Taiwan Trip - Preps

Day -80 (5 Feb)
After weeks of monitoring, I decided that the prices of Jetstar can't go any lower. There goes $1290... But I will get to use an airbridge despite taking a budget airline, not a bad deal.


Day -78 (7 Feb)
With the flight secured, it's time to settle the accommodation. The hotel I eyed is only contactable by phone, so bo bian, had to make an overseas call. By my research, 019 promises to be cheap. 内江商旅 has all that I needed, but they only accept bookings 1 month in advance. Means next time still must call again lah...

The hotspring hotel I was eyeing, 天隆大飯店, doesn't seem to reply email, so I called them up too. If only they would check their email.


Day -76 (9 Feb)
Took a long toilet break at work to call Mr 吕来福, a cabby highly recommended on forums for Taroko tours. He said he was in the 水帘洞 (wa in cave still can answer phone!), so he asked me to call back later. I did, by using the last-dialled function as I always do (something I would regret later). He was available on he date I wanted and assured me that there's something to see even on wheelchair. Hooray! The booking was all verbal. I just had to call him on the day I reached Taiwan to reconfirm. By the way, his accent ah, I think a bit hard to hear over the phone haha.

Called Meeky Yang, a cabby highly recommended for Taipei outskirts tour, but he didn't pick up. Sigh.

Meeky called me back in the evening.
Meeky: 4月30号有空啊！现在才2月咧，你这么早就打来啊！
Sotong: 哦？Err怕输嘛...
Again, the booking was verbal and I just had to call him on the day I reached Taiwan to reconfirm.

All cab tours settled!

Now I can proceed to confirm my accommodation in Hualien. I had a hard time looking for a cheap 民宿 (don't stay in hotel all the time mah) that has either a lift or rooms on the ground floor. Sent an email to 被浪打到 (Ocean Bed and Breakfast) to reserve a room for 4 with street view. Staying for 1 night only, no need seaview ba ^_^. Save money! No need for any deposit, how wonderful!


Day -71 (14 Feb)
Received my hp bill and got a SHOCK. What was that $4.32 IDD 001 call? I got dial 001 meh? It must have been a mistake!


Day -69 (16 Feb)
Called Singtel up. The CSO said maybe I had used the last-dialled function, which wouldn't have the 019 prefix. Huh... I thought have lor, that's why I dared to use it mah...

Lesson learnt: ALWAYS type out the number to call, so the 019 will 101% guarantee plus chop be there. Wei... $0.02/s vs $0.00317/s is no joke lor!

Overseas calls are more affordable than I thought.


Day -64 (21 Feb)
I think it was around this time. Jetstar fares fell by more than 50%! WA HEART PAIN!


Day -61 (24 Feb)
Jetstar sent a notification about a new flight itinerary. Everything pushed back by about 1hr.


Day -56 (1 Mar)
First thing when I woke up - CALL NEIJIANG! Faster book, must be number 1, else nowhere to stay in Taipei! With such kiasuism, it's little wonder that I reserved my desired room. But the confirmation will only be done 1 week before arrival :(


Day -35 (22 Mar)
I read the horror stories about people taking Freego bus from hotel to airport and it happily went in circles picking up fares, causing the passengers to almost miss their flight. And the driver had the cheek to show bad attitude. With a few hundred dollars at stake here, I decided to book a cab transfer for NT800 (S$38) from 小李服務圑隊 via email.


Day -34 (23 Mar)
五角船板 seemed like a restaurant popular with tourists. Deciding that I could somehow squeeze it into my itinerary, I called them up to check out their reservation policy. The only accessible seat is downstairs near the door - hardly pleasant. And they only accept reservations for minimum of 6 (I think) pax. Bring my whole family also not enough lor. The CSO said it should be safe to not reserve if we come right at opening.

I guess it's not worth the effort to travel specially there by cab since there's nothing else in the area that interests me.


Day -33 (24 Mar)
小李服務圑隊's reply was so fast lor! Within the hour of me sending the enquiry email! Like they were sitting in front of the computer waiting for email! But I only saw it 2 day later lah. I replied to book and within minutes, someone called me to confirm the booking. Efficient!


Day -31 (26 Mar)
We were taking forever to decide on our hotspring hotel. I wanted to be adventurous and go to 礁溪 instead of 北投 or 乌来 as most Singaporeans do, but this also posed a difficulty as there wasn't any review on cheap 礁溪 hotsprings on any of the forums I go to. What to do, google for the local's reviews lor. I was being choosy. Accessible, new (so there will be no stains on the tub), open till midnight, cheap, got place to sleep, honest...

My sister picked 三光礁溪溫泉旅館. Everything pass, but looks a bit old ley...

I found out there are 民宿 with hotspring too. 松语墅 (Pine) caught my eye. Look at that rooftop tub!! I think can swim in it lor! But it's on the 4th storey, don't know got lift or not.

Pine has a regularly-manned message board, but some things are better asked personally instead of ding dong to and fro. I called them up, and had the most difficult Taiwanese phone call EVER! Wa the lady boss' accent! Anyway, the outcome was that there is no lift (expected), the room was available and I can book without giving a deposit (yay!).

I learnt that in Taiwan, when a person says that a place "有雷", it means "有地雷", meaning dishonest.


Day -28 (29 Mar)
It suddenly struck me that I didn't have to wait for Neijiang's confirmation to get the free amusement park ticket - I already have a confirmation from Ocean BnB! So I forwarded the documents to my sister for her to ask the Taiwan Tourism Board to mail the tickets to us.


Day -27 (30 Mar)
4 storeys is too cruel to my brother, so I decided on a room on the 2nd storey. I called Pine to confirm, but this time the boss asked for a deposit. I said last time she said no need ley, and somemore I'm a foreigner and don't know how to do fund transfer to Taiwan. As a reassurance, I volunteered to call her once I reach Taiwan. So the boss said ok lor. Heehee!


Day -20 (6 Apr)
Been putting off the insurance for too long! Tenet, which was suggested by my friend-cum-financial advisor, seemed good afterall, so I got him to help me purchase it. And if got anything, can ask him to claim!

Why aren't 3 siblings counted as family? :\


Day -8 (18 Apr)
Online train ticket is available 2 weeks in advance. I contemplated waking up at 6am to catch the system opening hour as we were traveling on a weekend, thus tickets may run out. But my brother said don't be crazy lor, and I really like to sleep in on Saturdays (I think more weightage for this). I spent quite some time understanding Taiwan rail, ticketing, stations, services and how to book tickets online. I think the whole world is confused about the ticket booking, going by the number of queries posted on forums. It didn't help that all the vital reads in the Taiwan Rail website (which opens a new window for every hyperlink) is all in traditional, formal Chinese. Vomit blood!

With help from this very helpful guide to booking train tickets, I secured our Taipei -> Hualien tickets.

I was just trying my luck, but the next day's tickets are bookable already! Excitedly, I tried to book our Hualien -> Jiaoxi tickets, but failed for my desired timing! Huh so fast full already?! I attempted to split up the stations by trying Hualien -> Yilan -> Jiaoxi and Hualien -> Luodong -> Jiaoxi, but some legs are also full! Wa Taiwanese mega-ultra-kiasu lor! Worse than Singaporeans! Bo bian, I booked a later timing instead.

The ticket-booking and payment system are not integrated. I found that I should designate my tickets as child/adult/handicapped here. Damn, I was looking high and low for the option at the booking website. Anyway, the online system didn't allow me to book the half-priced handicapped and companion tickets as they are for locals with some handicapped booklet only :\


Day -7 (19 Apr)
It's 8 days away from departure, but I didn't want to be making phonecalls at the corridor at work again, so I confirmed with Neijiang. Luckily they didn't say something like "pls call tomorrow, I said confirm 1 week before". My confirmation number was 042701. Wa first customer of that day lor!


Day -6 (20 Apr)
Book and paid for our Jiaoxi -> Taipei train tickets. HSBC had better give me a good rate.


Day -3 (23 Apr)
Been OT-ing every single day since April. Today my boss came to ask me can postpone my trip or not. Of course cannot lah! I chop in February ok! Imagine not putting any developer into a project! Can you ask yourself if you ever had such a smooth-sailing project or not?


Day -0 (26 Apr)
Sandstorm in Taipei! NoooOooo!

The exchange rate has been really sucky. In all, we changed S$5509.26 for NT119900, with a mean rate of 21.76.