Staying overnight at 宜蘭 Yilan county was almost a last resort, as we had initially thought of going 台東 Taitung during this trip. But we had started planning too late, and as information about 台東 Taitung was not as readily available as 台北 Taipei, we ended up deciding to just stay in 台北 Taipei. We were unable to get lodging at CityInn Hotel for Saturday, and that was when we decided on an overnight trip to 宜蘭 Yilan.
There are 3 main train stations in 宜蘭 Yilan, namely, 礁溪 Jiaoxi, 宜蘭 Yilan, and 羅東 Luodong. We had thought of going to 礁溪 Jiaoxi to see the famous 五峰旗 Wufengqi Waterfall, but clumsy me sprained my back while attempting to reach out for a pack of vegetables couple of weeks before the trip, plus the weather might be too cold for hot spring, so we figured that it was probably not much point staying at 礁溪 Jiaoxi. There appeared to be much more things to do near 宜蘭 Yilan Station, but we ended up choosing to stay at 羅東 Ludong, as we knew we would be ending our night at a night market, and 羅東夜市 Ludong Night Market is reputed to be one of the more famous ones. 🙂
We were all hanging around at the dining area of the minsu and the Taiwanese couple shared that they had a lovely Teppanyaki dinner nearby, which they had made reservations 2 months in advance!
We woke up bright and early to grab breakfast before going to the 台北轉運站 Taipei Bus Station to buy tickets for our bus ride to 宜蘭 Yilan. The bus frequency was very regular, and there were additional buses during peak hours, so we were happy to just hang around at the waiting area. We were pleasantly surprised to find the 台北轉運站 Taipei Bus Station to be very clean, and everything was very orderly, as compared to the previous time when we took the bus from Taichung to Taoyuan Airport. At the 葛瑪蘭客運 Kamalan Bus waiting area, there was even a staff offering drinks and biscuits for free to waiting passengers. Wow! We were very impressed 🙂
We have not been to 士林夜市 Shilin Night Market ever since we first visited Taiwan in 2009, so we thought why not revisit it since it was renovated some years back.
After a 
We didn’t join the queue because we were still very full from the big lunch earlier on, so we just walked on to other parts of the market. After a few turns (and a visit to the washroom), our stomachs were sufficiently emptied to share a piece of biscuit!
XY highly recommended this place and we 
We woke up late this morning (we wanted to sleep till we wake up naturally 睡到自然醒) and naturally skipped breakfast because we intended to go for a big Japanese feast early!
Our first night in Taipei in 2016, and we decided to visit this little local night market (because this was one of two night markets in Taipei that we have not yet been to)!
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 