Yes. Just buy ticket and fly there. No need visa.

You can take a train from Taipei Train Station straight to Hualien City. Then from there, book day trip through your hotel tour counter. Or hire a taxi to bring you there. Have to nego with the taxi for a fixed rate.

October weather should be fine and cooling. Just hope no more typhoon during that time.

Wulai is not within the city, should takes around 90mins drive from CKS to Wulai. You should schedule a nite stay in Wulai to enjoy the hot spring there and also to soak in the relaxing atmosphere of the village. To get to Wulai, take MRT to Xindian Station and take bus from there or directly nego with taxi to take you there.

I don't know where is Bitan but Kee Lung is totally opposite direction of Wulai, if you schedule Wulai and KeeLung on the same day, you will be wasting alot of time on the road.

You can consider going to beitou hot spring which is directly reachable by MRT instead of heading to Wulai.

I recently got to know a taxi driver that offers one day 8 hours tour to Yehliu, Jiufen and Danshui for NT4000. I think its quite worth the money and he will bring you to the more remote part of jiufen where regular tours don't go. Let me know if you want the contact.

Mr Wu 吴喜麟
Yong An Transportation 永安通运
09-87840387

The price he quoted me when I chatted with him:

Taipei - Taoyuan Airport - NTD1000 (Standard rate NTD1200)

Danshui/Yehliu/Jiufen Day Trip - NTD4000 per day (8 hours. Extra hour NTD500/hour)

I gonna ask for free ride from him when I go Taiwan for helping him advertise here. LOL

This post has been edited by terencey: Sep 21 2010, 04:30 PM

Sights at Kenting:

1. Maobitou - Seaside area with lots of rock formations. Good scenery but quite far from kaohsiong


2. Erluanbi - Also seaside area. I think its the southern most tip of taiwan island. Got a iconic white light house there.



3. Hengcun Village - Filming place for 海角7号 and also the visit the hotel (forgot the name)

4. Beach - the water there is quite clean but we have great beaches here in Msia as well.

This post has been edited by terencey: Sep 24 2010, 12:54 AM

Terminal 2. Go there and check in earlier. The terminal is quite nice and can take few photos there.

Passport Needed only. 1.1k consider steep for airasia. Cheap is below 800. But nowadays hard to get those price

Bring enough NTD and buy extra luggage if you like to shop.

Q1
I use taiwan mobile (twmobile, 台湾大哥大) when i go there. The rate is NTD350 for 5 days unlimited use. I'm not sure about other telcos rate. To enable it, just dial 585 from your HP

Q2
If you are not changing much, you could straight change into NTD @ mid valley wawasan sentosa money changer. They give quite ok rate. By the way the USD is going down, you might get a better if you change USD here 1st then change into NTD in Taiwan. Only if you are changing alot otherwise, the difference should be insignificant.
http://wawasanmoneychanger.com.my/exchangeRates.asp

This post has been edited by terencey: Sep 29 2010, 07:40 PM

You can charge 1000 at the airport and you will get extra 350 bonus value. Very worth it. If you do it outside of the airport 1000 get 1200.

NTD350 is for unlimited DATA use. Nothing to do with Voice/SMS

I love their meat balls and soup, especially on a cold day