Back to Taipei future?
If you’ve read the earlier stories within TaipeiDreams, you would have known that we enjoyed Taipei in 2006. That was 2 years back. This November, we’re visiting again. How has Taipei, Taiwan changed? What will we experience differently – of the Taiwanese and places?
How about getting some ideas “with the end in sight” – by looking at our time in Taipei 2006? But no, we won’t be making any comparison between these 2 trips 2 years apart.
We just felt this to be an interesting perspective to see our coming Taiwan tour in November. Fun, maybe a little silly – but definitely NOT boring! A perspective amazingly bringing you closer to Taiwan! Back to the future, here we go..
Those 7 days we christened “Our Honeymoon Taipei”
Day 1: Wed, 27 Sep. Welcome to Taiwan
Singapore to Taipei · T T I Airport · TS Hotel · ShiLin Night Market.
Day 2: Thu, 28 Sep. Own-self-take!
DanShui Town · WuFenPu Apparel Wholesale Centre · RaoHe Night Market.
Day 3: Fri, 29 Sep. Romantic rendezvous..
YehLiu Geological Park · KeeLung: Harbourside, MiaoKou Night Market · Train Travel to Taipei · Shin Kong Life Main Store.
Day 4: Sat, 30 Sep. Only mee (noodles)?
WuLai Aborigine Town · East Metro Mall · Sogo · Chill at TS Hotel..
Day 5: Sun, 1 Oct. To greater heights!
YangMingShan National Park: Calla Lilies Farm, XiaoYouKeng · Miramar: Geant, Carrefour, Ferris Wheel..
Day 6: Mon, 2 Oct. Must play play – even more!
Railway Train Travel to RuiFang · JiuFen Town · GongGuan Night Market · XiMenDing Entertainment District..
Day 7: Tue, 3 Oct. Finale and cheers!!
Taipei Zoo · Return Flight to Singapore..
In a nutshell, it was a trip – enjoyable, eye-opening, invigorating and inspiring!
How much $$$ we spend
We bought TWD800-worth of Singapore souvenirs, as gifts for our Taiwanese friends. Changed SGD$1,500 into TWD30,200 for use in Taipei, and brought back TWD9,317. Pre-tour budget plan to spend TWD1k each person per day never happened.. We spent less than that! ;-)
Also, some SGD500++ was spent in pre-trip needs, travel equipment and accessories, while Jetstar promotional airfares was bought at incredibly low less-than-SGD600 back then!
All in all, a total of around SGD2,500 was spent for this Taipei trip.
Taipei Taiwanese
Generally, the people we met were friendly. For each helpful public officer (railway train officer, policeman and etc) we sought help from, we also met another who did his / her job with little cheer.
Most salespeople were cheerful – even if we just window-shopped. We interacted with 3 cabbies: 1 typical Taiwanese uncle in all his gregarious cheer. 1 glum pony-tailed uncle. 1 cool and resigned-to-life aborigine lady cabbie staying in WuLai..
Happy Taipei people?
My vote for places with most cordial people: DanShui and KeeLung towns.
My wife’s vote: DanShui and KeeLung towns.
Top place where we met the largest number of warm (and happy too, we believe) people (young people, shop and stall operators and etc): KeeLung!
The place where we met a small portion of locals but who were exceedingly delightful (and happy too, we believe!) was DanShui! :-D
Unhappy people?
The single place we both agreed that has the most number of not-too-cheery stall / shop operators: GongGuan night market.. Maybe it was a Monday evening we were there! :-(
Where was most fun for us?
My vote for places most enjoyable: TS Hotel (it was a home away from our home anyway, so why not?). KeeLung Harbour. MiaoKou night market.
My wife voted for: YehLiu. JiuFen. Zoo. MiaoKou night market.
Top night markets?
My choice for a top night market was MiaoKou.
My wife’s votes went to: RaoHe and MiaoKou.
Experiencing Taipei
We travelled all over the city. Mingled with crowds in shopping, eating and travelling. Looked out for places I knew 15 years ago. Did the touristy things where tourists flocked to. Watched the local news, tv programmes. Hey, I miss that tv program showcasing residential properties and their interiors!
With respect to Taipei’s amazing cuisine, I missed my brown rice and home-cooked meals nourishment, losing 1.5kg after 7 days haha!
People watching we did! Saw quite a number of great-looking gals. Only a few cool guys we spotted..
Happy Taipei tourists
Camera-totting, all smiley, eyes wide and starry, polite and inquisitive – my wife and I easily identified ourselves as visitors. In response, locals smiled back, helped us, shunned us (or our camera?). We said hi to the kids. Chatted with the elderly. Asked all for directions. Gave up seats thrice in Mrt and train. Built rapport with tourists. Chewed gum everywhere. Visited convenience stores where they were found. Used countless washrooms (phew!).
Took snapshots in between places, time and people! Right before boarding in Singapore, we began taking pics till we return-landed in Changi Airport!
Do you know how TaipeiDreams began?
We took more than 600 digital snapshots, and 6 digital video clips. I had picked the best among those snapshots to tell you our stories within these blog pages. For the funny titbits, more insights, detailed tales, useful tips, TaipeiDreams has them all.
There you have it – the ultimate overview of our time in Taipei 2006. 6 weeks from today, we’ll be in Taipei, Taiwan again!
Refresh yourself before your tour
Glad you have come along in this novel way of beginning our November tour. The next time you’re returning to tour a place, take a second to indulge in a little mind shift. Try this “back to the future” way of seeing and starting your tour.
You’ll be refreshed we hope! As we had, seeing in this unique perspective this Taiwan tour soon to come! :-)
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