台北の旅 2007 - Day 1
10月21日 - 我真的到台北西门町了！

had a harrowing journey to Taipei bcos i wanted to save money by not taking the direct limo bus from Sannomiya. instead, i took the Hankyuu train from Daikai to Umeda, then took the JR train from Osaka to Kansai Airport. took mi about 3 hours in total, cos i was searching for discount ticket shop too. checked in at about 7pm, and got picked for some random check by the airline. boarded the plane at about 7.45pm, but it got delayed and took off at like only 8.30pm. plane food and service was ok... but seat was really squeezy. and there wasn't a personal TV in the economical class. watched some program about the new Ipod on the big screen in front.


finally landed in Taoyuan airport at 10pm. suddenly, everything around mi was in Chinese. kinda familiar yet strange. spent some time to orientate myself and locate the bus to go to Taipei Station. the ride was about 1 hr. reached Taipei station and rushed for the last metro train towards Ximen. the metro train reminded mi so much of Singapore's MRT, but the ticket machine is similar to the one in Pusan.


it was only 1 stop to Ximen from Taipei station. asked the station master for directions to my hostel. then left the station from exit 6 and was greeted immediately by Taipei's version of Shibuya - Xi Men Ding! "yeah~ i'm finally here!" i thought. the place where i had always seen on TV and always wanted to come! but it was already about 12am so everything was quiet. (btw, there was actually a Rainie's autograph session in Xi Men Ding earlier that afternoon! also a Jolin's concert in Danshui earlier that night! i felt so gek about missing these 2 events by just a few hours! if i had known earlier, i definitely wouldn't mind forking out more money to take the afternoon flight! so so unlucky~)


tried to find my way to the hostel but i only had their address. decided to ask a peh-peh and he turned out to be very kind! he wasn't sure of the place too but he searched together with mi. as we passed by 7-11, he even offered to buy mi a drink but i politely rejected. soon we found the hostel, located up a narrow flight of stairs. the peh-peh seemed a bit doubtful that this place is actually a "hotel" for travellers. but i assured him that it was the correct place.


stepped into the hostel reception area and was welcomed by 2 friendly ladies who had been waiting for my arrival. there was also a bunch of girls hanging out in the corridor, who were all Singaporeans! apparently, including me, there were a total of 6 Singaporean girls that night. anyway, they couldn't find the key to the 6-bed room i had reserved, and seeing that it was already so late, they let mi have a private 2-bed room instead! so lucky~ i needed some privacy to sort out my stuffs too. went to take a bath and then to the kitchen where the other Singaporean girls and the 3 Taiwanese ladies who run the hostel were having a tea session. i joined in and talked a little with them. was too tired so i didn't really want to stay too long. but managed to get some information about where to go shopping the next day.


went back to my room, looked through the maps i've collected from the airport, planned my itinerary for the next day and finally went to bed at about 3am. first impression of Taipei so far - Taiwanese people are really nice! the language and culture were so familiar... i felt as if i were home! =)