Since this trip entailed staying in Taipei throughout our six days in the city, there was not much planning left to do after booking our air tickets and confirming our accomodation some 2 months before the trip. But being familiar with the city meant that we grew complacent at times. The classic example was not buying our tickets to Luodong, Yilan the day before travelling. We had to shell out the trip at the eleventh hour.

Before we left for Taipei, we headed to the Taiwan Visitors Association @ Chevron House to obtain some travel literature as well as redeeming a pair of bus tickets that allowed us to travel between the airport and the city centre for free.........

16 August 2012 (Day 1)

Jetstar had remained one of my prefered airlines to fly into the city of Taipei given its convenient timings and affordable fares. We chose the 7.10am departure from Singapore. This allowed us to land in Taipei before noon.

2pm - We arrived at City Inn Taipei Station Branch III after taking the complimentary bus from the airport. We had read rave reviews of the hotel in tripadvisor.com and were totally blown away by the whole experience. Every visitor should stay here for once I supposed.

5pm - Zhongxiao East Road (Zhongxiao Fuxing & Zhongxiao Dunhua Metro Stations)
7pm - Dinner at Du Xiao Yue (so-so) and shopping at Uniqlo Flagship store @ Mingyao Departmental Store (the store is really big).

17th August 2012 (Day 2)

Rainy weather meant that we had to spend most of our time indoors.
Movie at Q Square Cineplex (Metro Taipei Main Station) followed by shopping at Taipei Underground Mall.
Gong Guan Night Market to round up the day (Gong Guan Metro Station).

18th August 2012 (Day 3)

Day trip to Neiwan Old Streets and Hsinchu City. The train journey was half the fun. (TRA Train from Taipei to Hsinchu followed by Liujia & Neiwan Branch Line).
Spent the rest of the evening at Ximending in search of Ah Zhong Mian Xian. Thought it had closed down until I read a fellow blogger talked about it. (Ximen Metro Station).

19th August 2012 (Day 4)

Side trip to Taipei Zoo to view the two pandas followed by a visit to Shenkeng Toufu Streets (Bus # 666 from Taipei Zoo).
Photshoot at Taipei 101 and Taipei City Hall.
Dinner @ Ningxia Night Market (15 minutes north of Taipei Main Station).

20th August 2012 (Day 5)

Observatory @ New Taipei City Hall (Free Admission - Banqiao Metro Station)
Longshan Temple & Bo Pi Liao Historical District (Longshan Temple Metro Station)
Sunset @ Danshui Old Streets (Danshui Metro Station)

21st August 2012 (Day 6)

We took the 4.40pm Jetstar flight back home and was able to reach Singapore by 9.30pm. It was time for me to go back to work the following day even though I was still quite tired from the whole trip. However tired, I was glad that I was able to take sometime off from work for this trip.