Taiwan Day 1: SIN to Kaohsiung,

Day 1: SIN > Taoyuan Airport > Kaohsiung

"I'm flying to Taiwan again!!" This time with a different traveller with me. No special feeling. Not even on the day when I was flying. It only hit me that I'll be going to Taiwan just when I arrived at the airport. Hahah!

Bro and I were flying on the same day and the both of us had been "arguing" for ages who take which luggage with us. Hahahah! Of cus being the youngest kid in the family, I decided that I'll take the prettier one and Bro had no choice but to give in. But tbh, it's always good to take a luggage that can be expanded if you're going for a trip for more than 5 days. This luggage that I took with my burst when I was in Korea. Me being stubborn and lesson not learnt... I chose this luggage in hope that the zip won't spoil on me again.

Parents sent us to the airport that night but they didn't stay for long this time. It was a drop-off-goodbye-and-go kind of thing. My snapchat-spam started that night till the end of my trip. It was literally spam this, spam that, everything also spam! Hahah! Sorry not sorry /Gags/

Anyway, we flew with Scoot again. I think we were the only two who ordered meals and felt kinda guilty for disturbing others with the smell of our food.


Lesson learnt: never order any food when you're travelling at an unearthly hour because you won't have the appetite to eat at all. All you wna do was to slp till you reach your destination.

We landed at Taoyuan Intl Airport at about 5plus in the morning. Bought our tickets of UBus (NT $30 each) to Taoyuan HSR Station for the train to Zuoying, Kaohsiung. There's some hiccups in between because the one that Baby purchased online was at Taipei HSR but we went to Taoyuan HSR instead. Luckily, we were told that we could still continue and get our money refunded. It's cheaper to travel from Taoyuan, instead of Taipei, to Zuoying.

If nothing goes wrong, we could actually use these machines to retrieve our tickets. But...

From Zuoying > Martial Arts Stadium Station

We got lost while searching for our hotel. Ended up that it's just one street across the station -__- As the room wasn't ready yet, we were told to go for our lunch and to head back to the hotel in 2hrs' time. Left our luggage there and headed to Cultural Center Station as it was recommended by the receptionist.

Had our lunch at Vasir. It was picked randomly by the both of us as the restaurant was quite crowded and we thought "crowded means nice, so why not?" This restaurant serves dishes like our tzi char in Singapore. Nubad!

We ordered 双人套餐 that comes with 2 bowls of 卤肉饭, one vege, one dish that costs between NT $120-130, omelette, soup / 2 beverages of your choice. So, we chose these...

卤肉饭

Omelette with caipor

No idea what's this

Cabbage & seaweed soup (instead of beverages)

And guess what! You can nvr get this kind of price in Singapore. Other than the cabbage, the rest were rlly good! And it costs only NT $329 which is approx SGD15 for 2pax. WOW! Cheap pls! Back to our hotel because the weather was killing. The sun was scorching hot!

Yknw that feeling when you're finally on bed after a long day in the hot weather! Took our power naps, got up and prepared for our night activities! 

Dream Mall was the first destination but tbh, I think there's nothing much you can do there other than buying the waffles and other finger food. The ferris wheel at the rooftop arcade area was like... Nothing beautiful. The one I wanted was in Taipei :( I realised it only after I was back from my trip. Heartbroken max! 

Anyway, we still went ahead to Dream Mall 夢時代購物購物中心 @ Kaisyuan Station because we're tourists! Took the shuttle bus just outside of the station (Exit 3) to the mall.

 

Next stop: Ruifeng Night Market 瑞豐夜市

Fishball-alike food

Fried cheese cubes

Quail eggs which I thought it's nice!!

Next stop: Love River 爱河

There. Is. Nothing. Period. Maybe, just this and a bit of wefie. That's all. 

Bad lighting anyway...

Walked to Liuhe Night Market  六合夜市 and we got lost for awhile. Hahahah!! But we still managed to find our way to the night market! It's always good to have someone who knws how to read the map! 

Green bean soup which has super hard beans :/

大肠包小肠

Back to our hotel to have an early rest because we were too tired. Started our day at 10pm the previous night and we hadn't had any good rest yet. But before that, I forced Baby to have eye masks with me. HAHAHAH!

This concludes the end of Day 1 in Taiwan! All the fattening food with lots of oil accumulating in our tummies... Hahahah! 

Places we didn't cover in Kaohsiung:
- Hanshin Ju Dan Shopping Mall
- The Dome of Light (This happened because we were rushing for our last train and we had totally forgotten about this before that)
- Anning Street (wholesale market)

Goodbye!

Accommodations for 11D10N Taiwan Trip,

Accommodations are one of the most important things when we travel overseas. I'm quite particular about the rooms I live in when I travel abroad. I look for 3Cs when it comes to this: cleanliness, comfortable level and convenience... HAHAH!!

Listed below are the accommodations for Taiwan:

#1 Kaohsiung (2D1N) - Just Sleep Kaohsiung 捷絲旅高雄中正館

Total: SGD 226.56

For this, we booked a superior double room that comes with a small balcony (a place that we didn't get to enjoy hahah!). Anyway, I was filled with anticipation when we were at the lobby to check in to our room because the reception area is so pretty that you'll wonder how your room looks like!

LOL! I totally forgot to take a shot of the lobby with my camera. The only shot I have with me now is the one that I took via Snapchat :/ At the left of this image is the entrance of the hotel, while to the right is the hotel restaurant where you get your complimentary breakfast at!

Please pardon the following photos because we were in a rush (while the man was preparing) and I just anyhow snapped the room that we stayed for 3D2N. HAHAH!

 

That's the main door. The sliding door on the left, beside the tv, is the bathroom. Literally bathroom! Because there's no toilet bowl for you to pee/poo. Not that they don't have. They separate these to two different rooms. The area behind hangers is the toilet with toilet bowl where you can pee and poo. It's a rlly small area and you have to be super careful when you're exiting that constraint place. 

We didn't get to use that bathtub too

Shower area

The messy basin area

No photos of the toilet with toilet bowl. Overall, both Baby and I were very pleased with the room. We were like, "wow!! I like!" once we unlocked the door of our room! It's so clean and it's just a 4mins walk to the nearest station. All you gotta do is just, cross one road (traffic light!!) and the station is just a few metres ahead!

#2 Cingjing/Nantou (2D1N) - Starry House 清境觀星園景觀山莊

Total: SGD 128

This was recommended by my Bro. He went Taiwan with his friends back in 2013 and they stayed in this minsu. Nubbad! I quite like it too! Just that the toilet has many flies that are attracted to the lights. But, what can you expect? It's a minsu for a reason. Furthermore, Starry House is located at the top of Cingjing and people who stay in this minsu get the best view of Cingjing!

LOL! Quite fail. I didn't take any shots of the room but according to the staff there, we got the room that has the best view with sunrise. Not sure if the video will work here but I'll still upload anyway. This is the only video that I took of my room using Snapchat (again). This shows how often I used Snapchat while I was travelling!

The minsu has a very friendly husky!!! Baby's weakness because it's his favourite breed but..... He's very strongly against having a dog at home in future because of my condition despite me wanting to have one!!

I'll recommend this minsu even though the way up to this place is a bit dangerous and thrilling. But it's rlly worth it as breakfast and dinner are both provided by the staffs there and alrdy included in the total of the stay! #3 Taichung (3D2N) - New York Double Room Fengjia 台中逢甲 Total: SGD80 This is an apt from Airbnb. We decided to go for at least one Airbnb stay in Taiwan. Searched for the apt and the ones in Taichung are rlly cheap judging by the fact that it's only $80 for 2 nights. It's rlly convenient because you'll reach Fengjia night market just 4-5mins walk out of the alley from the apt. The host was nice enough to meet up with us to lead us into our room. In Korea, they don't. They just put the key/card in the letterbox and you gotta find your way to the apt yourself. Initially, we thought it was super far because we had to walk one long stretch of alley into the apt. And that was when we were lugging our luggage as well. That instant regret... But (!!), everything was good after we settled down and we thought it was okay as we walked the alley for the 2nd time. Humans are always judging from first impression. HAHAH! I had only 2 unhappy stuff about this apt: 1. It has no windows at all (not incl. of the one in the toilet because the door is always closed). It's not rlly a good thing having no windows in the room because you'll think that it's stll dark out there and you tend to overslp. That's what happened to us for the following 2 days in Taichung. We started our days late because of this despite switching on the toilet light throughout the night. But no!! We didn't know that there's no windows in the first place. Sigh pie! 2. The shower head is just above the basin. How are we supposed to stand below the shower head to bathe without the need to hold it? I don't have the habit of holding the shower head because I find that it's troublesome and it has the holder for a reason. But anyway, for that 2 days 2 nights, I had no choice but to do it manually because I didn't want our stuffs to be wet. But the man just had to put it there and everything was wet after his bath! #WHUT?! I agreed with Baby that this apt is more for backpackers and not for the fussy ones :/

#4 Taipei (6D5N) - Westgate Hotel 永安棧 Total: SGD 768.40 (incl. of VAT)

From what I knw, this is the best hotel in Ximen. Even the cabbie whom we booked told us this too! Initally, when we were planning which hotel to book in Taipei, I chanced upon this hotel and it looks so pretty!  It's like, the washing area is in the middle of the room like this... Cr: Google But our room turns out to be good too with the toilet bowl and shower area in the same place. But then again, our room has no windows :( We slept till very late every day except for the last 2 days... Total cost of accommodations for this 11D10N Taiwan trip is SGD1203. If we were to go back to Taiwan again, I'll definitely choose Just Sleep Kaohsiung and Westgate Hotel (with windows) again.