30 Sept 2014
Booked 2 limo airport transfers for this Taiwan trip, but only on the SG side.
I get one free transfer for every hotel/flight charged to my Prestige card exceeding $500, up to 4 per year.
Since I won't be needing any till the NZ trip in Dec, they might as well get used up asap. Right now, I'll probably only use up three.
Wonder what sort of car they use for this.
The trip to the airport is an overkill since I'm going during off-peak hours and cabs will be easy to find, but the trip back home will be totally worth it since there's the airport surcharge and the peak hour surcharge. Overall, I'll be saving about $50-60 on cab fares.
But the best news I'm getting is that they just made a change to the Priority Pass airport lounge access - it's now unlimited instead of just 4 per year, but only for the primary cardholder. Although the supplementary card is free, it doesn't get this perk.
I think this also means no guests :(
But I won't be needing this access in SG before flying to Taipei. Not sure about the way back, but it's possible to try out the one at Taoyuan, depending on my schedule.
It's great that this isn't linked to Citigold, but the Prestige card, since I don't plan to remain as a Citigold member for very long.
08 Oct 2014
Ok this trip to Taiwan was a lot more interesting than most of the other trips I've been on in recent years, hence it's worth the effort to record it here.
It began with the free limo ride from home. The taxi driver sent me a SMS to inform me that he's already downstairs and I went down. It's like taking a Mercedes taxi except all I need to do is sign a form at the end of the journey.
Arriving a little early, I decided to try using my Priority Pass card from Citibank to check out the airport lounges here. Note that there seem to be at least two tiers of lounges at Changi Airport, the first being the premier lounges located separately hosted by organizations like DBS Treasures, and the second being lounges like this Ambassador Transit Lounge I visited.
The sticker that works as the entry pass
Free flow buffet and drinks but they were not impressive. Main thing seems to be that the lounge was awesomely quiet - great for napping in.
The view at the outdoor area wasn't that great, although it was the same view as the Skygarden. In fact, the outdoor area was just a fenced-off section of one end of the Skygarden.
Exchange rate at Taoyuan airport was better than that found at Changi.
Astar Hotel at Zhongshan. Not too bad for a boutique hotel, enough for 3 stars even though boutique hotels technically have no stars. Old though, hence the low rate of about S$80 per night despite the location. Speaking of location, Zhongshan is apparently known for its sleazy bars and KTV lounges. Didn't know that until a tour guide mentioned it. In Taiwan, if a bar/KTV lounge has a Japanese name, it's probably sleazy because the Japanese like to indulge in that sort of thing after a hard day's work.
This may be the only time when I didn't make full use of the tub. In fact I only soaked in it twice in the 7 days I was there, mainly because the lighting and decoration made the water seem yellowish and I couldn't tell if it was actually really yellowish.
My first 卤肉饭 (braised pork rice) in Taiwan. It was awesome!
粉肠汤 (small intestines soup)
And that was my dinner.
And that was breakfast. A simple stir-fried cabbage, a braised egg and a bowl of fish-and-cockles porridge.
A temple near the wholesale market I visited.
Another nearby temple which was also near the Raohe Night Market, and this one was way bigger.
Don't ask me why...
Taiwanese temples are pretty modern these days.
An art installation nearby.
Third cup of bubble tea for the day and it wasn't even 4pm yet.
肉圆 (meatball, Taiwanese style)
A squirrel! Spotted while resting on a bench in the park.
Beef cubes at the night market. This is the teriyaki flavour - just the same beef cubes with teriyaki sauce.
鲜肉包 (meat bun)
Beancurd dessert
卤味 (braised... everything)
炸牛奶 (fried milk)
Also bought the braised stuff back because it wasn't very comfortable to eat there.
And some fried crabs. 200NTD for this. Not too bad.
And some fried prawns. Also 200NTD.
4th day. Went to take a half-day tour and it began with a gondola ride to Maokong, and we took the Crystal Cabin which had a transparent floor. Very long queue for this even though it costs more than regular cabins which also had no queue.
View from the station.
Long queue for Crystal Cabins.
Transparent floor
Every station had this map.
Temples everywhere!
Tea plantations everywhere since this area was known for tea cultivation.
Street food at Maokong station but it was full of tourists. Instead we went straight to the next stop.
The tea promotion institute
Free tieguanyin
Free pastries from the tour agency
The tea bible.
Different types of tea
A tea flower. Eventually it will bear fruit and produce seeds that are used to make tea oil.
A nearby street with lots of food stalls, it's supposed to be pretty old and is known for its fermented beancurd, although another thing I feel is unique is the tea-related food like the pastries made with tea seeds.
Pastries made with tea seeds.
油饭, some sort of glutinous rice with mushrooms and meat sauce.
Grilled chicken butts. Literally tastes like ass. And ass tastes good.
Fermented beancurd.
Lunch. This place is almost impossible to get to without a car. We did see one cyclist on our way back though.
Those noodles are handmade and residents nearby do come over to buy some, as a few did during our meal there.
Boiling the noodles for us.
Original plain noodles and green-tea-flavoured noodles, mixed with tea oil. Very nice. Unfortunately a little plain or we would have eaten more. No side dishes available.
Our noodles normally costs 50NTD per pax.
How they make their noodles.
More tea plantations. Apparently you should see a hammerhead shark in the middle of the oxbow lake and a dolphin to the right.
Malt sugar!
They also make 腐乳 (another kind of fermented beancurd), fermented soy beans and soy sauce.
Here they prepare the glutinous rice for the malt sugar.
Original flavour.
Special flavour, made with these three ingredients in addition to the malt sugar.
How it's made.
They also sell biscuits made from the beans but those received the least amount of attention.
A closer shot of the rice.
The sprouts used for the malt sugar. They are grown indoor to keep them from growing green, since green sprouts turn the mix bitter.
卤肉饭便当加猪脚 (braised meat lunch set with an additional side of braised pig trotters)
Plus an additional side of braised large intestines. And that was dinner.
Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall
Dance groups practising outside.
Meat roll
Chinese chives bun
Meat bun (again)
Mushroom and pork porridge, small size.
Fried squid, pretty good.
A local market
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. I'm surprised a guy like him has a bigger hall than Sun Yat Sen, but then again, Sun Yat Sen didn't choose his.
His MRT station even has that.
Pig's blood soup! Was at a night market tour where I met my tour guide who was kinda cute and extremely friendly. Even took photos of me posing with other food with her phone, but I'm not posting those here.
Small sausage wrapped in big sausage.
It's a meat sausage in an even bigger rice sausage.
Braised duck head, duck neck, 甜不辣.
Found the Confucius Temple.
But first, breakfast.
Back to the temple.
Cute lol.
I like the concept but we won't be seeing them anytime soon in Singapore.
Peanut ice cream. She shaved the peanut candy and put it on some crushed peanuts and ice cream.
Taipei 101
Long queue for the tickets.
The other half of the ticket queue.
The queue for the elevator.
Taiwan beer, just trying out of curiosity.
Ordered a personal name seal here the following morning.
That's his namecard. 1600NTD for this, might have been a little too much, but it seemed good.
Took the MRT to Danshui (Tamsui) because the girl who was my tour guide at the night market the other night offered to bring me around in this area.
That's Bali, just not the one in Indonesia.
This place was where the Japanese used to store their petroleum products and got bombed to smithereens by the Americans.
A1 gei3. it looks interesting and is a giant dumpling containing rice vermicelli and some other stuff and covered in some kind of red sweet sauce.
And that was dinner.
The next morning, she got up early to bring me to have some beef noodles and since we were early, I decided to have this first.This chain is very popular, even on weekdays but we were so early the place was empty.
The beef noodles (with beef tendons). The ambience was bad though. If felt as though they were rushing everyone to eat quickly and go.
Had one last braised pork rice at the airport lounge for free before leaving.
Free limo ride from my credit card. Frickin awesome!
In the process of moving all the way down...
I literally just laid down for most of the journey home from the airport after exploring enough. And I didn't have to queue!
Too bad this airport transfer is only available for free four times a year.
