xavvy-licious: Hello Taiwan 2014 ! Day 1 - Inhouse Hotel << 薆悅酒店 >> & Shilin Night Market << 士林夜市 >>

Monday, September 29, 2014

Hello Taiwan 2014 ! Day 1 - Inhouse Hotel << 薆悅酒店 >> & Shilin Night Market << 士林夜市 >>

Our yearly vacation, this time as promised to Xav, we headed to Taiwan for a 8d7N stay. I can say it was a breeze in terms of Vera's meal preparation especially (Read HERE on how to travel light with a baby) and transportation. Travelling around with one baby, one pre-schooler, two big luggages and a small luggage, the most important area that we would all be looking at, will be nothing but hope for a trustworthy and reliable driver. We engaged the Taxi service from Tour Taiwan based on Princess Dana and my sis' recommendation and yes, their service was great !

Why would we say so because I had friends asking me for feedback on the service of Tour Taiwan after looking at the number of places we managed to visit and also at the same time complaining to me about their bad experiences with other drivers whom they booked randomly online. So basically what contributes to the good feedback from us :

1. Safety on the road - Xiao Li was a very careful driver on the road, driving skills pretty good if you can imagine me feeding Vera porridge with her sitting on my while I fed with my other hand. No jerks nor hard breaks and of course, he does not drive like a F1 driver which I can assure you.

2. Thoughtfulness - Wenny was very thoughtful to prepare a colouring book for Xav and a pack of Mochi for us to snack on during the journey. For longer journey, Xiao Li would stopped over for toilet breaks and allowed us to purchase some snacks to standby incase we may feel hungry.

Coming to the next question, if you are going to ask me if the driver smokes ? Yes he smokes but we are pretty fine with it. But Xiao Li is unlike the drivers who will smoke and drive at the same time. He would distinguished off his burning cigarette when he spotted us walking towards when we return to the vehicle at the end of the visits.

Some of my friends told me that the drivers whom they hired, smoked and drive with the windows opened ! So you can be assured at least our experience with Xiao Li was great !

3. Punctuality - Xiao Lee was very punctual and would be waiting for us by the spot as communicated upon before hand.

4. Communication : This is the best for those who can't speak Mandarin, Wenny can communicate in English via watsapp. Totally no language barrier when you need help in planning and communicating. You can contact Wenny , a very helpful lady via Watsapp at : +886 975 720 272

The flight was about 4 hours and yes Vera was a little cranky on and off. But she was easily soothed with the help of her snacks. We were picked up upon touching down at Taoyuan International Airport and sent to Inhouse Hotel which is located just right at Xi Men Ding.

Lobby lounge

Internet services for the guests

A pretty thoughtful gesture from Inhouse

Our lodging for the night, joining two beds for all the four of us.

Love this table top for washing ! Big enough for the milk bottles to fall in here.

A pretty roomy bathroom, with the bathtub on the right, shower room and toilet cubicle on the left.

And the toilet bowl comes with a washing system like those in Japan.

View from Level 2 cafe

What I like about Inhouse is, their daily breakfast menu will surely have a dish or two different each day. But western and porridge fare remain the same. Staff are pretty friendly too !

After the unloading, we headed straight for a cup of bubble tea, then to Ah Zhong for the rice noodles. More than a decade ago when I first ate the rice noodles but I have to say the standard has dropped but nevertheless, it was great to just stand by the roadside and chomped down the noodles.

Finally, Mee suah to fill the tummy a little.

From Ximen Station, we took a train to Taipei Station then to Jiantan Station, where Shilin Night Market is.

A popular destination after dark, Shilin Night Market is a must come when you visit Taipei. We were in Taipei for five days and have concluded that the food here is the best among all that we have tried. By 6pm, the crowd started to come in.

To him it's like the giant version of the HK Egglets

We came upon a shop that sells western food. I ordered beef steak and I had two very generous portion as shown below with some spaghetti served at the base of the hot plate coupled with an egg.

This portion is less than $10 sgd

If you are heading to Shilin Night Market, these are the stalls not to be missed ! It is along the same road , near to the Temple. The chicken sticks were really nice and springy and of course the sausage is equally tasty ! Totally fresh and I would not mind having one whole stick to myself ! =P

This was recommended by my friend, LM. She told me it's a must try ! We managed to locate this stall right in front of a Chinese temple. The queue was scarily long but this is the best after having to try from other stalls and from other night markets.

Commonly found game stalls in night markets

Marksman Junior in the making

We made our way through the crowd and came to the sheltered Shilin Night Market. How about trying to fish for some prawns ? Per round, we were given seven "rods" (sticks with hooks) to fish for the prawns. It has no limitation to how many prawns you can fish. So long as the fishing is done with the seven given sticks.

concentrating real hard

BBQ your catch !

Not a lot but happy with his catch for the day

Some interesting vegetable we saw- honey bitter gourd !

We rounded up our Mid Autumn Festival night walk at Shilin Night Market. Onward to Cingjing next ! We checked out of Inhouse on Day 2 and left our remaining luggage with them as we be checking in on the night of Day 3 when we returned from Cingjing.