Taiwan Adventure: Part 1

Flash back to a year ago, I remembered how I passed going on a trip to Taiwan with my high school best friends. It even caused a friction on our friendship, but thank God all is well now. I'm thankful that this year I had the chance to visit the very beautiful city of Taiwan. It was actually an impulse driven trip, I was just coaxing my aunt who just returned from a Taipei trip to go back again, this time with me. From that "joke" she invited my grandmother and uncle. Little did I notice, we were already researching for visa requirements, airplane fares, hotels, itineraries and etc! By the end of the week, we've got almost everything planned out that even though the fare was not really that cheap, we decided to give it a go since it would be crazy not to book when we already went all out planning.

One of the reasons why I passed last year's invitation aside from having a tight schedule was because I felt there's nothing much to see and do in Taiwan.  I was very wrong! As I've mentioned in previous posts, I appreciate scenery and nature very much. I prefer sightseeing than shopping or going on a food trip though of course I also enjoy the latter two very much. Just from researching, I saw a lot of amazing places to visit! From cultural places, shopping districts, to old cities and awe inspiring nature places. It was difficult to fit everything in our itinerary since we're just staying there for 4 day. Planning stage got a bit crazy but it was fun! I even got partly stressed in the midst of it! hahaha

Our team consisted of 7 family members! Me, my mom, brother, aunt, uncle, grandmother and my grandmother's sister. To make things more convenient, we contacted a driver (a friend's referral) in Taiwan through Line to pick us up from the airport.

Our first encounter with the driver got me almost laughing out loud. Upon reaching Taiwan, I contacted him through Line to no avail. Was about to get paranoid that he might not show up! Good thing we got a sim card at the airport for 250NT (unlimited internet usage for 5 days! and 50NT worth of calls). When we finally got through immigration and claimed our baggage, a man approached us and introduced himself as our driver. Typical paranoid me is a little skeptic since I remembered him telling me he was wearing a white cap. Having also a paranoid aunt, we gave his number a ring. We heard his phone rang but he cancelled the call and continued introducing himself. My funny aunt innocently gave it a call again and he still didn't take the phone out of his pocket. I was already trying not to laugh out loud but deep inside I can feel that he must be thinking we're a crazy group for ringing his phone when he is already in front of us! Well, we're just trying to be sure, he's still a stranger. We got into 2 cars since we wouldn't fit in one. Airport to our hotel took around an hour drive. I wasn't able to relax much since I'm being challenged with my Mandarin skills since the driver we got doesn't speak English that much! I felt like Tarzan uttering Chinese words that I can remember and piecing it together for it to makes sense! 

We stayed at Tango Hotel Xin Yi. The ambiance is cozy and the staffs were very pleasing and nice. Check in was a breeze, we got to our rooms and as expected loved it! We chose the hotel since the bed is really huge! (Can fit up to 4 people). And the bathroom! is just heavenly. It was spacious and it has a jacuzzi with a ceiling shower! I'm not very OC when it comes to bathrooms as long as it's clean and complete with amenities I'm already good. But who would say no to a 5 star bathroom, right? ;D Oh, I almost forgot to mention that our hotel serves free food all day round! From buffet breakfast to pika-pika all day long! It's also just a few minutes walk to/from the subway and Breeze Mall, and a very short taxi ride to Taipei 101 and Sogo.

It was almost 7 in the evening when we finished settling in. Trying to adhere to our jampacked itinerary, we took a taxi to Taipei 101 to have dinner at Din Tai Fung and go up the observatory deck to have an eagle's eye view of the city. As tourist we first took photos of the building and appreciated the chilly weather. We took a number for Din Tai Fung and decided to walk around while waiting. Amazing how we bumped into our Taiwan based relatives in the supermarket! We had a little chat, and asked for local tips. Dinner was great, it got us re-energized :) We didn't get to go up the observatory deck anymore since it was closed by the time we got there haha so we just stayed at the 5th floor where there's a huge screen showing what you'll see in actual.

We called it a night, tomorrow the real adventure starts! Or did it? :P