#Pink and #Undecided's Taiwan Trip: day 1

Hellooo Everybody!! Ready for another joint entry?

As promised, we're writing our Taiwan Trip diary now, and knowing #Pink and her European Trip entries, expect series of entries with TONS of photos, because boy did we take LOTS of them hahahaha...

A teaser pic to start off, as usual :D...

So day 1 should start with us getting to Taiwan, and for this trip we flew with Air Asia, so the route was: SUB - KUL - TPE. Being true to myself (this is #Undecided, BTW), I only packed my whole luggage the day before the actual trip. LOL. Yes, I'm a swift packer and I did pack for two because clearly, I couldn't expect hubby to pack for himself, yes? *Did I hear you say amen, ladies?! LOL* Lucky for me our flight from SUB to KUL was at 11.40am so I could wake up a bit later and had enough time to get ready. And I'm proud to say that I arrived at #Pink's house ON TIME (which has and will never happen again hahahaha).

Hi y'all, it's #Pink here! Decided to make it easier for you to recognize when your blogger changed shifts in one joint entry by using a VERY different type of font than before (coz we still got people confused by our convo-style posts before haha), hope you like the change! About #Undecided being on time, yeah well, i do miss that SINGLE time. She managed to arrive an HOUR late to Baby Boy's birthday dinner last Sunday *sigh*, didn't expect any less from her though *LOL*. As far as packing went, i was all packed and ready much sooner than #Undecided, of course. I think i traveled too often lately that i got too lazy to REALLY pack like i usually do *like in my European trip, where i planned every single thing to bring like... weeks before!*, i kinda packed sloppily this time *LOL*, another first.

Anyway, if you don't know, Juanda International Airport's domestic terminal's actually a lot nicer than the international one. They have lounges, shops, etc. Whereas the international one? It's fugly. LOL. Only like, two lounges were available and none of which any of our credit cards provide free entrance of, so useless hahahaha... Before we even start with anything, i realized we brought such colorful luggage, not even ONE boring colored one so i insisted for us to snap a pic with them *much to our hubbies' dismay, thank God we're not traveling with Eeek though*

Then we moved to the only cafe available, chatting non-stop (we've been chatting, laughing and howling all the way from my home already *LOL*. BTW, Baby Boy kinda sulked and didn't want to see us in the eyes when we said goodbye :(... Later when we came home he told me he missed me a lot when i was away, that's the first time he ever said such thing! How sweet! Grow up and strong faster Baby Boy, so we can bring you to such journeys from now on, because well... Frankly he'd bawl his eyes out if he joined this trip, it could be super hard on a 6 years old hehe, especially the super pampered one like him) and drinking super duper sweet *i think i got diabetic just thinking about it now-shudder!* traditional coffees (with way too much milk on it)!

Right... the coffee was crazy sweet, but beggars can't be choosers, right... We had no other option and we needed coffee, so.... Anyway, decided to move along to the boarding area (gate 11 if I'm not mistaken), but then we had to wait some more, and what else would we do if there's nothing to do?! You guessed right!

this is a proof that we're quite interchangeable-NOT IN BED WTF-hehehe

Finally we were called to board the airplane and off we went. Hubby (or was it #Pink's hunny) offered: do you guys want to sit together? And the obvious answer was yes! LOL. We weren't tired so we didn't need to sit next to our hubbies, and ended up chatting endlessly until some point I got so bored, I had to bug someone. The lucky someone was obviously: #Pink's hunny. Muahahahahaha... I twirled a strand of my hair and poke it onto his scalp (try it! It's quite fun! On others' scalps yaaa LOL) and it took him a while to realize it was me :D hahahahaha...

We also stamped some used stickers on the table which eventually let us know that we actually boarded the SAME plane to and fro KL, but I'm getting ahead of myself, more on that later :)

Yeah, i also thought, hey this is the first time we're flying abroad together (we flew to Bali together previously, of course), we need to preserve this moment! 

The flight from Surabaya to KL only took about two hours, so for me it was nothing (not for #Undecided who hates aeroplane's smell! She kept on complaining why we're not there yet and how she's bored PFFFFTTT, wouldn't expect any less from her though) and in no time, we're in KL! Our next flight to Taipei is in a short while so we decided not to leave the departure lounge, i love taking pictures where you can tell (by the signs or whatever) where the person in the picture exactly was, so i insisted for us to snap this pic!

We were starving (well, we're always starving through out this trip, no wonder our bellies bloated to a scary point FOL), there were only a few restaurants/cafes available in the departure lounge and we settled for one that serves local food. It was YUMS!

#Undecided complained that her chicken rice wasn't enough to make her full, so we went to another cafe afterwards for some snacks :p...

 

Snapped this crazy pic of hunny but then they forced ME to pose crazily as well WTF, and somehow i obliged. Peer pressure. FML.

The donut was really HUGE, #Undecided's annoying hubby said that the doughnut's as big as my face, damn him GRRRR. Eh, i didn't really bite that doughnut hor, we civilly sliced it to four pieces and share! It was melty and yummy!

This cafe was our original destination (I bet it was because both #Pink and I spotted the word "COFFEE", but eventually none of us had coffee WTF), but because obvi hubby needed rice (and so were the rest of us actually, you know, Indonesian, won't survive without rice hahaha), we dragged our lazy arse and luggage; then settled for the chicken rice and nasi lemak. OMG the best chicken rice ever!!! *dramatic when hungry* I honestly can taste the super savory chicken rice typing this *salivating* hahahaha sorry sorry, diet started today so I'm quite hungry right now.

But I digress.

Actually we wanted to get more snacks, but then we realized that we were called to board the next plane to Taipei!! So we headed to the gate and apparently we were some of the last ones there! However we managed to take some photos on the tarmac!! I know I know we weren't supposed to, and at any given day we would follow the rules, but but but... there was this family that took photo and we #Pink was jealous so quickly we snapped the photos using #Pink's hunny's phone camera hahahaha.... (HEY!!!)

Okay, prepare yourself for a scandalous one :

Wish i could show this to super annoying, homophobic, judgemental MIL of mine :p

On this flight our seats were far apart and knowing that we would nap most of the times, we sat with our spouses. I think I managed to nap a bit, but I quickly got bored and started to bug hubby LOL. He ordered us some food - which I suspected was to shut me up LOL - but that didn't last long because I was super uncomfortable and it was so COLD, and I forgot to bring my jacket FML!!! I decided to pay #Pink a visit and took some crazy pics using one of my iPad's apps LOL.

OMG. Wasn't those pics completely EPIC? Anyway, lemme erase those crazy images of ours from your minds with a slightly more normal selca that hunny and i snapped, teehee...

Anyway, after almost five hours, we finally arrived at Taipei! YAY!!!! It looked.... Very Chinese to my eyes ever since our plane landed on the tarmac *LOLOLOL*... We couldn't be happier, so happy that we had to snap pictures even on the flat elevator hahaha... Please excuse our touristness, we know we have those elevators everywhere *yes in Indonesia too, of course*, but not everyday we ride a flat elevator in Taipei's airport, right? *Excuses, excuses*

I looked cuter in another pic #Undecided snapped, but hunny's tummy looked 7mo preggo in that pic, see i'm such a good wifey...

The immigration line was quite long but the officers were swift and we passed in NO time :D! Btw, hunny spotted a line for "Foreign & Alien Passports" LOLOLOLOL. Alien??? Couldn't snap pictures obvi because we might get arrested :P. Went to find any welcome to Taiwan signs *yes yes, we were very very touristy, whatever* to snap pictures at! 

Hunny cannot see a drinking water tap and not drink out of it, i dunno why

Cam-whored so much with that sign because we thought we wouldn't find another one, stupid us... Once we stepped out of the arrival gate, of course there were plenty!

Like this one!

#Undecided's hubby's friend (and now we all can call OUR friend, proudly haha) Joe unexpectedly was waiting for us already! I was quite shocked because we weren't expecting anyone to pick us up, obviously! And... Even though i was a bit uncomfortable (like i always was around new people), that didn't stop me to insist on cam-whoring when i saw this cute cow!

Then i saw another one of a cray cray looking bunny, i was worried #Undecided would scold me *because we often joke about how our BFF A would insist on take pics on every single spot and that can annoy us sometimes-sorry A!* for keep on cam-whoring, but apparently she also wanted to snap a pic with it!

And if i was worried that Joe would think i was being shameless, i shouldn't have because then HE insisted for all of us to snap a pic with it, together! He even went and stop a stranger to ask for her help, thank you, stranger! (Oh, and he happened to pick the one girl that caught my eyes ever since our flight from KL-yes she was on the same flight-because she was wearing a super cute black cat ears headband! I really had strong urges to pluck it out of her head and plonk it into my own. But i hold myself back because, well because i actually own a very similar one that i brought to Taiwan coz i wanted to wear it to Hello Kitty cafe!)

That's Joe on the far left. He's super kind, sweet and (possibly) single. Any takers? (If not single then still unmarried, can still be stolen lah LOLOLOL)

Snapped this while waiting for Joe and #Undecided's hubby to get our bus tickets, as usual when i'm too embarrassed posing somewhere, hunny's my victim hahaha...

Super cute, eh? This is a juice stall (and maybe also sells snacks), Taiwanese are obsessed with juices...

And then off we went to our hotel. 

Loading our luggage into the bus' trunks

First we rode the bus and then we took two taxis to our final destination. Thank God for Joe because he helped us secured our bus tickets (yes, as well as the tickets to go back to the airport on the 9th) and helped us talked to the taxi drivers. Joe's mom (a very lovely Aunty Mei Chang, let's call her AMC from now on, k!) even brought us a meal box with hubby's fave food ever: roasted duck (this is one of the reasons as to why hubby wanted to go back to Taiwan; he missed this specific roasted duck). He ate it happily, nay, joyfully - dancing and all LOL. 


Sorry #Undecided, i gotta add this. Both #Undecided and i expected Taipei to be... more like Singapore or Hong Kong? Or at least Jakarta lah!! We were so taken aback on the ride from the airport to the city central, it's more like... Errr... Some smaller cities in Indonesia or Malaysia, or more accurately in China lah. It's nothing like Singapore or HK, mind you! It's so much more... old school, antique... Vintage.... Nothing like whatever we had in our minds!

Oh, a little backstory. Hubby studied and worked in Taiwan for about 5 years. He met AMC's son Eko on his first days there and they became close friends ever since. He always refers to AMC as her second mom. Joe is Eko's brother. He has this youthful look to him, doesn't he?! #Pink thought he was 18 something, but he's actually 24 LOL. 

Yes, i did. And i told him so. He was like "That's not good, i think...". I told him it IS good, you'll see when you're older. Like me. Then i think i almost gave him a heart attack when i told him i'm 29. Actually i'm turning 30 in two months, Joe...

Oh, #Undecided forgot to tell you how rude our taxi drivers were! So shocking, first encounter with Taiwanese (other than Joe) in Taipei... I was trying to show the driver the address of the hotel in a paper *because he didn't speak a word of English* and he TSK-ed super loudly and angrily asked for the paper. WTF uncle? Joe said those taxi drivers were drunk? WTF. They did drive like drunks though! Scares the shit out of me! I thought we were gonna die a few hours after reaching Taipei. How very sad.

Oh right, I forgot that LOL. I guess my brain blocked that incident because it was quite traumatic, and I'm not even being dramatic. I had to hang on to hubby quite tightly, but to my surprise he was unfazed. He then told me the same thing Joe told #Pink: the drivers were most likely drunk and sleepy. And it was quite normal in Taiwan. OMG!! Why were they even allowed to drive?!!??! I was super relieved that he pulled over and dropped us. I quickly got out and forgot my manner, I didn't say thank you. *sigh* 

Moving on from the rude taxi drivers!!! The first hotel is Cityinn Hotel in Ximending area. We were quite skeptical when we saw it from across the street (yes, right after being dropped off), but the feeling turned 180 when we stepped into the lobby. It's a very cute boutique hotel!!! I loved it. 

Super simple but nicely decorated lobby-with very helpful and friendly receptionists, a very refreshing thing after the encounter with the scary taxi drivers!

Very art-oriented hotel. Look at the HUGE horsey lamp!

To give you a better perspective of the size of that horsey-lamp :

Comparison with my 1.78m tall/83kgs hunny *LOL*

There were a few of those posters in the lobby, asked Joe what those were advertising, he even consulted the receptionists because he had a hard time answering us hehe... Turned out it was ads for art exhibitions and the sorts

The lobby looked small, yes? No area to sit around leisurely? We were WRONG! We discovered a spacious basement guests area the next day, but more about that later! Next to the receptionist (stupid me forgot to snap a pic!!!) was a free coffee maker so you can make coffee for yourself anytime you want! Yes, for free!!! *extremely cheap*

Hahahaha and even stupider, I don't think we ever made coffee from the machine FOL. We kept asking Joe to double check and he kept saying "yes, free, except for the red bull" hahahaha we bothered him for nothing... Sorry Joe :D As for our rooms.... sure the rooms were small, but that's to be expected... Funny thing is: the bathroom was so spacious, it was almost the same size of the bedroom itself hahahaha... Our rooms were quite similar (feature wise), but #Pink's was carpeted and mine wasn't. I didn't mind though... I just loved having spacious bathroom so I didn't have it in me to complain about the floor. 

Here are some pictures of my room :

Yeah, i had to stand outside the room to be able to snap this hahaha

It was pretty high tech, all of the stuffs were controlled by these buttons, hunny was so happy about it *tech geek*

Bathroom that's almost as big as the room itself

Still don't understand the point of those half glass separator, the floor next to the bath tub would still be soaking wet! ERGGGHHH!!!

I just realized that there's a cupboard underneath the sink when i saw this pic *LOLOLOL*, wonder what's inside?
Actually I checked, #Pink, and there was nothing inside, it's just to cover the fugly looking plumbing thingy. Very thoughtful, don't you think?!

Love the HUGE ass mirror, so convenient for putting on make up and stuff. Oh, but there's no lock on the bathroom door *glum*

Cute, plentiful and super complete amenities that we quickly shoved into our luggage *super kiasu Asian*, they are so much cuter and nicer than you average hotel amenities, mind you!

Joe told us later that we can take whatever we want *really???* from inside the hotel's room because they'd never check when we check out (that's true, we just give them the card keys and left, they didn't even ask for a deposit at all!) because all of the price's already added to the hotel room's rate, #Undecided said she should've swiped the cute amenities holder LOLOLOL

At some point hunny and i wondered if it's actually a... love hotel??? Because the provided FREE adult movies!!! And also these :

Snacks that we belatedly realized were free (so we only snatched them on the second day! LOL. And important plastic bag because most shops here doesn't give out plastic bags.. But more importantly, do you see the thing on the bottom right?

Free condom! The first time i stayed in a hotel that gave free condoms, but then the next hotel we stayed in (in Taipei) also gave free condoms! So, it might actually be the norm there?

Okay let's have a peek into #Undecided's.

She claimed that she saw the numbers everywhere when we were in Taiwan, should've bought lottery tickets using those numbers, eh?
The number, #Pink?! THE NUMBER?!?! That's my birthday, you DO know that, right!?!? *giving #Pink the dirtiest look I could muster*

#Undecided's claimed her room was cuter because of this :

Apologies, i couldn't got rid of the beached whale :D

But they are indeed really similar. The hotel was really really artsy and cutesy! It did take some time for me to warm up to it *i couldn't sleep the first night, i got some allergy attacks so i was scratching all night long and hunny was snoring like a wounded tiger sounds. I was up until 3.30 AM before i took some Sweet Dreams and finally off to dreamland, only to be rudely woken up by my stupid alarm at 6.30 FML*, but i ended up loving it! And it was very clean, so i didn't mind the small size at all.

Oh, and we were concerned whether we're going to have (FREE) internet connection in Taiwan? We shouldn't have. It is a country quite known for their computer products after all, free Wifi can be found everywhere, of course the hotels included. And unlike any other countries we've been to before, they didn't even lock their Wifi, so there's no need to ask for user name or password, you'd be able to connect straightaway. How very convenient!

Super convenient indeed! But a note to remember: Taiwan's electricity plug is for 110V, so you may not need to worry about being connected to the internet (because except from free wi-fi, most of the hotels also provide PCs on their lobbies), you do need to bring your universal travel adapter with you. 

Universal Travel Adapter - photo courtesy of Google

It - however - only makes sure you can use your electronic devices, but they will operate "halfheartedly" LOL. I know, I know, it is a no brainer, but it did surprise me when I plugged my hairdryer and it sounded like it was dying!!! I thought it was somehow broken being stored inside my luggage all the way from Indonesia. LOL.

So don't worry about bringing your hairdryer, (most of) the hotels provide them and they will dry your hair faster compared yours anyways... If you're as fussy about me about your hair, you do need to bring your hair straightener though, obvi the hotels don't provide them :p

Enough about the hotel now, it was really late (around 11?) when we arrived, but we hadn't had dinner yet so we were quite hungry. We saw some mini markets earlier *thank God for Asian and our fondness of 24 hours convenient stores!!! We'd go hungry if we were in Europe LOL* so we went there to buy some food. It turned out to be my fave mini marts in Taiwan, Family Mart! Hahahaha.... They have quite an impressive selection of cosmetics too (for a mini mart) and yeah, i ended up doing a little bit of a shopping right away FML. Will show you the stuffs in a haul post, but for now i will show you some food that we got from Family Mart.

They were surprisingly very very good!

Huge-ass Taiwanese Onigiri, like...twice the size of normal onigiri you'd find in Indonesia, for a cheaper price! It was NTD 39 (less than USD 1.50) WTH!

It contains plump chicken meats inside, one fell off and i decided to take a pic of it to show you what's inside! Seriously, foods are crazy cheap in Taiwan!

Yummy pre-packed fried rice!

Who knew instant fried rice could be so yummy?

A super cute carrier they gave us to bring the scalding hot fried rice... Wanted to snap the carrier only but #Undecided forced me to snap the coffee as well... Oh, that coffee...

Oh, we bought some coffees to drink the next morning because by then we didn't realize that they have free coffee makers down stairs, but thank God we did because we discover our fave coffee there! #Undecided's cray cray about it so i'm gonna let her yap!

Under the plastic top, there's still a foil shield underneath. Everything came with this extra foil shield in Taiwan, i found it to be cute because usually we see either a top or a foil shield, not together at the same time

#Undecided's probably drooling right now

Even cuter, there's a hole in the plastic top to slide a straw in :D

Cutest ready-to-drink coffee packaging yet!

The coffee!!!!!!! Aaaaaaa... I miss that coffee OMG... It's so so so so good. I should have tried sneaking them into Indonesia!!! LOL. Anyway, that's it for day one. We're leaving you with a pic of us eating like refugees in my room (yes, this is when hubby ate his roasted duck joyfully - which doesn't really translate on this pic, but he really was ecstatic LOL) sitting on the floor and all...

Toodles,
#Pink and #Undecided