Wandering Fel

"Don't let your dreams be dreams."

Hello everyone! It's finally one day to Friday. Currently, I have no idea why this youtube stop playing in the background of my Ipad but until I figure it out I suppose I just have to be satisfied with Spotify for now. Continuing our journey in Taiwan, we are now ready to continue our journey to the next city on our list, Taichung. The fastest way to reach Taichung from Taipei is by taking the High Speed Rail (HSR). Do you know that you can actually book the HSR ticket online (with allocated seats) and then collect the tickets later one upon arriving in Taiwan? It was so convenient to buy the tickets at this website: https://irs.thsrc.com.tw/IMINT?locale=en and the best thing is, everything's in English. Yeay!

10D9N Taiwan Trip: From Taipei to Taichung

You would have to collect your HSR tickets from either convenience stores (e.g. 7-11, Family Mart, etc) or the ticketing machines at Taipei Main Station though. We prefer to collect the ticket at 7-11 (with handling fee charges of 20NTD per ticket) because the 7-11 staff is always ready to help us whenever we got lost in reading the traditional Chinese characters. After paying the NTD 20 fees, the 7-11 staff will give you the pink ticket like above where you can scan your way in to the train platform. Since there are many trains leaving Taipei (once in every 15 minutes), you have to pay attention to the train number and the destination before boarding the train.

High Speed Rail at Taipei Main Station in Taiwan

Within less than an hour, we have reached Taichung HSR Station. I was kinda having a mixed feeling because I love taking train and yet, I also like the fact that I don't have to waste time on commuting. Such a conflicting feeling. We stayed at Le Parker Hotel in Taichung and as expected, our bedroom was not ready when we arrived around 12-ish. 3 hours later, we finally got our twin bedroom key. The twin bedroom at Le Parker Hotel is definitely more spacious and comfortable than our twin bedroom at Diary of Taipei in Ximending. The room rate for Le Parker Hotel is usually lower than 100 SGD per night so I think this is quite a great deal to find for accommodation in Taichung.

Shower room is pretty standard and there is no fancy bidet on sight but we are quite satisfied with the clean bedroom and bathroom. Amenities such as tooth brush, tooth paste, comb, sanitary bag and hairdryer are available too.

Shower room at Le Parker Hotel Taichung Taiwan

While waiting for the room key, I managed to drink this popular convenience store item in Taiwan, Uni-President's papaya milk. It tastes so good and always makes me want to go back to Taiwan whenever I think about it.

Papaya Milk Tea from Family Mart at Taiwan

After we are done checking in, it's time for us to walk around the vicinity of Le Parker Hotel. The main reason for us to choose to stay at Le Parker Hotel is actually because it is located within walking distance to Fengjia University and Fengjia Night Market, which is supposedly the biggest night market in Taiwan.

But the night market is still empty in the afternoon obviously so we just spent our time walking around Fengjia University (weird post coming up) and convenience stores. Oh look, Gudetama biscuits. It seems that Gudetama is well loved here in Taiwan.

Gudetama Biscuits at Family Mart Taichung Taiwan

Le Parker Hotel is located at:

No. 16 Lane 234, Chih Shan Road, Situn District

Taichung, Taiwan

Yoohoo! Finally my friend and I decided to embark on a trip outside Taipei. Not that far yet, but we are going to the middle of Taiwan. Somewhere near Taichung (台中). So, we decided to give the famous High Speed Rail (HSR) a try. ^^

The HSR station in Taipei is located at Taipei Main Station (台北車站/ Táiběi chē zhàn). You can reach Taipei Main Station by taking MRT. You can follow the sign on Taipei Main Station (they are everywhere) to reach the HSR Taipei Station.

You can book the ticket online if you have the identification number, but, since it's so troublesome for foreigner like me and my friend, we decided to buy tickets on the day itself from the ticket vending machine.

Okay, the bummer part about taking HSR is the ticket price. One way ticket from Taipei to Taichung costs you 675NTD. O_O! But considering that you will reach Taichung within one hour, I suppose you really pay for what you get. If you want to opt for a cheaper way to reach Taichung, you can take either the normal train or bus but it will take around 2 hours to reach Taichung.

There are two type of tickets that you can buy, standard or non-reserved seats. We bought the non-reserved seats ticket since it's cheaper and we guess there would be not many people who travelled to Taichung on a weekday morning. =P

Since we bought the non-reserved seats, the ticket indicates that we can only go to the free-seating-car number 10 - 12. If you are wondering where the cars are located, you can see the map below. The HSR has toilets, area for wheelchair, area to put luggage and an area to make a phone-call.

If you are confused on the which train to take, you can always check with the security guard or ticketing officer. Basically there are two directions which are shown on the schedule board, Southbound and Northbound. Taipei is located at the North of Taiwan, so to make it easier, just remember that the train going from Taipei to Kaohsiung direction is called Southbound while the other direction is called Northbound. You can see the HSR map of Taiwan below (could

Whenever the train nearly/ has reached a destination, they will make an announcement in both Mandarin and English (actually they will announce in Taiwanese too). The seats are so comfortable, you will wish the journey last longer because you don't want to get up from the seats. =P

Before we knew it, we have reached our destination, Taichung. Awesome, eh? Do give the HSR a try when you have the chance to visit Taiwan. =)

Wandering Fel

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Le Parker Hotel, Taichung

Transportation in Taipei: The awesome High Speed Rail