Here is a video we made about our final night in Taipei Taiwan, and leaving Taiwan

On our final evening in Taipei Taiwan we decided to check out Shilin night market. We took the metro to Jiantan station, and walked a short distance to the market ( you can get off at Shilin station as well).

We wandered around the stalls and had some delicious mushrooms. We also finished buying some souvenirs for family and friends. Shilin is predominately a food market, but you will find lots of clothing shops as well, scattered amongst the food stalls.

After we had had our night market fill, we headed back to the station, for our final trip to our “home” station of Taipei Zoo. We walked the long hour hike up the hill from the station to our accommodation, stopping along the way to eat at the 711, a staple in Taiwan.

We had a beer back at our airbnb and packed, while checking into our flight home ( which was tricky because Air Canada had booked part of our flight with Cathay Pacific).

The next morning we woke up at 6am to eat all of our leftover food (eggs, bread, cheese) before leaving the airbnb for the final time.

We left the airbnb at 6:50am to try and grab a bus down the hill (to save the hour hike). The bus was a bit late, but we successfully took it to the metro for the first time on this trip (from our accommodation in the hills). It was nice to not have to hike the hill with our backpacks.

We then took the metro to Taipei main station where we transferred to the Airport Express. The man at the gate to the train topped up our metro card the exact amount we needed to get to the airport, with zero left on our easy cards!

We got to the airport and had no problem printing our boarding passes and getting through security. We ate some food and had a beer in the hall (we got kicked out of the airport cafe seating for no understandable reason even though we had purchased our food and beverage there.)

Afterwards we walked the halls, visiting the iconic Hello Kitty gate, and the other themed boarding gates. Our flight was a little late, which scared me because our last layover was in Hong Kong and it was super brief! It all worked out ok though. We were a bit worried because there had been protests at the airport in Hong Kong (little did we know that in 3 months time we’d be back in Hong Kong, terrified of COVID.)

The guy sitting beside me on the flight didn’t understand personal space and kept elbowing me hard, falling asleep on my and spilling his food EVERYWHERE, that was when he was awake… which was never. So it was impossible to sleep or pee for the duration of the 14 hour flight. BUT we made it home…. and oooooh what I would do to be on the worst flight right now.

If you’d like to watch the whole series in Taiwan: