Day 1: Shilin Night Market, Taipei

18 April 2018 (Wednesday)

I went to Taiwan with the objective, among others, of savouring Taiwanese street food. Chief among the food streets was the famous Shilin Night Market, the biggest in Taiwan.

Having not eaten anything since this morning, and with the Fuyuan Pepper Bun stall (N25.05020° E121.51558°) closed, I was famished for food.

Before coming here, I had been reading from blogs and watching Youtube videos on how to get here. I knew that the MRT station to alight at was MRT Jiantan station and that there was a large underground food court in Shilin. Shiilin was a large place but there was no clear direction on how to get to the food court on foot from MRT Jiantan station. I hope the photos and map on this page would help readers who are in the same situation as I was.

At MRT Jiantan station, take Exit 1. Outside at the entrance, you would see lots of people on the street to your right. People would be walking to the right to an intersection, where you would see more people waiting for the traffic light to turn green for pedestrian to cross over. Once you are across the road, you could either take Wenlin Road or Jihe Road. Shilin food court is along Jihe Road.

Day 1: Collecting my Tze-Chiang Train Tickets & Getting the MRT EasyCard

18 April 2018 (Wednesday)

After checking into Chia Rong Hostel, I went out in search of Fuyuan Pepper Bun for my very late lunch, or rather, early dinner. Unfortunately, it was closed.

It was already 5:15 p.m. and getting late. So instead of looking for an alternative late lunch/ early dinner, I decided to go back to Taipei Main Station to collect my Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) return train tickets to Hualien and later to buy the MRT EasyCard (Youyou Card).

Upon re-reading the pick up form again on my return to PNG, I realised that the TRA Info officer had advised me correctly by pointing me to the TRA Station Ticket Counter to collect my return tickets

After getting my TRA return tickets to Hualien, I went to explore the station. This was to familiarise myself with the layout of the station. I would depart for Hualien at 9:00 a.m. local time the next morning.

I did not see any counter selling the Easycard at Taipei Main Station main hall earlier. I was thinking of searching for the MRT station but having been lost in the station labyrinth of corridors earlier, I did not want to waste my time looking for the MRT station. I decided to take the easier option of buying EasyCard from 7-11 close to Chia Rong Hostel.