Rush Preparations of our Taiwan trip

Though we have bought our air tickets from jetstar in may 2013 but we had been busy with our wedding prep and honeymoon.. After coming back from honeymoon in Jan 2014, we were still as busy, busy with our newly set up business, busy with CNy and busy with our together time... It was only after the CNy in first wk of feb that I started researching n planning for our annual Taiwan trip. I'm always the one planning for our Taiwan trip n other trips would be planned by Mr Cheong. Reason being, I'm more experienced with Taiwan. This is going to be my 4th trip to Taiwan n Mr Cheong's 3rd. Though I've only travelled 1x more than Mr Cheong, I'm still considered to be more experienced...

1st Taiwan trip in Dec 2005 with family: 

9-days trip: Taipei n jiufen 

2nd Taiwan trip in March 2012 with Mr Cheong:

5days trip: Taipei, Keelung, jiufen, 

3rd Taiwan trip in feb-mar with Mr Cheong: 
7days trip: Taipei, Kaohsiung 

Seriously after 4trips to taipei I still think that there are still places though not many which I've yet to explore n I do not understand how come tour groups can cover the whole Taiwan in a 10D9N  trip.

Thinking that there isn't many more places to explore in Taipei, I was initially thinking of not going to taipei at all for this trip.

My initial plan was:

1) Taoyuan

2) hsingchu

3) Dahu

4)Taichung 

However, after researchin for a week, I decided that maybe we shouldn't give taipei a miss. Reasons being, apart from Taipei and Kaohsiung, other parts of Taiwan do not have subway so transportation will be a problem. We wouldn't want to go lugging our luggages everywhere..

Moreover, Mr Cheong loves the 夜市 of Taiwan and we found Kaohsiung boring from our last yr trip. So, I'm kinda worried that other parts of Taiwan will be just as boring as Kaohsiung. A

So change of plan...we will only be exploring Taichung n Taipei this time.

So now how am I gg to decide how many days to stay in Taichung?

My plan :

1) 5 nights in Taichung 

2) 4 nights in Taipei 

How come I choose to stay in Taichung for 5 nights ??? Cause there are a total of 5 nightmarkets aka 夜市 in Taichung! Hahaha 

• Zhonghua Night Market
• Fengjia Night Market, Xitun (逢甲夜市)
• Tung Hai Night Market
• Yizhong Street Night Market 
• Fengyuan Miao Dong Night Market (豐原廟東夜市)

After researching I decided to get a Minsu near fengjia night market since there have been many raves about it...

Problems arose as I started off with trying to find a hotel in cingjing n fengjia Minsu concurrently... I need to confirm e day we would be going to cingjing. We were thinking of either 27 feb or 28 feb.

But we faced much difficulty in getting 1 on either date. Finally, after being turn down by many hotels, I decided to try starry house as my last resort. Didn't want to stay there initially even though many people have raved about the location n service. I didn't like the look of e room... Super basic...

Luckily they managed to confirm our booking on 27feb2014.... Now that cingjing hotel has confirmed, I need to confirm fengjia Minsu n lodgings in Taipei soon... I have been also contacting taipei Minsu n hotels while waiting for confirmation from starry. So the moment starry confirmed with me, I went to make payment to confirm ECFA hotel for Taipei... Again we chose ECFA as the previous 2 hotels we stayed in were fully booked and Minsu which friends have recommended were also fully booked... Sianz.....(confirmed ECFA n starry on 15feb) 

But nothing is worse than Taichung Minsu... 

I needed a room which can fit our slot

1st slot: 

Check in:26feb2014 (wed)

Check out: 27 feb 2014(thurs) 

2nd slot: 

Check in: 28feb 2014 (Friday)

Check out: 3 march 2014 ( mon) 

we would be going to cingjing for a night so we don't need a room on 27feb. But we wanted a minsu which we can leave our luggages behind instead of lugging them to cingjing so staying in e same minsu will allow us to do that. 

After contacting like 20+ Minsu around fengjia area i was still unable to find one which is available as many informed me that they were fully booked for my 2nd slot, they only had room for my first due to the 228 long weekend in Taiwan. 

On 16 feb 2014, I was desperate.. 10 more days to our trip n I have yet to find a place for us to stay in Taichung. I also checked our city inn near to Taichung train station which was a distance away from fengjia but still it was futile.. :( 

I tried making international calls to any Taichung Minsu which I could get hold of but it was futile. I decided to call up 逢甲浪漫蒔尚 as I have previously contacted them via email n given them my hp e night b4 but they haven called me yet. 

I called n the lady answered. E moment she heard 28 feb, she told me many people has enquired about that day but she has no more rooms for me :(

I was really at a loss. However, soon after, I received a call from The lady from逢甲浪漫蒔尚 again. She has seen my email n got back to me.. She told me that she has room for my first slot but for 2nd slot there is a prob. She asked if I mind a room which she has newly acquired? She hasn't decorated the room so she doesn't have any photos to show me. But if I'm ok she will quickly go decorate it and can give me a discount... 

Of coz I accepted her offer given no other options. So phew... All lodgings settled :) 

and my luggage for my 10 days trip:

ANd Yes! thats all Im bringing!

Read about my Taiwan 2014 travelogue
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5 Part 1
Day 5 Part 2
Day 5 Part 3
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9


Minsu/hotel reviews
TAICHUNG MINSU REVIEW : 逢甲浪漫蒔尚 (PART 1)
CINGJING MINSU REVIEW : STARRY HOUSE 清境觀星園景觀山莊
TAICHUNG MINSU REVIEW: 逢甲浪漫蒔尚 (PART 2)
TAIPEI XIMENDING ECFA HOTEL REVIEW