Taipei 101, 26 Dec 2006

After we had our breakfast which was being served from 7.30am to 8.30am, we head out to Taipei 101, the 1st destination on our itinerary. The moment we stepped out of the hotel lobby, we were nearly knocked off our feet by a gush of freezing cold wind. Poor me, I did not have a windbreaker, just a normal worn-out sweater from Giodano, my face nearly got frozen. Haha.. But I guess it was better than having a heavy down pour, while will mess up our itinerary.

So after getting directions from the hotel front desk, we took a 2 minutes walk to Jian Tan MRT station. We had a difficult time adjusting to the way the Taipei people refer to the different modes of transportation. For the MRT, they called it Jie Yun (捷運) but we sometimes say MRT and they can still understand it. Haha... Because if we say Di Tie (鐵路), which we singporeans think is no different from MRT, since both are trains, but to the Taipei people Di Tie refers to the Railway trains. Very different, as the railway trains cater mostly to the areas outside of Taipei, the suburban areas. Whereas, the MRT network is only for inside Taipei area.

For buses, there are 2 types: the normal ones is referred to Ke Yun, the other one will be referred to Gong Che (公車). I think the difference is the company that owns the bus, I have no idea since I didn't really ask.

Anyway, we alighted at City Hall MRT (wow, they even have the same MRT station name as we do :p) then we took a shuttle bus to Taipei 101. The shuttle bus stop is just outside of the MRT exit, there are signs that will lead you around and many of these signs have english words on them too.

Upon our arrival at Taipei 101, we took the lift to the 5th floor to purchase the admission ticket, which costs 350 NT for adults. From the observatory tower, we had a clear view of the whole city including the Ji Long river and the mountain ranges on the outskirt of the city.