Taiwan Trip 07 - Yilan
5th September
Any idea why Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (中正国际机场) was renamed as Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (台湾桃园国际机场), but it wasn’t reflected on our air tickets? For a moment, I was confused. Were there 2 airports in Taiwan? Nay. It’s referring to the same one. The reason for the renaming? Political sentiments.
Anyways, it was a battle between the train and the long-distance bus. To take or not to take? That’s the question that bugged us once we reached Taiwan.
Tuk picked up his phone and called the homestay owner.
She was surprised that we really turned up.
Well, you see… the homestay’s newly opened and she had been receiving the locals only to date.
Took her advice to take the train instead. But in order for us to take the train, we need to first get to Taipei Main station (台北車站) via a bus service (which you need to pay) from the airport (which is based in Taoyuan). The journey took us approx. 45mins. Man… we were starving and freezing cold in the noisy bus as it made its way through the wet night amidst busy traffic.
Finally! Taipei Main station…
For first time travelers to Taiwan, it’s important to note that there are different categories of railway trains. If you choose the wrong one, you either end up missing a lot of sceneries or you end up spending 3x the time to travel from one place to another.
普快車 – The slowest in the category
復興號/區間車
莒光號
自強號 – The fastest in the category if you don’t include the bullet train.
For us, we took the earliest possible train (區間車). While waiting for the train to come, we headed to 7-11 to grab bentos! Oh! Do bring your bento instead of buying on the train as it is slightly more expensive if you buy on board. Or worse still, the train you took does not offer bento (which happens most of the time)!
Here’s the bento we bought. Doesn’t look very appetizing but you will be surprised that it turned out pretty delicious!
The journey took us approx. 2 hours, from Taipei to Jiao Si 礁溪 (Yilan). The homestay owner was very kind to come pick us up at the station. Knowing that we were starving (despite having the bentos 2 hrs before), she actually went the extra mile to fry some nuggets, made us some hot tea and gave us a big plate of watermelons to munch on!
For the record, we are paying less than S$50 per person, per night for a stay in a place that offers great service and different theme rooms:
Let me see… you get a really huge bed, nice cable TV, great service PLUS your very own personal hot spring bathroom! Shiok man! Yippeee!!! :P
Too bad we had to vacate this room the next day for another theme room which is less “fairytale-like”. But no worries, we still have our own personal hot spring bathroom!
6th September
Headed down to the living room the next morning and a delicious, healthy and extremely fresh breakfast awaited us!
Couldn’t resist to take some “MTV” shots… well… some of these were taken in the rooms the night before though. :P
But who was to know that drama was to unfold…
We’d spent more than 2 hours traveling up and down via railway to get to Tuk’s nature reserve only to realize that the only way to reach the place is to take a cab… which will cost us more than S$50 because of the distance. In the end, we dragged ourselves back to the train station and switched plans to head to another county in Yilan… Luo Dong 羅東.
It’s here where we discovered a wonderful mountain top café cum restaurant. But be warned… most of us can only afford to go for its high tea session (pricing’s about the same as NYDC). Set dinner with steak will cost you a bomb at approx S$60 per person. This café is also well-know amongst the locals and they usually refer it as one of the high-class eateries. So play it down you are only going there for the tea session which is not that expensive... so that you won't be left in a situation that your money got swindled unknowingly. The only way up and down is to take the local cab which will cost you approx. NT$250-300 (not more than S$15) per trip.
Too bad it was drizzling the whole day. Strange. It’s summer. It’s not supposed to rain that much. Even the locals lamented about the weather. But the view was still stunning and the tea session was great. The service was fantastic too.
Before we even stepped out of the cab, one of the waitresses actually walked out into the rain with an umbrella to chaperon us into the café! The environment’s quiet and peaceful as you overlook the mountains and the tea fields… ahhhh~ paradise… Want to order or call for service? Do so via the wireless tencard cum service bell… made you go “walao… damn hi-tech”.
Oh!!! The fries! The fries! How could I even forget that! It’s the first time in my life that the moment you bit into the fries, it’s so crispy (yet not oily) that you hear it crisped inside your mouth! :P
Oh! The rose tea too! Simply wonderful and fragrant. So far I haven’t tasted anything close to that in Singapore. Over here, I need to add a lot of sugar and rose petals just to achieve the same effect.
After spending more than 2 hours there, we decided to make our way down to the famous Luo Dong Night Market before it got too dark.
The rain never stopped. It just kept drizzling. But it didn’t dampen our excitement to tour around the night market and had our hands on the different street gourmet. Too bad I was still feeling sick. There’s a lot of dishes I couldn’t eat. For instance, the well known goat soup…
After much deliberation, decided to have some icy desserts with Tuk. I wasn’t supposed to eat that but after much thoughts about what Tuk had ‘sacrificed’ over the days on the food he would’ve luv to try but couldn’t because I wasn’t allowed to, I took a gamble.
And I lost. Terribly.
Imagine. It’s cold and the streets were wet. People jostled against one another and you had to dodge the umbrellas. Amidst the chaos, my stomach cramped and started a revolution on its own. I could barely move.
In the end, we had to call the cab driver that drove us to the café earlier (yes, he gave us his namecard) and asked if he could drive us back to our homestay in another county. He agreed. While waiting for him to arrive, I squatted down along the main road (seeking shelter under the post office) and wallowed in pain. Walao.. damn drama…
When he finally arrived, he was in shorts and a casual tee.
“He must’ve knocked off work and came from home,” I thought to myself.
The trip caused us close to S$50.
The homestay owner greeted us at the living room and asked us if we were hungry. Tuk told her my situation and within the next half hour or so, she buzzed our room and had her daughter brought up two choc waffles. Awwwww~
After bombing the bathroom, took a quick shower and a short dip in the hot spring bathroom, we were ready for bed when it all happened…
Oh man… don’t tell me I was that sick. I was swaying and feeling slightly giddy… then it struck me. Earthquake!!! Instincts took over and I glanced up at the ceiling while the grounds shook… no cracks… safe for now.
When it stopped, one other “homestayer” from the second floor (we were on the 3rd) came out to do a quick security check. Coast clear. As a precaution, I placed my valuables in one bag beside the bed just before I sleep. In case it happened again or when the need arises, I could just grab and go.
Next morning, the first thing we did was to on the TV and stay tuned to local news channel. Apparently, a 6.6 earthquake had struck the county (Luo Dong) just 2 or 3 hours we had left. The tremors we felt were great. Imagine if I didn’t have that stomach situation, we might still be in that county at the time the earthquake struck… guess it was a blessing in disguise... though a painful one.
To be continued...
Any idea why Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (中正国际机场) was renamed as Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (台湾桃园国际机场), but it wasn’t reflected on our air tickets? For a moment, I was confused. Were there 2 airports in Taiwan? Nay. It’s referring to the same one. The reason for the renaming? Political sentiments.
Anyways, it was a battle between the train and the long-distance bus. To take or not to take? That’s the question that bugged us once we reached Taiwan.
Tuk picked up his phone and called the homestay owner.
She was surprised that we really turned up.
Well, you see… the homestay’s newly opened and she had been receiving the locals only to date.
Took her advice to take the train instead. But in order for us to take the train, we need to first get to Taipei Main station (台北車站) via a bus service (which you need to pay) from the airport (which is based in Taoyuan). The journey took us approx. 45mins. Man… we were starving and freezing cold in the noisy bus as it made its way through the wet night amidst busy traffic.
Finally! Taipei Main station…
For first time travelers to Taiwan, it’s important to note that there are different categories of railway trains. If you choose the wrong one, you either end up missing a lot of sceneries or you end up spending 3x the time to travel from one place to another.
普快車 – The slowest in the category
復興號/區間車
莒光號
自強號 – The fastest in the category if you don’t include the bullet train.
For us, we took the earliest possible train (區間車). While waiting for the train to come, we headed to 7-11 to grab bentos! Oh! Do bring your bento instead of buying on the train as it is slightly more expensive if you buy on board. Or worse still, the train you took does not offer bento (which happens most of the time)!
Here’s the bento we bought. Doesn’t look very appetizing but you will be surprised that it turned out pretty delicious!
The journey took us approx. 2 hours, from Taipei to Jiao Si 礁溪 (Yilan). The homestay owner was very kind to come pick us up at the station. Knowing that we were starving (despite having the bentos 2 hrs before), she actually went the extra mile to fry some nuggets, made us some hot tea and gave us a big plate of watermelons to munch on!
For the record, we are paying less than S$50 per person, per night for a stay in a place that offers great service and different theme rooms:
Let me see… you get a really huge bed, nice cable TV, great service PLUS your very own personal hot spring bathroom! Shiok man! Yippeee!!! :P
Too bad we had to vacate this room the next day for another theme room which is less “fairytale-like”. But no worries, we still have our own personal hot spring bathroom!
6th September
Headed down to the living room the next morning and a delicious, healthy and extremely fresh breakfast awaited us!
Couldn’t resist to take some “MTV” shots… well… some of these were taken in the rooms the night before though. :P
But who was to know that drama was to unfold…
We’d spent more than 2 hours traveling up and down via railway to get to Tuk’s nature reserve only to realize that the only way to reach the place is to take a cab… which will cost us more than S$50 because of the distance. In the end, we dragged ourselves back to the train station and switched plans to head to another county in Yilan… Luo Dong 羅東.
It’s here where we discovered a wonderful mountain top café cum restaurant. But be warned… most of us can only afford to go for its high tea session (pricing’s about the same as NYDC). Set dinner with steak will cost you a bomb at approx S$60 per person. This café is also well-know amongst the locals and they usually refer it as one of the high-class eateries. So play it down you are only going there for the tea session which is not that expensive... so that you won't be left in a situation that your money got swindled unknowingly. The only way up and down is to take the local cab which will cost you approx. NT$250-300 (not more than S$15) per trip.
Too bad it was drizzling the whole day. Strange. It’s summer. It’s not supposed to rain that much. Even the locals lamented about the weather. But the view was still stunning and the tea session was great. The service was fantastic too.
Before we even stepped out of the cab, one of the waitresses actually walked out into the rain with an umbrella to chaperon us into the café! The environment’s quiet and peaceful as you overlook the mountains and the tea fields… ahhhh~ paradise… Want to order or call for service? Do so via the wireless tencard cum service bell… made you go “walao… damn hi-tech”.
Oh!!! The fries! The fries! How could I even forget that! It’s the first time in my life that the moment you bit into the fries, it’s so crispy (yet not oily) that you hear it crisped inside your mouth! :P
Oh! The rose tea too! Simply wonderful and fragrant. So far I haven’t tasted anything close to that in Singapore. Over here, I need to add a lot of sugar and rose petals just to achieve the same effect.
After spending more than 2 hours there, we decided to make our way down to the famous Luo Dong Night Market before it got too dark.
The rain never stopped. It just kept drizzling. But it didn’t dampen our excitement to tour around the night market and had our hands on the different street gourmet. Too bad I was still feeling sick. There’s a lot of dishes I couldn’t eat. For instance, the well known goat soup…
After much deliberation, decided to have some icy desserts with Tuk. I wasn’t supposed to eat that but after much thoughts about what Tuk had ‘sacrificed’ over the days on the food he would’ve luv to try but couldn’t because I wasn’t allowed to, I took a gamble.
And I lost. Terribly.
Imagine. It’s cold and the streets were wet. People jostled against one another and you had to dodge the umbrellas. Amidst the chaos, my stomach cramped and started a revolution on its own. I could barely move.
In the end, we had to call the cab driver that drove us to the café earlier (yes, he gave us his namecard) and asked if he could drive us back to our homestay in another county. He agreed. While waiting for him to arrive, I squatted down along the main road (seeking shelter under the post office) and wallowed in pain. Walao.. damn drama…
When he finally arrived, he was in shorts and a casual tee.
“He must’ve knocked off work and came from home,” I thought to myself.
The trip caused us close to S$50.
The homestay owner greeted us at the living room and asked us if we were hungry. Tuk told her my situation and within the next half hour or so, she buzzed our room and had her daughter brought up two choc waffles. Awwwww~
After bombing the bathroom, took a quick shower and a short dip in the hot spring bathroom, we were ready for bed when it all happened…
Oh man… don’t tell me I was that sick. I was swaying and feeling slightly giddy… then it struck me. Earthquake!!! Instincts took over and I glanced up at the ceiling while the grounds shook… no cracks… safe for now.
When it stopped, one other “homestayer” from the second floor (we were on the 3rd) came out to do a quick security check. Coast clear. As a precaution, I placed my valuables in one bag beside the bed just before I sleep. In case it happened again or when the need arises, I could just grab and go.
Next morning, the first thing we did was to on the TV and stay tuned to local news channel. Apparently, a 6.6 earthquake had struck the county (Luo Dong) just 2 or 3 hours we had left. The tremors we felt were great. Imagine if I didn’t have that stomach situation, we might still be in that county at the time the earthquake struck… guess it was a blessing in disguise... though a painful one.
To be continued...
Labels: Taiwan 台湾
posted by ikan bilis at 11:26 PM
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