Taiwan (Taipei)- Arrival, Ximending, Lungshan Temple, McD

After months of planning, researching, reading and booking

Finally we were going to Taiwan! (21st Dec 2014- 1st Jan 2015)

Hope all the hard work was worth it~

Before depart

The flight took 4 hours plus to reach Taiwan Taoyuan Airport

It was a midnight flight

Departed from KLIA at 1.35am 

Feeling like a zombie when we reached Taoyuan Airport at 6.20am the next day as we hardly had any sleep

Arrived~ Super exhausted!

What's worse

The driver that was supposed to fetch us from the airport to the hotel was not at the airport

Frustrated, tired and hungry

Contacted that driver and only realized that there was some miscommunication going on and the driver mistook the time to pick us up

So we had to wait for another one hour

When we reached Neijiang Hotel

It was not the check in time yet

So we just left our luggage at the lobby and went to nearby shop for breakfast

We had soy milk and deep fried breadstix as breakfast (pretty Taiwanese thing!)

Then

Walked around Ximen Red House and took touristy photos

Followed by Ximending

Saw these two doggies in front of a restaurant at Ximending

Due to our tiredness

We went back to the hotel to take a nap

And continued our journey around 5pm

Decided to go to Lungshan Temple

Lungshan Temple is a famous old temple in Taiwan

Beautiful Temple

Not forgetting to take a selfie

Sky was getting dark very fast (around 4/5pm) as it was winter

We wanted to go to Huaxi Street Night Market which was just a stone's throw away 

It was famous for snakes

There were many stalls selling snakes

The local believes that snake is a healthy source of food and is very nourishing for the human body

Snakes can be served in soup, wine, cooked dishes or even made into medicine 

Snake in the cage

Saw a snake in the cage

There was also another cage full of mice to feed the snake

Only managed to stay in Huaxi for few minutes

Stomach growling

Bought a snack called che-lun-bing (車輪餅) 

It comes in many flavours: butter(奶油), red bean(紅豆), taro(芋頭) and etc

I like the butter cream flavour the most!

As it was our first day in Taiwan, we had no idea where to eat

So all the kids suggested McD at Ximending

They had a package called 1+ 1= NTD50

Which was pretty cheap

You can pick any combination in the menu

The workers (mostly youngsters) working at the counter were very efficient

I had chicken burger

The taste was very similar to the one in Malaysia

But one thing very special

They actually served corn soup!

Maybe only during winter? (no idea...)

And it was really good

Something to keep you warm during the cold weather

Their McD even played soft music

And it was occupied by mainly students

After dinner

Passed by these hip hop dancers while on our way back to hotel

Ximending was beautiful at night

Lights everywhere

Feeling the cold wind blowing through my face

It was cold that night (about 10c)

Went to bed very early so that we would have more energy for the next day~