Love Taiwanese Drama? Well, the original reason why my sister and I decided to tour Taipei was because of her obsession with LeeHom Wang, but in my case, I wanted to visit Taiwan because of PANDA!
Since we’re always on a tight budget, we decided to do it ourselves. First thing you need to do is to apply for tourist visa in Taiwan.
The following are the requirements for applying tourist visa if you’re a Filipino citizen.
Taiwan embassy is located at 41F, Tower 1, RCBC Plaza, 6819 Ayala Avenue, Makati City 1200
Make sure to complete your requirements, and bring 2 valid ids (Government ID) Company/Office Id are not accepted. In our case, we used Postal Id and Voter’s ID. You can’t use your passport as you will have to leave it inside.
Make sure to bring an original copy of your birth certificate, if you don’t have, you can request online and pay P150 and it will be deliver to your house. With regards to bank statement, P50, 000 will do.
If in case, you don’t have savings account, you can use your parents/siblings account that will support your trip. Just bring his/her bank statement, and a notarized letter stating that he will shoulder your expenses during the trip.
We purchased a promo RT ticket to Taipei thru Cebupacificair.
Next, I personally created our Itinerary.
AS follow:
Arrival @ 12:40 am of Aug 11, 2012
2 Nights & 2 Days
August 10 & 11 for Hotel Booking @ 2 persons
Lodging:
Top Roof Hotel – Taipei Main Station
Breakfast Included
Payment can be made thru credit card 🙂
“From the Taoyuang International Airport:
Take airport shuttle buses to Taipei Main Station (price around TWD 90-140) and take a 5-10 minute walk to the hotel.”
Since it’s quite late, we can’t take the airport shuttle anymore, so our only options will be to take the bus or taxi.
Taxi would cost us 1000NTD, so we took the bus, much cheaper.
“KUO-KUANG MOTOR TRANSPORT. Kuokuang Line [1819 to Taiwan Railways Station / 1840 to Taipei Songshan Airport ]”
You can almost tour the entire city with Easy Card. We purchased at Taipei Main station, this is also available on 7-eleven stores.
This costs 200 NTD(NT$100 balance and NT$100 deposit), and then, we purchased additional 300NTD credits. This can be used when taking MRT, bus, taxi, and other stores such as starbucks, 7-eleven, family mart and more.
Don’t forget to bring the MRT MAP. You will need this.
These are the list of places we intended to visit:
• TaiPei Zoo – MRT Taipei Zoo Station
• Maokong Gondola – MRT Taipei Zoo Station
• National palace museum accessible via MRT station is Shilin
• Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall accessible via MRT Xindian line / CKS Memorial Hall Station
• Taipei 101 / Taipei 101 mall accessible via Blue Line MRT to Taipei City Hall Station
• Long Shan Temple accessible via Access via MRT Longshan temple
• Xi Men – Shopping District (Shibuya of Taipei) accessible via MRT Ximen station
• Guang Hua Market (Akihabara, Tokyo of Taipei) /Guang Hua Digital Plaza accessible via MRT Zhongxiao Xinsheng Station
• NOVA Electronics Mall accessible via Taipei Main Station
COST:
When we arrived at the city proper to look for the hotel, it was a terrible experience. We couldn’t find the hotel, we took taxi several times. Imagine, it was 2am and we’re searching for the hotel. In the end, a guard in a hotel near Taipei Main station helped us. Since it’s too early, most of the hotels are fully booked. Somehow, god is really kind with us. A kind woman let us stay in Taipei Guesthouse, though it’s quite costly. Anyway, it has free internet access and breakfast.
We just slept for few hours and decided to start our Taipei adventure. It’s only 2 full days.
We took the MRT station going to Taipei Zoo.
And finally! My favorite part of Taipei Zoo Trip! PANDA!!!
A cost cutting trip with a cost cutting Food.
Long Shan Temple
Then, we headed to shopping center – Shilin Night Market
Surprisingly, when we went back to our hotel, we saw Jiro Wang! He has a show and autograph signing. This is so unexpected.
And for our dinner:
The next day, we took the Maokong Gondola. If you are two, you get 1 free ticket. Therefore, you only have to pay for 1 person!
Finally, our last destination, the National Palace Museum
The weather is perfectly fine when we arrived. Picture taking is not allowed inside.
And then it rained!
Since we don’t have umbrella, we run in the rain and took a bus.
Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
Awesome view from the hotel:
Another lucky day! We met Wilber Pan from Endless Love Taiwanese Drama!
He was just so close to me! I’m not a fan girl, but then, he’s still handsome!
I also get a chance to meet the singer from In Time With You OST
And finally, our Taipei adventure is over.
