Travel: Taiwan - Taipei

[teachingmum]

Hi,


Just came back from Taiwan today. after a 12-day trip.

Temp in Taipei and Hualien was low. Lowest during our stay was 13 degree Celsius. It was also raining so must arm with umbrellas. Recommend to wear layers as temp fluctuates throughout the day. Bought gloves and scarves for my boys at Taiwan. Very cheap there.

Kaohsiung was warm during our stay there.

Free wifi available in all our four hotels.

[keroppi]

Thanks, all. i have confirmed my tour. Will travel armed with umbrellas and raincoats. Will need to shop this weekend.

[mummyv]

hi keroppi


Enjoy your holiday. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Kids had bubble tea/milk tea everyday. 7-11 is everywhere so do not worry about not having an umbrella. Readily available for sale. Their instant meals are surprising quite good. Fresh juices & veggies were amazing. It was eating and snacking non stop. Interesting eats are lotus flower hot pot, bird nest fern, jellied pig/duck blood, fried chicken outlets even sell chicken necks… Temp at hehuanshan is 6 deg, Cing Jing 11 deg otherwise Taipei is like Genting except wet, wet, wet.

[allseasons]

jjxy mum:

allseasons:

Hi all,



Hi,

My family just came back from Korea last week, the weather is freezing right now. My half-day tour guide told us it is only the starting of winter. It may go down to -15 degree next two mths. Food choices is quite limited in Seoul. You can stay 2 nights in Alpensia areas resort, its great for skiing.

We went to Japan 2 yrs back which is before the earth quake, but if you are bringing children to Japan maybe you want to wait for another 2-3 yrs due to the radiation.

Last year Nov, we went to Taipei/Hualien/Yilan. We took train to Hualien and we stayed in Minsu for 2 nights. The minsu owner helped us to arrange a mini-bus that can seated 8 pax to drive us to Taroko Gorge.
You will have to pre-book your accommodation and train tickets earlier if you intend to travel on festive seasons.

Thanks a lot jjxy mum and busymum...

Now I am confused where to go during the CNY...

[keroppi]

mummyv:

hi keroppi


Enjoy your holiday. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Kids had bubble tea/milk tea everyday. 7-11 is everywhere so do not worry about not having an umbrella. Readily available for sale. Their instant meals are surprising quite good. Fresh juices & veggies were amazing. It was eating and snacking non stop. Interesting eats are lotus flower hot pot, bird nest fern, jellied pig/duck blood, fried chicken outlets even sell chicken necks... Temp at hehuanshan is 6 deg, Cing Jing 11 deg otherwise Taipei is like Genting except wet, wet, wet.

Thanks, mummyv. I'm printing this snippet out. Wow wow wow ... you make me feel flying off this instance.

[ter_wen]

keroppi:

mummyv:

hi keroppi


Enjoy your holiday. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Kids had bubble tea/milk tea everyday. 7-11 is everywhere so do not worry about not having an umbrella. Readily available for sale. Their instant meals are surprising quite good. Fresh juices & veggies were amazing. It was eating and snacking non stop. Interesting eats are lotus flower hot pot, bird nest fern, jellied pig/duck blood, fried chicken outlets even sell chicken necks... Temp at hehuanshan is 6 deg, Cing Jing 11 deg otherwise Taipei is like Genting except wet, wet, wet.

Thanks, mummyv. I'm printing this snippet out. Wow wow wow ... you make me feel flying off this instance.

me too.

wanna check again, for kids shoes, should i bring those rain boots?
or i can buy something like shoe covers in taiwan?

what kind of waterproof shoes can i get for kids?

[BigDevil]

ter_wen:

BigDevil:

I paid NT800 for 10-day unlimited data usage + NT550 of voice call.

up at taroko, congaing and hehuanshan still got reception?

data speed?

any refund for unused value? valid for how long?

Sorry...didn't venture to those places so can't comment.
You might want to check out this HWZ thread: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/taiwan-291/prepaid-3g-data-sim-card-taipei-2714033.html

Data speed felt faster than Singapore.

The voice is good for 6 months. I didn't check whether can
refund or not because I gave it to a friend who was going there
soon after we return.

[atrecord]

Just came back from Taiwan this week. Agree that it’s important to be ‘rain-proof’ when there, else could really spoil the mood. We were caught in drizzle for 4 days, and heavier rain on another 2, and good weather on another 4. It helps a lot if your shoes are water proof. We wore track shoes for comfort, but they became soaked on the day with heavy rain, and I ended up spending 2 hours in the hotel later using hairdryer to dry everybody’s shoes… as we needed to wear them again the next day. If you do not like to carry umbrellas, best option would be long jackets that are water-proof (or at least resistant), on top of keeping warm.


And if you’re there, other then the many different types of Taiwanese snacks, i’ve one recommendation: you should try 姜母鸭. I do not take ginger at all, but took our guide/driver’s suggestion to try this, and was pleasantly surprised by the unique taste of the soup. Even DS who’s 7 liked it. It also supposedly helps to ward off the cold and help the body to keep warm. Quite affordable too, with my family of 6 (4 adults + 2 kids) spending only ~NT1300.

Must also be prepared for earthquake. We were warned by our guide/driver as we travelled from airport->hualian, and sure enough, experienced a Ritcher 5 earthquake in the middle of the night. It lasted barely seconds (at most 10), but the electricity went out, and didn’t come back on till morning… Apparently it’s very normal to have minor quakes. But what we saw at the earthquake museum was a totally different monster… they have a simulator there too.

Had toyed with idea of driving around there, but DW said better not. Having gone through the trip, I agreed with her completely…

[Www]

SarChar:

if you have time in taipei before you start your tour around Taiwan, you may want to consider to change your $$$ at DBS Taiwan.


The exchange rate at Taoyuan Airport was S$1 = $23.31 but DBS Taiwan was S$ 1 = $ 23.596. In Singapore the rate was $23.22-23.30.

Only if you need to change a lot of money then can see the saving. Only DBS Taiwan have better rates. We had to change $$$ for 16 people so we had some decent saving.

For the local line, we did not buy the package for unlimited usage. Unless you need to be on data plan 18hrs of the day, then maybe worth to buy the unlimited usage. It was NT1000 at least...

Instead my Taiwan colleague suggested to me to buy the SIM Card from any 7-Eleven for NT300. Very cheap. To buy the card, you will need your IC AND passport. We bought 2 of these cards. At the end of 16 days, using the phone to call local calls and my private driver, I still had NT200+ left on each SIM Card.

Honestly at every minsu and also hotel, wifi is available everywhere. Personally i dont think we need to buy the data plan if you are not always on FB etc.

Need to bring IC or passport to exchange money in DBS Taiwan? Pay in cash?

[BigDevil]

Bring passport. I made that mistake and had to go back when the kids were napping in the afternoon.


How else do you plan to transact? Write them a check :?