Gau cha, Taiwan!
I just Googled that today. It means good morning. ;)
In celebration of the 1st year anniversary of my Taiwan trip, I am posting this entry. LOL. Yes, I am aware that it's super delayed. I wasn't actually busy. I was just lazy.
Back in 2014 I was in a Viber-sation with my friend and former housemate, Jing. We realized that our first and last travel together was when we went to Pagudpud in 2011, before she left to work in Singapore. After a long back and forth of suggestions we've finally decided on a destination...TAIWAN.
It wasn't easy getting there. I won't elaborate, but basically I wasn't able to catch my flight to Taipei and had to book another flight for the following day (and yes, I also had to spend for an overnight stay in Manila).
Anyway, bad vibes aside, I finally reached the Taoyuan Airport the next day. I was glad that after my NAIA hubbub, I was now at a more orderly and systematic airport. After I got my luggage, I went straight to the bus ticket counter and booked a one-way ride to Taipei via
Kuo Kang Bus for
NT125. City Air (Da Yo) bus caters this route, too. Here's the link to buses going to and from Taipei City:
http://www.taiwanbus.tw/ByBus.aspx?Lang=En. I made sure to do an advanced research on how to get from the airport to Taipei because I'll be going alone (Jing was already at our rented apartment) and my Mandarin is limited to "xie, xie" and "ni hao."
I got off at Taipei City Hall station and got on the MRT to Yongchun station, where I would meet Jing.
We booked our accommodation via Airbnb, and we really got ourselves a good deal. Our host Toni's place is only about 5 minutes' walk from the station. It's also within a residential area so we get to see the everyday lives of locals. It was small but cozy enough for 2, complete with a living room, bathroom, wi-fi (important!), and coffee maker (also important!). Plus, I don't know what it was about the bed but I slept like a baby for the 4 nights I was there (even though I had a fever on the 3rd night. But we'll get to that later). So comfy. :) There was also a neighborhood market a few meters from the apartment selling everything from fried chicken to apparel and some unknown food stuff that locals seemed to like.
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| (photo cr. to Jing) |
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| Loft style (photo cr. to Jing) |
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The beeeeeedddd (photo cr. to Jing)
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Jing was updated about my NAIA ordeal and knew exactly what would comfort me... food. LOL. So as soon as I've dropped all of my things at the apartment, we went to get dinner at
Din Tai Fung! Where else to experience the holiness of DTF's xiao long baos than at its city of origin? We didn't go to the original store because the nearest from us was the branch at Taipei 101. We were waitlisted, as expected, but I was hell-bent on stuffing my mouth with the holy dimsum that we were willing to wait until midnight if we had to (right, Jing?).
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| Glad there's an english version of the order slip/menu |
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| A MOMENT OF SILENCE |
We strolled around
Taipei 101 after, and then decided our stomachs can still handle
a little bit much more food. We hopped on the MRT to Songshan station and got ready for another food war at
Raohe Night Market. I have a weak stomach though, so I stuck with the "safer"-looking food. The first thing we saw as we entered was this really long line of people buying
pork pepper buns. We've both read about it (also called
hu jiao bing) so we joined the queue. IT WAS SOOOO WORTH WAITING IN LINE FOR. I have eaten meat bread before, but they taste like sand compared to these hu jiao bings.
I even saved the rest of my share for breakfast the next day and it still tasted so good.
The rest of the night was spent looking around Raohe -- some 30 minutes of it was for Jing's very taxing transaction with an auntie at a jean shop. She was trying to fit several ripped jeans and auntie was actually very accommodating, but she kept speaking to us in Mandarin/Taiwanese. Auntie may as well be talking to a wall because we did not understand a single thing that she said. And Jing, bless her, still kept asking auntie for another pair of jeans to try, so of course auntie would also keep trying to talk/explain to us. HOW CHAOTIC. But I have to hand it to auntie. I'm positive none of our replies (both spoken and gestured) answered her questions, but she still kept smiling at us and picking out a hundred more pairs for Jing. Finally, she called one of her staff for help, who turned out to be a Filipina. Why she waited a lifetime to call her is beyond my understanding, but HALLELUJA, the chaos can finally end. We have not seen any but one Pinoy the entire trip. So I was so happy to see
ate. I can't even remember if Jing bought anything from that store. I just remember the commotion. All for the love of ripped jeans.
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| Taipei 101 |
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| A sculpture made of old elevetor cables. Genius. |
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| Temple beside Raohe Market |
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| This auntie was so kind. She gave me one free pancake just because the one she sold me wasn't perfectly shaped. AWW. |
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| Sensitive bunch of fruits. :) |
It was time to call it a night and Jing suggested we walk to the apartment from Raohe because it was near. DEFINE "NEAR." We had been walking for what felt like 20 blocks and still we were only "almost there." My feet felt like they were on auto pilot and were just walking on their own. Moral lesson: Nearness is subjective.
Day 2 was basically just for going around Taipei. We first went to
Ximending, because it was mentioned in practically every travel blog about Taiwan. It's a shopping area, so the usual brands you see in other shopping districts -- HK, Seoul, SG -- are present. It's a good place to go if you're really looking to buy a particular brand on the cheap or something. There were large discount signs everywhere. But we took a rain check on shopping and searched for
Ay Chung Noodles instead (yes, food again. As always). I've read about it a few times and the bloggers wrote about it like it was the most delicious food in the world. It was supposedly easy to find. It was only one right turn from where we entered, but my [usually flawless] navigation skills malfunctioned at the time and we ended up on the other side of Ximending. We were about to give up and eat somewhere else, when suddenly, we found ourselves standing right beside Ay Chung. Howdahappen? LOL. Anyway, the noodle soup tasted okay. With the cold weather, any hot soup would be gold. I actually liked it, but I couldn't say the same for Jing. I think for her it wasn't worth getting lost in Ximending. Haha! But it sure was a local favorite. You'd see people buying a cup and just sitting anywhere, sipping and slurping.
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| One of the few arcade stores in Ximending. They got Baymax! |
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| Jing is unimpressed. LOL |
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| photo cr. to Jing |
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| Bought one of Hot Star's gi-normous fried chicken fillets, too. Non-stop eating! (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Dog guarding Risotto cafe (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Food as large as my face. Why not? (photo c/o Jing) |
We left Ximending and decided to go to Dunhua. I can't remember why exactly. But as an afterthought, Jing remembered The Coffee Alley. She's read about it and said it was one of the most hyped coffee shops in Taipei, so we went to search for it. Only problem was, we only knew there's a shop named The Coffee Alley, and that was all the information we had. We didn't know what its logo looked like, its address, nor it's facade. Jing was confident that since it was well-known, it shouldn't be difficult to find. But apparently, even searching for a supposedly popular coffee shop is hard work when you can't read Chinese. We've almost walked the entire stretch of Dunhua road, and we still couldn't find it. But just as we decided to head back and look for some other cafe, I saw a few people standing in front of a store's doorway.
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| Very easy to miss if not for the small group of people |
At first I thought they were just a group of friends reading the newspaper, but they turned out to be holding a menu, designed like a newsprint. Lo and behold, it was the menu for The Coffee Alley! The name was there right on the front page, written in English. Well I'll be damned.
We quickly approached the cute usher and booked for a table for 2. The rule was to wait downstairs (outside), order in advance, and just wait to be called when a table becomes available. We didn't wait that long, thankfully, and we excitedly made our way up to the 2nd floor and into the cozy, artsy interior of The Coffee Alley. Jing ordered Tiramisu coffee, which actually looked heavenly, and I ordered Sea Salt Caramel Latte (you could really taste the rock salt. Lol). We both shared a waffle with chocolate ice cream, banana, and chocolate syrup on the side. SO, SOOO GOOD. I pretty much ate all the waffle because Jing felt full already. Wala, mahina. Haha!
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| So this sign says The Coffee Alley, obviously. Lol (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Cute usher |
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| The very deceiving menu (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Finally seated! (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Sea Salt Caramel Latte |
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| Tiramisu Coffee |
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| Chocolate Ice Cream and Banana Waffle |
We looked around the shops along Dunhua afterwards. There were clothing boutiques, shoe stores (mostly sneakers/rubber shoes, as those were the trend at the time), and this very cool camera shop called
Lomography! Obviously I didn't buy anything because the cameras were far from cheap, but it was fun just window shopping.
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| (photo c/o Jing) |
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| (photo c/o Jing) |
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| (photo c/o Jing) |
It was nighttime and thus, time for another night market. :) We headed to Shilin, which was the largest and more popular one in Taipei. It sells basically the same things as those at Raohe, except there are game stalls/arcades where you could shoot hoops or catch small fish with a tiny fishing rod and such. There were too many people -- and I mean too many, that in one of the market's streets, we were half-walking and half-being carried by the crowd. We spent about an hour at Shilin, until we were dead tired (well, I was). So after buying a few stuff and eating toffee cherry tomatoes, we decided to head back to the apartment and rest.
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| (photo c/o Jing) |
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| candied cherry tomatoes (photo c/o Jing) |
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| Flame-torched beef |
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| snails |
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| just fishin' |
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Familiar brand. hehe
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So that wraps up my first 2 days in Taipei. By the way a lot of people were surprised to know that we needed to get a visa to visit Taiwan. Well, yes we do, my equally unfortunate Philippine passport holder friends. So I did a little guide below on how to apply for a Taiwan Visitor Visa (basically just giving you links, lol) including the fee, because I'm nice like that. You're welcome. :)
UPDATE as of 10/10/2017: Taiwan has waived the visa requirement for tourists with Philippine passports! So there's no excuse not to go! Although honestly, I feel conned. Had I known that two years later we wouldn't have to go through the tedious process (see steps below for appreciation), I would have held onto my P3,500 and
waited. But, past is past. It was water under the bridge...or more like money out of the wallet. 😅 I guess I'll just have to go back to compensate. Char. #yayamanin
***
TOURIST VISA APPLICATION:
Philippine passports require a visa to enter Taiwan, EXCEPT those that have valid visas for US, Canada, Japan, U.K., Schengen Convention countries, Australia, or New Zealand.
a. Visa-free Entry
Philippines passports that have valid visas for US, Canada, Japan, U.K., Schengen Convention countries, Australia, or New Zealand can enter Taiwan without having to apply for a visa. Instead, they just need to secure an Authorization Certificate which they will have to present before boarding and to the immigration officer upon entry to Taiwan. Please read about the process here:
b. Regular Tourist Visa
For those like us who don't qualify for visa-free entry, we will need to submit several documents together with the application form. Check out the list of requirements here:
Fill out the online application on this website:
https://visawebapp.boca.gov.tw. Click on "General Visa Application" (first button), or the 2nd and 3rd options below if you have previously filled out and saved an application form.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Taiwanese Consular Division WILL NOT ACCEPT handwritten application forms. All answers in the boxes other than the signature must be typewritten.
Since I'm in Davao, I had my visa processed by an agency in Manila. I paid P3,500 including the agency fee, but if you'll be handling everything on your own, the application fee is P2,400 (non-refundable). See updated visa fees here:
Aside from the requirements, I also sent the agent my roundtrip tickets to and from Taiwan, hotel booking confirmation, ITR, property titles, and old passports with travel stamps...whatever could help convince the consul that I won't be staying there illegally. :)
The processing time for visitor visas is three (3) working days, but do check their calendar and watch out for any non-working holidays. I failed to do this and had a moment of suspense when I didn't get my visa and passport until 2 days before my flight. Minute-to-win-it na naman ang drama ko. :)
There you go. Hope that helps. Good luck!
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