Frugal Singa becoming Frugal Tai (Nan) for a week!

Together with Little Singa and Mama Singa, Frugal Singa took a week long trip to Taiwan recently! This was little Singa's second overseas trip, but first with only both Mama and Papa. Her first trip was a little easier as it was with grandparents as there were extra hands then.

Thought that it was a good idea to share a little on our trip and what was overall a great experience on a conservative budget. 

Air tickets
Ever since we had little Singa, we were inclined to fly full-fledged airlines as we did not want to pay for every little thing which we may require on board, so we went with Singapore Airlines. 

We bought our tickets about 6 months before our trip and it cost about $1000 for 2 adult tickets and 1 infant, pretty alright I feel. For curiosity sake, I looked at budget flights and after adding in all the extras, the prices were pretty similar to SQ. As a bonus, SQ had entertainment(!), which we hoped that we could catch some shows on this 5 hours flight, provided Little Singa allowed us to. It was really tense the first time we flew with Little Singa as we were afraid she would feel uncomfortable and cry her lungs out and we would get death stares 😒 from other passengers. I totally feel parents flying with babies now. 😐 Happy to share now that both Mama and Papa managed to catch up on some movies on the flight. 

Taiwan - Taichung
Upon landing in Taoyuan Airport, we took the 2 hours airport bus transfer (approx. S$25 for 2 pax, Little Singa was free) to our Taichung Airbnb accommodation. We decide to take the airport bus transfer instead of (HSR) train simply because it was seamless, unlike HSR where you needed to change train to get to Taichung Central. 

We stayed in Xitun District. The airbnb we booked was really really reasonable. We stay 3 nights and it cost us $140. Yup, less than $50 a night. Amazing value. While it was just a basic small room, it was clean and centrally located (Xitun District) as well as near Feng Chia Night Market. For cities accommodation, I typically look for a central location more so than the other amenities. 

One thing you will notice about Taichung is that they do not have metro systems like Taipei. So... we tried out their buses instead. We were initially a little hesitant (esp with Little Singa with us) but after trying out once, we felt they were pretty easy to figure out and the best thing is the rides were mostly FREE (up to 10km, i think). 

So long as you have their EasyCard, you can use their buses. You can purchase the EasyCard at their MRT stations and convenience stores. All you got to do is to tap when boarding and alighting, simple as that. If you, like us, visit the usual attractions in Taichung, it should be mostly free rides! Google map was our best friend when it came to figuring out what buses to take, it also provided the bus schedule so you know when the bus is arriving or if you should take an alternative bus route.

In Taichung, we visited the following main attractions:

1. Rainbow Village- As it was a little out of the way, we took Uber to the Rainbow Village. Uber pricing was rather reasonable. It had free entry, not a big place, you can easily cover within half hour or lesser. There was not much shelter there though and weather was hot when we visited. Big effort by a former soldier, now Uncle, who painted the village red, literally :P We managed to get a photo with Painter Uncle (for a small donation) while we were there as well. Amazing to see what could one person do and save the village when he set his mind on it. 

2. Feng Chia Night Market- Huge Huge night market with a lot of food stuff mainly. It was fun to soak in the hustle and bustle of the night market. We did not managed to buy much stuff here, other than street food and more bubble tea. We do not usually drink bubble tea in Singapore, but we just kinda let loose while in the Land of Bubble tea! There are bubble tea shops at almost every corner we turned. 

3. National Taichung Theater- We did not watch any play/musical there as we were not keen. We just popped by to check out the building and there are interesting shops at the atrium selling quite cool wood work related stuff though they are a little pricey. There was also a cafe if you like to sit and watch the world go by. 

4. Wu Pao Chun Bakery Taichung Store- This is a famous Taiwanese bakery, who's baker / owner won an award in the bread category of the 2010 Bakery Masters competition in Paris. The award winning Taiwan longan with red wine bread was available for sample as we queued to enter the shop. It was quite nice as it was warm and has tinge of wine in it. You can buy this bread for about S$16, though it was nice, we felt that the loaf was too big for us to finish and instead bought some other type of bread. And if you are keen to taste their bread, you can entire travel to Taiwan or wait till 2019 when Singapore will get its first Wu Pao Chun bakery at Capitol Piazza. It is a joint venture with Breadtalk. I bet it will not be cheap once it arrives in Singapore, given its reputation and rental at Capitol. But its always better to taste something in its "most original" state, in Taiwan!

5. Chun Shui Tang (Original Store)- If I am not wrong, CST is the one which started it all. Bubble Tea that is. The pearls are made in house and are really chewy and delish! Ate some side dishes (nothing really special) there and of course we had to order their original bubble tea (large size!), think it cost about $6 for 500ml! Super Shiok!! The tea was also quite refreshing and had a pleasant after taste. That said, i am inclined to say there are no bad bubble teas shop in Taiwan, but then again I am no bubble tea connoisseur. So perhaps its reputation (one who started it all) and atmosphere (dinning in its original store) added points to the bubble tea experience. 

6. Miyahara Ice Cream. Its main attraction to me was its design, both interior and exterior. As the place was a former eye hospital, they renovated the place and keep some of basic structures and added lots of other intricate details. Miyahara has a huge, unique range of ice-cream flavours from teas, fruits to yoghurts and 17 different types of chocolates. The toppings were interesting, ranging from cheesecakes, pineapple tarts to almond crisps and more. We dined in as it was a hot day and we wanted to rest our weary feet. We did not realise that there was a minimum spending of 380twd (S$17) per pax. While it is not exorbitant, it was still rather pricey for Taiwan standards. Besides we had not intended to eat so much desserts but had to try anyway to meet the min spending. The staff were excellent and attentive though. And the toppings for the ice cream were cool! 

These were the main attractions we visited in Taichung, after which we visited CingJing, Jiu Fen and Taipei. Hope to share more in future post on the other locations. 

One tip for those who are planning to travel to Taiwan, you can visit their Tourism office (30 Raffles Place, #10-01 Chevron House, Singapore 048622) with your air tickets and at least one night accommodation as proof to collect some freebies / gift (offers changes from time to time). The current gift (till 30 Nov 2018) is a Taiwan Fruit Picking Voucher. 


Signing off for now...
Frugal Singa