[Travel] Toucheng Leisure Farm + Checking in to Ambience Hotel + Ximending, Taiwan Trip Day 2 of 5

Rise and shine! We woke up around 7am to explore around the place before heading over to the cafeteria for breakfast. 

The view right outside our accommodation is so peaceful and relaxing to be surrounded by nature. Even the air feels so much fresher here. 

There was a wide selection of food for breakfast. The porridge with minced meat is my favourite, I had at least 3 bowls! 

After breakfast, we set out on a guided farm tour, where we spotted a variety of fascinating insects and animals. The tour offered a glimpse into farm life and a chance to get up close with the animals. The weather was perfect too. 

After the farm tour, it was time to eat again. It was something light before the actual lunch buffet. My girl didn't want to eat so I bought some fish food for her to feed the fishes in the pond. 

Lunch buffet! Another scrumptious meal! 

After lunch, the staff kindly helped us arrange a driver who's also leaving Yilan to drive us to the Guishan Station which was rather isolated. Taking this small train to the main MRT station to go to Taipei. It was a pretty scary experience because there was no other passengers at the station beside my girl and I. 

Reached the main MRT Line Songshan (Green Line). Our destination is to Songjiang Nanjing which is 4 stops away. 

Finally, we reached our hotel - Ambience Hotel, a 3-star hotel but with everything I needed. This was the door gift we received upon checking in. 

The room was clean, modern, spacious and comfortable with a bath tub. Except for the small TV, it was a very nice stay. 

First floor lobby. 

After we left our belongings at the hotel, we head out again. The bus stop was super near so we took a bus out to Ximending. 

Welcome to Ximending! 

We had our dinner at Modern Toilet Restaurant. The whole restaurant located on the 2nd floor is like a big toilet, with toilet seats and tables with toilet bowls with fake poo inside. An interesting experience for my girl as it was her first time here. 

After dinner, it's shopping time at this vibrant place. We also explored The Red House which sells a lot of cute trinkets! We ended up buying some cute things here.   

We took bus back to our hotel again and this was our bath bomb for the first night. 

TV time. Watching some Xiao Wan Zi cartoon on the TV. 

XOXO

[Travel] Changi Lounge + Checking in to Toucheng Leisure Farm, Yilan, Taiwan Trip Day 1 of 5

Decided to sort out my photos from the Taiwan trip and thus finally penning down my Taiwan trip post, albeit late. This was my first solo-parenting trip with my girl. Happy to know that my girl can still use this ride-on suitcase, it's one of my best buy on Shopee. 

I'm glad that the credit card I signed up for during my time at my previous company comes with a complimentary Priority Pass membership, which includes 2 lounge entries per year. I used it to grant myself and my daughter the entry to Changi Lounge before our flight. 

I won a Changi Lounge Adult Classic Package during the Azgo roadshow at Raffles Place a few months back, so just nice this granted my hubby an entry into the Changi Lounge too, even though he's not joining us on the trip.

We each ordered one set of meal for breakfast and also took the free-flow drinks and snacks. Nice meal to start the day.

Finally, it's time to board the plane, we're taking the afternoon 12pm Scoot flight and will reach Taipei around 5pm.

Lunch onboard was meh, the choices for cup noodles were limited too. As it's a budget airline, there wasn't much entertainment on board, so we just ate and rested.  

The first thing we did when we alighted was to find the Taiwan Lucky Land booth, we tried our luck but didn't win anything. 

I got in touch with the driver, Mr Tan, who picked us up from the airport and sent us to the Toucheng Leisure Farm at Yilan which we will be staying for a night.

The accommodation voucher that I won and is also the reason why we are on this trip! When we arrived, it was already 8.30pm at night and the cafeteria has also closed. The last dinner I think was served at 7pm.

The room was spacious, nothing fancy but it was clean and comfortable to stay in. Luckily, shampoo and shower gels were provided, because it would be far and inconvenient to head out even to the nearest convenience store as we'd have to drive out. 

Our snacks and the dinner recommended by our driver to buy. It was so good, my girl fall in love with la la from this meal. 

That's all for Day 1 which was pretty much spent on meals and transportation. Here's the schedule for Day 2. 

XOXO

[Personal] Pre-Trip Preparation to Taiwan

Earlier this year, I made a personal commitment to travel at least 3 times. As luck would have it, I won a one-night stay for two at a farm resort in Yilan. With this winning being my motivation, I seized the opportunity to plan a spontaneous trip to Taiwan with my girl. This was definitely something new for me, in fact initially my mom suggested selling away the resort tickets but I was adamant to go ahead cause I believe if I won the prize, it's my luck and I shouldn't just sell it away. With no language barriers to overcome in Taiwan and the recent experience of the Hong Kong trip (though not planned by me, but at least I knew what needs to be done), I felt confident to go ahead. 

Prior to the trip, I do have a lot of preparation work to do. First, I had to reinstall back the Line app to communicate with the resort staff as it was their preferred method of communication. I then confirmed the details with them and asked them to arrange for a car to pick us at the Taoyuan International airport upon our arrival. My idea was to go to the Yilan resort first before going to Taipei and fly back to SG from Taipei. 

Next, I have to decide on the travel dates so that I can book the rest of the things like Changi Wifi, flights and accommodation in Taipei. The resort voucher expires in August so I'm left with not much choice but to book in August. Fortunately, there's National Day Holiday and also 2 days of Home Based Learning for my girl and thus the travel dates were confirmed from 9 Aug to 13 Aug. 

I booked my flight on Scoot since it's just a few hours flight but encountered a slight hiccup when I realized I had misinterpreted the 24-hour flight timing format (booked the return flight for 01:30 on 13 Aug, means I will reached Singapore at 06:00 in the morning and wasted a day). Unfortunately, because of this, I had to pay extra to amend my return flight back. Good thing is I realized this mistake early while I'm still in Singapore. I ended up booking the last flight on 13 Aug departing at 21:45 and arriving back to Singapore at 02:45. Additionally, I had to adjust my travel insurance coverage by one day to align with my revised itinerary (since I will arrived at SG on 14 Aug instead of 13 Aug).

For accommodation, I prioritized good reviews, a bathtub, on-site meals, budget friendliness, airport shuttle services and convenient location. I selected a well-reviewed 3-star hotel on Hotels.com using the azgo app *(for cashback, I've gotten $16.35 cashback just because I booked using this app) that met these criteria. (*Download azgo, the best travel rewards app, and get SGD 5 when you sign up with my referral link https://applink.azgotrip.com/ZRpn/qf0n5cwy or referral code WZZ7AT!)  

I exchanged the currency at Raffles Arcade, near my office with an exchange rate of S$1 to NT$25. Also, I visited the Taiwan Tourism Bureau at Ocean Financial Centre during my lunch time, where the staff provided invaluable guidance, helping me refine my itinerary with their expert map advice. This visit proved incredibly fruitful. I also took advantage of booking several attractions through Klook using the azgo app too (booking for Klook using this app earns cashbacks too), securing my travel plans. I also joined the lucky draw at Taiwan The Lucky Land that gives visitors a chance to win prizes. 

Taiwan Tourism Bureau (Singapore) 

 

10 Collyer Quay

#06-03 Ocean Financial Centre

Singapore 049315

Although I'm not a seasoned traveler, I felt super happy and excited that things are going according to plans with minimum hiccups. 

XOXO

Taiwan Trip Day 1 : Departure - Hui Lien : Taroko National Park - Stone House Minsu

Hello everyone, with a blink of an eye, I'm back in Singapore again. Lots of photos taken but they were all scattered around in my camera, iPhone, iPad and some with my father's camera. So it would really take me some time to sort through them and upload them. As I browsed through those photos, I'm beginning to miss Taiwan already. It's the best experience I had out of all my Free and Easy Trips so far. The sceneries there are beautiful, food is nice, people are warm and friendly and there's so much to shop! Oh, and most importantly I didn't get scammed. 4 days 3 nights is definitely not enough. How I wished I'm living there. You know, when you feel bored over the weekend and there's nothing to do, you can just take a train and go explore.  

Here's a photo of the people who are travelling on this trip while waiting for our departure at Changi Airport Terminal 1. What can you see? Seriously, all our habits and emotions are displayed in this photo, like it or not. Haha. There's my parents who are the first time flyers looking sleepy yet excited. There's me, the lazy one sleeping away like a sleeping beauty. *Ahem* There's my brother, who's constantly connected when there's wi-fi available and there's bf who's always on the look-out for food.

I made this booking as early as last year's December when Jetstar is having the 1-for-1 promotions. Got to know about this great deal through my friend, Cindy. Total cost to and fro is about S$1,400+ for the five of us. Reasonable. Early, this year, Jetstar emailed me that there's some changes to my flight itinerary which ends up to be in my favour. Cause instead of arriving at Taiwan at 11am, now we arrived at Taiwan at 6am. Save more time. 

We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at 6am. Dragging our luggages around, we try to hunt for breakfast while finding a way to contact Auntie Liu, the owner of Stone House Minsu (石頭的家). My homestay in Hualien. I must say, throughout this trip we met with a lot of warm and friendly Taiwanese people around. First, is the lady who was stationed at the passport chopping counter. When she realised that it's my father's birthday today, she took the initiative to wish him Happy Birthday. After we cleared the airport customs, we met with another young guy who coincidentally is from Hualien too and he taught us how to travel to Hualien from the airport. He also told us a NT10 coin is enough for me to call Auntie Liu. Taiwan Country Code is 886 by the way and minus the 0 if I should called from my handphone. There was nothing much to eat as the Airport was under major renovation. Managed to grab some quick bites at the Hi-Life convenience store. Spotted a very interesting bento set which is packaged like a manga.

      
So how to go to Hualien from Taoyuan International Airport? I have did checked through some travel websites and even "asked" Google Map but I remember nothing when I'm there cause there were so many bus and train system there. So, we depends on the directions given. 

Bought the bus ticket from the counter. There's like 6 or 7 different bus operator there but only two bus Company goes to Taipei Main Station. That is Da You or Guo Guang.

Some of the stuff which I felt are rather interesting. Can't be found in Singapore.

At Taipei Main Station, it takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Hualien from Taipei. Due to the fact that we bought the train ticket so last minute, we all only managed to get No Seat tickets. Sob.

Ostomate toilet for those with special needs. 

Remember our tickets with that states No Seat? We were taught that we could just find any empty seats and sit down first before we get chased off because sometime, that person who bought the tickets might not be boarding the train. So the five of us found seats and sat down. Bro and my parents got chased off after a few station. Only us still remained seated throughout the whole journey. How lucky. We even bought bento set to eat on the train. The no eating and drinking rules on Singapore MRT doesn't apply here, Thank goodness.

2 and 1/2 hour on train is really bored so I took out my iPad and start snapping the sceneries through the train window. Created this beautiful collage with most of the snapshots. Nice?



TO BE CONTINUED