Taiwan Day 3 - Typhoon Day

On the second night in Taiwan, we were watching the TV news, and bad news arrived. The news illustrated a typhoon is heading to Taiwan from the South-east direction, where Taipei will be hit on the next day. Our original itinerary was to head to Jiufen 九份 on the third day, but our tenant in Jiufen text us to inform that it's raining heavily at his place, and he would refund fully to us if we couldn't come due to typhoon. In the end, we chose to withdraw our booking and head straight to Taipei. 

The next morning, we were treated with 'home-cooked' breakfast done by the hotel owner. It was mostly vege plus porridge and some bread, simple but good for health though. After finishing all the food, we were packed till the brim as the portion was big, thanks boss! 

We wanted to take a ferry back to Shueishe Pier, but we accidentally took the wrong ferry and head back to Ita Shao Pier again, time wasted...

We took the bus back to Taichung HSR, hoping to be able to catch the train to Taipei before it stops operating at 3pm due to the typhoon. We ended up reaching the station at 11am, and nightmare began... The station was packed, real packed! We queued for almost 2 hours to get our 自由座 free seating tickets as they stopped selling 对号座 numbered seats tickets due to too many people rushing back to the North. Some worried about the typhoon, some just finished their Mid Autumn Festival holiday, thus all rushing back to Taipei.  

What made the matter worse, the station stop letting free-seating tickets into the train. This is so unfair as if they want to do so, they should've stop selling free-seating tickets earlier. Luckily the tickets are refundable if they are not used. Out of frustration and starvation, knowing we wouldn't be able to catch the time in time before 3pm, we headed to MOS Burger. 

It was my first time trying out MOS Burger as we don't have it in Malaysia. Price wise, slightly more expensive than McD, but it is a bit more unique. Take my burger for instance, The petty was made out off meat and seafood while the buns were made of rice! 

After refueling ourselves with the burger, we headed downstairs to queue (again) for the taxi. We queued for almost 2 hours again! By this time, we can already feel the wind is getting stronger here in Taichung, and is wondering how is the weather in Taipei. We ended up sharing a taxi with another 2 female locals, both should be in their 40s. We hopped into a Toyota Camry taxi, chit chatted a little on the way and oh my... 

On the highway, we can see the typhoon was like heavy rain in Malaysia, but with stronger wind. Imagine that all 5 adults in the big-sized Camry can feel that the car swayed when the wind blows... What made the experience scarier was the taxi driver was driving on the highway zigzagging like the weather is nothing! But according to the locals, this round of typhoon is not as great as the one they've experience in the previous month. So, maybe this is a piece of cake to them! 

We spent almost 2 and a half hours in the taxi to Taipei. By the time we reach our next accommodation, which is the Flip Flop Hostel, the sky was already dark eventhough it's around 7.00pm. We were greeted by the friendly hostel PIC at the front desk, where we were then brought around to show us the facilities in the building. Our room were on the second floor, it is a 4-person room with two double-decker bed. Both of us occupied the top bunk, while the one below me was occupied by a Japanese guy. 

We were famished again, mostly due to the exhaustion due to all the queuing that day. We grabbed an umbrella each, travelled to the 7-Eleven located about 300m away at the opposite street, and underestimated the strength of typhoon's wind. Our umbrellas were destroyed by wind moments after stepping onto the street...

We ended up buying a new umbrella in the 7-Eleven to compensate back to the hostel... Behold, my first dinner in Taipei:

Here's a panoramic view of the hostel's lobby, pretty comfy isn't it?

Next - Taiwan Day 4: Taipei!

Taiwan Day 2 - Sun Moon Lake

This is one of the view of the street around Ita Shao Pier. The most happening one in the area. You can see the far center in the picture is the hut of Ita Shao Pier. We arrived early, around 10am, checked in by depositing our luggage first before we head out to explore. As we planned to go 九族文化村 or Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, we decided to explore the street later at night. 

It normally costs about 1000 Yuan for the admission to Formosan + cable car ride (2 ways), but some accommodation has cheaper tickets to offer, so check with your hotel/hostel before purchasing the tickets via the official channel.  

One stretch of the ropeway has a very long span between tower to tower, this is so scary @_@.

Not long later, we arrived at the entrance to Formosan.This is a beautiful place where all the history of Taiwan's nine main tribes are gathered and exhibited. Just let the photos do the talking...

After exploring this little town from one end to another, it's time for lunch. I was hungry and looking for rice (I am a rice tong), but no rice can be found in the little open air cafe which we visited. We sat there, savouring our tasty lunch while waiting for the next round of tribe performance to start. 

We had to rush back to the town after the performance ended as the cable car will stop its service at 4.30pm in weekends. A little early, don't you think? 

After a short rest in the hotel, we went out to explore the town. Plenty of nice food, but the sun set a little earlier than Malaysia. Soon, we discover its beauty at night. 

Coincidentally it was Mid Autumn Festival, where family and friends would gather around, eat moon cake and sip some tea. It was an eye opening scene in Taiwan, where Taiwanese doesn't really eat moon cake in this festival. They will gather on the street and BBQ! 

Although we didn't manage to find any kind of moon cake here, the hotel owner treated us tea which he brewed. Ahhh... What a comfortable feeling to be able to sip tea in such a warming festival. 

Lastly, we went out for a night photo shoot before hitting the sack...

Taiwan Day 3 - Typhoon Day

Taiwan Day 1 - Taoyuan International Airport > Day 2 - Taichung

 For the first time, I embarked on a one week long vacation to Taiwan. My departure flight was located in KLIA2, thus decided to try the KLIA transit for the first time. Tsk tsk tsk, it was bad, real bad. The whole journey should only take 35mins from Bandar Tasik Selatan to KLIA2, but it took the train 1 hour and 20mins due to 'technical issue'. What a start for my holiday! Lucky I was not rushing to catch a plane or something. I would die with an heart attack if I were. 

After meeting up with my college friend ZC, who was my travel companion to Taiwan, we headed into the departure hall and off we went! The flight took 4 hours plus, and we arrived at Taoyuan International Airport. ZC tried to purchase a telco SIM card in the airport but unfortunately most of them are out of stock and were closing down due to end of working hour and the next day was Mid Autumn Festival.   

So we wandered around the airport, trying to find some food to satisfy our famished stomach. Midnight, every shop was closed in the airport, except for 7-Eleven. To our surprise, the 7-Eleven in Taiwan is better equipped and has more choices of food compared to our homeland. We found something like 'lok lok' here, which is a hybrid of steamboat. 

The airport provides handphone charging stands, some people just leave their phones charging here while they wandered off to somewhere. So you can imagine the level of safety of this country. I was a long night, where we decided to give it a try to overnight in an airport. I barely manage to catch some sleep, worrying passer-bys might steal our stuff (yeah, we are 'trained' to be cautious in our own country). 

Soon, it was 6am and the ticketing counter for bus is open. Oh oh, did I mention that our itinerary was to travel to Taichung as our first destination? We took a bus number 705 to Taoyuan High Speed Rail (HSR) Station, to try out how fast the HSR can travel. P.S. Almost all of Taoyuan HSR Station's employees were good looking and polite!

My oh my, I was on the verge of falling asleep once after we boarded the HSR, but we reached Taichung HSR Station in just half an hour! We did some research and found that normal cars will need 2 hours to travel the same path! Albeit the ticket was a little expensive, but it saved us a lot of time! Then, we need to board a bus from the HSR station to Shueishe Pier in Sun Moon Lake. 

A cool breeze blew on our face once we got down from the bus. The temperature here is lower compared to Taoyuan. There were mist covering the hills and on the lake, limiting visibility. To get to our accommodation, we have to take a boat from Shueishe Pier to Ita Shao Pier, which is located at the opposite of the lake... 

We stayed at Dream House B&B, operated by a mid-aged male owner who also stay in the B&B itself. Our room was a little unexpected, largely because of the see-through bathroom wall! Thankfully there was a curtain to cover the glass area, or else we will be able to glance each other while bathing!

Next - Taiwan Day 2 - Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village

Bali Day 2 - Ubud & Tanah Lot

 Good morning! Simple breakfast was served in the hotel I stayed during my visit to Bali. Enough to fuel us for few hours before lunch! As for the second day in Bali, we were scheduled to visit Ubud in the morning and Tanah Lot in the afternoon. At 9am sharp, the timely Mr. Putra fetched us from the lobby and off we go to Ubud. 

The distance between Kuta and Ubud is not very far, but it took us about an hour plus to reach Ubud due to single-lane traffic everywhere (but with surprisingly well-surfaced roads), cars travelled at an average of 60km/h. It would be a boon for motorcyclists, but not for time-constrained tourists like us! Our first stop was batik factory. Batik is also well-known in Malaysia, but seeing the process of making one is quite interesting, especially with the tools and mechanism which look obsolete in today's world.  

Next stop was silver shop. The most interesting spot was the burning of silver and cooper to melt them together, creating a stronger composition. 

Third stop was the coffee shop. We were exposed to the process of making coffee, especially the famous Luwak coffee! Yes, Luwak coffee is the faeces-looking ingredient in the picture below...

... and it's the faeces of this cute little animal!

Nearing to the end of the tour, we were invited to taste every flavour of coffee they have, of course hoping you would purchase some at the end of the tour. Surprisingly, we have to pay a some amount of money to taste Luwak coffee, which we didn't in the end. This shows it is not cheap to buy it...

Then, we headed deeper into Ubud for its market. Souvenirs, souvenirs everywhere... We realised our Bahasa Melayu knowledge gave us advantage in communicating with the locals, but they use some different words compared to ours, for example, petang (afternoon) as soreh. 

By noon, Mr. Putra brought us to Bale Udang for lunch! It's a very, very nice place, I instantly felt that the trip is perfect and value for money with such wonderful place for lunch!

The food were awesome, and the beautiful environment makes photos vibrant in colour. This is by far my most favourite photo of me in the whole trip :)

We arrived back at our hotel before 3pm, just in time for our next tour guide to fetch us to Tanah Lot at 3.00pm. Due to some miscommunication, he went to the wrong hotel and came late, about 3.40pm. Thankfully, we still able to make it to Tanah Lot around 5pm, so we still have time to spare before the sunset at 6pm. 

 Tanah Lot was my most anticipated destination in Bali before I arrive there, and luckily it does not disappoint me. Just look at the temple from a high point, see the waves splash on it, the magnificent temple stood there in all of its glory. 

A daring photographer who will go to any extend to get a nice photo.

This is what I'd call a perfect sunset... It was like so near till we can grab the sun... literally!

Mr. Putra earlier on had handed us a complimentary voucher to dine in Hard Rock Cafe, thus we asked our Tanah Lot tour guide to drop us there while on our way back. Delicious meal, cosy environment, soothing music... Perfect way to end the night.