My graduation trip was travel to Taiwan with my coursemates. Before we travel, we had booked our ticket on 11 August 2010 at Airasia website during promotion period. The flight fare for 4 persons from Kota Kinabalu > Terminal 2, Taoyuan (Taipei) > Kota Kinabalu was RM1652. After made the booked, we started survey, searched and planned where we should visit in Taiwan. We also booked the homestay and hotel earlier. We arrived one day earlier at Kota Kinabalu and stayed at Zing Yi’s brother apartment as we took flight early on 19 May 2011 to Taiwan.

Remember: If you are visiting Taiwan soon, just print out your flight itinerary and sent it to below address and you can redeem a limited edition of EasyCard (悠游卡) with NT$50 value inside the card. I would recommend using this card when travel in Taipei as there is some small discount on the transportation fairs.

Taiwan Visitors Association, Kuala Lumpur Office

Address： WISMA GOLDHILL Suite 25-01, Level 25, Wisma Goldhill, 67 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Tel： +60-3-2070-6789

Fax： +60-3-2072-3559

E-mail： tva@streamyx.com

Website： http://www.welcome2taiwan.net/

Photo captured at Kota Kinabalu Intenational Airport (T2)

View from the flight before departure.

Preparing to take off

View from the flight just after take off.

Kota Kinabalu Mountain

We had booked our food online. It’s more cheaper than buying in the flight.

LHS: AA Asian Fried Rice Combo / Middle: Vegetarian Rice Combo (Poor Choice) / RHS: AA Chicken Rice Combo (Best Choice)

It took us 3 hours 20 minutes to reach Taiwan. Flight duration is shorter than from Kuala Lumpur. We took normal aircraft therefore we can't watching movies, listening music, palying games or chatting. Big aircraft like Boeing 727 only available at LCCT.

It was fun and excited when we about to land in Terminal 2, Taoyuan International Airport.

Successful landing

View from the flight after landing

Reached at Tao Yuan International Airport (台湾桃园国际机场) Terminal 2 around 9.30am. I can feel it getting cold here.

After that, we were going to apply the Youth Travel Card (青年旅遊卡) at Tao Yuan International Airport Terminal 2 for FREE, as long as you are within 15-30 years old. It provides discount and special offers on admission tickets, transportation, accommodation and culinary delicacies for free and easy traveler like us.

We also applied the Digital Tour Buddy 寶貝機 but only received with NT$100 phone credit value on it. Because of the peak period, we were unable to receive Digital Tour Buddy (寶貝機). This promotion started March 2010 and we applied 3 weeks before our trip. We need to return the phone back when we left Taiwan.

On way to buy bus ticket, we can see this welcoming board [Welcome to Taiwan]

Took a photo..haha… Eeh..why become 8 people??.. Ooo..The others 4 is Sie Ting's friends. We have meet them before in Senai INTL Airport last night (18/05/2011), they were same flight with us from Johor Bahru to Kota Kinabalu and to Taiwan.

Photo captured at Taoyuan airport

We took 10.35 am Ubus (統聯客運) from 桃園機場二 to 台北六 and changed bus to 高雄车站. Ticket prices was NT$40 per person (桃園機場二to台北六) and NT$420 per person (台北六to 高雄车站).

Ticket prices from 桃園機場二 to 台北六

Took a photo at bus stop of 桃園機場二

LHS: Button use to increase volume and change channel of television located in every seat in bus. RHS: Small televisions can be seem everywhere in bus, very advanced.

Starting point of highway

Reached 台北六 bus station

Our lunch: Fried mee and Fried mihun. Different taste compare to Malaysia, hmm…hard to explain the taste. The sauce was sweet.

Preparing to go Kaohsiung

Along the way to Kaohsiung, rain water harvesting tank was installed in every building.

Taiwan city view from bus

Mostly Taiwan motorbikes are scooter called 鸡车.

Toll station of Taiwan

Kaohsiung city

We arrived Kaohsiung at about 4.30pm and checked in 舜鈺商務旅館 which is near to Kaohsiung Main Station (高雄车站). The room has “wooden” odor but still acceptable. One of my friends biked by insect cause her “redness” at her shoulder. Fortunately, she is fine. It was quite cheap and cost us NT$1480 per night for 4 persons.

The time showed 5pm after checked in and put the luggage at hotel. We spent about 5 minute walked to MRT station and headed to Sizihwan (西子湾) by Kaohsiung Metro (orange line) MRT.

Kaohsiung Metro

Token can be used in Kaohsiung Metro instead of easy card.

A man saw the map (Sizihwan: Exit 1)

Map of Sizihwan area

Building on the way to Sizihwan

西子湾隧道

LHS: Sizihwan “tunnel” / Middle: Long “tunnel” across the hill / RHS: In the middle of “tunnel”

Remember to rent a bicycle before across this “tunnel” as you will regret if you walked through it.

国立中山大学

国立中山大学, it’s located just after we crossed the “tunnel”.

“Chocolate building” is 国立中山大学

打狗英國領事館官邸

Next, we headed to 打狗英國領事館官邸. Along the way, we can see the beautiful scene at Sizihwan as shown below:

夕阳的男人女人!!!

Sunset at Sizihwan^^

打狗英國領事館官邸

City of Kaohsiung

海之冰

After we have a long walked at Sizihwan, we felt thirsty and decided to eat Sizihwan famous “ 大碗水果冰” before headed to 情人桥，Ruifeng Night Market (瑞丰夜市) and Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市). It's located 2 minutes drive from 打狗英國領事館官邸 by taxi.

“海之冰” shop

“海之冰” shop sold hundred types of mixed fruit ice blended. Type of mixed fruit ice blended can be divided into small, normal and big bowl. We just order two normal bowls of mixed fruit blended ice and it can be considered big bowl for us but I forget the name of mixed fruit ice blended we had order. It was consists of mango, banana, watermelon, honeydrew, guava, coconut, strawberry, pineapple, peanut, 珍珠 and etc.

Hmm…yummy^^

Wow!!! Everyone can leave a message here.

We wrote our name and “THE E18HTEEN” on the wall.

情人桥

On the way back to Sizihwan MRT, we saw a big“停” on the road.

瑞豐夜市

Next, we headed to RuiFeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市), the largest night market at Kaohsiung. We took the Kaohsiung Arena MRT (巨蛋站) to the night market. Taiwan night markets are far more different from Malaysian night market. I expected Taiwan night market is very big before I went to Taiwan but to me, it was not as big as I expected. Haha…

Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市)

六合夜市

After that, we headed to Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市), another night market at Kaohsiung. We took the Kaohsiung Formosa Boulevard MRT (美麗島站) to the night market.