The Tan's Diary: Taiwan 2013 (Day 8

We are already in Taiwan for the eighth day and only Daddy was missing home. For mommy, it was getting a little depressing because it was the final leg of our holiday, which meant that we were going home soon... just two more days. Boo hoo....

Many thanks to Ms Lim for making our stay an enjoyable one and for extending her hospitality by driving us around during our stay.

Photo taken with Ms Lim of Sea-Hi B&B minsu.

After breakfast, it was a final look at the vast ocean and capturing the beautiful scenery.

Ms Lim bought the train tickets back to Taipei for us and arranged for a taxi to bring us to the Hualien Train Station after our breakfast. (We informed her via email before our holiday to assist to book the two-way train tickets for us.) Train tickets can be purchased online yourself two weeks before the date of travel. The website is in Chinese language, so it can be quite challenging if you are not good with Chinese words.

Our train seats that came with a shared table.

Our train seats numbers.

This time round we were smarter. Instead of waiting for the guy to come and sell the meal boxes in the train, we bought our lunch at the 7-Eleven store at the train station just before boarding. So shortly after the train set off, we had our lunch and for the rest of the trip, we managed to take a good nap before disembarking at Taipei Train Station.

Enjoying the train ride.

When we arrived at Taipei Main Station, we walked over to a shop selling luggage at the entrance of Cosmos Hotel Taipei, just about 5 minutes walk from the railway station.

We wanted to purchase a new luggage to store all the gifts we bought and going to buy when we do our final shopping in Taipei tomorrow. But daddy got upset by the shop assistant who did not like him to touch the suitcases. In the end, we only bought a new luggage for Deborah for S$100 since we had promised her earlier, as the one she brought to this trip was already spoilt and giving her problems whenever she pulls it.

We then make our way to our hotel at Ximending, King Shi Hotel Taipei. When we arrive, it was kind of disastrous. Mommy did not pre-warn Daddy about the kind of hotel it was, and perhaps, Daddy has been too used to staying at 5-star hotels....so, when we arrived at King Shi Hotel, Daddy was not very pleased.

You see, the hotels located within Ximending were very pricey. So mommy found this hotel located at the outskirt of Ximending, which was only 3 minutes walk away and 5 minutes away from Ximen Metro Station.

Around this area, the buildings are all private apartments and some used for commercial purposes / offices. Apparently the owner of this hotel only owns the 7th and 8th floor of the building and 1 unit on the 9th floor. The hotel lobby was located at 7th floor.

When we arrived, the receptionist said that the family room (2 double beds) could be small for us and offered to give us a bigger room. So they brought us to the unit on the 9th floor. To get there, we actually walked through quite a long, dark and quiet corridor all the way to the last unit. It was obvious that it is recently renovated and very modern. It has 3 single bed and 1 double bed. However, the Wi-Fi was not set up in the room yet, and we were simply not comfortable about the security on the 9th floor. So we went all the way back to 7th floor with our luggage and bags and requested for a room on the 7th floor.

After much fussing, we chose to take a VIP room which only had a double bed, because the room we had booked had a window facing a wall, and daddy didn't like it.

Mommy did not enjoy the stay in this hotel because the bed sheet or the quilt stinks; the aircon temperature could not be adjusted, and it gets too cold when we only turn it on to "small". The breakfast set-up was miserable and unappealing. The breakfast area was so small that there were only 3 - 5 tables. Although the hotel allow guests to bring the food to the room, the buffet spread was obviously very limited. Hence, we skipped the breakfast in the hotel and headed out on both mornings looking for something better to fill our tummies.

The VIP room comes with a gym equipment and steam bath.

Bathtub with Steam bath facility.

Since the room wasn't fantastic, the only way was to head out and spend less time in the room so we can forget the "misery". Huh!...

And off to Ximending we went...the first thing mommy wanted was to look for Taiwanese milk tea with pearls.

Ximending is very vibrant. It is a place with lots of young people, with shops ranging from Uniqlo, Puma, Adidas, etc.

The temperature in Taipei was about 15 degrees celcius, and windy. We took a while to get use to the cold weather in Taipei and especially at night, since it was warmer in Hualien (average about 20 to 24 degrees celcius).

Due to the cold, mommy was craving for some hot soupy stuff for dinner and what better way than to have ma-la steamboat.

Just before we started our dinner, David said his pants was too tight and I had to loosened it up for him so he could eat. Haha... all the eating in Taiwan did him some good!