#30Stays: Favourite Travel Buddy

I have had a few travel buddies: Mummy, Lin, SM for two trips now (Guilin and Taiwan) and my munchkin nephew. Mummy relied heavily on me when we travelled but she was an enthusiastic traveller. She stoically endured the day-long van ride to Chiang Rai and the borders of Laos and Myanmar; the bus rides in Shanghai and other cities; the angkot ride in Bandung and bajaj ride in Jakarta. Lin travelled with me a few times to London, a few cities in Western Europe, a few cities in Eastern Europe, Russia and Morocco. My munchkin nephew has travelled with me to Solo and Jogjakarta (along with his sister), Jakarta, Turkey and Japan.

I must say that my most favourite travel buddy is me, myself and I. I love my company and I love the freedom, independence and flexibility of travelling solo. I love having my me-time to spend however long I want at some ruins, moving along my schedule however and whenever I want to. I may be alone but I’m not lonely. I have my maps, guidebooks and brochures and novels to occupy me. Having said that, I won’t deny that there are trips where it would be better, wiser and more enjoyable to have some company.

#30Stays: Life-Changing Trip

This is a tough one. I think all trips will change us somewhat: change our perception, add to our experience and enrich our life. I would like to say that my Haj trip was a life-changing trip but I’m still learning - even now - how to better myself, because to me, we should continuously learn to improve ourselves. Backpacking in Europe when I was an undergraduate helped change me to become more confident and independent but it took me some time before I was brave enough to undertake my first solo trip to Prague and a few years before I embarked on a solo fortnight-long trip to a few Eastern European countries. I would like to say they have all changed me but I know I’m still somewhat reserved in striking up conversation with fellow hostellers but I know I can improve on this.

#30Stays: First Trip Abroad

My first trip abroad was across the Causeway to Singapore with my parents and Akak. We had a few relatives in Singapore (my parents are from Johore and when Singapore divorced itself from Malaysia, my dad’s sister stayed on in Singapore and became a citizen of the republic.). I think I went there at least twice: I recall a HDB unit and on another visit, we stayed at a relative’s house.

My first trip abroad by plane was to Perth when I was 7. Dad was there for nine months and we went to visit him a month before he was due to return. It coincided with our year-end school holidays. We came back around Christmas and I remember thinking how it sucked that we couldn’t experience winter but how awesome it was that we could enjoy barbecue. We had to transit at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport on the return leg and it was then when I was introduced to the concept of paid washrooms.

My #30Stays

I have, over time, used a variety of sites to book accommodation. I relied heavily on Venere before, especially in Europe, and if I couldn’t find anything that caught my fancy, I tried Hostelbookers (which I prefer over HostelWorld. Oh, and I hardly ever use Agoda). I can’t recall now when and how I started using booking.com but I remember I was already using in when I stopped in London for a night before heading home from Iceland in February 2012. I’ve been a regular user of booking.com since and have been strongly recommending the site to a lot of people travelling either on personal or official trips.

Anyway, this post is my way of responding to the #30stays posed by booking.com in September. Yes, you were supposed to tweet back to @bookingcom while I’m responding to it by way of blog posts and yes, I know I’m a month behind but I reckon it doesn’t matter much. My #30 stays posts will start tomorrow ;)

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