It’s been almost 4 years since the last time I visited another country i.e. my visit to Hong Kong in December 2004. After my wife got pregnant twice and the babysitting we’ve went through, it’s high time for another adventure. We’ve chosen Taiwan (or Zhong Hua Min Guo) as our destination and we headed there in April 2008. The name Zhong Hua Min Guo actually means Chinese People Country when directly translated. Actually before this, I also had a chance to visit, for work purpose (with some leisure activity included after working hours), East Malaysia for the first time in my life but I’ll cover that visit in another time.
The flight to Taiwan was via China Airline but I find that the flight wasn’t really assuring as the pilot’s landing skill was quite poor. However, I did enjoy the onboard entertainment and felt at ease throughout the 5 hours flight especially the Asahi beer served by them. Drinking it the first time and it was quite rich in taste, good to drink right to the last drop. Nevertheless, the main problem when flying to Taiwan is the timing, whether you’re flying on China Airline or MAS. The flight going there is only available at 1320 hours while coming back is at an early 0820 hours, which mean you would waste almost 2 days of not traveling but flying.
Food
There were plenty of night markets in Taipei, with Shihlin being the biggest selling all sorts of things beside game stalls and most importantly, food stalls. It was Chinese food but not the same as what we have here. We managed to sampled various street snacks at very affordable prices compared to Hong Kong and in some instances, cheaper than KL. I find it peculiar that the food cost in such country could be so cheap as their petrol price is more than RM3 per liter after conversion while it’s only RM1.92 back here. If our petrol price were to be increased to that level, the food prices here would skyrocket tremendously. Among the food we tasted were pancakes, oyster omelette, grilled squids, different types of noodle, desserts and we drank lots and lots of bubble tea, at prices lower than KL too. Apart from street snacks, as food was also provided in this trip, most of our breakfast, lunch and dinner were also taken care of. The best of all, the portion was generous and the dishes served were a lot better than my previous Beijing trip. I remembered there was a lunch we had at a Mongolian BBQ buffet restaurant with free flow of food.
Convenience store
Unlike Hong Kong’s Ladies Street or Temple Street night market, the night markets in Taipei close earlier at 11 but if you couldn’t get yourself some food or anything, there were plenty of convenience stores such as 7-Eleven or Family Mart operating around the clock. In fact, you may be able to find it in almost every corner of Taipei and sometime, can be seen operating in rural areas as well.
Scooter
One can regard this island as the mighty land of scooter as you can see plenty of scooters being the primary mode of transport in many cities and towns of Taiwan, even though the public transport is quite efficient in Taipei (not sure about the other cities). People of all walks of life, young and old, man or woman, many of them ride scooters around and the car drivers here were also accommodating to these scooters while on the road. Similarly, the scooters were quite courteous on the road, did not zip through the traffic and most importantly, they were quieter compared to the small motorcycles here.
Dogs
On certain occasion, we were quite surprised to see that there were individuals with pet dogs being well pampered like their own child. The pet industry was also quite prominent here with notable number of stalls and shops selling pet food and accessories. There were also dog owners that took their dogs out on a scooter ride with some of them carrying large dogs like Siberian Husky on a scooter.
Weather
The weather was a bit unpredictable as it was quite cool and windy on the first night we touched down in Taipei and drizzling on the second day. On the third day when we headed south to Taichung and Kaohsiung, it was pretty hot like the tropics and we were kind of regret bringing and wearing the long sleeve shirts. After that, throughout the entire trip, the weather wasn’t really cold, something like in HK when we were there last time in December.
Pinang
In Malaysia, we have an island called Penang island, the name Penang comes from the Malay word ‘Pinang’, which mean betelnut. However, one can hardly see any betelnut tree in Penang compares to Taiwan, which is a big industry here. Regarded as a substitute to cigarettes, selling of betelnut was so popular here to the extent there were container booths set up in the middle of the highway with scantily dressed young girls being employed to sell the betelnut.
Cars
I’ll finish off this trip review with the cars there, mostly updated cars on the road with no sight of our national car there even though I understand that Proton did sell their cars in Taiwan. The most common car used was Toyota Wish, seen almost everywhere and used as taxi as well.
The flight to Taiwan was via China Airline but I find that the flight wasn’t really assuring as the pilot’s landing skill was quite poor. However, I did enjoy the onboard entertainment and felt at ease throughout the 5 hours flight especially the Asahi beer served by them. Drinking it the first time and it was quite rich in taste, good to drink right to the last drop. Nevertheless, the main problem when flying to Taiwan is the timing, whether you’re flying on China Airline or MAS. The flight going there is only available at 1320 hours while coming back is at an early 0820 hours, which mean you would waste almost 2 days of not traveling but flying.
Food
There were plenty of night markets in Taipei, with Shihlin being the biggest selling all sorts of things beside game stalls and most importantly, food stalls. It was Chinese food but not the same as what we have here. We managed to sampled various street snacks at very affordable prices compared to Hong Kong and in some instances, cheaper than KL. I find it peculiar that the food cost in such country could be so cheap as their petrol price is more than RM3 per liter after conversion while it’s only RM1.92 back here. If our petrol price were to be increased to that level, the food prices here would skyrocket tremendously. Among the food we tasted were pancakes, oyster omelette, grilled squids, different types of noodle, desserts and we drank lots and lots of bubble tea, at prices lower than KL too. Apart from street snacks, as food was also provided in this trip, most of our breakfast, lunch and dinner were also taken care of. The best of all, the portion was generous and the dishes served were a lot better than my previous Beijing trip. I remembered there was a lunch we had at a Mongolian BBQ buffet restaurant with free flow of food.Convenience store
Unlike Hong Kong’s Ladies Street or Temple Street night market, the night markets in Taipei close earlier at 11 but if you couldn’t get yourself some food or anything, there were plenty of convenience stores such as 7-Eleven or Family Mart operating around the clock. In fact, you may be able to find it in almost every corner of Taipei and sometime, can be seen operating in rural areas as well.
Scooter
One can regard this island as the mighty land of scooter as you can see plenty of scooters being the primary mode of transport in many cities and towns of Taiwan, even though the public transport is quite efficient in Taipei (not sure about the other cities). People of all walks of life, young and old, man or woman, many of them ride scooters around and the car drivers here were also accommodating to these scooters while on the road. Similarly, the scooters were quite courteous on the road, did not zip through the traffic and most importantly, they were quieter compared to the small motorcycles here.Dogs
On certain occasion, we were quite surprised to see that there were individuals with pet dogs being well pampered like their own child. The pet industry was also quite prominent here with notable number of stalls and shops selling pet food and accessories. There were also dog owners that took their dogs out on a scooter ride with some of them carrying large dogs like Siberian Husky on a scooter.
Weather
The weather was a bit unpredictable as it was quite cool and windy on the first night we touched down in Taipei and drizzling on the second day. On the third day when we headed south to Taichung and Kaohsiung, it was pretty hot like the tropics and we were kind of regret bringing and wearing the long sleeve shirts. After that, throughout the entire trip, the weather wasn’t really cold, something like in HK when we were there last time in December.
Pinang
In Malaysia, we have an island called Penang island, the name Penang comes from the Malay word ‘Pinang’, which mean betelnut. However, one can hardly see any betelnut tree in Penang compares to Taiwan, which is a big industry here. Regarded as a substitute to cigarettes, selling of betelnut was so popular here to the extent there were container booths set up in the middle of the highway with scantily dressed young girls being employed to sell the betelnut.
Cars
I’ll finish off this trip review with the cars there, mostly updated cars on the road with no sight of our national car there even though I understand that Proton did sell their cars in Taiwan. The most common car used was Toyota Wish, seen almost everywhere and used as taxi as well.
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