Anyone just came back from TW and have remaining TWD, lets exchange together I am going to TW and I think we can get better deal for each other compared to exchanging with dealer

Hi All,

Just back from taipei last week, fun and tiring trip definetely will want to go there again! There are few places i plan to go but ended up no time such as CKS Memorial Hall, National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and Wulai. Oh, the last two day of my Taipei Trip - the weather is so hot

Here are some reviews of the places i stayed during my trip
Taipei Hostel
Location is near Shandao Temple station and is not near Taipei Main Station. It is quite a far walk with luggage from Taipei Main Station, however, from the hostel website, it seem to be near Taipei Main Station but is not! Location wise is good and is really budget for only TWD800/day for double room with private bathroom. However, i wouldn't want to stay there again. If you want a nice and cosy room to rest after long day of walk, this is not the place. However, if you just want a clean place to sleep over and cheap, i would said this is the place.
We had bad experience with it. We borrowed hair dryer from the reception at night, which i had to return after using it, cannot put in our room for overnight. So around 11pm i want to return to the receiption at level 6 (our room is at level 3), we can't open our door. Yes, we were locked inside in the room and there is no phone to call the reception since is hostel. Luckly i applied the Digitial Tour Buddy so i can use the phone to call them and no one answered. We tried so hard to open the door and fail. So we gave up and decide to wait till tmr morning to call the reception again and thank god, she came to rescue. It is quite dangerous if anything happen like fire, we might end up burn alive in the room cos we were stuck inside.
Oh..and the walkway is quite dark...there are lights but only the first half of the hallway has light, the second half of the hallway is dark.

Sunny Room at Jiufen
The room is clean,nice and cosy and the owner very friendly and their dogs very cute. All the rooms have the view of mountain and sea and the rooms even decorate with teddy bear. Well, from Sunny Room to Jiufen oldstreet, have to go through quite a bit of stairs. I would stay there again for the next visit. For the smallest room, it is TWD1800 for normal day (Sun - Thurs)

Taipei City Inn III
This is TWD1790/day, it is twice more exp than taipei hostel but the next time i will to go Taipei, i will choose Taipei City Inn. The room that they gave me no window, not very spacious but enough to put two luggage and have sufficient space to move around. The hotel is clean, cosy and the staffs there are friendly. One thing i dont like is the WC and shower is seperated. Other than that is fine. Oh..they provide two free small snacks and laundry from 9am-10pm. I think have to get your own washing powder. It is not very near to Taipei Main Station, but it is consider near to the station, around 10min walk. Comparative, Taipei Hostel is a lot nearer to a MRT station compare to Taipei City Inn III

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Added on May 2, 2012, 9:26 amI still have remaining of TWD7400 - what's the rate you looking at?

This post has been edited by LameCouple: May 2 2012, 09:26 AM

Anyone know how to go to Mr.J Restaurant & Din Tai Fung in Taipei?

One of the branches is at Taiwan medical university for mr j restaurant.

I've been to the Ding Tai Fung located inside Sogo Departmental Store. There's a lot more, you can visit the site http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/ch/index.asp

I have been to the din tai fung in 101. their dumplings is a must-try.. very yummy and not available here.

We went at lunch time and waited for half an hour for a table.

Flying off in a short while. Finally get to go back to Taipei. finger's cross that weather is good.

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Added on May 4, 2012, 10:40 pmWeather here is awesome. 21 degrees with slight breeze. no rain, just cloudy.

This post has been edited by raist86: May 4 2012, 10:40 PM

Would like to recommend the hotel we stayed in while in Taiwan for our recent trip.

Look Hotel.
Location is very near the NTU Hospital Mrt station (one stop away from main train station). About 2-3 mins walk across the park. Reason I’m recommend this place is coz the service was really excellent, rooms clean and new. Being a first time traveller to Taiwan and not being able to converse much in mandarin, we had no problems whatsoever with enquiring at the front desk. Price wise is more compared to the other options like Taipei City Inn which we did try to get but all 3 of them couldn’t accommodate based on given dates nor have triple sharing.

First was their efficiency in checking us in and out all 3 times during our entire stay while helping us store our luggage. When we decided to extend a days stay in Jiufen due to heavy rainfall. I was surprised they said it wouldn’t be a problem and would refund me the difference when i got back (I paid for all 6 days before travelling to Taiwan) Im not sure bout you guys but i have never come across any hotel that happily refunded the full amount without even being asked to. We were pretty sure we would get a penalty or forfeit it totally.

Next was when we came back to Taipei after 2 days in jiufen only to find that my brother was silly enough to have taken back with us the room keys! I approached front desk and they helped me arrange to send the keys back and we paid 120NT for the delivery.

The biggest problem came when i realised i had made a horrible mistake on our return date back to kl. It was on the 22nd but i somehow kept thinking it was 23rd. So instead of 6 nights it was to be only 4 nights since we deducted one night previously. I was pretty sure it was a gonner this time round. To my surprise, again they just refunded me the last day without much explanation or fuss. I felt so bad for my blunder but they assured me it was fine. They even personally came up to the room with the refund slips for me to sign instead of calling me down to front desk to get it done. I believe in paying for good service and i believe this hotel deserves a mention =)

This post has been edited by aisumomo: May 4 2012, 11:21 PM

hihi, i am going to taiwan soon for 1 week.

what are the stuffs over there that are worth buying? electronics? sports? clothings?

what is the current exchange rate of RM to taiwan money?

Hi to all forumers… Would like to request for some assistance to review my itinerary to Taiwan this coming July… This would be my 2nd time to Taiwan; 1st time I have covered much of Taipei and the outskirts… So this time I will be venturing out of Taipei… So my trip will be from 2nd – 13th July…

2nd July - 4th July
ETA Taoyuan 2.45pm
Take HSR to Taichung

5th July
Take HSR to Chiayi; then to Alishan

6th July
Alishan – sunrise tour
Then get a hired cab, head to Cingjing with a side trip to Sun Moon Lake

7th July
Cingjing

8th July
Head to Hualien with Taroko tour

9th July
Hualien - plan for whale & dolphin watching tour

10th July - 13th July
Taipei

That's my plan so far for this trip... Still needs some fine-tuning to it... Any opinions by forumers? Thanks!

This post has been edited by nicodemus88: May 5 2012, 06:44 PM

8th July
Head to Hualien with Taroko tour
I think you need to leave Chingjing very early to do this. ChingJing to Hualien need at least 3 hours. After all the snake road.. I dont think i can go to taroko anymore.. Taroko tour usually start at 9am.



Why not stop at Juifen after Hualien. The gold mine is interesting place. Cover yeh lui too if you have not been there.

This post has been edited by tyj82: May 5 2012, 10:03 PM

I have been to Jiufen and Yehliu... =D

Thanks for the suggestion. any other suggestions where I could visit??

Next week I go taiwan, I prepare Taiwan dolar 10k. If not enough, can I use the maybank atm card to withdraw money ? If can, is follow maybank or the local bank exchange rate ? currently the rate I found is 10.65, got any nice place can get better ?

anybody care to share their travel itinerary for 7 days 6 nights taipei?

my cycling gang told me that cycling in Taiwan during summer / spring is the best thing to do !

Hi, you can refer my itinerary last year

http://db.tt/P16I2cbQ

mine was 8 days though

Might as well change more, if got balance keep 1st. Next time can go there again

Bring along some USD. But changing in town might be challenging as I don't see currency exchanger much.

I think the Govt there regulate the money changers and only available by banks. I did changed in local banks in Taipei.. very mafan.. lotsa red tapes even though no NT30 commission.. price also similar to those in the Airport. BTW, All airport money changers asl by the banks no individual private owned money changers there

After some reconsideration, I've made some changes to my planned itinerary and now it looks like this...

Day 1 - Day 3 => Taichung

Day 4 => Alishan

Day 5 & 6 => Sun Moon Lake & Cingjing

Day 7 - Day 12 => Taipei (+ day trip to Taroko gorge)

How about this schedule? Any comments?

I would like to ask if it is better to make a day trip to Taroko gorge from Taipei or go there direct from Cingjing?

Was thinking giving Kaoshiung & Hualien a miss this time in view of budget, time constrain & transport issue... Will I miss anything exciting?

Experience wise; Hualien, Taichung or Kaoshiung is more fun? I'm more of a scenery kind of person...