here are some of the places that i have stayed before in taiwan,japan and korea these few years. they are all convenient and among the cheapest accommodations i could find.
TAIWAN
Taipei: Taipei hostel (300NT/ night for dorm room)
http://www.taipeihostel.com/accommodations_three.html
The rooms are pretty clean, near Taipei main station ( can walk or take subway to the station).
Kaoxiong: 乐活玩艺 （350NT/night for dorm room, cheaper rates for longer stays)
http://www.pixnet.net/blog/profile/lohoplayer07
The rooms are clean, the owner is friendly but the location is not super convenient.
Alishan: can't remember cost, please email to check
https://sites.google.com/site/svdalishan/
the accommodation is located within alishan, easy access to attractions within alishan and walkable to train station where you can take the train to see sunrise
JAPAN
Osaka: Hotel Toyo (single room priced at 1600yen)
http://www.hotel-toyo.jp/
recently stayed at this place, clean rooms, free usage of computers, near tsutenkaku, tennoji station. a few subway stops away from umeda and namba
Kyoto: Ikkuu (2500yen for dorm)
http://ikkuu.s2.weblife.me/
One of the best accommodation places ever. The guesthouse was once a teahouse and the furniture and building is beautiful. Gives the old kyoto feel. The place is clean and you can walk to gion from the guesthouse. Owner is also friendly. Cheapest accommodation in kyoto that I could find
Nagoya: Ecohotel nagoya (2000 yen per person for double/triple room)
http://ecohotelnagoya.com/
Provides hotel service for hostel price. Towels, toiletries provided with good wifi. Minutes away from nagoya station.
Tokyo: Asakusa smile (1700 yen for 8 bed mixed dorm)
http://asakusasmile.com/index.php#
Located in Asakusa, clean room with good wifi. Need to climb stairs though :P
KOREA
Seoul: Inside backpackers (16,000 won for dorm)
http://insideseoulhostel.com/
Friendly owners, clean place. Free breakfast provided (you have to cook the eggs though)
Gyeongju: Nabhi guesthouse (17,000 won for dorm)
http://www.nahbiguesthouse.com/
Transportation advice and travel brochures easily available. Clean room with free breakfast provided.
Gyeongju: Sa Rang Chae Guest house ( 15,000 won per person for 4-person family room)
http://www.kjstay.com/content_eng/iboard.cgi
Didn't get to stay at this place because it was fully booked. Saw great reviews online.
Busan: Blue backpackers (20,000 won for dorm room)
http://www.bluebackpackers.com/
Convenient location, easy access to downtown busan, clean rooms with strong wifi
I have personally stayed in all these places and found them to range from so-so to great but they are the cheapest or among the cheapest accommodation I have found. :)
Friday, June 13, 2014
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Visit to Yilan 蘭得好天氣: 宜蘭之旅 (17.11.12)
My friend got a brochure advertising for a trip to Yilan orgranized by a volunteer club and suddenly, we are off to Yilan today. The whole activity was quite nice except for the rain that accompanied us the whole day :( It was not nice taking pictures in the rain, getting myself slightly wet. I would have enjoyed the whole thing even more if it did not rain.
First destination：亞點菓子工廠 Cake factory. We stopped here for about half an hour to try out the cakes :P You are encouraged to buy their products which I see people doing. I find the cakes a bit too sweet for my liking.
Second destination: 望龍埤 Wang Long Pi. It is quite a scenic places with a lake and mountains around it. It is also apparently one of the places where 下一站幸福, a Taiwanese drama was filmed. However, other than a sign saying ‘花田村' the name of a place in the drama, I do not see any other signs of places where they filmed the show.
Third destination: 養蜂人家. Honey factory. Another round of see see look look. I tried this 蜂王乳 which has a super "special" taste, aka awful. It is as horrible as the 豆汁兒 that I tried in Beijing. I will not try it again even if it is super nutritious :(
Fourth destination: 國立傳統藝術中心。National traditional arts centre. The centre is quite huge with different sections, there's a fake old street which is copied from Sanxia old street. You can find shops selling traditional handicrafts, food and many more stuff. The place is pretty nice to explore. Here, I met a volunteer who is really passionate about what he is doing, was pretty nice talking to him. The centre has aborigines' performances which we didn't go for as there was insufficient time.
Fifth destination: 羅東夜市。Luo Dong Night market. Didn't take any pictures. The night market is quite big and nice, tried 包心粉圓 and 卜肉 :)
First destination：亞點菓子工廠 Cake factory. We stopped here for about half an hour to try out the cakes :P You are encouraged to buy their products which I see people doing. I find the cakes a bit too sweet for my liking.
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| Brief explanation on cake making process, ingredients and other information |
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| The cakes |
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| 車輪蛋糕 Car wheel cakes |
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| The empty box left after our tasting |
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| 望龍埤 |
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| Stone with name |
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| Beautiful :) |
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| Walkway by the lake |
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| The sign of the place in the drama |
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| Photos of actors at the place |
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| Cute dog pining for owner :P. Nah, he's just looking to his left. |
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| Grassland |
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| Mr Bee :) |
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| Real, live bees |
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| Super huge beehive. Taller than me. |
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| How to wear bees |
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| Kiln refurnished as souvenir shop |
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| There is a pond next door |
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| 原住民部落 |
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| Cute cartoon 土地公 |
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| Add caption |
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| "Sanxia old street" :) |
Fifth destination: 羅東夜市。Luo Dong Night market. Didn't take any pictures. The night market is quite big and nice, tried 包心粉圓 and 卜肉 :)
Monday, November 5, 2012
Alishan 阿裡山 (3.11.12 - 4.11.12)
We reached Alishan at about 2pm. After checking in to our accommodation, we explored Alishan. Alishan is actually not very big. We managed to explore most of it in 3 plus hour. There are 5 main wonders in Alishan namely sun rise, sun set, sea of clouds, forest and the train. In this trip, we did not get to see sun set because of the thick clouds but we managed to see a bit of sun rise. We also walked through the forest and tried the train.
We went back to our accommodation and slept earlier than usual so that we could wake up in time to watch sunrise tomorrow. We woke at round 3am and took the 4.30am train to Zhushan. We waited for about one hour plus for sunrise but we could not really see it :( I would like to go to Alishan again and see sunrise.
Although we did not really manage to see the sunrise, the scenery was still quite beautiful. Clouds turned pinkish and yellowish, swirls of clouds like cotton candy, thick sea of clouds :)
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| Flowers blooming |
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| Red maple tree. It is one of the few maple trees that I saw which has turned red. |
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| Alishan train |
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| Alishan train station |
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| Tickets for sunrise tommorow |
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| Train carriage |
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| Train tickets |
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| Zhaoping train station |
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| Maple tree that partially turned red |
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| Tall and straight cedar trees |
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| Tree stump |
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| 姐妹潭 Sister pond |
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| 永結同心 Heart shaped branches |
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| Walkway in the forest |
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| Magnolia garden |
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| One of the few blooming magnolia I saw |
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| Temple in the mist |
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| Alishan in the mist |
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| Old mysterious building |
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| Highest primary school |
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| Supposed to be able to see sunset but cannot see because clouds too thick :( |
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| What we supposedly could see |
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| Long queues of people waiting to get on the train |
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| Train platform |
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| Train coming into the station |
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| Inside the carriage |
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| Finally reached our destination |
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| Walking to the pavilion to see sun rise |
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| At 5am or so. |
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| Clouds |
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| Watching the sun rise together |
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| View from the platform |
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| Walkway |
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| Yellowish clouds |
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| Swirls of clouds |
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| Sea of clouds |
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| Viewing platform with a 360 degrees view |
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| Mountain |
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| The sun finally came out! |
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| On our way back |
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| Red maple leaf |
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| Path back |
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| Blooming flowers |
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| Forest walkway |
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| Maple tree |
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