Taiwan - Day 1 (Taipei - Tonghua Night Market)

Every month we waited patiently for Air Asia Big promotion and this time we managed to booked a round trip ticket from Kota Kinabalu to Taiwan for only RM 234.38 per person. We departed from Kota Kinabalu Airport (KKIA) around 6.10am and reached Taoyuan International Airport around 9.30am. It's beginning of spring and best time of the year to visit Taiwan. The weather is pleasant and cool around 14'C. However, it gets really cold when the wind is blowing.

We had our breakfast on board and I ordered Southwest stuffed chicken consists of roasted chicken breast stuffed with caramelized red capsicum and onions, topped off with jalapeno cream cheese, accompanied with roasted potatoes and crisp vegetables. The food was ok. At least it satisfied my hunger. 

My in-flight meal - Southwest stuffed chicken (RM 15)

First thing we did when we arrived at Taoyuan International Airport was to collect the 4G pocket WiFi device that we have rented online through www.klook.com. It can connect up to 5 devices at once, unlimited data of 4G WiFi and it's only RM 8 per day. Convenient pick up and return at Taoyuan International Airport.

4G pocket WiFi device pickup at Taoyuan International Airport

Public bus is the cheapest way of getting to the city centre from Taoyuan International Airport. So, we took Free Go Bus 5502 (NT$ 140 per person) from Taoyuan International Airport to MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, the nearest stop to Vendome Hotel. Besides Free Go Bus, there's few other buses that will pass by MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing Station. Just take a look at the bus information listing before you proceed to the ticketing counter. Our bus scheduled to depart at 10.25am but delayed by 10 minutes. It's a single decker bus with air-conditioning. You may put your bags in the baggage compartment under the bus. 

Less than 10 people aboard the bus and we were the last passenger to get off. The journey took approximately 1 hour to reach MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing Station. It was drizzling at that time and we have to walk in the drizzle for 12 minutes before reaching Vendome Hotel. We arrived there around 12pm and our room was not ready yet. So, we left our luggage at the reception area and went for lunch.

Bus information

Directory list

Bus counters

Our bus ticket from Free Go Bus 5502

Free Go Bus

Since it's still drizzling, we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel front desk. We had our lunch at Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian, 20 minutes walk from Vendome Hotel. It's a small eatery place so it can get a bit crampy inside. Both of us sat facing the wall. Entire menu is in Chinese and luckily the lady was very friendly and helped us with our order.

We ordered two bowls of beef noodles and a plate of tofu recommended by the lady. Tofu was good. However, beef noodles's soup tasted so-so and the noodles have a firm and chewy texture. I prefer softer noodles generally. There's chili powder and paste provided at each table and you can add it to your soup to increase the heat level. The lady didn't ask our drink choice so we ended up didn't order any. Surprisingly when we looked around, nobody seems to order any drinks!

Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian

Cooking area

Tofu with spring onions - NT$ 40

Beef noodles (small) - NT$ 150

Chili powder and paste

Address:

Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian

274, Section 2, Bade Rd,

Zhongshan District,

Taipei City, Taiwan 104


On the way back to Vendome Hotel, we stopped by BlackBall for drink and dessert. BlackBall is just 7 minutes walk from Lin Dong Fang Niu Rou Mian. We ordered lemon honey tea and grass jelly dessert. Lemon honey tea was cold and very refreshing. Grass jelly dessert on the other hand was warm and nice. I like the fact that both were not too sweet.

BlackBall Lemon Ice Jerry Q Honey Tea - NT$ 50

BlackBall Burning Grass Jelly - NT$ 65

Address:

BlackBall

No. 82, Section 1,

Fuxing South Road, Daan District,

Taipei City, Taiwan 106

Opening hours: 10.30am to 10.30pm daily

It's just nice for us to check in our room when we reached Vendome Hotel around 2.30pm. The hotel is just 14 minutes walk from BlackBall. We took a nap and by the time we woke up it's already 7.30pm! My initial plan was to visit Taipei 101 observatory deck, have our early dinner at Ding Tai Fung located inside Taipei 101 Mall and final stop at Tonghua Night Market. Since both of us we took a long nap instead of a short one, we ended up having our dinner at Tonghua Night Market and skipped Taipei 101.

Taipei 101 night view

Tonghua Night Market

Street night market is very famous in Taiwan with range of food and local snacks. We walked for 20 minutes before reaching Tonghua Night Market. Tonghua Night Market also known as Linjiang Street Night Market is a medium-sized night market. First food stall that we saw was Taiwan sausages. There's variety of flavours and we ordered Taiwan sausage with honey. Just OK for my taste since I'm not a sausage lover.

Taiwan sausages

Variety of flavours

Taiwan sausage with honey - NT$ 40

Next, we saw roast beef stall and ordered roasted beef with Rose salt. Cooked medium well, it was slightly salty at first bite. Beef was bouncy embedded with tendon and fats. You can choose your beef seasoning - roasted beef with Rose salt, chili powder, ground black pepper sauce, Italian seasoning, Teriyaki sauce or cumin powder.

Roast beef stall

Roast beef stall

Roasted beef with Rose salt - NT$ 100

Then, we saw this chicken skewers stall and ordered 3 sticks for NT$ 100. We choose pepper, wasabi and cheese flavour. I prefer wasabi flavour because it will slowly sneaking up on you and gives you the flavour kick that you're looking for.

Chicken skewers stall

Chicken skewers

Chicken skewers - pepper, wasabi and cheese flavour - NT$ 100

Not far from chicken skewer stall, we saw this stall selling peanut roll with ice cream. This dessert consists of 3 scoops of ice cream, peanut candy shavings and coriander wrapped with "popiah" skin (a thin wrapper skin for Chinese spring rolls) Since both of us not a big fan of coriander, we requested the owner not to include it during preparation. Something unique and we quite enjoyed it. Nice combination even though ice cream texture was coarse and icy.

Peanut roll with ice cream - NT$ 45

Peanut roll with ice cream

My partner is a big fan of Taiwan sausages and he bought another stick from a different stall. Sausage sauces were displayed in front of the stall and you can add your own sauce - wasabi sauce, spicy sauce, garlic sauce or sour sauce.

Taiwan sausage - NT$ 35

Taiwan sausages

Next, we saw this shop selling fried chicken and we ordered 1 piece of spicy fried chicken. Besides fried chicken, they do sell French fries, sweet potato fries and sweet potato balls. Queue up, pay at the counter, get your number and wait for your number to be called. The fried chicken breast was big! It was crispy, tender and slightly spicy. We couldn't finish the whole piece and at one point we were repulsed by it.

Monga fried chicken

Monga fried chicken (spicy flavour) - NT$ 65

Then, there's this stall selling varieties of fruits and we bought guavas. Both green and red types. It's sweet, crunchy and refreshing. Finally we saw milk tea stall and bought our favourite combination of milk tea with grass jelly. It was good and most importantly not too sweet. We end the night with my favourite sugar coated fruit stick. Perfect combination of cherry tomato and prunes.

Note: NT$ 1 = RM 0.1460

Fruits stall

Milk tea with grass jelly - NT$ 55

Sugar coated fruit stick

Cheery tomatoes dipped with sugar coating and prunes - NT$ 30

Address:

Tonghua Night Market

Alley 1, Lane 40,

Linjiang St, Daan District,

Taipei City, Taiwan 106

Opening hours: 5pm onwards (daily)