Day 1 - 28th May 2012 - Taipei

Our original 8 day Taiwan itinerary:

Day 1 – 28 May Monday
Free and easy
Underground shopping mall

Day 2 - 29 May Tuesday

野柳风景区 (Ye Liu National Park -Coastal)
九份
金瓜石
Yonghe night market (near Dingxi station) 

Day 3 - 30 May Wednesday
Baby Boss – start at 10am
Ximenting shopping
Zhongxiao Xinsheng station, sogo

Day 4 – 31 May Thursday (Hualien)

Cycling trip around the town

Day 5 -  1June Friday (Hualien)

Taroko Gorge National Park

Chinshingtan beach

Day 6 – 2 June Saturday (Reach Taipei at 12.03pm)

Zhongxiao Xinsheng station shopping Or Ximenting shopping

Ding Tai Fung lunch or Shinyeh http://www.shinyeh.com.tw

Day 7 – 3 June Sunday
Take rail ride from Taipei train station (Opposite Say Love Hotel) to Rueifang Station (one-way ticket) 45min ride (hourly frequency)
Buy 1-day ticket and transfer to branch line (PingXi Branch Rail Line)
Stop at Shifen station
o    Shifen waterfall
o    Jing An suspension bridge
o    Shifen’s old street (sky lantern)
To ximenting for dinner + shopping
 
Day 8 – 4 June Monday
Danshui Old Street (淡水老街)
Beitou
shopping look-see at Taipei 101

shopping Mitsukoushi (新光三越) - near 101
绕河夜市 Raohe Night Market

We managed to get a fairly good deal from Cathay Pacific airline to fly to TW for abt $2k round trip (for 2 adults + 2 children) from SG to HK to TW and TW to HK to SG (which includes a stopover at HK on our return flight). Although it takes a longer time from SG to reach TW, but the stopover at HK airport was good for our young ones as they have some room space to run around after a 3+ hr flight before continuing with another 1.5hr flight to TW.

Our total baggage weighs 29.4kg - let's see what we'll come back with at the end of the trip

Caden was excited with the in-flight entertainment

I was hoping that Ethan could nap during the first leg of the flight so that I can watch my movie in peace

Transit at HK airport - the wait wasn't too long

Once we reached Taipei Taoyuan airport, we took an airport shuttle to bring us to our hotel (New Stay Inn - only available for booking at Agoda) or rather B&B inn located at Taipei Main station.

It cost us about NTD 315 for the airport shuttle to Taipei main station

KuoKuang was the bus company that we took

The hotel was not too bad, what I like was the King+queen sized beds provided in the family room. What was not provided - cupboard, dressing table, full length mirror. Else, the hotel was good given that we only paid abt SGD139 per night.

As we rested in the room till about 6pm, we head towards dinner near our hotel around Taipei Main station at Tomogo Yo (Japanese Western cuisine) - it wasn't crowded but the food was not bad. We realised that it was not so crowded later in our trio because, given the price tag of S$44 for dinner in Taipei for a family, it's considered paying a premium.

Grilled fish with pasta

the salad was good

This is what Ethan has ordered - cream pasta with crab meat (turned out quite fishy)

the boys were delighted with the cold drinks served

As it was just our first night in Taipei, we decided to take a leisure shopping at Mitsukoushi which is near our hotel. There wasn't much stuff for mummy to buy but the boys had a good time playing with the toys in their toys dept.