Flew back from TW yesterday night! Back to work tomorrow. Briefly checked my email this morning and it's not too bad.. I still need to meet my big big boss cos he has some questions regarding my presentation. That will take at least an hour ahhhh better clear some work before meeting him.
Taiwan trip recount!!
These were the 2 apartments we stayed in. I was especially looking forward to the hello kitty theme room in Taichung and I love it! It's cosy and had a small selection of movies in addition to the usual channels. The only down side was that it was 50 mins away from the Taichung railway station and HSR, and the room walls are not sound proof and we had to be very careful not to be too loud when talking/moving about.
The Taipei room was bigger and the room walls were thick enough to talk louder hahaha. It's near Taipei main station which is the connecting station for many lines and was super convenient. No complaints about the location. The toilet was a little too damp for my liking near the shower curtains though. Both apartments had a washing machine and it was a life saver.
Day 1: We arrived at Taoyuan airport at 6am. Immigration took abit of time cos the officer didn't want to accept the address we filled in. I couldn't find the exact address on airbnb and finally the 2nd officer allowed us to write down the contact number of the apartment owner before letting us through. We collected our wifi device and bought a bus ticket to taichung. Because of the delay though, we had to rush within 5 mins to visit the toilet and buy breakfast to eat on the bus.
Reached the Fengjia area around mid morning and stumbled around looking for the busstop to take a bus to the apartment. Saw our first sakura tree while stopping by a park. The weather was cooling but I was still sweating inside my jacket T_T 3pm was the official check in time which was a long way off but thankfully the owner allowed us to put our luggage at the room before noon. The previous person had just checked out and the room was not tidied yet. We continued walking around but by 2pm our legs were aching so much that we just thicken our face and went back to the apartment to rest ahaha.
Went to Fengjia night market from evening on and ate lots of good stuff.
Day 2: Alishan day! We woke up at 6am to take a bus to catch our pre-booked HSR train to chiayi. This was where we found out that taichung railway station =/= taichung HSR station which was at Xin Wuri railway station (2 stations away from taichung railway station) anyways managed to reach the HSR station and secure our seats to Chiayi.
Alishan was breathtaking. Not all the sakura trees were in bloom but still really beautiful.The public bus ride from Chiayi HSR up to the mountain took so long we only reached at noon. Alishan was quite crowded and a lot of climbing to do. No food to buy once you leave the visitor center area and the bf got moody cos we only had the donuts and pastries -_- he wanted to buy more food before walking around but I said no cos I felt that those were sufficient -__- if not enough then you tell me and go buy lah.. I'm not the one who needs more food so of course I said no need.
The public bus back was sold out when we tried to make a purchase around 2+pm...... No choice but to take the next available group taxi at 430pm at a slightly higher price of $300twd/pax to the railway station. Next time should buy the return bus ticket the moment we reach.
We had another small argument cos we wanted to check the train timings but had no idea if the Chiayi railway station was at the Chiayi HSR station, and the internet gave no clues, neither did the 7-11 staff. And the bf just couldn't understand what I was getting at urgh. It sucks to be too detailed in my planning sometimes. In the end bo bian got to go with the flow and see how. Our taxi driver drove fast and furiously and we reached Chiayi railway station at 6+pm. Infact, if we had taken the public bus we might have reached around the same time or even later. Might even miss the last HSR train back to taichung if that was the case. Blessing in disguise ohoho. The railway staff confirmed my suspicion that the chiayi HSR station was not at the railway station and we took a free 20 min shuttle there. Bought a railway bento and enjoyed it on the HSR ride back to Taichung ^__^
Another hour's bus ride from Taichung station to our apartment. Reached home super tired that night OTL way too much travelling, I would suggest staying at Chiayi or Alishan itself if visiting Alishan
Day3: Onward to Taipei! It was noticeably colder in Taipei and windier. The apartment owner was even more power and was able to tidy the room for our check in the moment we reached. Spent the rest of the day walking around the underground mall and ximending at night. The bf got slightly moody again cos ximending obviously was not a night market and didn't have alot of xiao chi
Day 4: Jiufen Shifen Pingxi area. Took the mrt to zhongxiao fuxing to take the bus up to Jiufen. Took some walking to find the bus stop and there was already a queue. There was no indication of when the bus would arrive so in the end we got convinced by a taxi uncle to join another group of japanese tourists in his car, at $350twd for 2 pax (I bargained from $400) ahaha he was quite chatty and though the view might not be as scenic as the public bus route, we did drive through the market in the town near Jiufen. The japanese tourists were exclaiming at the beautiful cherry tomatoes (me too, but it was a silent exclamation in my heart) and to our delight, the taxi uncle stopped the car, signaled to his friend tending the shop to bring a big bag of cherry tomatoes. He gave us a bag of the tomatoes!!! omg they tasted super good and looked amazing. So happy we decided to take the taxi ahahaha
Took a public bus to ruifang station and stopped by hou tong which was the famous cat village. Everything was cat theme and the decorations were so cute XDXD
Really alot of cats and some of them may come up to you to manja. Look at this cute paw XDXD
We took the same train to shifen next and when there of course must buy a tian deng right hahaha we didn't know we could write on all 4 sides and were struggling to think of what to write by the 3rd side. One side was even dedicated to our game-- wishing to draw for SSR and we drew some pictorial representations of each of the SSRs LOL the drawing was done using a calligraphy brush and I felt like I was wearing the ny hongzi and doing hui chun again HAHA anyways we wrote really silly stuff and drew alot, totally not the usual tian deng you'll see with pretty chinese characters.
We left while the day was still bright and went back to zhongxiao dunhua to check out the one piece cafe. The food was so-so nia hahaha the bf says it's cos I was biased and didn't like one piece -shrug-
Super long post... to be continued!
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