Fun Taiwan 2015: Part II

Friday, 1 May 2015

I left the hotel at 07:15 and walked to the station where I found that my 07:38 train to Taitung was delayed by three minutes. It was an express train and stopped at many stations (a limited express would take less time as it stops at fewer stations and costs more of course). Never mind. I had my novel to occupy me and the scenery that flew past: towns, villages, paddy fields, distant mountains, dry rivers. We finally reached an overcast Taitung at 12:45 and I went to buy train ticket to Taipei for the following morning. This time, I bought a limited express train ticket – the slightly cheaper ticket would take me three additional hours before I reached Taipei and after today’s train ride of more than five hours, I think I’d experienced enough. Oh don’t get me wrong. Taiwanese train system is fast, efficient and reliable but I just didn’t fancy spending more than seven hours cooped in one only 24 hours after being in one for five hours.

After purchasing my train ticket, I went to the Visitor Centre to ask for directions to my B&B. It was really threatening to rain and I kept casting a worried look at the sky as I walked. It took me 15 minutes to get to my B&B and I must say the area around my B&B was a bit strange. First I walked along a main road before turning into a lane (which turned out to be passable for vehicles), walked a bit more before crossing another main road to a neighbourhood which looked pretty new. The B&B I stayed at was around the next left bend, a corner unit. It was actually a four-storey house and I later found that a few rooms were let out to guests. The lady running it invited me in and took my details. She didn’t speak English at all so we communicated using a translator on her smartphone. I was then shown to a room on the ground floor (phew!), the only room on the ground floor.

The B&B lady’s friend who was there to visit spoke a bit of English and offered to take me to the city. I thanked her and accepted the offer for I didn’t think I’d be joining any shuttle tour be it the Rift Valley or East Coast tour due to the discouraging weather. Indeed it rained just after 1 p.m.

We left for the city centre five km away in the rain (I borrowed the B&B owner’s brolly). She dropped me off at Visitor Centre near the old train station (no longer in use. The one I arrived at is a new station for the city) and I went into the Visitor Centre. The girl behind the counter gave me a dining map and also the schedule for the bus back to the train station. Armed with the map given by her and the one I picked when I arrived, I set off in the rain. What little I saw of Taitung in the rain didn’t impress me much though but I walked on. Then I went to find late lunch but the vegetarian restaurant at the corner of Baosang Road and Fujian Road would only open for business at 16:30 so I walked off again and wandered around the fruit market before returning at 5 for early dinner. I had bamboo shoot soup and noodles for dinner. Then I walked back to the Visitor Centre to get the bus back to the station. The bus was late by ten minutes and the driver didn’t give any change (the fare was NTD25, I had NTD30. It was a good thing I didn’t give him a bigger note).

From the station, I walked back to the B&B. The rain had stopped by then. I came back to an empty and dark house. I took a shower and rested in my room. Slowly, the other guests came back from their day out.

Saturday, 2 May 2015

I woke up at 6 and had a shower. I was eating bread in my room when there was a knock – turned out the B&B owner’s husband wanted to drive me to the station and wanted me to hurry. I quickly finished packing and went out. We had gone into the car when I showed him my train ticket and he immediately relaxed when he realised my train was only leaving in 40 minutes. We left for the station at 07:40 and it was only when I was in the train waiting for it to depart that I realised I’d left my newly purchased bucket hat behind in my haste ;’( or rather when I was rushed off to the station. Dammit!

We pulled into Taipei just before noon and after getting my bearings, I went off to find my hostel. After checking in, I rested for a bit before setting off again. I walked and found the Zhongshan Metro Mall (I somehow couldn’t find the mall entrance back in September) and walked to Zhongshan station. At Zhongshan station, I went out to explore the area before getting back into the mall and walking to Shuanglian station before taking the metro to Shilin station. I had dinner at the seafood stall where we had our meal in September before exploring the market. I left empty-handed though. I took the train from Jiantan back to Taipei Main Station and walked back to the hostel.

Sunday, 3 May 2015

I left after breakfast today and decided to walk to Taipei Grand Mosque. Yes, I walked 3 km there. I then went across to Daan Park to wait for Zuhor. Well, that was the plan anyway and Zuhor was an hour away. Before long though, clouds had gathered overhead threatening rain so I decided to leave and walk the 4.2 km to Taipei 101. There were a lot of people at Taipei 101 – turned out there was a tower run today. I went into the mall and walked around before browsing the boutiques.

I returned back to the hostel, taking the metro this time. Before exiting the station, I bought some sushi for lunch, dinner and breakfast the following morning and some oolong tea from Sushi Takeout. I the stayed in for the rest of the day as I had an early start the next morning. Oh, I walked at least 12.6 km today. Yeay me!

Monday, 4 May 2015

I woke at 4 to the sound of rain. Oh no! I got ready, performed prayers and left at 04:45 and walked to the Taipei West Bus Station for the bus to the airport. It had already stopped raining by then phew. There were a few people about already: the newspaper vendors and some early riser business owners. I bought the 1819 bus ticket to the airport (there was another bus to the airport but it would take 70 minutes as it stops at a few hotels en route). There was a long queue to board the bus and I was lucky that I was the last four allowed up, alhamdulillah. We arrived at the airport at 05:45 (it was already bright) and I immediately went off to drop my bag. The check-in queue was really long – I can never understand why people don’t just check in online prior to flying as it saves so much time.

There was another long queue to clear security (fast one though) and then it was immigration check. My plane took off on time and I dozed off during take-off. There was some problem with the inflight entertainment but I had stopped watching inflight movies anyway – just not interested in the selection most times.

We landed at 12:20 (ETA was 12:40, well done MAS!) and I was on the 13:00 train to KL Sentral.

Will there a fourth trip to Taiwan? Not in the very near future for sure.

Fun Taiwan 2015: Part I

This trip was planned at the back of my mind shortly after the Taiwan trip last September although I didn’t expect it to materialise so soon. This is the first time in ten years that I had not planned to go to Europe in end-spring as I’m wont to do due to a few factors. See, my passport was expiring and I wanted to wait a bit before renewing it. Then there’s the football season which ends later this time around. I had also planned to save my leave for a tour but had to wait until the MATTA Fair to find out the departure date (the tour didn’t materialise for me though as it would take place in early September and that’s not a good time for me to be away from the office as August is a busy month). When I found out that the passport renewal would be reduced to RM200, I decided to travel to Taiwan instead, bought my flight ticket and renewed my passport. I then sorted out accommodation and planned the trip (must admit the planning wasn’t as thorough as past trips).

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

We landed at Taoyuan International Airport at 06:20. Bags took a while to emerge. My initial plan was to buy the 1819 bus ticket to Taipei Main Station and from there buy train ticket to Chiayi. As things turned out, I took another route down to the airport bus station and as I was walking towards the counter, I noticed there are bus services to a few cities including Chiayi from the airport via Zhongli Station. The ticket was only NTD240 which is a lot less than the airport bus and train ticket combined and the next bus out was at 07:30. Alhamdulillah. I had my breakfast (which was the late-night supper from MAS) while waiting for my bus to Zhongli Station.

We arrived Zhongli Station at 07:49 and I waited for the 08:10 bus to Chiayi. Bus was late though; it only arrived at 08:30. There was a bad standstill on the freeway as we were heading out of Taipei but it eased gradually.

We arrived at Chiayi Bus Station just before 13:00. I made queries at the Visitor Centre before buying return busticket to Alishan for the following morning (NTD236 for one way) and then finding my hotel. I was pleased to see that my hotel was all of five minutes from the train station. I rested for a bit before venturing out again after 16:00. I wasn’t so pleased though when I found that There were so many tea stalls there that I wondered how any of them stay in business long enough! And of the dozens of restaurants and stalls around, I couldn’t find any selling seafood or vegetarian food. None. Zilch. Nada. In the end, I bought some snacks for dinner.

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Woke up at 05:15 and had a quick shower. A light breakfast followed. I left the hotel at 05:50 and went to the train station to fill up my water bottle before boarding the 06:10 bus to Alishan (the first bus out). The lady across the aisle from had a backpack bearing a familiar logo so I asked if she was Malaysian too. The trip took slightly over two hours and we had to get down at the entrance to the AlishanNational Scenic Area and pay the entrance fee of NTD150. The lady from Malaysia helped translate for me. After paying for the ticket, we re-boarded the bus before getting down at the bus stand at Alishan (the last stop). I went to the Visitor Centre first – where I learnt that it’d take 2.5 hours to walk around the area - before heading for the train station. I had intended to take the Alishan Forest Train to Sacred Tree station and then back before taking the train again to Zhaoping station.

There was a notice at the train station stating that the ticket office would open at 09:30 (first train out is at 10:00 anyway, to Zhaoping) so I settled down to wait. I was getting restless (it was barely 09:00 and I had another hour before the train was due to depart) and then I noticed a sign that said the train ride to Zhaoping would take six minutes but one could also walk there and reach there in 30 minutes. I looked around at the growing number of people outside the station heading somewhere and thought, what the heck, I might as well walk and if I did, I’d reach Zhaoping even before the ticket office at Alishan train station opened! So I walked back to the Visitor Centre to ask for directions (the chap didn’t speak much English though) and set off. And guess what? A lot of the locals were already walking so it looked like they all chose to walk rather than wait for the train.

I walked on to Zhaoping and turned into Zhaoping Park. Sadly, the cherry blossoms were no longer in bloom ;’( oh well. I walked on and saw signs to Sisters Pond and decided to head there. At Sisters Pond, there was a trail to Tashan. I hesitated and dithered before finally deciding to give it a miss (a good thing too as I just realised now it’s a 6.8-km trail!). I walked on and asked for directions to the Scented Wood Arch Bridge. I was told it’s after Shouzhen Temple so I followed signs to the temple. I must have walked miles already by then but I must say that the Alishan area is so easy to navigate and I can say that for I walked its length in my FitFlop (I decided to leave my Converse out of my suitcase at the last minute).

I followed the trail to the Three Generation Tree, Alishan Museum (everything was in Mandarin though), Xianglin Sacred Tree and the Giant Trees Boardwalk. I then followed the trail descending down all the way to Sacred Tree Station. I couldn’t thank God enough that I decided to walk to Zhaoping first and back from Sacred Tree instead of the other way round; if I had walked or taken the train to Sacred Tree Station first and return back to Alishan station from Zhaoping, I’d have to climb up from Sacred Tree Station to the Giant Trees Boardwalk and Xianglin Sacred Tree. That would be a very painful strenuous exhausting climb indeed. I could still walk back to Alishan but no way was I going to climb back up to the trail so train it was. And luckily for me, there was a train at noon (this time is not stated in the online train schedule though). So I paid NTD50 for the single ticket back to Alishan (a round trip ticket costs NTD80) and waited for the train.

The ride took only six minutes and I was out of the station with three hours left to my bus ride back to Chiayi (I indicated 15:10 as my departure time from Alishan when I bought the bus ticket). I remembered that I managed to change the train ticket from Taipei to Kaohsiung last September and decided to try out my luck. Luckily again for me, there was a couple from Shenzhen in front of me who were also on the waiting list and they understood enough English to help translate for me. The bus driver for the 12:40 trip finally let us on after ascertaining those who had purchased the ticket for that slot had all boarded. We arrived back at Chiayi at 14:45 and I walked back to my hotel to rest after buying a train ticket to Taitung for the following morning.

I went out after 5 p.m. to search for dinner and found myself walking again to Wenhua Road Night Market. I was in luck this time: stumbled upon a stall selling sushi and noodles so I asked if the seller could prepare me a bowl of seafood noodles. I walked back to the hotel after dinner.

To be continued

Fun Taiwan: My Observations And Thoughts

My Taiwanese friend told me on my first visit there that the island state is a very safe country and was she right. A girl can walk alone at 11 p.m. and not worry about being mugged or attacked. There are posters in the MRT advising what to do in the event of sexual harassment. There are clear designated waiting areas at train stations for females at night. I never felt unsafe or threatened when I was there. They clearly respect the weaker sex there. There are a lot of motorcyclists but everyone respects the law and no one would try to mow you down. No mat rempit and no snatch thieves for sure!

Taiwanese make life easy for everyone. It’s a tourist-friendly country with plenty of helpful signs in both Mandarin and English. It’s a disabled-friendly country with many ramps and facilities for the disabled, and also if you are travelling with wheels like a stroller, trolley bag or even a bicycle. There are many lockers at the Taipei Main Station, Taipei Main Station MRT Station, train stations, even at Taipei 101! You can also find clean washrooms everywhere and they are all free of charge. The washrooms there have two types of toilet: the squat toilet and the sit-down ‘throne’ toilet. And you can refill your water bottle for free on some trains and some buildings (airports, Visitor Information Centre...) and have a choice of hot, warm or cold water at no charge. I didn’t have to buy water at all over there.

The island’s transportation network is comfortable, modern, reliable and very efficient, be it the MRT, normal train, high speed train, even long-distance and local shuttle buses. Everything runs like clockwork.

Taiwan is a technologically advanced country. All the hotels, hostel and guesthouse we stayed at provided free WiFi that’s fast, fast, fast!

Taiwanese are generally very environmentally friendly and aware. It’s very clean; you’ll be hard-pressed to find litter anywhere. I don’t know what fuel they use over there but I sure didn’t see any black smoke emitted from any vehicle. If you ever have any prejudice against the Chinese, about some of them being unhygienic or spitting everywhere or littering, Taiwan and its people will prove you wrong. I can say with confidence that in terms of cleanliness and hygiene awareness, Taiwan is more ‘Islamic’ than Malaysia.

Taiwanese are also conscious and aware of their health. You will find people walking with their umbrellas or donning their big sun hats to fend off the sun everywhere (unlike here, where I’ll be asked if it is raining whenever I carry my umbrella. The sun did feel quite intense there and the locals apparently all know the harmful effects of the sun and its UV rays (and don’t forget pigmentation!).

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive while planning this trip as I recall from my first visit to Taipei that the locals hardly speak any English. I was worried that I would have problems travelling around, problems communicating and asking for directions and enquiring about food ingredients, and worse-case scenario, majority of signs in Mandarin. It didn’t help that the Taiwan promotional booths at the MATTA Fairs (they participate at almost every MATTA Fair) have brochures all in Mandarin. Well, I can tell you that while there are those who do speak English especially among the young and surprisingly in other cities. What I also found interesting was even the stallkeepers at the night market in Kaohsiung could speak English but not their counterparts at Shilin Night market in Taipei...

You don’t have to worry too much about food as being an island, Taiwan is able to offer you a choice of seafood (noodles, oyster omelette, sushi...). There are also vegetarian restaurants (some are strict Buddhists) although we didn’t actually manage to find any. There are also a few halal restaurants especially in the bigger cities. Taiwan is also famous for its bubble tea and sweet desserts.

Overall, I’m glad I decided to revisit Taiwan. I wouldn’t mind a return trip either. There is still a lot of Taiwan that I haven’t discovered. And like I said before, why not? It’s a convenient friendly clean safe beautiful country to visit. I dare say it’s comparable to Japan in terms of its beauty, safety, efficiency, modernity and cleanliness. What’s not to like?

Fun Taiwan: Days 4, 5 and 6 – Taichung, Sun Moon Lake, Taipei and Taroko Gorge

Sunday, 14 September 2014

We woke up early today and went down for breakfast just after 7. Taiwanese breakfast is very healthy: congee with condiments, pau, vegetables and bread with jam and butter. We left at 07:40 and made our way to Gancheng station (it was actually a bus stop; the bus station was across the road). SM had picked  a brochure with details on Sun Moon Lake pass where you pay only NTD360 for a pass containing a boat voucher (worth NTD300), a Sun Moon Lake Ropeway round-trip voucher (worth NTD300), a round-the-lake bus voucher (worth NTD80) and Shuishe-Xiangshan Bus one-way voucher (worth NTD26). What a bargain! You can buy the pass at Nantou Bus office (directly behind the bus stop) or at the Visitor Information Centre at Sun Moon Lake. The bus arrived at 07:50 and I used my EasyCard to pay for my bus fare. The bus was quite full and reflective of the popularity of the lake.

We arrived at Shuishe Visitor Centre at 09:40 and after storing our bags (there’s a luggage room at the Visitor Information Centre and you can store your bags at no charge at all), we walked to Shuishe Pier. The boat left just after 10:30 and it stopped at Syunguang Temple Pier before continuing on to Ito Thao Pier. We actually got down at Syunguang Temple Pier (in our defence, the announcement was in Mandarin and we didn’t know the boat was following the reverse route). Fortunately for us, we managed to rush back and re-board the boat to Ito Thao before it left. We disembarked at Ito Thao and walked to the Ropeway Station and queued for the cable car up. The cable car ride gave us a bird’s eye view of the lake and the hills. As we didn’t pay for the pass that includes the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (it would cost us about NTD650 if I recall correctly if we bought entrance ticket on the spot), we decided to ride the cable car back down.

We took the Lakeside Trail back to Ito Thao Pier and took the boat back to Shuishe Pier. We collected our bags from the luggage room and sat down to wait for the 13:20 King Bus to Taipei. We could of course take the Nantou Bus back to Taichung and travel to Taipei by train but we would reach Taipei slightly later compared to if we had just taken the bus plus it would cost us slightly more. The fare by King Bus was NTD460 and you have to buy the ticket at the ticket counter (can’t use EasyCard on this bus). The lady at the ticket counter had informed SM that it would take more than 4 hours to reach Taipei. ‘Whoa,’ I said, ‘Good thing we are early and leaving at 13:20 and not later.’

The bus arrived and we boarded and at first the bus was quite empty but it later stopped at Puli, I think, and a lot of passengers got on. So many passengers in fact that the bus was almost full within an hour of leaving Sun Moon Lake. And true enough, we arrived at Taipei West Bus Station at 17:25. I thought Taipei West Bus Station was the same as Taipei Bus Station and we spent a long time staring at the map, confused. Oh, we did try asking people but surprise, surprise, a lot of the locals couldn’t speak English. In this sense, even the locals of Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung are better in their command of English. A cabbie showed us the rough direction, another said it was too far to walk to, but finally we managed to get directions and our bearings sorted.

We arrived at EasyMind Guest House at the 12^th floor of a building further down Chengde Road at 17:55 and checked in. Our room was a tiny one with bunk beds and bunk lockers. It did have a balcony though. After prayers, we rushed out and took the MRT to Zhongxiao Dunhua Station and went to find Ai-Jia Qingzhen Beef Noodle Place, a halal beef noodles restaurant we had read about but alas, after walking a few blocks, we found the right address alright but the restaurant had closed with another in its place. Just our rotten luck then.

We retraced our steps back to the MRT station and took the MRT to Taipei City Hall. From there, we took bus no. 5 to Taipei 101. There used to be a free shuttle bus from Taipei City Hall to Taipei 101 but no longer. We had dinner at the food court at Taipei 101 and went to look for Star*ucks (I read that you get to travel up the building to where Star*ucks is and not have to pay for the trip up to the observatory deck) but we were out of luck again as there Star*ucks no longer has an outlet there. We left after dinner for we had an early start the next morning anyway – although we actually ended up trying out the different routes to Taipei West Bus Station to familiarise ourselves (the airport bus back to the airport leaves from Taipei West Bus Station. When we rode it from the airport, it dropped us at another entrance to Taipei Main Station). I had an early flight on Tuesday morning.

Monday, 15 September 2014

We left at 06:35 and walked to Taipei Main Station, via Taipei City Mall (which is linked to Taipei Bus Station). This is an easier route in my opinion as it means we walk in indoor comfort the minute we enter Taipei City Mall. Just follow the signs to Taipei Main Station or the TRA (Taiwan Railways Administration referring to normal trains) or HSR (High Speed Rail for the high speed trains) signs. You’ll need to get down the escalator at one point and cross over (below the street-level road) to Taipei Main Station.

We arrived at 06:55, just in time for our 07:08 train to Hualien. Hualien is on the east side of the island and latitude-wise is further south than Taichung. We reached Hualien at 10:01 and after asking at the Visitor Information Centre, rushed off to take the 10:20 shuttle bus which went to Taroko Gorge. A one-day Easy Go Shuttle Bus costs NTD250 (a two-day pass costs NTD400) and we bought our tickets at the counter near the bus stop. The bus was small and quite full. It took us two hours (!) to get to Yanzikou Trail where the Swallow Grotto is. It took us fifteen minutes longer as there was a landslide along a stretch of the route and we had to stop as only vehicles travelling in one direction could use that stretch at any one time.

As we had sat through five hours of journey, we stretched our legs by walking along the trail and looking over the gorge. There was a service area about 600 metres away from where we got off the bus. We walked for about 1.5 km before turning back. We took the 13:35 bus but got down at Xincheng Station instead of travelling further to Hualien Station. Had we known, we would have just bought train tickets to Xincheng instead of Hualien. Hualien is further south and you need to travel longer on the shuttle bus to get to Taroko Gorge. The ticket back to Taipei cost less too than if we had taken the train from Hualien. We managed to buy the 15:31 train tickets back to Taipei but had to change seats (not change trains) at Luodong Station. Well, we’d rather change seats than take a later train.

We arrived at Taipei Main Station at 16:39 and walked back to the guest house.

We went out that evening after evening prayers and after timing how long it took to walk to Taipei West Bus Station, we took the MRT to Shilin to check out Shilin Night Market. Again, we discovered that the local city folks don’t speak much English and we had dinner only with some help from a girl. After dinner, we browsed some stalls at the covered Shilin Market and bought some souvenirs. Well, just two t-shirts and two magnets for me. We returned back to Taipei Main Station from Jiantan Station. I bought some sushi after returning my EasyCard at the Information Counter at the MRT station. Then we walked back to the guest house.

I went to bed after 10 pm as I had another early start the next morning.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

I was woken up by loud noises from the lounge sometime after 1 am and was quite pissed. Somehow I managed to fall asleep again before getting up at 04:15. Had a quick shower before performing morning prayers and finishing my packing. SM decided to accompany me and we left at 5. The streets were deserted save for some cleaners sweeping the street. We went into Taipei City Mall but had to de-tour a bit as some areas were still closed and at the Main Station, we had to de-tour too. So much for plotting a trolley-bag route to Taipei West Bus Station for the past two evenings! We reached Taipei West Bus Station at 05:23 and the bus to the airport was already there. I quickly handed my ticket and boarded the bus and the bus left a couple of minutes later.

We reached the airport at 06:05 and I went to drop off my bag. For some reason, we cannot check in power banks so I had to get my power bank out and carry it with me. I had some sushi before clearing security and despite the apparent long queue, it was a fast process. There were many comfortable sofas, free Internet stations, shops, washrooms, even a room called Ladies’ Dressing Table, nursing room and massage room. Amazing. I cleared immigration after that and proceeded to browse some duty-free shops before making my way to the gate. I spotted a sign for prayer room and found it was close to Gates B1-3.

We boarded at 07:35 and the plane took off at 08:00. I dozed off for a short while and when I woke up, watched The Fault In Our Stars. I wouldn’t watch it at the theatre; I’d prefer watching something fun and happy if I have to pay for it.

We landed at 12:35 and my bag came out at 12:50. I took the bus to KL Sentral before making my way home. That was it, my second trip to Taiwan. And what a satisfying trip it was too!

Fun Taiwan: Days 2 and 3 – Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung

Friday, 12 September 2014

We checked out after breakfast this morning and stored our bags at the reception. We then walked along Jianguo 3^rd Road and almost by accident, stumbled upon Sanfengzhong Street, a long food market street. It sells onions and garlic, dried mushrooms of every size, seaweed, packed snacks, pickles... the only thing I thought was strange was the absence of customers. We then turned into Zhonghua 3^rd Road and walked until we hit Central Park, and on to Kaohsiung Star Place where there are LV, Gucci and Ferragamo boutiques (we wanted to enter but the boutiques only opened at 11 and it was only 10:30 then) and then we took Wenwu 3^rd Street and turned here and there until we reached Kaohsiung Sky Tower. We stopped for a short while before turning back and heading to Far Eastern Department Store. We went in to find a washroom but when we saw the elevators, I had an idea and suggested we take the elevator the highest floor for a bird’s eye view over the city. So we rode the elevator to the 17^th floor and there were doors leading out to the deck where we enjoyed a view of the sprawling city. How fantastic is that?

We browsed the bookstore at that level before taking the elevator down. We crossed over to Sogo but there was no supermarket there so instead we bought some buns from a mini bakery outside Sogo. Then we took the MRT from Sanduo Shopping District Station to Weiwuying Station (EasyCard not accepted in the Kaohsiung MRT though), changing train at Formosa Boulevard where the Dome of Light is (the largest glass work in the world). At Weiwuying, we took the exit that led us to Kaohsiung Mosque. We met a few Mainland Chinese Muslim women outside the mosque and although we couldn’t communicate at all, we somehow managed to get together to have group photos. Haha, that was quite funny actually. We then went in to perform prayers and as the Friday prayers started just after we performed ablutions, we joined in the prayers too. After lunch, we dropped by the halal Indonesian restaurant next door and had beef noodles for lunch.

We took the MRT back to Kaohsiung Station and went to collect our bags at the hostel. After a brief rest, we set out for the station and bought tickets for the 15:29 train to Tainan. We reached Tainan after 63 minutes and went to our hotel after dropping by the Visitor Information Centre at the station. The girl at the Visitor Information Centre had pointed out the building to us and I must say my heart sank when I saw the drab ugly building. Fortunately, this is one of those instances where we should not judge a book by its cover. The building may be drab outside but the hotel and our room are at least brand new, or at least recently refurbished.

We went out in the evening and went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and Focus Square before crossing the street to the food stalls opposite. I didn’t buy anything though and had buns instead for dinner in the room.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

After breakfast, we checked out and left our bags at the reception. We then went to wait for the 88 Anping bus (waited at the wrong bus stop at first, no thanks to the hotel people). The 09:30 bus came at 09:50 and we boarded it. It cost only NTD18 one way and it took us more than an hour to reach Sunset Platform, the last stop. We got down and walked for a brief while before getting on the 11:30 bus to Anping Fort.

We walked for an hour in Anping in the hot merciless sun. It was 36C and blazing hot. We reached the bus stop for the bus back to Tainan City just seconds before it came along.

Back at the hotel, we rested and enjoyed the lobby air-conditioning comfort before dragging ourselves over to the train station. We bought the 15:03 train tickets to Taichung and sat at the waiting area. There was a 7-11 and a Sushi Takeout outlet and we bought sushi for our late lunch. Sushi Takeout accepts EasyCard by the way.

We arrived at Taichung at 17:09 and were met with a huge crowd at the platform, in the station and outside the station. Wow, I thought, this must be a huge city indeed. Even Kaohsiung, the second largest city, didn’t feel that crowded. We battled the crowd and made our way to our hotel. I was happy to find that the roads in Taiwan are all have English scripts in addition to the Chinese characters and finding our hotel was such a breeze that we didn’t even need to resort to asking for directions (I had earlier printed off maps from Google Map for locations of our lodgings and we relied solely on those maps. Thanks Google Map!).

We checked in, had a quick shower and performed prayers before venturing out. The Restaurant District was literally a few steps away from the hotel although we only saw Vietnamese stalls there. Oh, we did bump into quite a few Indonesians in Taichung. We stumbled upon Wellcome Supermarket (the first we came across thus far in Taiwan, all others had been convenience stores) and bought some groceries for the following day. We then returned to the hotel and rested. I relied on tweets (WiFi is fast in Taiwan!) for footie updates.

To be continued

Fun Taiwan: Day 1 - Taipei and Kaohsiung

I had been planning to revisit Taiwan since my first visit in March 2007. As I hadn’t any fixed destination for the Malaysia Day weekend, I started researching and promptly decided, OK, I would do Taiwan again! I scoured the flight fares and times and MAS’ schedule suited me better (it would actually cost me slightly more to fly AirAsia – even if I wanted to and I didn’t – and the schedules didn’t suit me at all) and because I procrastinated, the fares had gone up by the time I decided to buy my ticket. I then explored flying into Kaohsiung and out of Taipei (Cathay Pacific would be the best option; it involved a stopover in Hong Kong for both legs though, meaning longer travel time) but at the last minute, I decided to check PYO Travel website and guess what, the MAS fares were lower there by RM208 and the seats for both legs were pre-booked for me (5A for both legs!)! This was only the second time I used PYO Travel: the first time was when I booked Hotel Royal in Macau after scouring other sites:

Firefly Holidays (w/o breakfast): RM986.40

Hotels.com (w/out breakfast): RM962

Go Holiday (w/o breakfast): RM905.36

Ratestogo.com (rates change every day): RM816 then RM827

PYOtravel.com: RM797

Anyway. Back to the Taiwan trip. I bought my flight ticket on 21 July and set about planning my route. It’d be a whirlwind packed trip and I was determined to cover as many places as possible. I already have some brochures and guide books on Taiwan so I referred to them and Wikitravel of course. Now, you may ask, ‘Why Taiwan?’ Well, why not? I know the country is a very safe country like Japan. My Taiwanese friend told me that a girl can walk alone even at 11 pm and no one would harm her. And I don’t need a visa to enter Taiwan unlike China and Korea. I let slip my plan to SM on 4 August and she bought her tickets six days later. Finally the day arrived and we were good to go.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Now, our flight was at 01:25 on Thursday, 11 September, so we departed for the airport this evening. Met up with SM after midnight at the boarding gate.

Thursday, 11 September 2014

We boarded the flight at 1 am and I dozed off during take-off. I was about to fall asleep again when I was woken up by a cabin crew who wanted to serve me my meal. I was hoping the meal would be served closer to landing but no, it was served sometime after 2 am. I was already up so I chose noodles with chicken. Tried to fall back asleep but failed of course. I finally got up at 5 and went to the bathroom to perform ablutions for my morning prayers.

We landed at Taoyuan International Airport at 06:15 and I quickly disembarked. I had told SM that we needed to hit the ground running literally as we were travelling to Kaohsiung that afternoon and the train trip could take anywhere between 4 hours and 25 minutes to 6 hours and 49 minutes (actually, there is one service which takes 8 hours and 22 minutes and as it is the longest and also the costliest, we didn’t consider this at all of course). I cleared immigration within 15 minutes of landing and went to the washroom near the conveyor belt to freshen up. SM emerged later as she sat further back in the plane. We left after 10 minutes and took the airport bus to Taipei Main Station (return ticket costs NTD230). The trip took us 50 minutes.

At the Taipei Main Station, we searched for lockers to store our bags and then bought the 3 pm train ticket to Kaohsiung and the 07:08 train ticket to Hualien for the following Monday. I had already searched the train times and cost online prior to the trip – the website is easy to navigate and really helped us in planning our trips and budgeting. After buying the tickets and storing our bags, we made our way to the MRT for the train to Shilin station. We bought an EasyCard prior to entering the MRT – it works like the Octopus Card in Hong Kong and Touch ‘n Go here –and users enjoy a 10% discount on fares. Deposit is NTD100 and if you return your card, a NTD20 will be deducted.

At Shilin, we got down and after buying some buns from a bakery near the station, we walked to the nearby bus stop for the bus to National Palace Museum. This museum is among the best in the world and as I didn’t manage to visit it on my first trip, I really wanted to visit it this time. There are quite a few buses going to the museum, you just need to check the destination of the various buses.

We reached the museum after 9 am and paid NTD250 for the admission. If you’re carrying a backpack or bulky bag, you would need to leave it at the cloak room. We split up and agreed to meet at the entrance at 12:30. There are three floors and I covered all rooms although I must confess that I did breeze through some displays. Photography is not allowed by the way. There were very long queues to some of the more popular and rare displays like the ivory carvings and jadeite cabbage.

I finished just before 12 and was dithering if I had time to go to the other building when SM came up and told me there were paintings and calligraphy in the other building. I had seen some earlier so we agreed to leave. It was already blazing hot by then and it was with some reluctance that we left the cool sanctuary of the museum. We waited for the bus and then took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

The memorial hall is flanked by the National Theatre and National Concert Hall. A park surrounded the Memorial Hall Square. We spent some time here taking photos and helping take photos of others. We left just after 1 pm, having agreed that we’d try to change our train time to 2 pm instead.

Back at the Taipei Main Station, we spotted a TRA ticket counter and went to ask if we could change our tickets. Thankfully, we managed to communicate this and not only got them changed at no charge but the lady managed to help us find seats next to each other. We then went to search for our lockers (and my, were there many lockers at the station, even at the MRT station! How convenient do the Taiwanese make life easy for everyone!) and finally managed to locate our lockers.

We boarded the train and made ourselves comfortable for the journey. The bathroom in the train was clean and guess what, there were even water dispensers in the train! In fact, I noticed this at a lot of places – at the airport, the Visitor Information Centre at Sun Moon Lake, in trains... like I said, they really make life comfortable for everyone. I didn’t have to buy water at all in Taiwan! I normally buy bottles of litres of mineral water when I travel.

We reached Kaohsiung at 18:42 (it was already dark by then; sunset was at 18:07) and went to look for our lodging. It was actually only four minutes away from the station (I had purposely searched for a hotel/hostel near the station). By the way, if you take the High Speed Rail train, the HSR station is different and you’ll need to take another train or taxi to Kaohsiung Main Station.

After checking in and freshening up, we walked to Liuhe Night Market. There was a lot of seafood on sale (grilled squids, grilled baby crabs, seafood noodles), and other stalls selling drinks, souvenir and clothes. Most of the stall keepers there knew some English and some even warned us that they used beef oil or had pork in their food. We had seafood noodle soup for dinner before returning to the hostel.

To be continued

In The Picture

Golconda Fort, Hyderabad, India - August 2006

Temple raider, Siem Reap, Cambodia - November 2006

Monks at a temple

Angkor Wat

In a Bangkok tuk tuk - December 2006

Vimanmen Teak Mansion, Bangkok

Terraced rice-fields of Bali - January 2007

Mount Tangkuban Perahu near Bandung - February 2007

Taipei Grand Hotel - March 2007

Queen’s Head at Yehliu Scenic Geopark, Taiwan

Capitol Hill from afar, Washington D.C.

Not Casablanca city in Morocco but Casa Blanca nevertheless, i.e. The White House

Relaxing on an unusually mild spring afternoon

Freezing DC weather on the morning of departure

Ni Hao Taipei!

I am now at the Dynasty Lounge of the Taipei Taoyuan Airport, having had a light meal. Met up my Taiwanese friend yesterday morning and she drove me around. First we stopped at Taipei Grand Hotel for some Kodak moments. We then drove on to Beitou Hot Springs at the outskirts of the city. I was amazed that these kind of natural places exist so near a city. We dropped by the Beitou Hot Spring Museum before walking on to a hot spring pool where we saw clouds swirling around. Thankfully the sulpur smell wasn’t too strong.

We then drove to Liuhuangku Geothermal Scenic Area where there was a vast land of wasteland-like area with clouds of gas swirling with its strong smell of sulphur.

Next we drove futher north to the coast where the hills meet the sea. And the sea was rough yesterday, very rough and angry indeed. It was pissing rain practically the whole day, a perfect day for relaxing in on a lazy Sunday.

We stopped at Dangshui where the river meets the sea and later had an ice cream lunch at Big Tom [!]. I had two scoops of sinful ice cream flavours, can’t really recall the name now.

We then drove past the towns of Sanshih and Jinshan. I’m afraid I got a bit sleepy then and dozed off a bit [oh no!]. Tiffany was thoughtful and considerate enough not to wake me up.

We drove further along the north coast and round the bend of the north part of the island to Yehliu Scenic Geopark where there were amazing formations of sand and stone sculptures, formed over the centuries by wind and water. It was amazing; there was the mushroom rock group, the Queen’s Head [so called because it resembled a lady’s head], bean curd rock, among many others. We spent some time here admiring the scene and walking along the rocky beach. We even went into a small cave.

Having spent about an hour there, we then left. I bought some seafood produce, fish floss and chilli-fried shrimps. Tiffany also bought some fried seaweed coated in flour and some grilled squid.

We drove on to the mining town of Rueifang, up in the hills but alas, the museum had already closed by then. We the went to Jioufen, to its old street. A charming little place, it was.

We left after a while and this was when I started to feel strange and funny. I started feeling a headache and then felt like I was going to throw up. And Tiffany had already planned for us to have dinner with her friend at Taipei 101, the highest building in the world.

I felt more and more ill the further we drove and could only barely managed to contain myself. Finally, we pulled up at a gas station and I ran to the washroom and threw up. I then had some diarroea and threw up again at Tiffany’s basement carpark washroom. She then took me to a pharmacy where I parted with some Taiwan Dollars purchasing pills [and had another round of throwing up spree].

Felt better after that but badly needed to relax so Tiffany sent me back to the hostel.

My friend who is joining me on the trip sent a text to inform her flight was delayed so I rested first, dozing off in the process. She then texted me again after midnight and I went to meet her at the Zhongsan Metro station. Unfortunately, Taiwanese don’t speak good English and she was instead brought by the cabbie to Longshan Temple. A flurry of text messages was sent between us and finally I told her to take another cab. It was past 1 am this morning when we finally got together and I brought her back to the hostel.

Naturally we woke up a bit late today. Went out to find the Taipei Grand Mosque and made it back in time to perform prayers before finding our way to the Taipei Main Station and catch the bus back to the airport for our afternnon flight to our next destination. The bus stop was quite a walk from the Main Station.

Alright, I have to dash now. The journey continues...

First And Foremost: Formosa

It’s a wet Sunday Morning as I type this.

There were a lot of people at the airport long queues to check-in yeserday [thankfully I’d checked in at KL Sentral] and long queues at the Autogates too. Then I realised, oh yes, school hols have started...

Endured another long queue at the boarding gate - turned out that the security on passengers to the US and Taiwan is stricter. No water bottles or anything of that sort.

After the delay - the flight only took off 45 minutes after the scheduled time, it turned out to be a pleasant flight in the modern plane. The seat was futuristic and my seat was at the upper deck, cool! Was assigned the back seat though, not cool. But I was alone in that row, cool! And was well-fed and well taken care of, cool. Syukur alhamdulilah.

Arrived in hazy Taipei at 3 pm. Yet another queue was endured. Bought a return coach ticket to Taipei Main Station. And, guess what, there was another blinking queue to board the coach. The journey to downtown Taipei took 50 minutes and shortly after arriving at the Main Station, I found myself navigating my way through the maze of underground network of shops and subway station. Finally arrived at Taiwanmex Hostel at 5 pm. Met a friendly, unusually-tanned English chap by the name of Barry and he’s cute too! Quite a friendly chap and we chatted a bit - told him he was the first foreigner I’ds met since leaving the aiport 1.5 hours earlier - before I left as it turned out that my room is at another building.

Took the Taipei Metro to Shilin Night Market after prayers. There was a building with what must be among the largest food courts in this part of the globe. I didn’t feel hungry [and it wasn’t as if I could partake any of the food anyway!] so I made my way to a nearby street. There must be at least half of Taipei there... and I was being jostled and hustled, shoved and pushed aside, elbowed and poked and ran into by the mad shoppers. The narrow street didn’t help and to make things worse, there were peddlars in the middle of the already narrow and congested street. Almost everything was sold from street food to clothes, bags, ties, shoes... everything but souvenirs. Duhhh!

I got fed up of the crowd and having to fight my way through so I decided to return back to the hostel. Besides, fatigue was setting in already.

The hostel is compact but cosy. There’s a cute, frisky [if it’s not curled up on the sofa] tortoiseshell cat in residence [thankfully, not a dog!]. The hostel is situated on the top floor of a building and if not for the haze, I’m sure the view would have been fantastic. Oh well... By the way, the hostel is managed/owned/ran by a Mexican who I think is married to a local and I’m now typing this on a keyboard with both the normal alphabets and Chinese characters. One terminal pops up the Mexican/Spanish version of Blogger.com while the other pops up the Chinese version so I’m relying on memory to sign in, provide password, create posting etc. There’s a local chap with shoulder-length hair who told me he hangs around here on a semi-permanent basis and bunks out on the sofa [poor kitty relegated to elsewhere]. For a Taiwanese, he speaks very good English although he’d make a poor tour guide.

Alright, I’m off to meet my Taiwanese friend shortly, she’s offered to bring me around. I hope to persuade her to bring me to the Taipei Grand Mosque and some halal eatery, among other things. See you later!