You can go to shi fen in the morning and head to jiu fen around 3-4pm.

Journey to Taichung & Tomato Rooms

And so begins my crazy travelling journey of the night. Due to my extreme lack of time I decided to travel from Hua Lien, back to Taipei using the normal express train and then to Taichung via High Speed Rail. Thanks to the speed of the trains I was able to achieve this feat in about 4 hours, considering I had to travel 350KM and had to accommodate some waiting time. I was waiting for the lady selling food to pass by in the HuaLien - Taipei train but it didn't materialise and I had to starve for 3 hours. Not a very pleasant journey.


Ticket price of the bullet train is NTD700 for one way @_@


The interior design of the HSR looks like the interior of an aeroplane


Maximum speed of about 270km/h was achieved!


At around 11pm I arrived at Taichung High Speed Rail. Not wanting to take the bus in the middle of the night, I opted to take a taxi. Be sure to head for the designated taxi waiting area though as there are many touts around which may be a rip off.

The taxi driver brought me to my hostel, Tomato Rooms which is in the vicinity of the famous Feng Jia night market and the total journey costed me about NTD300. This B&B is about 5-10 minutes walk away from the night market. A very big thank you to the taxi driver who ensured that the lady from the hostel picked me up (by using his own phone to call the hostel's number) because this hostel does not have any clear signboards indicating its exact whereabouts. Unfortunately, this hostel will cease its operation on 1st November 2012 and it is really a pity. Not sure why though. My theory is that since there's a university nearby and accommodation is hard to get thus the hostels are renting rooms out to students instead and can make a better profit..? Anyway I really had a good night at this hostel and at a very reasonable price too!

At about NTD1000, I got this:









Security in this hostel is also very tight as you have to scan your card at 2 doors and even in the elevator before you can reach your room. I forgotten to lock my doors when I left for the night market and everything was still intact when I came back, thankfully.





Free breakfast is even provided! I topped up a little bit of money to get a better meal before I headed to Sun Moon Lake the next day.



Its really sad that such a nice place is going to cease operations so soon So to those going to Taichung in the next few months better make the most of your opportunity!

read the first page

yeap. hualien tickets sell out really fast, even more so on a weekend. yeah u probably can try buying before arrival but your preferred timing may not be available.

Feng Jia Night Market (逢甲夜市)

*more pics at blog*

So after settling my luggages and stuff and reconfirming with the locals that the night market does not close at 12am ( I arrived at Taichung at 11pm @@), I rushed out and head over to the famous Feng Jia Night Market (about 5-10 minutes walk from my accommodation).



Generally the goods here are cheaper compared to the Shih Lin night market in Taipei but I did not buy anything though. Wanted to buy a pair of shoes but I couldn't find any that suited me :/ Since I was here quite late, the crowd had pretty much dissipated and it was more fun to walk around.


The famous shoe store



Since I was really really hungry at that time, I just went to the food court to eat whatever food that they have (or whatever stalls that were still open).





Frog Laying Eggs. This drink is nice! If I can remember correctly, it's a combination of Ai Yu Jelly, Pearls. Highly recommended! 35NTD


Papaya drink. Very interesting. 50NTD.

I have also managed to try some of the very popular food that people recommended. They said I had to wait for very long time as the queue will be damn long but I guess being there at 12am means I had much less competitors LOL. My average queue time was only 3-5 minutes.




大腸包小腸. Basically its a Taiwanese hot dog at NTD40. Apparently this is one of the must tries in Feng Jia Night Market!



Takoyaki! 40NTD for SIX! This is cheap and delicious!

And my summary for my supper! Nomsss

go hostel world or agoda find la. sure got


yes why not. just be sure to plan properly and ask when in doubt and not to be too adventurous.

i spent about 3k plus lar including air ticket. well that's a very subjective question and it depends on how detail you wanna cover and whether you are travelling at a slow pace or rushing to everywhere in the shortest time possible.

too expensive... i booked my ticket 1-2 months before and i got the same price including luggage and food..

well maybe 700-800 since you are buying so early? if you are even more optimistic maybe can even get 500-600? is march a peak season? not really sure about that. maybe you could wait for awhile more before buying the tickets.

having said that 1k is still very much cheaper than cathay and MAS...

number of days is directly proportional to how many places you wanna visit and how tight is your schedule so it entirely depends on your preference..

if u wanna go taiwan for shopping, summer.

Taichung High Speed Railway （台中高鐵）

For my last two days in Taiwan, I headed to Sun Moon Lake. From Feng Jia district I took a free shuttle bus which brought me back to Taichung High Speed Railway and from there I boarded a bus which took me directly to Sun Moon Lake (one way about NTD200).


Place to wait for the shuttle bus. Be sure to be at the right direction! When in doubt, ask!


The design of the high speed rail is really like that of an airport. This was my first impression when I first stepped in the 'departure' and 'arrival' halls.







Adding on to that, I would also like to clarify that there now luggage storage facilities at these High Speed Rail stations (albeit quite limited). Before I left for Taiwan, forums such as Lonely Planet and Lowyat had told me that there was no place to store luggages but that information is obviously outdated now.





Charges are pretty reasonable

Also, a special mention to MOS burger! The rice burger is just nice! Wondering when will they open a branch in Malaysia. This shop could be found around Taiwan and not necessarily at this HSR.






I really hope that before I die I could see the development of a bullet train system in Malaysia. It is just so much more convenient for travellers to move in between states and reducing traffic jams on the roads, especially during festive seasons.

not cheap by Air Asia standards.

Less than rm800 is cheap. Less than rm600 is quite cheap. Less than rm400 is very cheap.

Taichung station and Taichung high speed rail different la.

http://zhishan90.blogspot.com/2012/07/taip...12-summary.html

its not complete yet though, especially the sun moon lake part :/ no time to post

do you have any idea how you plan to travel around? how are you intending to go from taipei (north) to gaohsiung (south) and then back the taizhong (middle) and then to the other side of taiwan (hualien) and then back to taipei again? and how much is your budget for transportation.

welll i can suggest that you go from taipei to hua lien to move down to south then back to taichung and lastly back to taipei would be easier and less taxing on travelling

Hualien you can visit the taroko gorge and go whale seeing if you are interested. there are 2 night markets as well. can go cycling around at night.