Taipei, Taiwan : Hop on Hop Off Tour

Pic from Google

If you're like me who loves to see almost all the sights and be touristy about your travels, taking the Hop On Hop Off Bus is a must try. Not only will you be able to see the tourist spots in Taipei, but you'll also be dropped off and picked up at the nearest bus stop in the area.

You can just choose the nearest Hop On Hop Off destination to your hotel and wait for the bus to arrive there. Or you may opt to go to Taipei Main Station, exit M4 like we did, since that's the area where the buses depart and alight for all trips. Don't worry, bus intervals are within 30-40mins each, and both the Red Line and Blue Line bus comes there. Also, the time of the bus arrival in each location has a specific time, which you can see from the map that you can get from the bus or from their website. 

Pic from Google

You may pay your tickets online or upon alighting the bus. But as per checking, their prices are 10% cheaper online than getting it on the bus. There's 2 choices for the tickets/passes: 4 hour pass is NTD 280 (Php 462) and a 1 Day pass is NTD 630 (Php 1,039.50). 

There's unlimited free wifi on the bus, so no worries about posting all your pictures on all your social media accounts.

All the buses stop at 6pm, so if you wish to see all the sights in 1 day, you must ride the bus by 9am. 

We opted to just check out the most famous tourist spots since it was a bit hot during the afternoon, and being sited on the bus just felt more enjoyable. But it all depends on you if you wish to check each and every spot too.

Homey House, Taipei hotel Review

Homey House is conveniently placed just a 10-minute walk to Shuanglian and Zhongshan MRT Station. It's a 3 star hotel, but as far as I'm concerned, this hotel rocks big time!

Yes, it does have all the necessities every hotel have:

Homey House Lobby and Reception Area

• Air Conditioning in all areas
• Airport Shuttle Service 
• Concierge 
• Elevator
• Non-Smoking rooms
• Laundry Service 
• Luggage Storage 
• Newspapers 
• Reception - 24 Hour 
• Safety Deposit Box 
• Soundproofed Rooms (On Request) 
• TV 
• TV - Satelite / Cable 
• Telephone 
• Toilet 
• Trouser Press 
• Wake Up Service 
• Work Desk 
• Fax / Photocopying 
• Internet 
• Free Wi Fi in all areas

Free snacks

In our room though, we didn't have our own refrigerator to use, but no worries, cause you get free unlimited drinks which you can get at the mini ref at the hallway. And I mean, drinks! water, coke and juices! Which I've never encountered in all the other 4 or 5 star hotels that we've been to. So it's definitely amazing! Specially if you're someone who loves to drink water and coke! 

Also, they have heater's in all rooms, which most hotels doesn't have. It's another awesome feature since there are times that it gets pretty cold inside due to the outside temperature. 

Toys and knick knacks at the lobby

Another great side about it is, you get free unlimited snacks at the lobby! Oh, and being the picky eater that I am, the snacks were tasty! There was even a snack that I used to like eating back when I was in grade school. (For those in the Philippines, it's the pic at the top, it tastes like Haw Haw, only bigger).

Oh, and since my sister and I love drinking water, we got 4 bottles of water waiting inside our room upon checking-in. Which normally in all the hotels that we've been to, only serve 2.

The toiletries are also not so common with all the 4 and 5 star hotels that we've been to. Which is another great feature of the hotel (check the picture at the bottom).

Toiletries: Loofah, rose flavored mouthwash  lotion,
shampoo, tooth brush, toothpaste, hair conditioner, comb,
soap, cotton buds

The room is actually cozy. And the concierge is very nice. He kept giving me coke before I head up to our room, since I told him how amazed I was for being the only hotel we've been to, that actually gave free coke, and unlimited free drinks!

So by far for me, and my sister, this hotel is definitely our number 1! The area outside is safe, affordable room rate, friendly staff, free drinks and there's the free snacks! No one can go wrong with this hotel. Plus, there's a Family Mart beside the hotel, a 7-11 across and a Dumpling restaurant a block away, which has awesome dumplings!

So if you're staying in Taipei, better check out Homey House Hotel, located at 3F No.56, Changchun Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 104, Taiwan.

Travel Taiwan: Getting Wifi

In this day and age, where Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other forms of social media exist, everyone will always think about how they can update statuses, or post pictures on their Instagram accounts, or even get in touch with their loved ones, specially when they are in a different country.

If you're travelling to a different country, most often than not, your current mobile plans or telecommunications company will bill you for all the gigabyte you use for uploading things that you are currently doing, or might be doing. And most often than not, those charges will be hard in the pocket. 

So what my sister and I normally do is rent out a pocket wifi here in the Philippines and bring it to our travel destination. But unfortunately for this Taipei trip, we forgot to get a pocket wifi, and thought that we can just use the wifi available at our hotel. Good thing though, cause there's a pocket wifi rental right at Taoyuan Taiwan International Airport. You'll see their red booth on the right most side of the arrival area, and you won't forget to miss it, cause it's right beside the escalator heading down to the bus bays. 

You can rent it out for NTD 188 per day or Php 311 (that's using the exchange rate at the time of our arrival there, which is NTD 1 = Php 1.65). So it's totally not bad for something you can use without having to worry about roaming data charges on your phones. It's 4G, has unlimited data and you can connect 5 devices with 1 unit of pocket wifi. This comes with a pouch for the pocket wifi and a charger connector. And truth be told, it never failed us on its data speed when we were there. 

They won't ask you for a deposit, but they will ask a credit card from you which they will only swipe if you loss the unit. My sister opted to use a prepaid credit card, for security reasons.

You'll have to return it though at the same booth where you got it. So since our flight going back to Manila was in the same airport, we didn't have any problem. The only down side is, the arrival area is far from the departure area of the airport, so it's kind of a long walk from where we were checking in.

If you prefer not to get it, it's okay too, since most shops and restaurants in Taipei have free wifi connection. But having it was very much helpful to us, because we used Google maps often. We had a hard time asking directions while we were in Taipei, since most of those we've spoken to, doesn't understand English. So having the pocket wifi, helped us with getting to where we wanted to go. 

Then again, it's all up to you whether you'd get a pocket wifi online, at your base country or at the airport. For us, this one's a good "buy," since it's convenient and it was cheaper than that was available in the Philippines, which rents for Php 500 per day, plus you need to get it from their location.

Taiwan Trip: Money Changing Tip

I travelled to Taipei, Taiwan with my sister last March 2017. We normally get our money changed at the airport, but this time, we listened to my sister's friend who had been there a few months before, and exchanged our dollars at banks outside the airport.

We normally change most of our money at airports upon landing. But since my sister's friend said we should get it changed at the banks, my sister insisted that we do so. So we only changed a few dollars at Taiwan Taoyuan Internation Airport, so we can pay our bus ride to the city.

We stayed at Homeyhouse hotel, which is near the Xiaoshan Metro station. We couldn't find any money changers near the area, but we found a few banks nearby.

The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank LTD

We went to 2 banks while we were there to get our money changed. The first bank we went to was, The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank LTD. They charge NTD 100 to get our USD changed, which I think is normally the rate to get money changed in any banks.

CTBC Bank Taiwan

And the 2nd bank was China Trust Commercial Bank also known as CTBC bank. The CTBC bank charges NTD 300 when we asked to change USD 300. And since they charge higher than The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, we opted to go back to the later bank and get our money changed there. Good thing, that it was just a block away from one another.

So here's my tip on changing your money. I suggest that you get your money changed at the airport, as soon as you land. The money changer at the airport either charges you a very small fee which you'll hardly feel in your pocket, and the exchange rate at the airport is still higher than that at the banks. The banks we both went to, have different exchange rates too. And I found out that the exchange rate at the airport, is higher than that of the banks,


Sidenote: All pictures are taken from Google,