Travel on Airbnb and get more than $20 in travel credit! Click here!
Check out VLOG here!
It was supposed to be a 5 days 4 nights trip but we only utilised 3 days because we were down with food poisoning. Wth right you must be thinking.. This is my 2nd food poisoning this year already! 🙁
Anyway as much as I’m looking forward to the next holiday, I am very sian also because there are so much things to do now at work. 🙁
We fly with scoot again because scoot is my favourite budget airline! I was frustrated at the airport though because there was a change of gate from one end to the other end, E20 to F54 and there was no announcements made. Well I guess this is normal..
I bought this deal back in December where they were offering the 1for1 deal, impulse buy actually, I’m like this. I see something I like, I go for it. hahaha. Anyway this deal only include luggage for one leg. We didn’t have luggage space for the return leg and I had to top $80 for that!!! $80 for 20kg x2. Damn.
I also experienced the worst turbulence in my life this time round. My heart nearly flew out. 😮
We arrived at Taoyuan International Airport at about 5-ish am then we bought tickets for ubus 706 where we head to Taoyuan train station next.The ticket is NT$38 per pax. You can also prepare the exact amount and pay to the bus driver directly.
Please note that you should be extra alert because if he sees no one waiting there, he drives off immediately. We were sitting inside and we missed the bus and had to wait another 20-30minutes for the next one. -_-
while waiting, I drink my chun cui he – sumiyaki flavour!
and eat our breakfast! super love the onigiri from the minimarts.
Bus706.
It was a really cold journey!
When we reached Tao Yuan station, we bought train tickets to go Chiayi station.
We took Puyuma express and paid NT$532 per person.
here’s our train!
didn’t really take a photo when we were inside as we were sitting in the opposite direction.
takes about 3hours to reach Chiayi Station!
It was only 10.31am when we reached so we slowly made our way to Orange Hotel.
we placed our luggage with them first and explore the surroundings abit.
we checked in only at about 1pm or 2.
Simon’s ootd. LOL
Right next to the hotel, there was this shop ‘小林煎餅’ where you can buy souvenirs and pancakes.
600, Taiwan, Chiayi City, West District, 嘉義市西區文化路167號
Bell shaped pancake with milk filling inside, awesome snack!
One of the must eats in Chiayi, turkey rice is readily available in many parts of Chiayi, Its called ‘Spraying Water’ because its located near a large fountain. I think. LOL!
Our Turkey rice and bamboo shoots soup. The rice was tasty!! I think they roasted the turkey and kept the turkey oil. Then they serve with the turkey shredded and the oil as the gravy! Simple yet super delicious! The soup though, has this sewerage taste in it, not sure what causes that but I’m sure its safe to eat! Because other people are eating it too!
The reason why we only have 1 bowl of turkey rice is because of this!
We kept half our stomach so we will have more space for more food like this! Look at the glistening pork chop on this bento! Its sinful fast food type comfort food. Lots of food in one sentence!
After all the food, we went around looking to buy bus ticket up Alishan. We asked our hotel reception staff and they told us we can get it at one of the Family Marts nearby. So we went to it and the cashier directed us to this machine where after a few tries, Simon managed to buy the tickets! Good that we can read Chinese.
Then we walked to Hinoki Village, a Japanese Cultural village where you can find all these old style wooden houses!
Beimen Street, Chiayi City, Chiayi 600, Taiwan
I liked this tree, I think its fake, but its so pretty full of autumn feel!
On our way to one of the few local shopping malls in Chiayi, we stopped by this awesome looking longish house selling atas coffee.
Simon can’t help but enter you know. Its 15mins before they closes but a man needs his coffee. Cute interior!
And here it is, no brand no logo nothing, just plain old Latte.
Saw this weird looking building on our way to the shopping mall.
Toilet of the mall? So cute right! I wonder how clean are the couches though..
2nd day.
We woke up really early, normally we wake up late in the morning like 10-11am? But for Alishan, we woke up at 5am to prepare. Then off we go waiting for our bus, we were early and the bus was late, so we waited a good 30-45mins before we’re on our way up the mountains!
I decided that Alishan warrants for a post by itself. Since we were sick in Taipei later on, Alishan became the only highlight of this trip…
This is the parking area where the bus will drop us off, then we went to the 7-11 store in the area to get ourselves the return tickets back to Chiayi. The 7-11 doubles as the bus ticketing counter. The mountains was really chilly, even though we were prepared with thick jackets, gloves and heat packs.. When the wind blows, it chills us to our bones.
Then at night its more photos of street food!
We’re not sure but this oyster omelette might be the one dish that killed me and Simon. We thought the dish was not well cooked, even the flour wasn’t cooked thoroughly not to mention the oysters that were added later in the cooking process… Simon ate most of it…
Soy and rice milk plus onion oil pancake with egg. Deadly combination.. Simon absolutely must have the savoury pancake if not he said: “..our trip to Taiwan will be incomplete with out the pancake…”
Third Day.
We took the High Speed Rail (HSR) from Chiayi to Taipei. It only took us 1-2hrs compared to the normal train that took us 3-4hrs from Taoyuan to Chiayi. The ride was so fast and smooth we didn’t have much photos, anyways its a train and the zooming zooming landscape makes it hard to take a good shot.
We went to Rilakkuma Cafe at Taipei for dinner, Simon made a booking there prior to our trip to Taiwan. Booking is done online and its free unless you wanna get a gift package where you’ll have to pay online. The Cafe is always crowded so if you choose to walk in, you might not even get a seat at all.
Look at the Rilakkuma biscuit clinging on the cup, SO CUTE!!
The food is not cheap of course, and its not fantastic as well.. But the food isn’t the selling point here, its all the CUTE STUFF EVERYWHERE!!
This couch is beside the toilet, life size Rilakkuma and friends! Overloaded with cuteness! I love it!
Next we went to Raohe Night Market, this explains why we only shared a meal at the Rilakkuma cafe. Because we gonna fill our stomachs with streetfood!! By this time, we were only feeling a bit bloated although we didn’t eat a lot prior to arriving here, it might just be the pre-food-poisoning discomfort, we don’t know. The bug that causes food poisoning can stay dormant in our body from few hours to a week if I’m not wrong.. And so we continue to eat like nobody’s business..
This purple glutinous rice milk drink might be the triggering factor for our illness.. Because we see the big tub of condense milk she uses for the hot version, and we were thinking how fresh that tub can be when she left it outside unrefrigerated.. The weather is cool but not nearly cold enough.. So the milk might be brewing germs..
And so after we drank it, we began to feel even more uncomfortable, especially Simon who as usual, drank most of it. Simon didn’t manage to sleep that night, he started vomiting at 2am onwards, then he woke me up to bring him to the hospital around 3-4am.. We got the hotel reception to help us call a cab and he escorted us down to the cab. At the hospital Simon got a jab and got on 2 packs of IV drip, he finally managed to sleep till 8am when we go back to the hotel. Then began my vomiting and diarrhea episode.. So we share medicine and slept the whole day away till next morning, only ate a slice of plain bread because every food in Taiwan has milk in it.. We were cold and miserable.. Our final diagnosis was Gastroenteritis and the doctor said they are getting an increase of these cases recently..
Anyways after sleeping off the day, we packed up and took the new Airport MRT to Taoyuan Airport, there was only bus if you want to go there directly from Taipei. New and very very crowded because its free to ride during their trial period. Luckily we both got a seat.
And so this concludes our trip to Taiwan! Check out my video here!
Claire
Till the next time people! Can’t wait for our next trip!
Follow me on Instagram: @claireaudreylim
Subscribe to me on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/clairelim1000
Any questions please email me: dreylim1@gmail.com
Talk to us and join giveaways here: https://www.facebook.com/claireaudreylim/ =D
