After getting air tickets, we will need to find a place to live. Of cos if you have friends or relatives in taiwan, it will be much much cheaper or even free! But we dont have any...
Lodging will stand up of a huge sum of money (since we will be staying for 14 days!), thus we will need to find places that provide cheap lodging as well as safe to live in.
Google, being our best friend has helped us a lot. Through googling we found websites that provide lodging's information all over the world. And we noticed hostel stay is a lot more cheaper than hotel (like of course -.-) We booked through hostel world and travel point.
At first we were very worried that the websites are a scam, so we actually emailed the hostel (if they provide email address) to enquire and when we noticed that the hostel and the websites is affiliated, we booked in peace (:
Booking through these websites require us to pay a 10% deposit, some handling fees of USD2 and also, according to a hostel owner, booking through these website is actually 10% more expensive than the stay itself, as the website need to earn money too.
For example: A night stay = S$10 (if you booked directly from the hostel)
A night stay = S$11 (if you booked from the website)
So if you want to save more $$$ you can try emailing the hostel and book directly instead of through the website.
Back to my taiwan trip. Being very ambitious, we decided to tour round taiwan even though this was our first trip there. So we booked our hostels all around taiwan online.
Below were the hostels we stayed in:
1st stop: Taichung --> Fashion home 26
Charges: ~S$16 per head ( we booked directly from its owner, sam, so it is cheaper)
Room type: Private room for 2 (we added a bed)
2nd stop: Kaoshiong --> Walking story
Charges: ~S$18 per head
Room type: 4 beds female dorm
3rd stop: Kenting --> Kenting Youth Hostel
Charges: ~S$ 13
Room type: 4 beds female dorm
4th stop: Taitung --> La Pace hostel
Charges: ~S$ 18
Room type: 4 beds female dorm
5th stop: Hualien --> Sleeping boot
Charges: ~S$18
Room type: 8 beds mixed dorm
6th stop: Taipei --> The meeting place
Charges: ~S$ 13.20 (we booked directly from its owner adam)
Room type: 12 beds mixed dorm
The conditions of booking these hostels are firstly, CHEAP but we also take note that these hostel must be accessible (can be reached by cab from the nearest train station within ~S$5) and near the NIGHT MARKET!!!! As all of us LOVEEEEEEEEEEE to eat. If you like food as much as we do, please stay near a night market, it is worth it! Thinking of night market, i seriously miss the smelly tofu ther ........talk more in the subsequent post.
Back to hostel.
Disadvantages of hostel compared to hotel:
1. Service not as good ( you can still feel free to ask questions, just that little hostel provides housekeeping, laundry services. You can wash clothes yourselves)
2. Atmosphere not as nice
3. Less privacy (u get little privacy if you are living in a huge dorm)
4. Can be scary (if you are afraid of human. Yes i was scared when i live in a dorm because i am sort of a introvert, only for the first 2 days though)
Advantages of hostel compared to hotel:
1. CHEAP ( hostel is much cheaper than hotel at a normal rate. Hostel rate ~S$ 20 Hotel rate ~S$70)
2. Can meet a lot of different countries ppl! ( Have met ppl from hong kong, malaysia, france, america, korea, holland, taiwan)
3. More interactions with people (hostel normally had a common area for travellers to gather and chit chat )
4. Understand the taiwanese better ( hostel owner is normally local taiwanese, thus will be able to advice you on where to go)
5. Can learn to be more independent
6. More "lifestyle like" ( feel like you are living in your own apartment with a lot of friends, as if in hotel, once you close your room door, you will be in your own world. Living in a dorm, even if you close the door, there will be others living with you)
7. A very unique experience for ppl who always stay in the hotel when overseas.
OKAY THATS ALL FOR A LONG AND WORDY POST. following i will post about my trip DAY 1 . And will put up pictures ~~~
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