No idea..probably sked those paper got stucked inside the bowl? Anyway, I diregard their rules...and dun even wanna to open the bin provided...

so recommended is stay at Hotel? Hotel only cost like RM180-200.

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Added on March 14, 2011, 12:35 pmrecycle? HAHAHA that is so disgusting

This post has been edited by iPlx: Mar 14 2011, 12:35 PM

Pretty much depending whether you can take it or not.

If you're on budget, hostel is the best option. cheap. I only paid RM30/pax. Well, The condition is actually not bad. Furthermore, free wifi, free usage of cooker, woks, kitchen & even laundry. You can't find these free services if you stay in hotel.

Furthermore..you mixed & chat wth all kind of nationalities there at nite..fun doing this..

Is it safe?

I was in Taiwan from 3/3/2011 to 8/3/2011 with my fiancée for wedding photo shooting as well as holiday. We were also told of car rental for that purpose but in our case, the arrangements were made for us and we were only required to part with our money. Realistically, very likely that you will be presented with no option - just be prepared to pay and be done with it! We paid around *EDITED* NT$5,000? (can't remember exact figure) for car hire from morning to evening. Skipped the night Taipei 101 scenes as the cost escalates disproportionately!

Are you sure you want to bring your parents along? Anyway, we stayed at Mickey House - the rooms aren't exactly roomy but reasonably clean and considerably less expensive than hotels. Easy access to 7-11 (for your instant noodles and skewered food etc fix) and 5 minutes walking distance from MRT/bus pick up point to Taoyuan airport) Probably not suitable for a family though unless you book a few rooms.

I have some relevant posts in the credit card thread. Look here (on credit card exchange rates, inclusive of admin fees) and also here (my real life experience of converting RM1,522 to US$500 and then only NT$14,558, debit card withdrawal overseas as well as foreign currency acceptance in Taiwan). Hope this information would be of use for decision making in regards the never ending inquiries as to whether to change to US$ first or NT$ directly. Rates fluctuate, so please exercise your judgment accordingly and never use credit card for overseas withdrawal unless you are really left with no option (ie life and death situation).

My strategy was to estimate cash I expect to spend per day for street food, admission tickets, travel fares, foodstuff souvenir etc in RM ("Estimated Amount") and add 50% of Estimated Amount ("Emergency Amount"). Thereafter, convert Total amount in RM to US$ and when in Taiwan, convert Estimated Amount to NT$ and keep Emergency Amount (US$) in pocket. To also place sufficient funds in Debit Card (whether prepaid or bank account-linked) in case Emergency Amount ends up insufficient too and for general shopping and better restaurants, just utilise credit card.

+1 with respect to Longchamp. Even Cartier and Gucci is less expensive there, before 5% tax refund (if you did not purchase it at the airport).

There's really no need to worry about not being able to obtain a prepaid sim card pack at Taoyuan - plentiful. All incoming calls are FOC. I got Taiwan Mobile (cheapest NT$350 plan) simply because they were a Bridge Alliance member, like Maxis - didn't want to experiment with potentially unreliable telco since I have a tendency to get lost and will definitely need a working telephone service then. Enough minutes for several brief calls back to Malaysia as well as Taiwan local calls for my 6 days/5 nights stay. Reloads are easily available at any 7-11, but I didn't have to reload once. Anyway, I think I saw some ads for unlimited data @NT$100 a day - don't remember which telco though as I only utilised free wifi where available.

I was aeiou's guinea pig during my stay in Taiwan and will be reporting (without additional financial gain) on the REDtone SIPhony 015 service on aeiou's thread soon. It is indeed a good (and inexpensive) option if you absolutely need to receive calls.

Make sure your ATM card is one with Visa Plus or Cirrus ie Visa/MasterCard Debit Card, and not the regular ATM card! Conversion rate is quite competitive for UOB, see link posted earlier above. Just remember to include the transaction fee (RM12/transaction for UOB), which varies depending on your bank/account type. If any of you follow the Credit Card thread, you will realise that the best CC currently for overseas use is Maybank's Visa/Master (any type, but better if it is World MasterCard for 5x points, and Platinum for 2x points) or Maybank's Maybankard 2 American Express (not any other American Express card!).

This post has been edited by wshoh: Mar 15 2011, 09:53 AM

i would recommend Ta Shun Hotel (TS Hotel), very near to MRT, Ximending exit 1, turn left when you come out from there. walk about 2 minutes, you can see the hotel. cross the road and you reach already. friendly hotel people, helpful (we borrow tape and weighing machine from them), safe, shower spa, room with carpet is just too good coz the floor is so cold ... one night is TWD2380 for deluxe room....

weather is Taiwan now is very cold... 10-15c... different from what the weather forecast indicate.... i thought it is just like Genting... no, it is much more cooler than Genting... esp. Jiufen... raining and the wind make it worse....

This post has been edited by MamaHui: Mar 14 2011, 02:51 PM

Well, I took the twin sharing room that only can accomodate 2 ppl and so, it is not shared wth others in one big dormitory. So you have your own key. & sleep on own room..OK-lah for just 6hrs of sleep every day. they do have the dormitory type that share wth others too if no more private room. well sam eprice...This dormitpry for sure depending on your roomates..I hv read lotsa peety theft by other toursit & etc and BTW, Mat salleh who shared the rooms also involved in the crime..

wshoh,

Mind to share more details on the Mickey House? Clicked the link but all in chinese

Just to confirm, taiwan use different electric socket right?

My fiancée did all the booking stuff via email, in Chinese of course. I'm banana, so my job is limited to producing the $$$ The proprietor (Mickey) has a local representative (in Malaysia) with whom the deposit can be banked into - these details are best provided for by Mickey himself but you can PM me for verification.

Anyway, you can get a rough idea from Google's translation here.

Spent 3 nights at the really small room called "minimalist red/Enthusiasm Red" (the Red colour themed room) and 2 nights at the reasonably sized "Angels of the spring/Angel's Spring" (the Green colour themed room).

Brief comments, in no particular order:

1. Free (and speedy, if I may add) WiFi is a good plus point.
2. The private bathroom (which does not seem to be the norm for hostels) is much welcomed. Both washrooms had showers with very good pressure but you will need to play with the inconsistent temperature (ongoing adjustment required)! No bath towels provided. Not sure if additional charges apply so bring your own.
3. The LCD TVs in both of the rooms I stayed in were decent - the one in the Spring/Green colour room seemed to have better channel selection though. Paradise for the Taiwan talk/variety show addict.
4. The beds are of the soft type - be warned!

Personally, I don't have much to complain given the price and location, which was excellent IMHO. If you are the type who only needs a room for the 8 hours or so sleep at night, I would recommend Mickey House to you. Shopping at (the high end) SOGO Taipei is really convenient as it is within walking distance. FYI, this is where the famous Din Tai Fung (branch) restaurant is also located Be sure to be there when it opens at 10:30 AM to avoid the long lunch hour queue. Service here is really something as compared to the outlets in Malaysia. Flash your Youth travel card (if applicable) to get a complimentary cute 'screen cleaner' for each card.

The electric socket is usually of Type A. Mickey does have an adaptor - fortunate as I forgot to bring my international adaptor and didn't buy it on the plane...
*EDITED* Picture removed - please click Wiki link here.

This post has been edited by wshoh: Mar 15 2011, 09:57 AM

hi wshoh,

Thanks for the details.. Will look on it..

Plz resize ur pic.. too big

very good explanation..... it really wake me up about it.... but is it all debit card oso got the RM12 charge???

This post has been edited by MandyG: Mar 14 2011, 09:09 PM

Going to Taiwan end of Apr for 5D4N. We're 3 girls mainly to see beautiful scenery, shopping and eat eat eat!! So any place recommended that can be acessible MRT.?

CIMB is Rm10/transaction
MBB is Rm12/transaction
PBB can't use oversea

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Added on March 15, 2011, 12:37 ameven it's accessible via MRT, you'll still need to walk around to your desired place to be. Get comfortable shoes

Shilin night market is just beside Jiantan MRT station

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Added on March 15, 2011, 12:40 amusually i think most hotels/hostels have universal adapter. I had to request though from Fun Taipei Backpackers but I'm not sure the rest

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Added on March 15, 2011, 12:44 amI haven't go yet.. but from what I booked, Fun Taipei Backpackers have attached bathroom. Located just beside Shilin Night Market

This post has been edited by jlgoh9: Mar 15 2011, 12:44 AM

Anywhere that is accessible by MRT won't have that nice scenery.
You gotta book a cab to fetch you out of the city yo.

5D to travel around Kaoshiung, Taichung, and Taipei is a bit rush.
Not to mention stopping by Hsinchu and Tainan.

how bout 5Days on October. Shopping & Night markets & Eat. Should be enough right? any recommendation on what i should prepare? It should be cold at that time i think >.<

If the info here applies to foreign ATM withdrawals as well, RHB's the lowest at RM8/transaction.

Should look for the lowest withdrawal fee as it is unlikely that there would be a significant difference in terms of forex rates. If I remember correctly, if the withdrawal is done through Visa Plus or MasterCard Cirrus, it should follow the market rate set at the time of withdrawal by Visa/Master.
Do note that each bank may have a maximum limit per withdrawal so do check it out in advance. Best advice is to exchange sufficient cash and IMHO, cash withdrawal via Debit Card is best as an emergency measure. Of course, some people just dislike the idea of carrying too much cash and won't mind the cash withdrawal fee for security purposes.

PBB's Day2Day Visa can be used overseas - see here. For PBB, it costs RM10/transaction.

And if I may add, many places accept the Easy Card. So, on your last one or two days in Taiwan, you may choose to utilise the balance in it for your purchases at 7-11 etc (possible to request the cashier to 'deplete' the value and pay the balance by cash/card). I kept my Easy Card with zero remaining balance as a souvenir. Of course, there's a deposit of NT$100 in it but I'm rather certain that I will be back!


I had to request for the universal adaptor from Mickey as well. He did mention that there's usually one in each room though.

This post has been edited by wshoh: Mar 15 2011, 10:30 AM

cool man.... i regret tat i din keep it for myself lolz.....

I was talking about using ATM card... not Debit card

Btw, the Easylink card application can be found in Tourist Info Centre at the airport?

This post has been edited by jlgoh9: Mar 15 2011, 08:42 PM

Thanks. I wasn't aware that there are ATM cards which are linked to the Plus/Maestro/Cirrus network (such as CIMB's) but yet do not come with debit card functions.

Anyway, the main reason of my post was to alert forum readers from assuming that any ATM card will do - you need to ensure that your ATM/Debit Card has the Visa Plus/MasterCard Maestro/Cirrus logo on it. Otherwise, you may not be able to withdraw cash overseas. Forummers with doubts can look up Optiplex330's post and MilesAndMore's post .

You can easily get the Easylink card from the MRT station (pun intended) Not sure if it is available at the Tourist Info Centre though.

Have a fun and safe trip to Taiwan...the weather in Taipei was more or less like Genting Highlands from 3/3/2011 to 8/3/2011 (average 15 degrees?) - you could do fine in a spring jacket and an extra layer of shirt. Should be warmer now.

BTW, a digital luggage scale may be useful to help keep your luggage weight in check! Pineapple cakes and Sun biscuits can weigh a tonne as well as lots of nice Starbucks mugs (for the collector).

This post has been edited by wshoh: Mar 16 2011, 04:10 PM