13-17 December'16 ; Taiwan
你好！
{This post won't be in chinese so don't worry too much hehe}
Anyways, I finally got my lazy ass moving and started on this post.
//also because I wanted to clear the photos into my hard disk..//
As the title states, this post will be about my trip and time in Taiwan!
Disclaimer:
Everything typed in this post was paid by my own money.
I wasn't paid to write any of these.
All opinions are based on my own experience, everyone's opinions differ so don't criticize mine
just because it's different from yours or you dislike it.
As per the Hong Kong post, I'll be reviewing 3 things:
The plane ride with Cathay Pacific
The hotel I stayed in: Burgary Hotel
Lastly, my time in the country itself
First off, Cathay Pacific.
I flew to Taiwan from Hong Kong.
As expected, there was a delay, again.
If you read my Hong Kong post, you'll know that the plane from Singapore to HK was delayed....
We got to board the plane about 30 minutes later.
The flight was pretty empty too.
Anyways, we were served snacks since the flight time was less than 2 hours.
The pastry is legit nice.
Is it me or is in-flight food getting better?
/except air asia's /
Below photos are food served from Hong Kong's flight to Singapore.
Yes, I took the plane in Taiwan and transit in Hong Kong before flying back.
Favourite Ice Cream
Similar to my experience taking the plane from SG to HK,
don't expect too much from their in-flight entertainment, especially the music section.
But the movie section is good enough to last you for the flight from HK to TW and vice-versa.
Food is nice, crew members are friendly so my rating reminds the same.
Ratings:
Food: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Service: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Crew: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Next, Burgary Hotel.
Address: No. 168, Section 1, Zhonghua Rd, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108.
It's a 5 minute walk from Taipei's Ximen MRT Station.
And slightly more from Xi Men Ding.
This hotel is actually a boutique hotel but their service might be better than other non-boutique hotels I've stayed in.
{or maybe it's because Taiwanese are just super friendly and nice}
My whole time there, I've never seen any of the staff working there with a unhappy face.
Not even once.
Every time I approached them for help and directions, they answer me with a smile.
It's like they're happy that you approached them for help.
However, I wouldn't HIGHLY recommend this hotel to anyone.
Keyword: HIGHLY
If you're on tight budget, then yes, this hotel is good enough.
But if your budget allows you to stay in a more high class hotel, then please go ahead.
The reason why we stayed in this hotel is because it's near Xi Men Ding.
Plus we spent too much on our hotel in Hong Kong
p.s. CORDIS was totally worth that money
Breakfast at Burgary Hotel was special.
It's not the buffet style where you take whatever you wanna eat.
The hotel has a breakfast menu and the best thing is,
You can choose to have breakfast in your room.
If you wanna have it in your room, call the receptionist (or someone) up and tell them what you wanna eat. They'll get someone to send it up to your room.
Okay, before I forget,
Photos of the room we stayed in:
The bed is super comfortable T_T
seeing
these
pictures
makes
me
miss
taiwan :<
Hotel staffs are so darn nice, breakfast is pretty decent, everything about this hotel is nice.
Ratings:
Ambience: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Service: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Staff: ☺☺☺☺☺/5
Lastly, I'll be sharing about my time in Taiwan.
Things I'll be talking about:
1. People in Taiwan
2. Service I got
3. Expenses (How much things cost etc.)
4. Places I went to
1. People in Taiwan & Service I got.
The Taiwanese.
Most of them are the complete opposites of Hong Kongers.
They're mostly friendly, don't look down on others unlike ahem.
The driver who drove us around Taiwan for a day was super nice.
We only booked the vehicle for 8 hours and by the time we were back in Taipei, the 8 hours were almost used up but he offered to drive us to the famous Pineapple Tarts place to buy whatever we wanted WITH NO EXTRA CHARGE.
The staffs at Burgary Hotel were also damn nice.
They always had a smile on their face whenever we approached them for help and directions.
You must be thinking: "All hotels supposed to have friendly and nice staffs what."
Okay fine, then explain why some hotel staff in Malaysia, Malacca were unfriendly?
[Long story, saving it for another post]
The shopkeepers were also nice and friendly.
We bought fried chicken from this shop in Xi Men Ding.
The guy who took our orders had tons of tattoos over him but he smiled and answered us politely when we asked him which fried chicken was the more popular one.
Unlike the lady at Kam Wah Cafe =_=
Not even peak hours but unfriendly as f**k
To sum up this section, everyone I interacted with in Taiwan is so frigging nice and friendly.
Secondly, expenses.
The exchange rate when I was there was:
SGD1= 24TWD
It's close to thailand's exchange rate but the things in taiwan were a little more pricey.
For example, a t-shirt may cost 150baht (SGD6) in thailand but it will cost a little more in taiwan.
I've concluded that the prices of items sold in taiwan were close to singapore's while hong kong's was double or triple of singapore's prices.
Lastly, the places I visited.
I explored a handful of places while in Taiwan and I was in love with the weather *^*
Just the right degree of coldness.
When we were there, the driver told us that this was the first time Taiwan was so cold during that week.
And I'm like
Back to topic.
The first location: Xi Men Ding.
By the time we reached the hotel and checked in, it was almost 3pm if I didn't remember wrongly.
We headed to Xi Men Ding to find Ah Zong Mian Xian.
I honestly don't find anything special about it... tastes the same as the ones I bought from the taiwanese street snack food stall at the basement of causeway point.
Below are a few other things I had at Xi Men Ding during the trip.
best fried chicken ever!
ice cream ❤
Shop where I got the bubble tea (below) from.
Highly recommend all of you to buy from this shop.
more bubble tea 👍
芒果冰 (Mango Shaved Ice Dessert)
地瓜球 (fried sweet potato ball)
Taiwan's food are more suitable to my taste buds compared to Hong Kong's
This stall just proves that long queue doesn't mean good food.
So, this stall here, sells fried chicken with bones in it. c:
I didn't ask for the bones to be with it but thanks for the extras.
Won't recommend anyone of you to buy fried chicken from this stall at Xi Men Ding.
There's another fried chicken stall deeper into Xi Men Ding,
the guy selling it has tattoos but he's really nice.
Plus the chicken is WAY nicer.
This is the other fried chicken stall I'm talking about.
Walk a little more to the back of Xi Men Ding and you'll be able to find it.
臭豆腐 (Smelly Tofu)
Everyone I know has been telling me that smell tofu stinks and that you can smell it from afar.
Let me tell you this solely based on my experience in Taiwan.
1. It does not smell as bad as people describe it to be
2. It tastes like normal fried tofu.
Recommend everyone to try it if you want to.
Second Location: 九份，十份
We went to 2 different places on the 2nd day.
Those 2 places were 九份 (Jiu Fen) & 十份 (Shi Fen)
These 2 places are like tourists' hot spot and if you're planning to go either one of the places,
I wouldn't recommend going to 九份 (Jiu Fen) because it's packed like sardines.
People pushing each other and some even shove others 👎
We had Nine Fresh Desserts in 九份 (Jiu Fen)
Correct me if I'm wrong but,
SG's Nine Fresh Dessert originated from Taiwan.
If it's true, then I must say, the Taiwan (Original ver) sucks.
SG version is nicer.
Visit 十分 (Shi Fen) instead.
The main thing to do there is to release sky lanterns. (which I did)
Don't worry. You'll be able to find the lantern place.
There's like a ton of people there releasing lanterns.
releasing of lanterns.
SGD2+ for mini lanterns.
Refer to the photo below 👇 to see what each lantern means.
We had some snacks at 十份 (Shi Fen) and this was one of them.
It's fried egg but more to the pancake side.
It's a little more thicker compared to normal fried eggs and it's 👍👍👍
Highly recommend everyone to try this out as well.
Third Location: Raohe Night Market.
If you're in Taiwan for Raohe Night Market, I wouldn't recommend you to stay at Burgary's Hotel.
It's far from the night market and plus, I don't think there's anything there either???
When I went, it didn't even feel like a night market... it just felt like walking on normal streets.
Walked further away and found this shop selling pancakes.
The taste is so-so.
Nothing much about Raohe Night Market so moving on to the 4th Location:
Tam Shui (淡水)
How to get there:
If I didn't remember wrongly, just take the mrt to Tam Shui Station.
No need to change lines or anything.
Just get off at Tam Shui station and you're there already.
Highly suggest you guys to google search yourself in case I give out wrong info...
If you're at Tam Shui, you should definitely try this.
It's fried squid/octopus (whats the difference between the both of them???)
I forgot the price already... heh
But it's definitely affordable. Not too expensive.
There's not much to shop for at Tam Shui.
It's basically a place for you to enjoy the cool weather and view.
5th Location: Taipei 101.
People are saying that everyone should go up to Taipei's 101 observation deck(?)
and check out the view etc.
If it's within your budget, go ahead.
If it's out of the budget, just stay downstairs and enjoy the view of the building ah.
The tickets to go up to the deck is not cheap okay????
After taking tons of photos, we went to have lunch at Din Tai Fung.
The restaurant is located in the basement of Taipei 101.
I expected Din Tai Fung in Taiwan to taste better than the one I had in Thailand.
Sad to say, they taste almost the same.
So if you're planning to fly all the way to Taiwan for this, just fly to Thailand ah.
For Thailand's, it's located at Central World.
6th Location: Shilin Night Market.
The most raved night market in all of Taiwan.
Really crowded as it gets later at night.
Go there for the food and not shopping.
Below are photos of the food I had at Shilin.
Fried Oreos.
Bubble Tea!!!
Fried Chicken!!!
The famous cheese potato
Highly recommend everyone to try the fried chicken and cheese potato at Shilin Night Market.
There is also cheese potato at Xi Men Ding but I don't know if the same store or not...
It's easy to identify the fried chicken stall because there is a huge line for it.
The cheese potato stall is just nearby the fried chicken stall.
Go queue and try it out!!
You will die with no regrets.
I'm done introducing the places I visited in Taiwan.
Decided to add in another section for:
Things I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy or try in Taiwan.
If you still want to, then please go ahead.
Number one: Sharetea.
Sharetea in Singapore has this banner or something that states
"Taipei's No.1"
I say it's bullshit.
I tried the milk tea when I was there and...
The ones sold at night markets were nicer.
Plus the fact that night markets ones are cheaper.
Maybe it's because I bought the wrong flavor...
Number two:
I'm sure everyone knows that the drink in the above photo is.
It was banned in Singapore for a couple of weeks(?) months(?). Not too sure about this part.
Couldn't try it in SG so I tried it in Taiwan.
Nothing special about it...
Just get milk tea from the bubble tea shops and drinks ah...
And this marks the end of my Taiwan post.
Can't believe it took me 2 days to type it out....
These are not all the photos I took.
Didn't upload some because low quality plus I had to rotate some...
I'm pretty lazy to do that.. The amount of photos in this post should be enough.
To end it off,
holidays are ending, school is starting...
hopefully everything goes well.
As for the SM COEX SUM, Line and Disney store,
I only have to say, not now....
I can't finish it before school starts and,
as the quote says,
"Don't start something you cannot finish"
Till the next blog post,
satan
