Hi,
Just recently, we went to Chiayi, Taiwan as our basecamp to explore the awesome ALISHAN “的姑娘美如仙啊~ “ eh hem.. pardon my excitement.. Well in this post, I’m not gonna tell you exactly how awesome is Alishan. I’m gonna tell you how awesome is our stay in the spanking new Orange Hotel Chiayi!
The hotel is located along Wenhua Road (文化路) at the intersection with Beirong St (北荣街). Well we never quite get acquainted with the public transport in Chiayi City, I find that the bus stops are located only along major roads and they are quite far apart. That’s why when we arrived (after overnight flight and 3 hours TRA train ride from Taoyuan city), I opt-ed to walk to the hotel. Please don’t follow what we did by walking, we are very accustomed to walking long distances, so we’re alright with lugging my luggages and walking that 1 plus kilometers after the long journey through unfamiliar neighbourhood. Just take a cab to the hotel, I’m sure it cost less than NT$100 which is approximately S$5. Save the trouble, we prefer to save the cash and satisfy my introverted character (avoid crowded buses), much to Claire’s disapproval.
Wenhua Road on the other hand, is a pretty well-known street due to the daily night market with the same name: Chiayi Wenhua Road night market (嘉義文化路夜市). Its one of the two night markets in Chiayi City and its just a 5 minutes walk from Orange Hotel! Awesome or what? 
On the day of our arrival, we were too early for check in. So we went into the hotel to leave our luggage in their good hands. They have a backroom meant for holding customer’s luggage, this adds on to the security of our belongings and gives us a peace of mind to go out and have fun! Staff were polite and enthusiastic, they greeted us as we walk through the automatic glass doors and attend to our needs without delay. Awesome hospitality.
We went on to explore our immediate surroundings, the location of the hotel is great, not exactly close to the hustle and bustle of the night market, which can get rather noisy and goes on till late. But not so far that will become a hassle to walk to. The nearby intersection, the Zhongshan Road (中山路) and Wenhua Road roundabout, has many many retail shops to satisfy the shopaholic Singaporean within us. And if you’re too darn lazy to walk that 150m, there are no less diverse options in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. There’s the Japanese style BBQ skewers and bar, a local delicacies stall, the railroad bento shop etc. Or if you prefer instant meals, a convenience store will serve your needs. Do note that the 24 hours convenience stores in Taiwan are like their Japanese counterparts which sells much more fresh food items unlike the ones within our shores unfortunately..
I took this pic at the Central Plaza across Wenhua Road, Its quite difficult to miss it from this angle because it looks modern and clean when compared to its surrounding buildings. We proceeded to check in to one of their best rooms; The Executive Suite Room. 
Credit Orange Hotels
As you can see from the above image, the door beside the entrance is a small toilet, a large living space and the door beside the study desk at the far end of the room is the en suite bathtub and shower room.
I immediately liked the living area as soon as I enter the room, the first thing I did was dump my 30″ luggage and sit on the armchair. Pardon my blank look, that’s actually my default face. See how spacious it is? There’re so much space left to open my XL luggage. 
A closer look at the pantry area, nothing much but still covers all our needs. Anyways, there’s a shared space on the 2nd floor that pretty much resembles your own kitchen at home with a coffee machine, water dispenser, fridge, stove, 2 sinks for washing the dishes etc etc etc. But because its a shared space so the shy me will usually avoid it if its too crowded..
Here’s the small toilet near the entrance. Its got a bidet and seat warmer, I like having bidets because I find it convenient that I can wash my butt right there. Some might think its unhygienic, but I will still wash with soap after the bidet “pre-wash” anyways… The seat warmer was something both Claire and I aren’t used to, back home we have no real danger of frozen seats, so the warmth actually surprised me more than assist in my bowel movements.. But you can always off it anyways. 
The bath area is a large room with a bathtub, the sink/vanity area in front of the large mirror and the shower room. Its got a luxurious amount of space that’s a bit of an overkill for me, but who cares, everyone welcomes the abundant space.
The sink/vanity area have their signature orange scented hand soap dispenser, and all the colourful packaged toothbrush, shaver, shower cap etc etc etc. And the atas looking tubes of lotion, facial wash and hair conditioner. All the amenities gives off a vague atas feel. 
Check out the view from our room on the 8th floor. This room is everything I want and more! Ok lah ok lah, let’s move on to the other features of this hotel.. They offer many many options in terms of room types:
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- Executive Suite Room
- Deluxe Quadruple Room
- Deluxe Double Room
- Deluxe Twin Room
- Japanese Quadrple Room
- Japanese Triple Room
- Superior Twin Room
- Standard Double Room
For families, you can choose options 2, 5 and 6 that accommodates up to 4 pax in a room. All the deluxe rooms and the suite room comes with bathtubs. 
What interest us is the Japanese rooms, we found them really nice and kinda look like traditional Japanese ryokans with wooden floorboard (not tatami though) and paper screen windows. Nice to have theme rooms to keep us intrigued.
And the Jap rooms come with bathtub too, I supposed that Jap shows we saw all consist of either Onsens or bathtubs, gives us the idea that they liked to soak in hot water. 
And even Hostel option! Oh yeah I forgot to mention that the 2nd and 3rd stories of this hotel is actually a hostel with options from small 2 person bunk room to up to 6 persons per room. 
And there’s the notice board on the 2nd floor hostel shared space. You can even let others know who’s living in which room and where they came from. Interesting.
Here’s the fully equiped kitchen or pantry area where everyone who stayed here are free to come and utilise the facilities provided here. I used the coffee machine here and am quite happy to have freshly ground coffee instead of the 3 in 1 sachets provided in our room. There’s also a fridge, water dispenser, 2 sinks for washing up and in the morning, bread and spread will be provided. But if you stay in a hotel room, you’ll be provided with breakfast vouchers where you get to go to their B1 dining area for a simple buffet breakfast spread with local dishes and more bread and spread. LOL. 
Anyways back to the 2nd floor space. There are plenty of seats and sofas available for anyone looking to either chill or socialize. Books and magazines, power ports are also available here. It gives off a really easygoing, relaxing vibe.
On the same floor, there are also plenty of bathrooms for everyone, separated into male toilets and female toilets of course, so you get all the privacy you will need. If you want even more privacy..
There are also single stall toilets too.. 
And for those of you who pack light, there are washing machines and dryers for you to wash any dirty laundries too! If I knew, I wont pack as much clothes as I have then..
And of course in a hostel setting, you’ll need lockers to safeguard your belongings. The lockers here are really large and they all opens with an RFID tag. State of the art locking system. Made me wanna downgrade our room to a hostel room instead, just to try all these features..
All in all, Orange Hotel was a great stay for both of us, we appreciate the nice bed they provided that ensure my sleep was a restful one. We went Alishan early in the morning properly rested and full of energy to hike the whole area like a raging bull. How fitting for I’m born in the year of an ox and Claire is a horse. LOL.
If you’re planning to stay in Chiayi City, don’t hestitate to give this hotel a try!
No. 169, Wenhua Rd, West District, Chiayi City, 60044
Tel : +886-5-216-2323
Fax : +886-5-216-5151
Reservations : +886-2-2719-2199
Service Hours : Monday~Friday 09:00 ~ 18:00
chiayi@orangehotels.com.tw
Thank you @Orange Hotel for the wonderful stay!
Summary will be up soon!
