Hello! I'm finally back from my 8day trip to taiwan and it was so awesome.
Although half the time i was freezing my ass off (super low tolerant for cold ❆) but it was so beautiful seeing cherry blossoms ❀ for the first time in my life, not to mention enjoying the warmth hospitality of the taiwanese. They never fail to make me feel welcomed and ever so patient to stop and help out blur tourists like us.
My last trip to Taiwan was in 2009, stayed in taipei all the way for 7days for that trip if you wanna check out my itinearary/travelogue you can just click travelogues at the top nagivation bar to see my travel posts!
Hahaha anyway this trip pretty much came about out of the blue, didn't really plan it long ago but ok long story short, when i was taking my driving license last year. Leon "see me no up" and promised me that if i pass my TP in one try, then he will sponsor me a trip to taiwan! Muahahahah and duh of course i passed at one go, that's for looking down on the ladies, men!
Reached the airport at 1:45pm , checked in and went for food!!! Was really starving so I wolfed down a plate of soya sauce chicken rice and shared some dimsum with Leon.
Board the plane, took tiger airways this time! Took jetstar on our last trip to Taipei in 2009, costed us about $480 per pax then via jet star and plus we booked our tickets early. This time via tiger airways we only booked a month or so in advance and it's nly $350 plus taxes and all the credit card service fee etc. we topped up and shared a 20 kg check in luggage plus 7kg hand carry each.
Didn't wanna get 2 20kg luggage limit because we will be traveling out of taipei and taking trains/bus/cabs so lesser the baggage the better! Didn't plan to shop for this trip anyway.
Got on the plane and there's a kid and mother combo sitting right I front of us!!! First thought I was like oh FML ?!$&#%!! Just kill me a kid infront of me for the next 5 hours?!?! Lol but when she started talking I just wanted to meeeeeeelt.
Her voice is those super kawaii XML the to the max voice. Hahaha she's a Taiwanese kiddo, super cute la why aren't kids in Singapore half as cute. All of the sudden I feel that we Singaporeans are so unlovable. Lol damn, even our doggies aren't half as cute as all the doggies I see all around xi men ding
Reached Taoyuan airport at around 9pm, restless me was soooo excited to get out of the plane and getting moving yo! Was sad to say bye bye to the cute little kiddo thou hahaha she keep referring to us as 后面的叔叔和阿姨。喂喂喂！fidel is not 阿姨，is姐姐哦！ッ
◤ Unlimited Data Plans to stay connected ☏
I always get the local prepaid data plans to avoid ridiculously expensive roaming charges, you can get the data SIM plans just outside of the airport custom clearance area, once you walk out of customs, you'll see a couple of telcom counters. We used 台湾大哥大 haha what a funny telcom name, anyway they have unlimited data plans, NT350 for 5 days of unlimited data access, if you need more days then they will prorate the amount accordingly.
If you use an iphone, no problem there too. They will provide the MicroSim.
Only leon got the unlimited data plan because he would switch on his personal hotspot on his HTC so i can access data on my iphone via wifi. Muahahaha so i can still whatsapp/viber my mummy and friends and update on instagram!
◤ Accomodation
During our last trip we stayed at Neijiang hotel, usually for taiwan hotels i would give it a budget about NT1500-NT2000 per night = SGD $65 - $85
This trip we stayed in 4 different hotels/Inn/Minsu民宿, all were within my budget and it was an average of SGD$70 per night for 7 nights.
Usually it's better to email the hotels/Inn/Minsu民宿 in taiwan to find out their hotel rates rather than booking directly from websites like agoda.com, booking.com or even the hotel website itself.
>>> This time round we stayed at 日安西門ITrip Taipei Inn.
The rate for the double room is NT 2280 on their website, emailed them to ask if they have any promo rates and they quote me NT1600 per night inclusive of breakfast, told them we didn't want the breakfast included (who wants to eat hotel breakfast when there's so much good food waiting for us to eat in taipei?! Can barely choose what to eat everyday because everything is so yummy hahaha).
So they quoted me 3 weekday night rate of NT 1500, original price was NT 2280 and one weekend night rate of NT2000, original price of NT 2880, so total all in all i saved NT2920 (how much awesome 台湾小吃can you buy with that money?! tonnes!)
It's located right smack IN 西門町! The price is way too good for the location, one funny thing is the inn is not a stand-alone building by itself but instead it takes up the entire 9th floor of an electronic & cinema mall in 西門町, hahaha so funny but i don't care because my stay there was really comfy, really enjoyed the tub especially hehe watched one piece on my ipad while soaking in the bathtub with my lush bathbombs and bathmelts soften my skin woohoo!
I packed in like 7 bath bombs/melts and Leon says i'm crazy to bring so many bathbombs and bathmelts lol cos very heavy! But but but, me love my rubber duckie tubbing time! Aiyah i'm not a light packer ma.. hahaha our 20 kg limit luggage.. when we're checking in the airport to fly to taipei it was already 19.6kg hahahah
Oh and leon and I agrees that one of the receptionist has the looks of those chio chubby pornstar! Hahaha, we're horrible. Leon is worst! He asked me to go take a photo with the pornstar lookalike receptionist so i can blog about it. Hahahahha :/
▸ 日安西門ITrip Taipei Inn
Website // www.itrip-taipeinn.com.tw
✉ // service@itrip-taipeinn.com.tw
◤ Makan time!
Ever since he came back from his worktrip in taipei end of last year he has been raving to me about this shabu shabu place called 自然风 and another 凉面 called 陈家凉面 so as soon as we checked in to our hotel, cabbed over to the shabu shabu place, haha in taiwan they call it 刷刷锅
♡ the chairs, so hot! I want my future home to be furnished like that too, so pretty i can camwhore everyday on it hahahah.
◤ Outfit of the day:
Natical long sleeved tee - Earlgreyparty.com
Sparkly Cranberry knitted sweater dress - Urbanoutfitters
Knee high boots with ribbon on the side - delias.com
Heart necklace - Forever21
Love my knee length boots from delias.com too, knee high so it pretty much kept my legs warm and toasty!
Bought this black/maroon unique sweater top for him ages ago from zipia.net and he only got to wear it during this trip since it's so cold! Waaaaay too warm for singapore, hahaha it's pretty revealing btw, i always love to unzip it all the way to the side muahaha
So damn yummy! Shiokness. One of the meals that we spent more on in taiwan it was about 700 per person/set but it pretty worth the money. Yums, can't wait to try out the shabu shabu restaurant we walked pass the other day in vivo after this.
Heheh, another reason why our luggage was so heavy. I took a Hunter's Valley tour when i was in Aussie couple months back, bought a bottle of Botrytis Semillion from Tempus 2, a wineyard in Australia, Hunter's Valley.
Was keeping it for an occasion to enjoy it with him and what can be better than this! So delicious, love the bottle btw, if i could i would've bought a couple more bottles of this. Heehhe, but i still have a bottle of moscato that i bought from Tempus 2, saving it for another time!
Dessert! Don't eat red bean so i only had to grass jelly the rest pass to my dustbin boyfriend hahaha
Overall a pretty good meal, wouldn't be one of the best meals i've had but it's yummy!
They are pretty popular so call beforehand to make reservations will be good!
▸ 自然风, 刷刷锅
地址 // 106, Taiwan, 台北市大安區市民大到四段126號
Since leon was raving like mad about this 陈家凉面 i really wanted to see what's so special about this cold noodle so we took a short walk hoping to digest our awesome shabu shabu dinner but we were still too full anyway so we tabao-ed the cold noodles back to the hotel.
This 陈家凉面 has been around for a long time, the taiwanese pretty much grow up eating these, and i did a little search on google and it's said that even celebrities like 陳奕迅 and S.H.E frequent this stall often. 0.0
We had it for breakfast the next morning, as i ate it i was like. WOW seriously wth, the simple food are the ones that really "capture" of stomach isn't it? It's just cold noodles, but some really freaking yummy cold noodles man! It's SO cheap too.
Bitch please. I wanna stay in Taiwan.
Madness, they are opened 24 hours a day, but closed on Sundays, also one thing you GOT to try is the 味噌湯加貢丸加蛋（三合一湯）, leon love the soup and i think the meatballs are SO delicious. Never thought i'd describe meatballs as delicious but it's REALLY YUMMY. And the 凉面 must must must order big one! hahahah so shiok, add chilli too gives the 凉面 the OOMPH really so good. Eat until so full already i will still squeeeeeze and finish the whole bowl of noodle. Really noms one, no joke.
It's probably not the most accesible place ever, you can take the 捷运 but you gotta change bus/take cab from 捷运 to 陈家凉面 but it's totally worth the trip.
Especially if you're a fan of 丹丹面, peanut sauce etc. I hate peanut things like peanut butter or whatever but this is so yums. I wanna eat 凉面 and 三合一湯 so badly now. Ok i'm gonna stop talking about 凉面 cos it's making me upset not being able to eat it NAO! Pouts. Go try!!!
▸ 陈家凉面
地址 // 台北南京东路5段123巷29号
☏
hehe while walking to get a cab walked pass a shop with a doggie kennel, all shops have doggies in taiwan! So kawaii. ♥
Heheh went to 7-11 to find eyedrops cos my eyes were so dry plus the cold wintery wind blowing non stop is not helping, bought the hello kitty round round cake like thing that i was hoping would be as good as the one selling at basement level of takashimaya, i really love the ring layered cake thing man. Boo too bad it wasn't half as good but good news is finally something i can eat that i love in singapore means it won't leave me trying to pull off my hair craving for some food i can have!
Strawberry yakult like drink and "limited edition" pudding flavored hi-chews, so kawaii! regret that i didn't buy more candy back!!! I love their candies all so kawaii one. ♡
Brought Riri 妹妹 to taiwan to huggie and leon was like " -.- face, wth i thought you were only joking" hahaha cos Riri 妹妹 is usually in my car and a week or so before the trip i told him "through Riri 妹妹" hahaah - if you get what i mean, that Riri 妹妹 wants to go taiwan with us and he was like OKAY LOR!
Hahahaha, he said okay one lor! still give me the WTH hahahahah.
enjoyed my tubbing time and watched one piece then bedtime, rest and the adventures continue tomorrow! ☺
♡ Loves, TheLuckiestChick.
