and just as we were about to give up, THANK GOD there was this really nice taiwanese cabby (he’s a private cabby) that asked if we wanted to hitch a ride back to Taipei for NT$800=S$38ish. It was a really good rate because cab rates to Taipei from Taoyuan Airport are at least NT1100. He dropped us right outside our Hotel: Look Hotel too so he was weally nice! (:
By the time we reached the Hotel, it was 1ish but because the Hotel is quite a stickler to rules, we could only check in at 3pm but we could dump store the bags with them while we went out for lunch! We managed to find a nice chinese restaurant across the road courtesy of the lady at the hotel counter. Only on 2nd or 3rd last day did i realise that it was one of 8days’ recommended restaurants to go to in Taipei!
Dian Shui Lou (点水楼)
apparently there are alot of famour people who go there. the only people that i recognise is SodaGreen because of their chinese names. the last one looks abit like Cecilia Cheung but then again, i wouldn’t know! :/
Salted Veg & Pork & Beans Fried Rice
This was REALLY GOOD! i’m not usually a huge fan of fried rice but this was really good! i had it the 2nd time when we went back there for dinner a couple of nights later ((:
xiaolongbao
really comparable to dintaifung’s (which we went to another night) so it’s a MUST TRY! 
some Crabmeat & Tofu Claypot, a Chef’s Recommendation
THIS WAS AMAZING! eat that with plain noodles, like heaven in my mouth! hahahaha. It’s not cheap though, i think this portion cost about s$30? but should definitely order this! (:
The service there was great (as always, in Taiwan) and they were really sweet because we came in close to last order time but the cook stayed behind to finish cooking the things we ordered and the people weren’t in a hurry to chase us out after lunch so i’d definitely go back again! If i remember correctly, we paid less than S$20 per person for the meal and it was really good!!
Dian Shui Lou (点水楼) No. 64 Huaining Street Tel:886-2-2312-3100 Nearest MRT, NTU Hospital (Red Line)
After that we still had some time to kill so we walked around and there were really alot of good food! YongHe was just further down and i’ve heard that their soya bean and other baos are really good!
I was saving my stomach for bubble tea (hehhh) so i didn’t have any but the parents did have almond milk drink and some youtiao which they said was good! AND JUST NEXT TO YONGHE WAS…..
KOI!!!
hahaha actually it’s 50lan which is the company that brought koi into Singapore! I personally don’t think koi is that great compared to Dingtea (which is awesomexz) but i guess to each their own? 
The bubble tea’s here was WAYY cheaper like max S$1.20 for a cup the same size as sg’s and they also ask you the amount of ice that you want which is kinda cool #cheaptrill hahahah
MY FIRST BUBBLE TEA IN TAIPEI YO!
ok this picture was taken because one of the signboards was kinda funny. hahahaha. guess which one?
After wandering around and having tons of fun at 7-11 which is the brother’s favourite shop in the whole of taiwan, we traipsed over to the Peace Park which is just across the road from the Hotel. So convenient right?!
Rather small Park but there’s a really nice quaint bridge and alot of birds so if you’re around the area, it’s a nice place to pop by! (:
Finally checked into the hotel and they actually upgraded us! i guess it’s because they were kinda fully booked and because we were staying for a rather long period.
The room is awesome in so many ways! Totally trumps East Dragon Hotel where nahnah, nehnoo and I stayed the last time around. Maybe also because Look Hotel is a rather new hotel so that’s why their amenities are better too! One of the only bad things that i could pick on was that their toilet doors were frosted and so it’s not very private if you’re going with friends and some people may not be too comfortable with that. But other than that, Look Hotel is AWEHSOME! <3
After a short rest, we went to ShiLin Night Market!:D
How to get there: Take an MRT to Jiantan (Red Line) and walk across the road NOTE: The open space where they used to have all the ShiLin Food stalls is closed so they are scattered along the road near the Shopping Area.
chicken cutlet stall
this is a rather interesting chicken cutlet stall because their chicken came with some kind of terriyaki sauce so it was quite different from the usually chicken cutlet that i’ve tasted! I also FINALLY TRIED smelly tofu! hahahaha. It wasn’t that smelly but it was kinda jelat after awhile :/
After that was total shopping galore! hahahaha. obviously the males in the family weren’t too happy about it and started making noise after 45 mins like “how many shoes do you need? you only have 2 feet anyway!” oh men, they really don’t have a clue do they? hahaha
and because they were close to giving up, we had to settle them with hot food (yes chicken cutlet didn’t do it for them) and so we found this beef noodle store near the main road which was surprisingly good!
so after i dumped them there, i had a full 30mins to shop ALL BY MYSELF!:D actually before that i had already done some shopping but shopping by myself was rather liberating and got myself a pullover and a bag from BlueSky which is one of those Taiwan Bag Spree Sites. It was rather cheap and if you buy more than 3 pieces, its 10% off each item! But because i already bought 2 bags before that, i decided to control myself and not buy anymore. heh :/ totally regret it though 
Honestly, in my opinion, ShiLin was the best place for me. previously it wasn’t but i guess you really have to find the good bargains and this time there wasn’t much clothes for me to buy because it was really the wrong season :/ they were selling winter clothings which weren’t very practical for me to wear in Singapore so that’s the reason i didn’t get much clothes. would be lovely to go back to taiwan during spring/summer because all the clothes would be purrfect! heehee!
ok this took me like 45mins to blog and my fingers are kinda tired. ok let’s see when i’m up to do Day 2! hahaha.
