All posts filed under: Fly

Taiwan: Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 Lodging/Hotel – Silks Place 太鲁阁晶英酒店 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

Silks Place 太鲁阁晶英酒店 in Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 was the most amazing stay experience. Even our local guide said it had the best hotel in the area, and it was not difficult to see why.  Our “Honeymoon Package Studio Room” package for 1 night included: ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ The Complimentary Service at The Retreat Lounge The Silks Place Breakfast The Afternoon Tea  (PM 15:00 ~ 18:00) The evening Red wine white wine (PM 17:00 ~ PM18:00) The Indoor Parking The Indoor and Outdoor Swimming Pool The Tennis, The Kid’s Club-Playground The Yoga & The Fitness Room The Wireless Internet at Retreat Lounge The Round Trip from Airport or Train Station The Half Day Tour The Daily Fresh Fruits The Daily Newspaper The Mini Bar The Evening Turndown Service Silks Place was built to truly wow and relax. While the hotel looks simple from outside, but beautiful, grand reception. After we reach the reception, we are first brought to the Retreat Room for snacks and drinks (free flow red and white wine!) …

Taiwan: Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 Lodging/Hotel – Leader Village 立德布洛灣山月村 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

We tried 2 different hotels within Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園. The first night was spent at Leader Village 立德布洛灣山月村. From the stay, I learnt that there are mainly 2 types of tribes – 1 in the mountains and 1 on flat lands/sea (like Amei tribe), and Bruwan (布洛灣), meaning “echo,” used to be a tribal village of the Taroko mountain tribe aborigines. The rooms were fairly basic, reflective of its tribal village roots and did not have heating. However, thankfully, they had a heating pad on bed so we didn’t freeze in the wintry mountains. Leader Village 立德布洛灣山月村 gives a good flavour of traditional tribal village experience, with nightly cultural dance shows. Also, one wakes to an amazing mountaineous view with Taroko National Park. Tip: to eat breakfast, you have to greet the staff with “Maluku”, which means good morning in their tribal language! Full sets of posts that might be useful for your Taipei planning: Wu Fen Pu (五分埔) Shopping and Rao He Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市) Xi Men Ding (西門町) Shi Lin Night Market (士林夜市) Taipei 101, Christmas Illuminations, 大佳河濱公園 …

Taiwan: Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 Taroko Gorge (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

While Mr Lu does the cross Taiwan mountain tours, his friend, Mr Li does 1 day tours within Taroko National Park which we decided to engage after the good experience with Mr Lu.  Mr Li, a 65-year-old retiree, is a photography enthusiast and will tell you the best angles/light to get the best scenic shots in the National Park. If I had to rank the attractions within Taroko National Park, this would be the must-see order in case you had limited time within the park. 1) My favourite has to be the Swallow Grotto Trail. When we were planning the trip, I had problem locating THE “Taroko Gorge” because I thought it could only be viewed from 1 location. Only after I experienced the whole park, I realized the gorge runs through the whole National Park. Having said that, I think the view of the Taroko Gorge from the Swallow Grotto Trail is the most majestic. The mountain slopes plunge sharply into a V at the gorge, which has clear blue waters flowing through. The limestone …

Taiwan: Alishan 阿里山 – Fen Qi Hu 奮起湖 and 53.1 Homestay Min Su 民宿 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

From Taipei, we took the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Chiayi to get to Alishan (阿里山). We chose 53.1 Homestay Min Su (民宿) from very good online reviews on its location, friendliness of hosts and cleanliness.  53.1 Homestay Min Su (民宿) arranged a taxi for us (NTD$2000, SGD80+) which picked us up from the Chiayi HSR station to bring us to Fen Qi Hu (奮起湖, also spelled at Fen Chi Hu) and then drive us to 53.1 at Alishan. Including the stop at Fen Qi Hu, the total journey was ~3.5 hours. For those we are prone to motion sickness like me, tip: I highly recommend you to take motion sickness pills and sit at the front of the taxi. The ride is windy and quite bumpy! Fenqihu (奮起湖) has a long history that can be traced back to 100+ years before the opening of the Alishan Forest Railways in 1912.  As I learnt from the official Alishan site, Fenqihu is surrounded by mountains on three sides and with the ground low and flat, it looks like a bamboo …

Taiwan: Alishan 阿里山, Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 , Cing Jing 清境, Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

After 2 good days at 53.1 Min Su in Alishan, it was time to do the long 8 hour route to Taroko National Park. If you ever want to take this route, we highly recommend our driver, Mr Lu (Contact number:  +886928569081), who is a robust, healthy 68-year-old grandfather retiree. He is enthusiastic and friendly, suggests locations for us to take photos, suggests and helps us take “jumping” shots, feeds us fruits and slows down because I am car sick and tells me his life stories to distract me from my motion sickness. He is also very knowledgable about Taiwan’s history, economy and details of the various tourist sites so he made the entire day tour much more educational. First up, after leaving Alishan at 830am, 2 hours later, we stopped by the Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) to take the obligatory shot with the “Sun Moon Lake” Stone Carving.  The lake view against the mountains and clouds is beautiful but I felt the entire Sun Moon Lake area has become quite commercial and touristy, with a lot …

Taiwan: Alishan Main Attraction – Alishan National Scenic Area 阿里山國家風景區 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

The very first tip before I start on the attractions is that up this peak at Alishan’s Main attraction – Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區)is much colder than the base of the mountain. We dressed for the 10 to 15 degC we were experiencing at 53.1 Minsu, which is just 1 hour away from the peak, but the temperature was only 4 degC up at the peak, so do pad up before heading up! Good thing there are a lot of good hotpot stalls so we ate our fill to fuel up, and walked around a lot to warm ourselves up!   The traditional train ride at Alishan was slow, historic and enjoyable. Tip: take to Zhaoping Station (Rather than the more popular Sacred Tree station 神木車站 ) and walk from Zhaoping 沼平車站 because there will be a lot more downslope walking than an uphill climb! The most popular site is the Sacred Tree, which has since collapsed. But the trunk remains, giving a glimpse of the tree’s majestic breadth when it was still alive.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay @ Royal Hospital Road, London, UK

Published by Beatrice

In winter of 2012, I had the opportunity to visit the UK and try the famous Restaurant Gordon Ramsay @ Royal Hospital Road, which is a 3 Michelin stars restaurant established in 1998. The restaurant is very small and intimate, and they are VERY strict on their dress code for the men, so please ensure no t-shirt or slippers or you will be denied entry! After more than 1 year, the amazing presentation AND flavours of the dishes still linger in my memory. One of the best meals of my life, comparable to Sushi Saito in Tokyo!

Taiwan: Taipei – Taipei 101, Christmas Illuminations, 大佳河濱公園 Park for 2014 Countdown (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

Taipei 101 is the pride of many Taiwanese. It is modeled after a bamboo, and is extremely stable despite strong winds and typhoons that hit Taipei due to its unique design and sound foundation and architecture. Taipei 101 holds the Guinness record of being the fastest elevator in the world to bring people from ground level to 88 floors. The 360 degree view of Taipei from Taipei 101 is stunning: The walk around Taipei 101 during this Christmas season is also very enjoyable with the Christmas illuminations at 16 degreeC nights:

Taiwan: Taipei – Hope Hotel 全家歡商務旅店 and Cosmos Hotel 天成大飯店 (Taiwan Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

As we had 2 legs of our tour in Taipei, we spent 2 nights in Hope Hotel (全家歡商務旅店) and 1 night in Cosmos Hotel. Hope Hotel (全家歡商務旅店 ) was very affordable at around NTD$1500 (SGD$60) per night. It looks sleazy but it isn’t. It is a very simple no frills room with basic bedding, 1 pillow each, clean toilets and heating. But for city visits, where we usually spend very little time in the hotel rooms but outside exploring the city, I think Hope Hotel meets our needs and is very centrally located at exit Z6 from the Taipei Main Station.   Hope Hotel (全家歡商務旅店) Address: 台北市中正區忠孝西路一段72號4樓 Phone 預約電話: 02-23814755 Site: http://www.hopehotel.com.tw/ — Cosmos Hotel (天成大飯店) was relatively expensive but that is because we booked it at very last minute on Dec 30 for Dec 31 stay, when we did a slight tweak to the itinerary. Like Hope Hotel, it is extremely convenient from Taipei Main Station (Exit M3), but it has a lot of nice facilities that Hope Hotel lacks – entry only by security card at lift for added security, …

Sushi Saito @ Tokyo, Japan

Published by Beatrice

Sushi Saito ranks in the tops of my favourite meals in my lifetime so far, alongside L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Taipei and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. Sushi Saito is a three Michelin star Japanese cuisine restaurant known for its sushi. It is quite hard to locate, hence I have attached a map below. It is in a very unassuming building right opposite the American Embassy, but the hunt is worth it! Unfortunately, because this meal is >2 years ago, I cannot remember all the details of the dishes, but the freshness of the seafood and their perfect balance with the amount of rice lingers in my mind till today. There were 2 lunch sets – 12 pieces or 18 pieces. You only pick the number of pieces and not the individual type of sushi. Ok, and wait for this…… this tuna belly was so fatty and soft, it tasted almost like red meat. AMAZING. I still remember how it tasted till today after >2 years! 🙂 It isn’t easy to make a reservation as …