Friday, September 12, 2014

My next trip - Taiwan - Before visiting Taiwan

My next trip is to Taiwan. Been to Taiwan in 2011 but that visit covered only Taipei and Kaoshiung. This trip decided to visit Taipei and Taichung. This is my 3rd trip to Taiwan, the 1st being our honeymoon in 1984(the first trip covered almost all the towns in Taiwan), the second in 2011 and this is our third and almost coincide with our 30th wedding anniversary in November(back to taiwan hahaha).

I prefer to visit two towns at one visit rather than squeezed all the towns into one visit. We prefer to take it slow and relaxing, maybe due to our age too hahaha.

Actually did not specially plan to have our early celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary in Taiwan but was a last minute decision and found the fare by China Airlines quite attractive. As we could not booked our air ticket too early, so could not manage to get cheap budget airlines's tickets, was surprised that buget airlines tickets cost more than the commercial airlines for the period that we intended to go.

Wanted a seven days trip but could not get the timing(night flight) we like for the return ticket so ended up with a six days trip. Cause of problem taking leaves, we could not go on other dates for a longer trip. Sigh!!!

Before visiting Taiwan, first we need to pay a visit to the Taiwan Tourism Board in Singapore to collect all the maps and information for our trip. As we were independent travellers and not going with any travel agent, we were entitled to free gifts from the tourism board. We need to present our air ticket confirmation and at least one night hotel accommodation.

My last visit to Taiwan in 2011, I got free museum tickets but this year they gave us free MRT ticket but it got no stored money in it, we need to top up when we are in Taiwan.

The address of Taiwan Tourism Board is:

Taiwan Visitors Assn (Taiwan Tourism Bureau-Singapore office) 30 Raffles Place #10-01, Chevron House ,Singapore048622 Office Hour : 0900-1700 (Mon-Fri) Tel:+65-6223-6546

If you are coming by MRT, alight at Raffles Place MRT Station, Exit B, Chevron House is on the left, take the escalator to Level 3, exchange your identify card for a visitor's pass, take the elevataor to Level 10.