Day 3 - Taipei

On Day 3, we asked the hotel reception to book buses to Taipei for us the night before. However, when we got to the reception counter, we were informed that the bus companies do not accept reservation of tickets by hotels. Fortunately Cy and I decided to wake up earlier to buy Sun cakes or 太阳饼 before we leave Taichung so after buying the sun cakes we still had time. We walked over to the bus companies which were situated near Taichung Railway Station to purchase the bus tickets.

After that, we went back to hotel. I woke the boyfriend up and then 4 of us trooped over to the bus terminal with our luggages. The bus departed at 11.30am and we reached Taipei Railway Station at about 2pm. We then took the MRT to Ximending which was one stop away. Reached hotel at 2.20pm, couldn't check in yet so we decided to walk around Ximending. First stop was 阿宗面线 which Cy had been looking forward to for ages. Me, I'm not a big fan of Ah Zong but still, gotta admit that after not eating it for 2 years, quite welcomed the taste, and with the big cooling breeze blowing through Ximending, the warm mee sua was quite comforting to the belly!

After eating and walking around a bit, we checked in at 3pm. Honestly, this was the first time I was staying at Rainbow Hotel and I've heard loads about it because of its prime location. BUT I told myself this was the first and last time I'm staying there. The room was small and dark, the bathroom was not ideal with the flush a little spoilt. The television was spoilt at our last night. There was no rest area in the lobby for guests to rest, gather, or just wait for each other. Apart from its location, I would say there was nothing fantastic about Rainbow Hotel. In fact, I stayed at Paradise Hotel the last 2 times I was in Taipei and it was definitely much better (though also a bit old).

We walked around Ximending then after that went to Shi Lin Night Market, the most famous night market in Taipei. This was my 5th time there so didn't take many photos of the place.

Though this was my 5th time at Shi Lin, I still found it really enjoyable. The shopping's great, there's also lots of variety when it comes to food, bubble tea, rice, steaks, chicken, smelly tofu, sausages and tonnes of other things. Lots of people say it has become much more commercialised, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as commercialization would only mean that it has become better and more improved for tourists don't you think? :)

After Shi Lin we didn't feel like calling it a night as yet, so we decided to go to the Partyworld opposite Ximending for karaoke. It was uber fun! We sang until about 3am, then walked back to our hotel.

Day 2 - Taichung

Woke up on the second day and my heart sank when I saw that it was still raining. It was a huge bummer as that day was our last full day in Taichung and we were planning to go to Sun Moon Lake. We skipped the hotel breakfast as we were all tired, but met in the lobby at about 11am. The hotel receptionist called a cab for us. Our initial plans were to take cab to Gancheng bus stop then take the SML bus from there. The cab driver convinced us otherwise, he told us that he's willing to take us to SML and be our designated driver for 8 hours at a cost of NT$3000. We felt that given the weather and that there were 4 of us to split the cost it was actually quite an ok bargain so we took it up. It was indeed more convenient for us.

He brought us to this Paper Dome near SML which we felt that erm...can don't go lah hahaha basically it's just a small building built with really really stiff and thick cardboard. Entrance costs NT$100 which is redeemable in the restaurant. The restaurant serves pretty decent fare actually.

After a while at the Paper Dome we went back to the cab driver. Shortly after we reached SML. Need to pay NT$300 to take a ferry again. *frowns* First stop off the ferry: Xuan Guan Temple. SO CROWDED. Full of tourists from Mainland China. It was raining and everyone was holding umbrellas. There were lots of shouting, shoving and being poked in the head and eyes by the umbrellas. The rain didn't help things, we had an unspeakably miserable time there. The ONLY saving grace was the 茶叶蛋, the tea eggs. Each costs NT$10 and we bought one each. They were piping hot, which was really welcomed in the cold weather. 

After our miserable time there, we wanted to take the ferry to the second stop, but the boat staff told us that due to the very heavy fog, they are stopping all ferry rides. The ferry we were queuing up for was the last ferry ride back to the pier where our cab driver was waiting for us. We were all so tired from the travelling that day that all 4 of us fell asleep on the ferry. By the time they reached the pier, the fog had dissipated and ferries were resuming service but we all decided to give the second stop a miss coz we were too tired and the weather too bad to continue travelling around. 

We went to a cafe at the pier for some coffee, bubble tea, waffles and piping hot fries. The ambience of the restaurant and the hot food did loads to soothe an otherwise very miserable and wet day.

After eating, we went back to our cab driver and asked him to drive us to Yi-Chung Street (the other quite famous night market in Taichung). We walked around and ate and thankfully the rain had stopped by then so it was easier to walk around. We actually bought quite a lot of stuff there. It is comparatively smaller than Feng Jia Night Market so we finished walking around the area quite early. They have this thing called 炸牛排 aka Fried Steak which was pretty interesting. It's worth a try!

We then decided to go for what they called "Cosmos bowling" (I think) which is a bowling alley that has the lights switched off and only has UV lights or something like that. Pretty interesting to bowl in the dark but you get used to it pretty quickly and forget you're in the dark haha.

After bowling we went back to hotel and bought cup noodles to sit at the rest area again! Cy and I were especially excited and happy coz we were heading to Taipei the very next day!!! 

Day 1 - Taichung

We reached the airport at 6am, waited forever for our luggage. By the time we reached the bus counters, we had already missed the 6.30am bus. We were surprised to see that it was raining, and when we asked the bus driver, he said the past few days were really sunny and that day was the first day of rain all November! We took the next available bus that was scheduled to leave at 7.10am. The bus ticket costs NT$260, which translates to about SGD$11 each.
We reached Taichung at 9.45am and found our hotel relatively quickly. It's situated behind Taichung Railway Station and you have to get through the underpass to reach it.

After we deposited our luggage, since it was still early and we couldn't check in yet, we decided to walk around the place and get some breakfast!

It was drizzling and we both got quite wet. Decided to head back to the hotel to wait for check in. Finally at 3pm, we were allowed to check in! =)

I liked my room a lot as it was really spacious. You can see from the pic below there's a wooden platform so that's where my luggage went. The hotel was really clean and they gave us a free upgrade so we got the highest floor (level 10). Everything looked really clean and well-maintained. The room was bright and cheerful, despite the gloomy weather outside.

After checking in, I was tired from the earlier walking and lack of sleep so rested in hotel a bit then went out to grab food. Just as we stepped out of the hotel, K and Cy arrived! So happy to know they were here when we got back 10 minutes later.

Immediately they went to their room, changed, then off we went to the biggest night market in Taichung: Feng Jia Night Market!

We walked around, ate and shopped. Both the food and shopping are cheap! Feng Jia is a good place to go in Taichung coz it's big enough to not be boring. But I think we all started to feel tired after eating so much and shopping so much so we went to a small cafe to chill and relax. Met 2 young chaps studying at Feng Jia University and they were so friendly! Had a great time just chatting with them. We left the night market at about 12am and took a cab back to the hotel. After that we bought my favouritest cup noodles in the world and ate at the hotel lobby's rest area. It was fun just eating cup noodles together and chatting and planning for the next day. =)

Off to Taiwan~!

I'm flying off to Taiwan tonight with the boyfriend! It's actually the first time since we've been together more than 2.5 years ago that we are taking the plane and going somewhere far (ok lah maybe Taiwan not that far). We're meeting K & Cy there tomorrow (They are taking SQ flight)! First time I am going overseas with them too but they are really easygoing people so I don't foresee any difficulties or problems! :P
I'm going there really well-prepared this time round. I'm bringing along a nasal spray, anti-histamines, panadol for sinus/cold, charcoal pills and normal panadol. The last thing I want is to have the food right in front of me and I can't smell or taste anything! The weather over there right now is quite cooling and me being so afraid of cold, has to go well-prepared!
Cy also did a lot of research filled with maps, photographs etc. It's an 18-pages long word document! I'm truly impressed. I've also done up a bit of research. At least, I've found the directions to the shop that sells out-of-this-world dumplings hahahahaha.
I've also prepared Currency Conversion Charts! One for me and one for Cy. This will make shopping/eating/spending money so much easier! No need to use calculators at all. Hee.

The flight is at 1am tonight and we'll reach Taoyuan at 6am. We will then take a bus to Taichung. Boyfriend wants to take a bus (2hr50mins) instead of the HSR (high speed rail) which takes abt 50 mins. I don't really mind as I expect I'll be really out of it and really stoned at 6am in the morning.
The excitement is unreal!!! I just pray for zero (ok lah not very realistic, given that we are both such argumentative people) to as-little-as-possible quarrels with the boyfriend!
God bless! =)
It's gonna be an awesome trip!

Of happy things

Life is too short for me to constantly fill it with unhappy things! Yet, I realised I am a born pessimist. Hopefully this blog will help to change all that! I must write about things that make me happy, and try to forget things that make me unhappy! 

Right now, the happiest thing I can think of is that today is Friday! I'm meeting my favourite galpals later C & C! Haha I hope in time to come I can show you all who they are. 

Second thing that makes me so happy is my countdown! 8 days more! To what, you ask? Stay tuned to find out~!