Taiwan Touch My Heart (1) ~ Itinerary & Budget

Ni hao!

I've recently been on a trip to Taiwan with one of my high school BFF's. It was a 9-day trip around the island. Even though it wasn't quite enough to explore all around the island, at least we got the chance to see some of their famous tourism objects.

In this post, I'd like to share as much information as I can recall: budget, itinerary and special tips.
I didn't take notes on all the details, but I think this would be enough to give a clear picture of the trip and help you plan your trip.

1. Flight ticket
I booked Tiger Air round-trip flights from Jakarta to Taipei for 5 - 14 May 2016. I booked the ticket in October 2015 for Rp 7.2 mio for 2 persons (appr. US$ 550 with only 1 x 15kg luggage). There was a stopover in Singapore and the price did not include luggage transfer. So, we had to get our luggage after the immigration counter and check-in again at the check-in counter. Since we had to spend a night in Singapore before our early morning flight to Taipei (at 8.45 AM), we decided to sleep at the airport.

Waiting for boarding time

2. Itinerary

May 6 - 7 : Taipei, Energy Inn Hostel in Ximen Ding - US$ 59/ 2 nights/ 4-bed female dorm with private bathroom + breakfast

May 8 : Kaohsiung, Sunwise Hotel Kaohsiung, near  Kaohsiung Main Station (MRT & Train) - NT$ 780/ 1 night/ double room with private bathroom + breakfast

May 9 : Chiayi, Light Hostel Chiayi, near Chiayi Train Station - NT$ 1,300/1 night/ 4-bed female dorm with private bathroom + breakfast

May 10 - 11 : Taichung, Starship Business Hotel, near Taichung Train Station - NT$ 2,200/ 2 nights/ double room with private bathroom + breakfast

May 12 - 13 : Taipei, Backpackers Hostel, in Ximen Ding - NT$ 3,000/2 nights/twin room with private bathroom - no breakfast

May 14 : Singapore, 1-night stay at Bliss Hotel in Chinatown, in front of Chinatown MRT station - S$ 128/ 1 night/ twin room with private bathroom - no breakfast.

Energy Inn, Tapei (dorm beds)

  

Energy Inn, Taipei (bathroom)

Light Hostel, Chiayi (bathroom)

Light Hostel, Chiayi (dorm beds)

Starship Business Hotel, Taichung

3. Transportation within Taiwan

MRT in Taipei & Kaohsiung : NT$ 12 - 30/trip depending on distance. I recommend to buy Easy Card for faster access to MRT & buses and save transportation expense. The card costs NT$ 100, non-refundable.

Taiwan High Speed Railway (THSR) : take HSR for a long trip as far as Taipei to Kaohsiung (Zuo Ying station). I bought the HSR ticket at Backpackers Hostel and got 20% discount (normal price almost NT$ 1,500).

Taiwan Train : No need to book in advance for this. Just buy it at the ticket counter and ask for the earliest schedule to your destination. The train costs me around NT$ 100-200ish/ each trip with reserved seats. Sometimes they sell non-reserved seat tickets for short distance travel.

Bus : I took bus from Chiayi to Alishan & from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake.

Chiayi - Alishan : NT$ ... /person/single trip. Bus station located in front of Chiayi train station.

Taichung - Sun Moon Lake : NT$ 189/person/single trip. Bus stop in front of Taichung train station.

Sun Moon Lake - Taichung : NT 500/single trip by taxi.

Taoyuan Airport - Taipei Main Station (city centre) : NT$ 125/person/single trip by airport bus. Buy ticket at a counter near the bus stop at airport exit.

4. Meals & drinks

You will never have to worry about meals in Taiwan. There is either street vendor or convenient store (7-11, Family Mart, Hi-Life) at every inch of Taiwan. At late night or early morning, the convenient stores are still open and provide sandwiches, sushi/onigiri, kuo tie, fried chicken, fish meatball and even bento box. The store assistants always offer to heat it in the oven. The prices are reasonable (around NT$ 20-100).

Snacks and coffee from convenient stores all over Taiwan :D

By the time I stepped my foot on Taiwan's ground, I already felt that something awesome was going to happen again. And yes, all the good old memories came back and I suddenly felt terribly happy and I think I fell in love with Taiwan all over again :")

Cheers,

~dolliechic~

My Travel Story : Eurotrip (3) ~ Arriving in Madrid

Buenos dias!

I finally arrived in Madrid at 11 AM, local time.

In Madrid Barajas Airport, there is a metro station that goes to the city center or basically anywhere around Madrid. There is also a tourist information center that you can find before you see the gate to the metro. I was kinda thinking of joining a local tour, so I decided to walk in to the tourist center to see what deals I could get. After looking at some of the local tour packages, I eventually just bought a 2-day Madrid pass that covers all transportation costs and various museums and tourist spots entrance inside Madrid for 2 x 24hrs (starting from the first scan). The pass costs me 58 euros and it comes with a guide book. The guidebook comes in handy, it consists of information on all attractions around Madrid that you can enter with your tourist pass, including opening schedule. Just to give you a slight picture to calculate, the metro in Madrid costs 1.4 euro for one trip (all stations). The 2-day pass for transportation alone (without museum entrance pass) costs 14 euros. That means the remaining 44 euros are spent for attractions entrance.

If you think you need a sim card, I can suggest to get the Vodafone one. There's a Vodafone shop at Puerta del Sol. It just costs 10 euros for 800MB of internet usage, 20 minutes phone calls and 20 SMS (if I'm not mistaken) for one month.

Madrid Metro Line

Madrid has a lot of beautiful museums and buildings. Most of them need an entrance fee. Of course buying a tourist pass might save you some euros (and queuing time!). But before deciding to buy the pass, estimate carefully how many places you can possibly visit during your visit. Don't forget to check on the opening schedule of the museums you want to visit as some closes on Monday. One attraction costs around 8 to 15 euros. You will benefit from this pass if you can visit at least 4-5 places during your stay. This pass also gives additional benefits such as discounts for selected restaurants and flamenco shows. 

Madrid Metro

Special tips on Madrid Pass:

1. Prior to your arrival in Madrid, make list of tourist spots you want to visit. You can finalize your route after you arrive, since this has a lot to do with metro and bus routes that you might only find out upon your arrival.

2. Possibly, you can only visit 2-3 places a day: 1 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Most museums open at 9 or 10 and close at 18 or 19.00. 

3. Leave all the fancy meal time/culinary trip in the evening. The museums close at 18.00, but the cafes and restaurants open until night. 

4. Visit as many paid museums as you can. All the free scenery can wait when you have some spare time.  

Guide Book from Madrid Pass

I stayed at a hostel in the city center: Barbieri Sol Hostel. It was very cheap (28 euros for 2 nights) but clean. The staff were helpful and friendly. The location was great: around 500m to Sol Metro Station (at Puerta del Sol), or just a few minutes walking distance to Gran Via and Plaza de Cibeles.

Here's some places I visited during my 2 night-stay in Madrid:

1. Estadio Santiago Bernabeau:

 The stadium and museum for Real Madrid football club. There are showcase of historical stuff of the club such as: the uniforms, shoes, trophies; as well as tour to the backstage: changing room, bathroom, etc. The Madrid pass gives you a priority pass so you don't need to queue to buy the entrance ticket.

Real Madrid museum inside the stadium

Photo session with your favorite football player

2. Reina Sofia Museum:

An art museum. There are some of Piccaso's pieces also, but I didn't really enjoy this place. I'm just not really into this stuff. I just went there because the Royal Palace of Madrid was closed on Monday :( I intended to see the other palace but apparently the location was far and quite unreachable by public transports :(

Museo Reina Sofia

3. Parque del Retiro:

This park is really huge and beautiful. There is a pond inside the park where you can rent a boat. There are gardens inside the park and benches every where. I can imagine myself relaxing on a bench and read a book. With the nice weather in Madrid's autumn, it must be a perfect way to spend an afternoon :)

Puerta de Alcala

Pond inside the park

One of the gardens inside Parque del Retiro

Puerta del Sol, city centre

Crowd at Puerta del Sol

KM 0 at Puerta del Sol

Gran Via

Plaza de Cibeles

View from the top of Plaza Mayor

Culinary delights in Madrid:

1. Museo del Jamon --> just a few walks from from my hostel at Puerta del Sol. Provides many kinds of jamon (bacon) and sangria too. It is also budget friendly ;)

2. Sangria --> Spanish red wine mixed with fruits. Light and refreshing. 

3. Chocolateria san Gines --> very famous churros place. They have a very thick hot dark chocolate but doesn't taste too sweet nor fatty.   

4. Coffee at most of coffee shops in Madrid --> They're not expensive and most taste very good. The bakeries are also delicious!

Museo del Jamon

Chocolateria san Gines

Hope you find this post helpful!

Ciao! ^^

~Dolliechic~

My Travel Story : Eurotrip (2) ~ Journey to the West

September 5, 2015


Showtime!
I flew with Turkish Airlines from Jakarta Soekarno Hatta Airport to Istanbul, Turkey with an airbus. My flying experience with them was quite pleasant. Although the space for your legs was a bit cramped, but the in-flight entertainment was pretty good. They have the movie list updated and the foods were also tasty :) The Turkish delight was my favorite of all!

*Photo from Planespotters.net

During 12 hours flight, they served 2 sets of meal with wine upon request. They also provided each passenger with a travel set consists of : slippers, blindfold, socks, lip balm, and dental kit.

After flying for 12 hours, I arrived in Istanbul Ataturk Airport. The airport was crowded and huge. There's no potable water around, so I had to buy a bottle of mineral water for 3 Lyra or 1 Euro. Just like any other international airport, there were quite a few shops inside that sell branded stuff. I was waiting for my connecting flight to Madrid for 3 hours in Ataturk. So there's enough time for me to wash my face, brush my teeth and change clothes.

My connecting flight from Istanbul to Madrid was a Boeing aircraft, so it was smaller than the airbus. After flying for 4 hours, we finally arrived at Madrid Barajas International Aiport. Here's some photos I took on the airplane. I think the land below me was Greece, as pointed on the monitor :)

Special tips for long-haul flight:

1. Unless you think you need it desperately, you don't need to carry a neck pillow since the aircraft will provide you with a small pillow. Saves you some space on your carry-on.

2. You may bring your own headset/earphone to connect with the in-flight entertainment, since the earphone provided can be a bit uncomfortable if worn for long hours.

3. Avoid wearing denim trousers, especially if they're thick and non-stretched. Wear leggings/jeggings instead.

4. Bring a comfy light jacket or cardigan. It's also a good idea to bring a light pashmina.

5. Bring facial cleansing wipes or micellar water (travel size) with cotton pads. Also with face moisturiser and simple makeup kit (compact powder, blush, eyeliner, mascara, eyebrow).

6. A comb/mini hair brush and hair ties/clips.

7. Your own dental kit: tooth brush, tooth paste, Listerine mouthwash travel size.

Bon voyage!

Cheers,

~Dolliechic~