I recently went on a trip to
Taiwan with my family and my maternal grandma! The last we went on a family trip together was in 2006 to Hokkaido, so we were a tad rusty for travels; all of us were a bit edgy and nervously excited. The last I had travelled was in 2012 when I was in Europe. This was also the first time my family was going on a free & easy trip i.e. not with a tour group! My mom and I planned out most of the itinerary. I got a lot of help from Huimin especially (who's been to Taiwan 4 times), from Gannuer and Zhiwei, and also tips and suggestions from the Internet! We had initially planned to spend all 6 nights in Taipei but with suggestions from the three ladies, we decided to change our plans and include 2 nights in Taichung. I hope my post also helps some of you who are considering Taiwan as a travel destination.
Momsy in the car to the trip. My uncle and aunt graciously gave us lifts to Changi Airport because the 6 of us and our luggage cases wouldn't fit in one cab!
Spanking excited I was, to be honest.
We flew with
Scoot as my mom had been monitoring the flight prices and there was a promotion going for S$98 per ticket that particular period. We booked our tickets and hotels on the 7th March and we flew on the 0055hrs flight on the 23rd March! The estimated arrival time in Tao Yuan International Airport (TPE) was 0530hrs. Of course with additional airport surcharges and processing fees, our departure came up to about S$161 per person. We opted for check-in luggage of 20kg for 3 persons; that cost an additional S$22 each. We flew with
Tigerair back and that cost approximately S$245. Check-in baggage for Tigerair was about S$30.60 for 20kg. I'm giving estimates because when we booked Tigerair, the fares were in Taiwan Dollars (TWD). If you're willing to travel on budget airlines and do not need check-in baggage, a trip back and from Tao Yuan will cost about S$406 if you keep an eye out on promotions! My friend flew with Tigerair both to and fro and his ticket was about S$450. I recommend using sites like Expedia or Momondo to compare fares and to decide whether it's more worthy to travel with a single airline for both trips or to do it like we did. Sometimes it may be cheaper with the latter.
After getting our boarding passes, we had a late dinner at Swensens!
Flying with budget airlines, you aren't allowed to bring food or drinks up on the planes. But what you can do is bring empty plastic bottles and fill them up at dispensers like this in the waiting lounge:
Actually my mom brought along about a third of a loaf of bread because no one would be home to eat it and no one confiscated it. I think sometimes it depends on the airplane security.
Flying with Scoot! With granny here.
There is no in-flight entertainment, unfortunately. If you want to purchase ScooTV services to watch shows on your own electronic devices, then you can enquire with the crew. Because I was in a rush to leave the house (having slinked out of the house and driven to Upper Thomson with Flea for a late lunch and only packing at the very last minute), I didn't manage to sync my music into my phone properly! *sadface* Hence I didn't have any long mixtapes/radio shows to listen to during my entire trip, only individual tracks, which I cannot fall asleep to.
Scoot's pretty alright, honestly. The seats are adequately spaced (at least, for me), and they're not very uncomfortable!
For 6 persons, we got 2 meals at S$14 each. I know, exorbitant prices (okay, not really), just for a ham&cheese sandwich and a teriyaki chicken wrap! Both came with 1 can of Coke and 1 stick of Toblerone chocolate. As Han exclaimed "Wtf the coke costs S$4!"
Didn't get to sleep on the flight.. Was glad when we landed! We landed earlier than expected. About 5am.
Our plane's called Big Yella Fella. I don't know why I find it so amusing.
We had to get through Immigrations at TPE.
Smile for the camera and let the Taiwanese authorities get both your index fingerprints.
Things to do when you reach Tao Yuan:
1. Buy an
EasyCard (悠游卡), which is like Singapore's EZ-link card at this counter on the ground floor (near the departure hall):
They can be used at numerous places and spots, but mostly it's used to travel around in buses and the MRT Metro service 捷运。You pay a deposit of NT$100 which you can get back at the same counter along with any credit in it (minus a handling fee of NT$20). You can read more information here:
EasyCard.
Unfortunately this counter only opens at 8am, and since it was just about 6am when we got past Immigrations, we were unable to get our EasyCards there. We bought ours at another bus station when we reached Taichung, but the EasyCards purchased at 7-11 and other convenience stores (便利店) apparently cannot be refunded (not too sure about this, heard from a train station staff, so please double check).
The #2 thing to do would be to purchase your pre-paid SIM cards from the telecommunication service counters right after getting out of Immigration and turning right (also on the ground floor). There are 3 counters: Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile Myfone 台湾大哥大 and Far Eastone but unfortunately they also open at 8am!
We got ours elsewhere; there are many of such telecomm service stores around so don't fret! The plans at the airport are sightly better, I think. Read this guy's blog for more details, his summary is useful!:
Hanjie's blog.
There are charging stations available for free in TPE as well, so convenient, right?
Also drinking water dispensers.
We had gone down to the basement in order to take the
U-bus 705 to reach Tao Yuan High Speed Railway 高铁桃园站. The fare was about NT$30, and you make the purchase at the U-bus counter. On its website it states that the service starts at 0630, but we were there at just past 0600 and the service was already operating. There are 3 different kinds of trains in Taiwan: 1. the MRT metro 捷运 2. Railway trains (old fashioned trains) 3. High Speed Railway / Bullet Trains 高铁
I had expected the bus ride to be about 30 minutes long due to information from Internet netizens but our driver sped like a maniac and traffic was pretty clear so we reached in about 15-20 minutes!
I was very surprised to see this in 7-11!!!
How do they ensure hygiene levels are standardised with every store's different staff??? Nevertheless, I saw many people buying these sticks of snacks and the smell, especially that of the tea eggs, was very comforting.
On board the HSR to Taichung HSR Station 高铁台中站! The ticket costs NT$590 (additional NT$20 for seat allocation).
My dad snaps the funniest shots and videos. As designated tour guide for this trip, I didn't take many photos or get many taken of me, so it's quite nice to get some candid shots from my Papa's album heh.
I love travelling with my ah ma. She can't read characters so she's always asking me what signs and words mean. And just asking questions in general. I find it utterly refreshing that she's so
curious about everything even at her age... Makes me feel like I take my education for granted.
Finally reached Taichung! We were all exhausted so we fell asleep onboard the HSR. From Taichung High Speed Railway Station, it is about a 5 min walk to New Wurih Train Station 新烏日車站. From there, we took the old-fashioned train to Tai Chung Railway Station (台中車站), which is only 3 stops away! Remember to take note of the platform and timing of train arrival you should take (always ask the station staff for help, they are very friendly and helpful), because sometimes the train that arrives at the right platform will take a different route!
It was a rather dreary day, and even when we stepped out into the open air at Tao Yuan Airport, we knew that we had underestimated the chilliness of the weather.... My mom had shifted the travel plans a week earlier because the weather forecasts had predicted rain for the week of 29th to the 4th, but in the end for most of the days that we were there, it rained anyway! Bloody hell. The rain was really quite a bummer. Also, most of us had packed for the weather of a cool 20 degree celsius but with the rain and chilly winds, the temperature was an average of 13 degree celsius. Of course I really loved it (because I LOVE THE COLD) and embraced it with my sleeveless tops, but the rest of my family suffered quite a bit hahahahah.
I had chosen to stay at
CityInn Hotel (Taichung Station Branch) 新驶旅店，台中车站店 and made the booking through Booking.com! Sometimes they have promotions, so do check out the site (Agoda as well). Because I didn't have 3G Internet service yet, we asked for directions from the station staff, who pointed us to a right exit but it caused us to walk a much longer route which involved many steps! If you get out from the correct exit, the hotel will be about 200m after turning left.
CityInn only allows check-in at 1500 and we were there at 1000 so we just stored our luggage with them and cleaned up a bit before going in search for lunch! Papa had asked the hotel counter staff for a recommendation but we couldn't find the place so we ended up at MODEMall, which is about a 5 min walk from CityInn.
MODEmall 新時代購物中心
Address: 401, Taiwan, 台中市東區復興路四段186號
I had noted it down before our travels because there is a
Chun Shui Tang Teahouse 春水堂 branch in it!!! They are the original inventors of bubble tea 泡泡茶!!!
Muahahahaha I was really ecstatic about food discoveries...
They serve food too so we settled down for our lunch.
Yummy carrot cake
Our meal with 4 mains, 2 dimsum, 1 soup (all servings for 1) and 5 drinks came up to NT$1632 (~$68). It's a tad on the expensive side if you compare other stores and street food in Taiwan but it's definitely cheaper than eating in Singapore! Furthermore all our bubble tea cups were the larger size. There's the main teahouse somewhere in Taichung Central where you can actually learn how to make bubble tea in a lesson supervised by someone so do check that out if you're interested.
Went to the Taiwan Mobile Myfone 台湾大哥大 which only opens at 1100 near MODEmall to get our prepaid cards!
Dang happy with my 珍珠奶茶 (pearl milk tea). The pearls are so chewy!!!
We went for the plan that costs NT$500 (~S$22) for 7-days worth of unlimited 3G Internet service, which comes along with a free call airtime up to NT$150. My dad had his Singapore number on auto-roam, and I was able to contact him using my Taiwanese number, so you can also call out of the country!
Because my elder brother was still recovering from his illness, we walked him back to the hotel so he could rest. We then went on with our original plans to head to Sun Moon Lake.
First we wanted to purchase EasyCards because we could use them for the shuttle service in Sun Moon Lake, so my Papa and I went opposite Taichung Station to the 综联站 bus terminal area to buy them.
By this time it was raining pretty heavily and only I had my umbrella with me, so there was a lot of sheltering back and forth going on from the train station to the bus station. We took a bus on the side of the train station just 1 stop down (any bus would do, just double check with the bus driver if it heads to Gan Cheng Station 干城站） in order to get to the
Nantou Bus Service 南投客运 counter, as that is the way to get from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake.
Alas, by the time we reached the Nantou Service, the lady at the counter gently informed us that by the time we reached Sun Moon Lake, it would be 3pm, hence we wouldn't have much time to visit all the places of interest and in the rain, it wouldn't be fun. Because Sun Moon Lake is about a 2 hours' bus ride away from Taichung central, we had to account for getting back to Taichung central as well, and there's a last bus back from Sun Moon Lake so... we decided to shelf our plans for the lake!
With my Trip Advisor app, I managed to find a nearby place of interest, a temple, but it was raining really heavily so we tried to get a taxi instead of walking the 1km distance!
Many of the taxis in Taichung and Taipei are Toyoto Wish models, which can seat up to 6 people comfortably!
Incredibly, because it was Monday, the temple was closed!!! I was rather disappointed... Ended up cabbing back to the hotel and re-evaluating our options. Decided to head back to MODEmall to walk around. There are quite a few stores there that we have in Singapore, like Uniqlo, Sasa and Nike. The cinema is huge too!
I personally dislike going to malls when I'm overseas because I find them quite...
bland and just kind of similar to malls in Singapore so I got quite frustrated and lost my temper with my mommy. *sheepish* Thankfully we settled it amicably because my younger brother offered to stay and walk around some more with me while the rest went back to CityInn for a rest!
The both of us shared this.
I like hanging out with Han. He is a joker and he makes me laugh.
Went back to CityInn after a bit (look out for photos of the interior of the rooms in the next entry!) and washed up. My parents took one room; my elder brother and younger brother one; my granny and I another. On Booking.com, the price was stated as S$583 when I booked it, but when we made payment upon checking out, the price went up to S$600 because of exchange rate differences. So do be aware of such little details! Anyway, that's still just S$50 for one person for 1 night, so that's reasonable. I initially was adamant on staying in an apartment and had spent many nights researching on Airbnb for appropriate ones but my mom was really worried about the level of security in Taiwanese alleys and streets so we settled for hotels in the end. I think she's more open to apartments now after having been in Taiwan itself because most people are friendly and though some places look less modern, they aren't necessarily dangerous areas!
Had just showered and was chatting to my granny whilst chilling out on the bed when I felt the bed start to move from side to side. Because my grandma was speaking about something rather passionately, I thought she was shaking her leg and also moving the bed without knowing it! In my mind I was thinking "哇阿嬷讲话讲到这么爽，摇脚摇到这么爽." My thoughts were in Hokkien, actually -
Ah ma gong wei gong ga ah ne song, yo a yo, yo ga meng cheng yo ga a ni. Then my granny got up from the bed with a start and we saw that the clothes hangers were all shaking and we realised --
IT WAS ACTUALLY AN EARTHQUAKE!!!!!
*-*
I was horribly amused because I had thought it was my granny shaking the bed in her moment of heated conversation, whilst she had thought it was
me shaking the bed, but in the end it turned out to be an earthquake. It was a quite a minor one, so when we opened our doors and stuck our heads out and consulted one cleaning staff anxiously, she was a little amused with our reactions and apologised profusely for not giving us advance warnings. LOL I really was quite amused!!!!
Can't believe I experienced an earthquake the first day I was in Taiwan.
After that minor scare and a much needed round of laughter, we decided to head to Fengchia Night Market 逢甲夜市! We took a cab there because the rain was really ridiculous and it would take 1 hour to get there from CityInn by public transport. The fare was NT$230, approximately S$10!
Fengchia Night Market/ Fong Jia Night Market 逢甲夜市
Address: 台中市西屯區文華路69號
Opening Hrs: 1630 to 0100
I absolutely despise queues, but when I saw this stall near the front of the night market I immediately leaped into line! Huimin had highly recommended it and it looked SO FRIGGIN' DELICIOUS
大肠包小肠！！！
The 大肠 ("big sausage") on the outside is actually glutinous rice, grilled to perfection!
This particular stall also has other add-ons like cucumbers and pickles... The rest I've eaten don't *sadface*
REALLY VERY YUMMY!!!! I love Taiwan sausages. They remind me of my swimming classes when I was younger 'cos either my mom would prepare the cocktail sized ones and bring them to the pool for after my class or I'd be allowed to buy the full sized one along with a cup of hot Milo! :D As reward for surviving my swimming coach's monstrous lessons.....
Walked past this eatery and we were enticed by the smaller stall in front of its shopfront!
Went in for a proper dinner for my elder brother.
LU ROU FAN!!! Braised meat. This rendition wasn't the yummiest we had, but it was still really good because the Taiwanese use short grain pearl rice for their dishes. The rice is addictive! I don't really like carbohydrates but I ate quite a bit of rice in Taiwan.
Han and I went out to get this:
Egg omelette! Okonomiyaki style
Han got the cheese and corn combination
and I got the 招牌 one, which has a bit of everything (bacon, corn, broccoli, floss)... It was quite yummy because there's a lot of cabbage mixed into the egg but I didn't like the mayonnaise because it's the artificially sweet kind, not the eggy kind
Family :D
Forever taking selfies...
Papa wanted to try this - oyster omelette 蚵仔煎 - but.... I don't really like it! I think the sauce is a bit too runny for me and it has a tinge of peanut to it. Also the omelette itself is quite chewy because of the potato starch in it. I prefer Singapore's version with spicy chili
I COULDN'T RESIST
Got two sticks of the natural flavour, and the other the lemon wasabi. They were so sweet and fresh!!!!!
After that, the rain got heavier and because we were all rather tired from traveling the whole day, we took a cab back to our hotel (that cost NT$250). On the way back, our cab driver was very friendly and suggested eateries and places for us to visit! I feel a tad disappointed that we didn't get more time to shop and visit places in Taichung because it's quieter and less commercialised than Taipei but for a first time free&easy visit, I feel that it was rather commendable an effort that my mom and I managed to get this itinerary together! If I have the chance I would really want to go back to Taichung again. (:
Will update soon with Day 2 of our Taiwan trip! :D
Love,
Pamela
ETA
Have updated! Read on:
Taiwan Trip Day 2 Taichung - Sun Moon Lake 台湾，台中，日月潭 Labels: bubble tea, Chun Shui Tang Teahouse, Da Chang Bao Xiao Chang, Fengchia Night Market, Food Entries, out of singapore, Taichung, Taiwan, the ng family, Travel Entries, traveling
