Travel: Taiwan - Taipei

[Busymom]

ter_wen:

Busymom:

[quote=\"ter_wen\"]
oh so u drove from cingjing through the central hwy across to taroko? hows the road condition?
yours is clockwise, ours is anti clockwise.
here's my iti, any comments?
Taipei -> hualien. rest.
-> taroko, hehuanshan, puli. o/n in puli.
-> sun moon lake day trip. o/n in pulu
-> cingjing farm. o/n in cj.
-> flying cow. hshinchu. o/n in Hshinchu.
-> leofoo. taoyuan. o/n in taoyuan.

thks for your advice, we also intend to reach destination before sunset.

We didn't go to Taroko or Hualien. We stayed 2 nights in Cingjing and went to Hehuanshan during one of the days. After Cingjing, we went to Taipei by backtracking to Puli. From there, we use Freeway 6 and then Freeway 3 (instead of Freeway 1), based on local advice that we got.

Your itinerary looks fine. Only comment I have is, cingjing should come before sun moon lake as cingjing is like 1 hr from Hehuanshan. Sun moon lake is 2 hrs away from cingjing if you go via Puli using provincial highway 14. And if you use freeway 6 and then freeway 3, it should get you from sun moon lake to flying cow pretty easily. Don't use freeway 1. We were in xinshe and we took freeway 1. The gps took us out to Miaoli quite early and led us to that horrid mountain road...

thks.
added in red the night stay.
ya i agree with u that we shd go cj before going down to sml.
unfortunately we cant get a room at cj so going to stay at puli instead. then double back up to cj after we are done with sml lor...
bo bian.[/quote]Totally understand. This also happened to us for Flying Cow. Couldn't get a room and ended up staying in a farm 8 minutes away... Not ideal but bo bian as well. On hindsight, should have skipped Flying Cow as what DH initially suggested. We didn't even get to go into Flying Cow due to the rain.

[tabgha]

It is worthwhile investing in a pair of waterproof shoes. Particularly love the ones from Timberland. We bought the track shoes meant for wet weather conditions and with good grip at the soles. These are mainly trekking shoes so very good for long distance walking.


Quite value for money if u happen to get those on sale or on card promotions

[ter_wen]

Busymom:

ter_wen:

thks v much mummyv.

the pics are useful.
i got pvc covered shoes for them, pvc material = waterproof hor.

is thermal wear a must?
the only place that seems to be really cold will be hehuanshan ya?
i intend to layer them as we go up, with wool pullover then winter jackets and gloves. got heat packs too.
enough ma?

we are skipping hualien.
will be driving up to hehuanshan from puli instead.
cos part of the su-hua hwy is closed due to landslide.
hai.

To me, thermal is only needed if it is sub-zero or close to zero. With enough layers, it should be sufficient and more flexible. With thermal, it may get too warm.. unless you want to wear only thermal in the car?

yeah. agree.
cos only hehuanshan cold.
other places cool.
just that the jackets are bulky though not heavy.

[ter_wen]

tabgha:

It is worthwhile investing in a pair of waterproof shoes. Particularly love the ones from Timberland. We bought the track shoes meant for wet weather conditions and with good grip at the soles. These are mainly trekking shoes so very good for long distance walking.


Quite value for money if u happen to get those on sale or on card promotions

my kids dun like to wear shoes. sg v hot lei.
mostly slippers and sandals.

[BigDevil]

Www:

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 :?

Credit card?

I seriously doubt you can do that.

Even if you can, they will charge your card in NT$ and hand that amount to you in cash. Then you are subjecting yourself to your SG bank's exchange rate rather than the good exchange rate offered by Taiwan DBS.

[kaka]

Just came back from Taiwan 8 day tour. Very tiring due to the hours spent on the coach, and changing hotels every day. Somehow felt that we spent more time on the coach than sight seeing. Also unlucky to have a tour guide who made us change seats every day as the cauch was full … it caused confusion and unhappiness. She was very defensive when recieving feedback… haiz


We were brought to this shop that sold Lingzhi and Deer fetus… many of us bought, somehow "brainwashed" by her cancer talk then. Beware.

[S-H]

kaka:

Just came back from Taiwan 8 day tour. Very tiring due to the hours spent on the coach, and changing hotels every day. Somehow felt that we spent more time on the coach than sight seeing. Also unlucky to have a tour guide who made us change seats every day as the cauch was full .. it caused confusion and unhappiness. She was very defensive when recieving feedback... haiz


We were brought to this shop that sold Lingzhi and Deer fetus... many of us bought, somehow \"brainwashed\" by her cancer talk then. Beware.

Which tour did you join? Mine ASA, not bad. Was also a 8 days tour, just as what you had said- more time on coach than sight seeing! Did the tour guide take you all to the \"Tian Lu\" shop?

[kaka]

S-H:

Which tour did you join? Mine ASA, not bad. Was also a 8 days tour, just as what you had said- more time on coach than sight seeing! Did the tour guide take you all to the \"Tian Lu\" shop?

Yeh, some of the group members bought the \"Tian Lu\". The tour guide was very convincing .. she talked about winning in casinos, gave examples of \"Tian Lu\" in major businesses eg Hyatt. She said that Taiwan's Hyatt belonged to LKY?? It was haunted until feng sui master placed Tian Lu in the hotel. She also bought the group to see the \"fu\" hanging in Hyatt hotel.

I followed Jun-air.

[angell]

Hi,


We are making really last minute plans to visit Taiwan so need some advice rather urgently…

Has anyone rented a car and self drive to Alishan before? How are the road conditions? I cannot seem to find much info on the internet.

Thanks in advance!

[schweppes]

angell:

Hi,


We are making really last minute plans to visit Taiwan so need some advice rather urgently....

Has anyone rented a car and self drive to Alishan before? How are the road conditions? I cannot seem to find much info on the internet.

Thanks in advance!

Not advisable to go to Alishan on your own especially in current rainy weather. The road up is narrow and road conditions not suitable for inexperienced drivers. Just returned from Taiwan on a tour last week and, even tho, Alishan was a planned activity, we were advised by the local tour guide against going up as a fatal accident had occurred the day before where 13 passengers died. Their tour bus tumbled down the mountain. :shock: :sad:

On that morning where we were supposed to travel up to Alishan, our group decided to stay at the foot of the mountain to take pics. Am so glad we did that.

There was another tour bus ahead of us - comprising Sporeans and Msians who went up, and met with an accident too. Fortunately, no fatalities but all passengers were injured. We were quite shaken as we actually saw the bus driving up the mountain. Next thing we knew, a convoy of ambulance and police cars headed up to rescue the injured party. :gloomy: