Taiwan Trip - Day 2 - Taking High Speed Rail to Kaoshiung

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Woke up to a beautiful morning and we had breakfast in the cafe at our hotel.
We bought the breakfast vouchers from the hotel at NT100 in exchange for breakfast costing NT120, if we ordered any above that, we need to pay the difference. We had coffee too but they waive the charges for the coffee. Very good service and the food is very good.

The cafe is Royal Host which have few branches all over Taipei.

As we had bought our high speed rail tickets the previous night, we can take our time to eat our breakfast.

After breakfast, we used the free internet service to send emails to our family and check out of our hotel and then we headed to Taipei Main Station or Taipei Railway Station to take the High Speed Rail to Kaoshiung.


As long as it is not some holidays, there is no problem getting tickets on the day itself. We choose 11.30 am for the train departure time, cause we worried we might overslept hahaha.

There's a lot of ticketing machines to get the high speed rail tickets but as we are not familar, we choose to buy our tickets from the customer service personnel over the counters. They can speak English too.

The high speed rail to Kaoshiung costs us N1490 each (S$62) which comes with reserved seats. This is the express train which stops only at Banciao, Song Shan, Taichung and Zuoying (Kaoshiung) and takes only 90 mins. Some trains stop at more stations and could take about 2 hours to reach Kaoshiung.

You can take other trains to kaoshiung too at cheaper cost but longer rides. You can get the information from seat61 blog.


Just look at the screen for your train no., departure time, your car (or carriage) number and platform number and slot in the ticket at the correct gate barrier. Normally they let you board about 20 mins before the train depart. Do be punctual, the train is very punctual in leaving the station.



Dont worry, the screen comes in English too. Just looked out for the train number, the time and the platform number.


Inside the train, they have personnel selling food and drinks but you can bring your own food and drinks in too.



The train captain is in the middle of the train.

This is not our first time to Kaoshiung, our purpose of going Kaoshiung is also to experience the high speed rail. If we will to go with package tour, they only let you experience one station (i.e. 5 mins) of ride on the high speed rail.

Finally after 90 mins, we arrived at Zuoying Station, Kaoshiung. Very smooth and pleasant ride.


Lots of signs in English too to direct us to the MRT station. Our hotel is located at Kaoshiung MRT Station, so we just take the escalator down to Zuoying MRT Station and take the MRT to Kaoshiung which is about 15 to 20 minutes ride depending on the waiting time.

Taiwan Tour Day 1 Night - Shilin Night Market

After checking into our hotel, we just dump our luggages in our hotel room and head out to Shilin Night Market.

We took MRT from Taipei Main Station. It is easy to use those ticketing machines, just looked at the map of your destination on the machine and touch screen your destionation fare and slot in the fare amount.

Then collect your change (if any) and the tokens.

Tap the tokens on entering the gate barrier.

On exiting, slot the tokens into the gate barrier and the door will open for you to exit.

To visit Shilin Night Market, do alight at Jiantan MRT Station and not Shilin MRT Station. Once you come out of the train, looked for the signboard on the top to direct you to the correct EXIT 1 otherwise you got to walk a long way to the night market.


Lots of street food and fashion for sales in this night market. A must visit for tourists.


Read so much about the famous Ah Zhong Mian Xian in Shilin Market, we managed to find the stall and ordered the mian xian(also known as mee sua or rice noodles). It is quite starchy, not everyone will like this cause in my country our mian xian comes in clear soup not the starchy type. I think they comes with some pig's intestines.

Although there's lot of people ordering the mian xian, it is very fast cause they are pre cooked and the stall holder just scoop from the pot. We collected our bowls of mian xian and headed inside the shop to eat our mian xian. They have chairs and benches inside but not tables.

Taiwan Day 1 - Taipei Airport and checking into hotel

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE AND REPOST IN THEIR BLOG.

The flight from Singapore was pleasant and the service by the SQ crews were fantastic, made our ride in the plane enjoyable and pleasant. The flight was about four hours and forty five minutes.

After claiming our luggages we went in search for the airport bus to bring us to our hotel.

Lots of signs to indicate the bus station. So we just followed the direction to the bus station. It depends which terminal you are in. The one in the above photo is terminal 2 as we took Singapore Airlines.


It is easy to find the bus station or rather the counters where different bus companies are.

Some bus companies go to Taipei Main Station while some goes to Ximending or other destinations.

As our hotel is located near Taipei Main Station we bought our bus tickets from Kuo Kuang Bus Company. The fare was NT125 per way per person and there's a discount of NT5 if you buy both ways. So we bought both ways(i.e. airport to taipei main station and from taipei west bus station to airport). They will direct you to where to board the bus. Bus route 1819 goes to Taipei Main Station. The bus drop us off at the side of Taipei Main Station. When you want to take Bus route 1819 back to airport, you need to take the bus from Taipei West Bus Station which is next to Taipei Main Station (will explain this on the last day of my taiwan tour story.

The journey from the airport to Taipei Main Station is about 1 hour 15 mins depending on the traffic.


The above is Taipei Main Station or Taipei Railway Station (before the MRT and HSR were built) which houses the MRT(Mass Rapid Transit or Metro), HSR (High Speed Rail), and the conventional train. It is a very busy station with a lot of people.

We found M8 exit which is only about 3 mins from YMCA Hotel. There are so many signs in Taipei Main Station can be quite confusing. Once you exit M8 you can see YMCA opposite the exit of M8.



We stay only for the night on Day 1 cause Day 2 we heading to Kaoshiung (southern part of Taiwan).

The hotel room looked quite old and old fashioned, we actually plan to change hotels but after the next few nights we found we spend so little time in the hotel and the hotel staff are very friendly and helpful and the best is the cafe served good breakfast hahaha.



Dont like the bathtub cause it is quite high and those with weak knees might have problem climbing into it. Thanks goodness on our Day 4 when we rechecked into this hotel, we got the 6th floor which have shower type of bath.

They have washing machines and dryers on the 7th and 8th floor and hot and cold water dispenser every floor.

After staying four nights in this hotel, I found that the hotel is not that bad after all despite the old fashion looking furniture. The location is very convenient too.

Taiwan Day 1 - Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3-Butterfly Garden, SQ Airlines Food

Day 1 of my Taiwan trip started from Terminal 3 Changi Airport. Different flights departed from Changi Airport from different terminals. There are four terminals in Changi Airport, Terminal 1, Terminal 2, Budget Terminal and the latest and newest Terminal 3.

This is the first time I departed from terminal 3. It is really huge and very impressive. Lots of shops and food in here.

The best part was the butterfly garden. It had two levels and you can access the garden on either levels. Hubby went for his meal and I hurried to the garden to take photos of the beautiful butterflies.

There are so many of them. I almost forgot I had a plane to catch hahaha. If you happen to be in Terminal 3 Changi Airport, do remember to give the garden a visit.






There's free internet just before the boarding gates.

Been a long time since I take Singapore Airlines. I love the inflight entertainment and the food. They served drinks and nuts first before the lunch.

I had the oriental lunch while hubby had the western lunch. They are both so yummy and tasty. Very good. :)


Ice cream after the lunch.

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE AND REPOST IN THEIR BLOG.

Before Taiwan Trip

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE AND REPOST IN THEIR BLOG.

The last time I visited Taiwan was during my honeymoon in 1984. Geez really long time. hahaha

Next month, hubby and me plan to go Taiwan on our own instead of joining any package group. It gives us the freedom to choose where we want to visit and the freedom to stay in any place any time.

We managed to get promotional tickets with Singapore Airlines and booked directly with the hotels that we wanted to stay.

So I went to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and collects some maps, brochures and they gave us a gift pack that consists a gift coupon that can be redeem at duty free shop in Taiwan airports and tickets to the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

MTR card should be included in the gift pack too but too bad they run out of stock. The Taipei or Kaohsiung MRT card–NT 50 value inside and you can top up and use it on MRT & bus.

In order to collect the gift pack, you need to produce copy of Hotel & Air ticket confirmation

Address & office opening hours
Taiwan Visitors Association
5 Shenton Way # 31-11 UIC Building Singapore 068808
Mon.- Fri
9:00-17:00

http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002071

Will tell you more when I visited Taiwan next month. :)