Hello peeps! Promise that I will do up my Japan/Taiwan trip after I come back before I forget the details and write nothing on it. So here I am, updating you guys for the trip. First up is the pre trip preparation. This is extremely important especially if you are travelling for a longer period of time, at least a good 1 week and above. So anyway, I probably have mentioned it in one of my post that me and my sister bought the taiwan return tickets very advance, like Aug/Sept 2013?! That was a good 1 year of planning ahead. ok Im kidding, we didn't really took one year to plan, just happen that there were promo for air tickets and we already agreed to go on a holiday after she graduated. Initially our plan was to go Japan, but because Dajie didnt really encourage us to go so we have to change our destination. We couldn't go too far either, because it was very expensive and I can't take so long leave away. So we bought our taiwan return tickets at SGD 261 including tax, without much hesitation when we saw the promo up. Pretty cheap I would say, considering that the first time I went Taiwan with her, we freaking bought the tickets at SGD 500. With the air tickets, we decided to slowly think where to go and plan that 2 weeks. About a month or so later, we realised we didn't really have many places that we wish to go, partly because it was summer and we didn't really wanna rush our itinerary just to visit as many places. The travelling will eat up the days too. That was when my sister decided to look at Japan tickets again. So yes we were crazy enough to buy the tickets to fly from Taiwan to Japan and back to Kaohsiung since we are planning to go from South to North. The ticket damage was SGD 430 including tax for flying peach airline to Japan and back to Taiwan.
Then we start our detailed planning with the lodging and reservation for restaurants earlier this year around March I think. We always think it is better and cheaper to book early because they would have early bird discount or advance booking promo or some sort. Some of the website you may want to consider using is airbnb and booking.com. Airbnb has mostly apartments and units that are reasonably priced. Beneficial for people who are on budget travelling. We are not that budget travelling maybe we are but I don't really fancy staying in too budget hotel because I hate to travel without resting well. To go on a trip is to have nice hotel to stay, isn't it? But of course, I wouldn't say we would have to stay in 4 or 5 star hotels. No point when most of the time we are out of the room. Read up on a few reviews before we decide to stay in which hotel. Lodging will be up as I go along the post. For the itinerary, we searched on the places that we want to go and planned it out so that we won't travel everywhere. You definitely need to plan something out to save on the travel time and cost. My sister did a spreadsheet out, yes she did. It includes the places to go on which day and what is the address and direction if any so that we wont be lost. Of course, we usually end up changing our itinerary abit!
Next would be the luggage packing. As we are going on a long trip, a 15 days trip to be exact, we can't possibly bring 15 days worth of clothes. That's why one of the things that we check with our hotel is whether there is any laundry service so that we could wash our clothes. As much as we didn't want our pictures to all look the same with the same clothes, but we also didn't want to bring so much clothes that it take up half of our luggage weight. Of course, we could have just buy new clothes; we would anyway in some ways. But I wouldn't want to risk not having clothes to wear because I didn't buy alot of new clothes, and end up buying any clothes or expensive ones just for the sake of having clothes to wear. One thing that I would suggest and I probably would do it next time when I go for these kind of trips - buy more luggage weight. 20kg is supposed to be enough for each as we have already roughly know where the weight will come from. However, going on a trip like this, especially to Taiwan, would definitely kill your luggage weight of 20kg. Personally, I like taiwan clothes and stuff because they are more closer and suitable for me. Plus all those souvenirs and goods that you would have to bring back for your family, friends, bf, gf, cousins, relatives, colleagues. 20kg is not enough.
Another important thing to do: BUY INSURANCE. seriously I kid you not. You may always think there won't be anything that will happen. Trust me, the things that you thought wont happen, will always happen. The story goes here:
Our flight to Taiwan was 0115 on 10 August, which means to say we have to be in the airport at around 11pm, 9 Aug. Now here's the panick part. Because the flight details are under my sister account, so any news or update will be through her. She came back from the Commonwealth games on 8 Aug, around night time. Around 8plus, she message me and say that Jetstar informed her via sms that our flight is delayed and the flight will be changed to 1610pm on 10 August. It wasn't a big deal if we are just flying to Taiwan only, the big thing here is we are flying to JAPAN from TAIWAN on the same day as well. It is like a transit for us because our Japan flight is at 1115am on 10 Aug. So we quickly tried to call Peach airline in hoping to change the timing of the flight but to no avail. We called to Jetstar and ask for the next available flight, hoping that we can arrange something out of it. And YES, there is a flight to Taiwan at 710am on 9 Aug. It was already going to 11PM on 8 Aug when we knew of such information. With no choice, we had to take the 710am flight so that we would not miss our Japan flight. This left us with less than 6 hours to pack and settle everything. Lucky, we bought insurance because we had to stay over at Taiwan for a night since we decided to fly on 9 Aug, and the lodging expenses can be claimed. There is no extra charge for the change of flight schedule thou. So we hurried and call back to Jetstar and confirmed the changes. In the meantime of waiting them to send us our booking confirmation and reference number, we had to rush and pack our bag. (we actually planned to pack it on 9 Aug only). Quickly, we booked an airport hotel and we left home at 430am to the airport.
Tadah! Arrived at airport in the afternoon around 2pm. My first drink in Taiwan and my favourite. Bought some herbal tea egg to munch too.
Because we could claim for the one extra day in Taiwan, why not stay in a good hotel then? Novotel is one of the few airport hotel anyway.
This is what I am talking about. To go on a trip is to stay in nice hotel. You feel like you are really going on a trip. BUT, yes I know... because we are kinda on a budget or sort and staying in such luxury hotel is a waste of money. Taken by a wide angle len.
Since we have half a day in Taiwan, we decided to go to Taipei to have our meal and to do what we planned to do on Saturday - Haircut. We supposed to do it in Singapore before going off for trip. So, we took a highspeed railway to Taipei which cost NT160ish (about SGD 7?). It is way more faster than to take a normal train or a bus. 20 mins and you are at Taipei. And the food that I missed the most in Taiwan....
YES! my braised pork meat rice aka ru rou fan. I am serious, this is the best food that you really have to eat when you go Taiwan. If you have not know, I ate this almost everyday for supper when I first came to Taiwan with my sister.
I mean... LOOK AT THAT. Crap, I miss this food as I am writing this post now. I wish Singapore has it.. It is super affordable anyway. One small bowl of rice cost NT35 (SGD 1.50) and because I love it so much, I could eat 2 bowls and its SGD3 only. To be honest, you won't be full for 2 bowls because it is really small portion. But in Taiwan, you don't just eat to the brim for a meal because there are street food and local food that you shouldn't miss. So I would say 2 bowls are just nice.
Then we went to the largest night market in Taipei - Shilin night market. I don't really have pictures for this because we seriously have been to this night market too many times. If you want some photos ( there ain't many too) of Shilin, you can refer to my previous Taiwan trip 2013 here: http://peilingg.blogspot.sg/2013/08/taiwan-trip-day-4-and-5.html. My first trip to Taiwan was in the other blog that I have closed, so too bad. For your benefit, Shilin Night market is at Jiantan Station so don't alight at the wrong station even thou there is Shilin station actually. OH and remember to get the easycard that you can use for their bus and metro train ( Just like our ezlink card in SG).
So that's all for a night in Taiwan before we really begin our real trip. Till then!
*update for the links in case you want to continue to read on for my trip!
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