It was more than 6 months ago when I booked the air tickets. January 2010 seemed to be a long time to wait back then. But look, I am back from the trip.
Almost everyone told me I was out of my mind to go for a 8-day trip. I was worried too, about the money and the time. Tickets booked, I had to go ahead. After I've done some search on the internet, I realised 8 days in Taiwan ain't long enough to cover most of the tourist spots. Enough for Taipei and hopefully some other places nearby Taipei. Went to MATTA fair once to look for some tour packages, we couldn't find what we wanted. Everyone then decided we go free & easy.
The process of drafting our very own itinerary wasn't easy. We hardly meet, all we could do was communicate through MSN. We have had countless headaches with the accommodation and where to visit. We compromised a lot to reach a mutual agreement, trying very hard not to make each other feel that they're at the losing end. Disagreement did happen, to find the middle ground is harder than you think. Luckily we managed it well. Sometimes with so many inputs, I got impatient and confused. I am grateful I have friends who are willing to spare their patience on me. That left me feeling even more guilty than ever.
I felt a tinge of triumph when I saw the itinerary was all done and finalised. Special thanks to Melissa and Wan Yi who spent most of their time browsing through all the oh-so-confusing websites/forums. :) Their "web hunting" skills are incomparable! LOL! I sometimes wonder how did they get all those websites where I couldn't even Google them out! Hehehe.
The itinerary wasn't a perfect one, but it was good enough. I guess we were too greedy to have so many places woven into it, we didn't have the time to visit all the places as planned! LOL! Part of the reason being we are all shopaholics!!! Can't believe we shopped and spent so much, both money and time on shopping! Hahahahaha!
Let's see...... We dropped Shida Night Market on the first night 'cause we were all so excited to check out Ximending first. Second night, we missed the Fishermen Wharf in Dan Shui 'cause it was already dark when we finished our shopping in Dan Shui Old Street! Gosh...... Didn't manage to soak ourselves wet in the hot spring too. Strike out Miniature Museum since we got advice from Wan Yi's cousin that it is a waste of time. :P On the 4th day, we missed Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Sek Memorial Hall!!! Terrible! But we made an impromptu trip to Mr. J's French-Italian Restaurant and the Miramar Ferris Wheel. :) Mel was sad that we didn't make it to Taiwan Storyland too. We spent 2 nights in Jiu Fen instead of 1 night! Sun Moon Lake plan sunk into the deep ocean. LOL! Jiu Fen is a beautiful place. We heeded the advice from the B&B owner to stay 1 more night to explore Jiu Fen. That we never regret. :) My only regret is we didn't make it to Yehliu Geopark. :(
Although we missed out those places, it didn't make this trip less pleasant. We all have had a great time. Traveling with a bunch of great "actors and actresses", I can guarantee you there will be no boring moment. We were laughing like mad people during the trip! Oh, not to forget, we ate a lot too! The weather and the walkings, made us hungry all the time.
Taiwan is truly a great tourism place. They make it so easy for the tourists to get around in the country. I can't help but think why can't Malaysia do that? Our public transportation here is a mess, the signboards here are a mess too. I imagined if I were a tourist in KL, I'd get frustrated with the transportation. Sigh......
I've fallen in love with Taiwan. She truly touched my heart. Will I migrate to Taiwan? I will if I could. I can't, I can't dump my responsibilities here. But I will definitely visit Taiwan again. Hopefully in the near future. :)
P. S. : I'll be posting my Taiwan trip itinerary slowly (please give me some time to compose). I have gotten all the information from the internet, now it's time to return the favor to those who need it. :) I was a lil' selfish in sharing it, until I realised "hey, you've gotten the information from the people who are willing to share, your itinerary isn't original like you think it is!" :) If you're willing to spend the effort, I am willing to share. Do watch this space for the Taiwan updates. :D
1 comment:
glad that we have u too....
no doubt some of d planned places we failed to go...but then we still enjoyed the entire trip. dropped some places which means we got the excuses to allow us to visit there again lor....hehehe...HUGSSSS
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