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This is Taiwan (the one) for me! The first international trip for me, that is. As well as international mistakes I did.

That’s what I first thought when I have successfully booked my trip to Taiwan. I’m bound for more travel mistakes and this time, it’s outside my homeland. Geez.

If this is your first time travelling to Taiwan, then you should check out my Pre-Taiwan checklist for the not-so-smart travellers.

And without further ado, let’s get to Day 1!

We arrived at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and went through all the baggage checking, immigration booth (a nervous moment for me -- sucks to be a first-timer) and passport checking and all other booths you need to get through.

Once we got our luggage, we claimed the EasyCard and portable WiFi we booked beforehand. We then went straight to the Bank of Taiwan located just by the departure gate before you get into the MRTs. Trust me, the money exchange there is cheaper compared to those in the malls where they ask for TWD 100 fee. No thank you.

We got lost.

We circled the city through a bus. I’m talking about taking the entire ROUNDTRIP route of the bus. That was already our city tour, actually. We were new to the mobile app and the signs on the bus. People we asked didn’t understand English. The driver couldn’t understand English, so we had Google Translate to speak for us.

We ended up getting off a few meters from where we rode the bus. From there, we decided to walk. Remember I mentioned how important it was to have your power banks juiced up? Yeah, my battery died while we were still finding the place.

Hungry…

If you are a Cebuano, then I gotta say we finally arrived in the “Colon Street” of Taipei -- except that it was super different.

They have fancy shops and gyms. They have milk tea everywhere. Very clean street food. Garbage trucks with adorable music alarms. Everything was good and exciting but we were HUNGRY. And it was a sight for sore eyes when we finally saw KFC.

After our late lunch, we walked a bit more until we finally found our hostel. We were so happy to see 7 Eleven and MiniStop stores nearby. Perfect for midnight snacks. We quickly changed and got ready for our first stop...

Taipei 101

We booked our e-ticket at Taipei 101 Observatory via Klook which only cost Php 506. I didn’t know it before but that was when I found out it was one of the FASTEST elevators in the world -- reaching the 91st floor in less than 20 seconds.

Insert Not-so-Tanga Tip

Make sure to visit Taipei 101 in the late afternoon. With its 360-degree view, you can get a glimpse of the beautiful sunset city view. Better find that perfect spot and indulge yourself with the breathtaking view. It’s also an ideal spot for Instagrammable photos and time-lapse videos.

Ever wondered what kept this really tall tower from standing? It’s because of this huge ball!

It was said to “stabilize” the entire tower and kept it standing despite the wind, pressure, earthquakes and all that. I didn’t read much into it. I got bored. LOL.

Shilin Night Market

We got hungry and what better way to spend the first night of your Taiwan experience than in the ever famous Shilin Night Market.

There were a lot of stalls lined up and we were really confused. It was rainy. We wanted soup. So we chose this:

If you are from the Philippines and you know what Tuslob Buwa is, this one was like a soup version of it. Delicious at first but we gave up after the 8th bite. (This was also the part my friend’s tummy got all upset.)

So we went to the market to find some good fried food. But instead, we got distracted with the fun stuff in there:

Shilin Night Market is the PERFECT place to buy souvenirs. They got chocolates, fruit cakes, key chains, magnets, bags, stickers at an affordable price… They even got this! 👇 😳

After all that fun, we went back to the hostel but first…

7 Eleven

Milk tea is like water here…

Tanga Moment

I spoke a 3-sentence question to the cashier at 7 Eleven. And you guessed it! He had NO IDEA what I was talking about. My battery was all drained so, of course, I had to “act” what I was saying. I looked really stupid but we had a really good time guessing each other that we ended up laughing with the cashier dude. Again, phone power is IMPORTANT.

You can also check out my other Taiwan blogs...

Pre-Taiwan Checklist: The Tanga Travel Guide

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