One day last year Gem asked me if I want to travel locally or in a foreign country. After being in Singapore and Malaysia last 2016, Gem and I wasn't able to travel internationally again. Taiwan was currently on the top of my list since it's visa-free for Filipino for one year.
She agreed and when we met on the first week of January, we booked our ticket. Our ticket with Air Asia was around 6,500php each. Gem is super busy and I don't want to jinx this Taiwan trip so I wasn't planning on something. Ryan was in Taiwan so he said we will meet up when he's free (unfortunately he wasn't free when we were there. Let's just meet when you get home!).
We booked our hotel only a month before our travel date and that cost us 13,200 for 5 nights.
Our flight back was at 1am but we check out early that day so basically we are homeless for a day before going back to the airport. Fortunately we can leave our things at the hotel lobby while we do our last day in Taipei and before going to the airport.
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Prior on traveling, Gem said she will fix our itinerary but as busy as her, I force myself to do it just like how I did with Jakarta. I read reviews and know where to go.
Gem's sister will also be in Taiwan for a couple of days and we also spend time together. Ate Joy suggested that we do a tour with Klook on the Saturday so we will be able to do it together. Booked that and without plans I also booked a WiFi with Klook so even we don't have concrete plans, we have the Internet. Also booked the train ticket from Airport to Taipei Main Station (roundtrip) so we will not think about it anymore.
I also chose an arrival time of morning so we will see the view and not during night time where you don't know where to go. It's also easier since check-in time is usually after lunch.
First Day - May 3, 2019
Told Gem to meet me at the airport at 3am so that we will not rush on checking-in and we have plenty of time for lining up on paying travel tax and no rushing at the immigration. Well, we didn't spend much time there and we already pass the security and we have all the time while we wait for our boarding time.
Surprisingly, our flight with Air Asia was on time.
It was just longer at the immigration in Taiwan since it was like three or more flights arrived at the same time.
After immigration, I look for the booth where I will pick up our WiFi that I booked. And good thing there's a food court at the airport, we stayed there for a while, find heavy meal and get the first order of milk tea. Lol
Looked for the booth where to get the round trip mrt ticket and we are all set for the train to the city.
We make a turn to Taipei City Mall and we are welcomed by a whole floor dedicated to geeks (comic related stores, claw machines, ps4 games, anything for the geeks). Good thing I'm not that kind of geek but I know some so somehow I get excited for them. Lol.
We decided to take an exit and not knowing where to go, we went out and started to rely on Google Maps on our location going to our hotel. Thankful for Froi who was supposed to be also in Taiwan but went home few weeks before our travel dates and we also weren't able to meet and he's one more reason why we decided Taiwan, together with Ryan. Anyway, thankful for Froi for being our online guide.
After that exit we made another turn and we end up being in a random small park. I was hesitant to walk to our hotel because I have a backpack and a luggage and I don't want to just walk but surprisingly, the weather is way better than the Philippines also their sidewalks are good. Huhuhu
I was able to walk with 2 bags without sweating. Huhu. Setting aside that we already want some rest on a decent bed, we did find our hotel just by walking.
I fail on searching the weather since all I bought was shorts and no pants. Lol it was playing with 19-20 degrees all stay and with random rain showers. Hehe.
Checking in was fun. Hehe. It was just a metal door with pass code and a telephone. The instruction was call the specific number then she will let you know the door pass code and she will meet you at the reception area. Gave our key card to our room and we are all set. Omg our room!!! Ahhh we loved that place with a mini bathtub!!! I wish I was able to used it often but I'm fragile and hot bath are sending me too much vibe. Though I did a hot bath one night and it wasn't that good.
We will have dinner with Ate Joy and Ate Rai that we have to meet them at 6pm. We decided to walk and look for some convenient store for us to stock some water and some instant noodles and we walked on this street full of herb store and some dried fruits/food just on the store front. We found a convenient store and upon paying, I just remembered one of Ryan's story before that you have to pay if you don't have your own plastic or eco bag. Good thing we just bought 4 items so we basically hold it while we walk back to our hotel. Mom insisted me to bring an eco bag and good thing I did, it was very useful on our whole trip.
We are not yet that familiar with the transportation so we just rely on taxi for that moment. We met Ate Joy and Rai at Ximending since their hotel is located there. Roam around Ximending, ate at a local eatery, bought milk tea, ate fruits and since we are a bit familiar with our own way to our hotel, we walked that night from Ximending to our hotel. It was windy and cold, I didn't mind walking much with such weather.
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