After much considerations, we decided to stick to our favourite budget airlines -Jetstar to fly to Taiwan. Its the cheapest and also with the best timings among the airlines. Took the 1am flight out of Singapore with ETA at 6am. Clearing immigration was a breeze so early in the morning and we proceed to change Taiwanese currency.
Tot the rates would better from previous experience but then it was not. Guess too many tourist used this trick already hehe as I overheard some 1 commenting the rates were slightly lesser as compared to SG rates.
It was ard 7am after we settled the immigration, baggages and currency changing and we proceed to take sky train to T2 in search of breakie. Reason for not leaving airport immediately is we wanted to wait for telecoms to open at 8am to purchase the calling cards with comes with unlimited wifi plans. And it is only possible to purchase it at the airport.
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| 6am look after touch down |
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| Tao Yuan Airport Terminal 2 |
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| My breakfast |
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| Mr Love's breakie |
At 8 am sharp, we purchase the calling card at NTD 800. It comes with NTD 550 worth of talk time, in coming is free and unlimited 3G for 10days. There are shorter plans but since we are here for 8days, must as well buy the 10days package so that mummy will be able to keep track of our locations via my updates thru FB.
Went in search of buses to get us to Taipei Main station. Its a bit different this time as we are not getting off at Taipei hotel and thus we have more choices. Took 飞狗 bus which terminates at Taipei Main Station. From there, we purchased train tickets bound for Jiaoxi, Yilan (礁溪，宜兰)。
Had a choice of taking coach, but I chose train over it as I wanted to see the various stations along the way, and also the sceneries along the coastal line where the train will pass thru. More importantly, I wanted to try the famous TRA Bento (台铁便当)。 hur hur.
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| Main ticketing counters of Taipei Main station |
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| The oh so familar platform |
Having been here for the 3rd time, I had already master the skill of taking Taiwan trains. Knowing which platform to go to, which train to board. As this is a main station, there are 4 platforms each serving hundreds of trains passing by everyday.
You must know which train you are taking, time it is arriving. If you are going to the smaller towns, some of the express trains do not stop there, thus it is essential for you to do your homework well and most importantly, understand Chinese.
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| Train tickets |
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| Plots and plots of plantations greet us along the way |
Journey is around 2hrs from Taipei, and hubs sleep thru it mostly. I was so excited that I could not fall asleep, also I wanted to keep an eye on our luggage and also ensure that we do not missed our stop.
Passed by Wai Ao(外澳) which was the place I initially wanted to stay. But the home stay is simply too expensive, at SGD 300 bucks a night. Which most of the time, we will not stay in the room, gave up the idea. 1 day, I might come, but not this time. Weather was good today and we are able to see the Turtle Island (龟岛） on the train. Due to short stay in Yilan (宜兰)， we gave it a miss this time. All these while, I was waiting patiently for the sale of 台铁便当。 hehe.. Mr Love was very amused by my interest in the bento.
Finally at 12pm, the announcement came on announcing sale of the bentos. Brought 1 eagerly, took some photos and immediately dig in. At NTD60 , it was a steal! There is a big piece of 卤肉， a 卤蛋 and a big serving of veggies. And truth to what people told me, it tastes Oooiiiishhiiii....Hubs gave it a missed as he was still sleeply..
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| See the slply head beside me |
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| I finally get to eat 台铁便当 |
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| Woke him up as we are reaching |
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| 一个睡饱了，一个吃饱了， 我们到礁溪了！ |
Mr Love nearly fainted to find no lift in Jiaoxi station, which means he will need to lug the 19kg luggage up n down the long stairways to exit the station and later tomorrow when we are leaving for Luo Dong (罗东)。 It turns out that the lift is still under construction.
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| The beri long stair ways |
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| Hello JiaoXi |
We took a rest as soon as we exit the platform. 1 thing to note, you will have to surrender your train tickets to the staff manning the exit gates in the station. Took out the home stay information, trying to make out which way to go. In the end we decided to use my phone GPS since we are having unlimited 3G access..
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| Jiaoxi station, a small modest building. |
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