Beacon Hotel - Taichung

As mentioned in my previous post, we took the free shuttle bus from airport straight to our hotel. The bus stop is located just right in front of our hotel. And our hotel is located just in the middle of the famous night market, Fengjia Night Market! :D Check-in time in Taichung hotels are normally 3pm. We were early so we left our luggage with the hotel and had brunch around the vicinity. There's a lot of food stalls around the area and all look delicious! There's this big store that sells almost everything (i.e. stationary, toiletries, masks, snacks, cosmetics, books, CDs, electronic stuffs, gadget casings etc..) and the prices are cheaper than stores outside!

We went to had food and walk around the area before heading back to the hotel. Just nice and we got to check-in into our room. The room is not exactly very spacious but everything is nice and clean.

And this is our HUGE bed! :D The bed is big and comfy and it is always the most important after a long day of walking/shopping.

And next, the toilet! It's not big but just enough space and equipped with the toiletries. 

And the shower head. You can choose to use either the one fixed to the ceiling which will look and feel like a waterfall when you're bathing or you can choose the normal one located at the side. Sometimes I'm soo tired after a whole day of shopping, I just love to stand in the bathroom and let the water run. This is also why I love shower heads that are installed in the ceiling. Hehe..

They provide all the essential items (shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothbrush, tooth paste, ear buds, shower cap etc).

 

This is the view from our room! Right below are all the shops and in the night, it'll be all packed with people and stores!

And the best thing about staying at this hotel is that it is located in a prime location! Just right opposite the hotel there is this bus stop (right outside Nike shop) where it has buses to most of the famous places like Yi Zhong street (一中街), Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越) etc. The hotel has a list of popular places around Taichung and how you can get there by buses from this bus stop. We tried going to a few places (which I will be sharing in my next post) via the buses and it was pretty easy and fast. The buses would normally stop right outside the place we are going and another amazing thing we realized is that the bus rides are all free. I am not sure if it's a promotion or new campaign, but the buses are normally free if the location is within 8km. 

You can easily travel around with the buses by using the Taiwan Easy Go card (aka Easycard; 悠游卡). You can buy it at the train stations or at the convenience stores. You can easily top up the card at any of the convenience stores if it's running low in value. This card is very useful when travelling in Taiwan. You can use it for all of the transports (railway, MRT, bus, taxi) and also paying of items at selected stores. We normally use it to pay for our food/snacks at the convenience stores during midnight as we don't have to carry any cash out and it's simple and fast! :D

They also provide free breakfast daily from 7am - 10am. They also changes the menu everyday, so you need not be afraid of getting sick of their food. Took pictures of some of the food there!

Fried noodles

Pudding

Bread, butter and toaster.

And we normally have some light breakfast before we start our day hunting for more great food/ clothes outside.

If you're a sporty person, they also have a gym located within the hotel! We wanted to go take a look at the place but we were just to exhausted each day after the whole day of shopping. Will definitely take a look at the gym next time we're there! Do let me know if they have a good variety of equipment if any of you been there.

Would definitely recommend Beacon Hotel to our friends when travelling to Taichung! It's easy to find and even when you're lost, just tell anyone you're heading to Fengjia university and you'll be able to find your way home! The hotel is also surrounded by many stores (shopping and food) and you can just head down when the night market opens and shop till it closes. The hotel staffs are also very friendly and helpful, which made our trip and stay in Taichung much easier and enjoyable!!

BEACON HOTEL (碧根行馆)

No. 427 Fuxing Road, 

Xitun District, Taichung City, Taipei 407

407 台中市西屯區福星路427號

臺中市旅館014號

http://www.beacon-hotel.com.tw/

 

Will update more on our stay in Taichung! Do drop me a comment if there is anything you guys wants to know in particular!

Xoxo!

Guide: How to get to Taichung from Taoyuan airport

 Hi guys! I just got back from holiday and this time we travelled to Taiwan and we explored Taichung also! We booked our air tickets to Taoyuan airport and then change high speed railway train (HSR) to Taichung. Our plane landed at Taoyuan airport terminal 1.

Once you exit from the custom, you'll see this sign board. Most of the sign boards have both english and chinese, so you don't have to worry not understanding what they are saying. To save some money for more shopping and eating, we have decided to take the bus to the high speed rail station.

 Turn to your left and you should a money changer, toilet and store selling local treats! You may also refill your water at the water dispenser outside the toilet. They offer hot, warm and cold water!!

 This screen will show different timings and bus routes to the different locations you are going. If you're unsure, you can also go down to the counters to ask.

 Take this escalator down to the counters to buy your bus tickets.

 The different buses to the different cities around Taiwan.

 There's also buses to Taipei.

 We've decided to take the Ubus to High Speed Rail Taoyuan Station to take our High Speed Rail train. The ticket cost NT30 per person. You can also take the bus straight to Taichung if you're saving more money as it'll be cheaper than taking the HSR. (But definitely much longer travelling time than taking the HSR. Approximately 45mins vs 2hrs.)

 The ticket price to the different places, all the way to Pingtung.

 There are also other companies and you can compare the prices around (though they are about the same as prices are competitive there). The different companies also cater services to different places (i.e. Taipei Main Station).

 Waiting for the bus which comes every 15-20mins interval and the bus is just located right outside the counter.

And here we are, at HSR Taoyuan Station. The journey took around 30mins.

They have a big Mac right outside the station. Can grab some food before your train! If not there's 7-11 inside where you can buy some snacks and drinks.

When you walk in from the entrance, you should see the ticketing counter at your right hand side. You can pre-purchase your tickets online and if you book early, you can get discount up to 25%. But of course you can also buy your tickets here at the counters.

As we booked our tickets online, we can collect it via the machines here.

After you pass through the gantry, go towards Number 1 elevator for Taichung.

Incase you're worried you're at the wrong platform, you can check the board to see if it stops at the station you're heading to. You can go to Tainan also.

And here comes our train! It arrives into the station on time and leaves on time. So do take note of the time of your train so you don't miss the timing!!

They will announce your train number and the destination before the train arrives into the station. Do take note so that you don't board the wrong train!

And after 45mins, we are here at Taichung!! The ride was smooth and seats were pretty spacious too. We slept throughout the ride and glad that the whole cabin was quiet.

Taichung station is bigger and has much more stores downstairs. (i.e. Starbucks, Mos Burger, Mac etc)

After which, we decided to take the free shuttle bus to our hotel which is available right at the bus station below.

 There are few shuttle bus to the different locations. You may look at the big board for all the bus routes here. They'll also state which platform to wait for the bus next to the bus numbers.

 
As our hotel is located at near Fengjia University (which is where Fengjia night market is located at as well), we took bus 160 at platform 12! The buses will come every 20-30mins interval. Do remember to keep your train ticket as it'll serve as your bus ticket too! Show it to the bus driver and you can get the free-ride there.

The bus journey took around 45mins. If it's your first time at Taichung and you're scared you're unfamiliar with the place and might miss your bus, don't worry as they will announce the stops along the way!

Hope it'll be useful for anyone who is travelling to Taichung! Do leave a comment below if you guys have any questions! :D

Will blog more about my trip soon! Do also leave a comment below if there is anything special you all want to know about Taichung/Taipei.

Maybank? Seriously?

Hello~ I was actually continuing my post for Taiwan but I was really frustrated by Maybank services that I had to post about it! *Please pardon my rants* Everything in the post is just my experience and my thoughts that I just need a platform to vent on.

I came across Maybank both while shopping one day and they had attractive deals, so I went ahead to sign the cards. I have heard quite a lot of bad reviews about Maybank services before but I thought they had improved over the years as the industry is so competitive. Hence I decided to give them a chance! The staff also told me that they will take around 7 days to process the application and the card should reach me by next week.

So I signed the cards that I feel would be more applicable for me and the person got me to fill up my details (the usual process when applying for credit cards). Everything was settled pretty fast and I went off to continue my shopping.

So 1 week past... No mails, no news from Maybank. 2 weeks past, still nothing.. 3 weeks and continuing to 4 weeks.... My patience was already at the max and I wrote in to Maybank to cancel my application as it was taking wayyyy too long to be processed. (From my past experiences, the application would only take 3-4 days to process and the cards would normally at the max take 1.5 weeks from the day of application to reach my mailbox. Which I think is pretty normal for most people too.)

I was so elated after waiting for so long and finally receiving the mail! But..... to my horror when I open the mail! The card was not the one that I applied for!!! I still clearly confirmed with the staff the cards that I applied for and to my worst nightmare, they actually gave me the card that I DID NOT applied for! WELL DONE MAYBANK! They actually took 4 weeks to process a card that I did not applied for at all! ARGHHH~ Can feel my frustration hitting the sky and I couldn't stop complaining it to my friends over the phone.

Maybank services was seriously the worst that I have came across by far from any banks!! No wonder there were so many bad comments/reviews on their services. I seriously wonder how they survive in this competitive industry where all other banks are constantly improving their products and services. Such service standard is just not acceptable, in my opinion! Definitely would not recommend them to any of my friends at all!!!