台湾春天之旅 2013- Happiness Spring Homestay (幸福温泉行馆)

Got to know this home stay thru a Taiwanese blogger. There are a lot of hotels present in Jiao Xi but then the prices are a bit on the high side. Thus, after much consideration, I decided to go ahead and make a booking with them.

Upon confirmation, you will need to pay half the room price as deposit and then on arrival, pay the remaining sum. Payment is acceptable thru paypal.

This is their webpage:  http://www.happiness-spring.com.tw/

We communicated thru email in chinese and thus I am not sure whether they are proficient in english or not. But as we are using simplified chinese and them traditional chinese, they sometimes have trouble reading our mails too but still, we are able to communicate.

I chose the bigger room （楼中楼）where the bedroom is located in the mezzanine level. There is a living room on the 1st level, a small area for people to relax and drink tea, a very big bath room which comes with a big soaking area for hot spring. Outside the bathroom is a balcony where you can oversee Jiao Xi town. Being 1 of the tallest building in Jiao Xi, the view up here is breathtaking.
 

Room number, special eh?

Check in counter was located at a shop area beside the apartment itself. We asked around before we got to the correct place. There are a lot of home stays here you see. But luckily, Taiwanese are well known to be helpful. It does help that we speak and understand mandarin.

Hallway leading the door & the rest area for tea drinking

 Price for this type of room is NTD 2800 for weekdays. Forgot bout the pricing for weekends but certainly will cost more, therefore if you are looking to stay in Jiao Xi to enjoy the hot spring, my advice to you if to plan to come here during weekdays of your trip. Its more cost saving and not as packed as weekend.

Stairs leading up to the mezzanine level

 There are 5 kinds of suites available with each having a few kind of different designs to choose from. Our room is named “御恋阁” which has a very romantic feel to it. There are also bigger rooms for family or groups of friend available.

Big bath area for soaking hot spring.

Jiaoxi town at a glance from our balcony

 The rooms are located inside an apartment block where its you will need to scan your room card to gain access to the main hall.There will be a caretaker around the clock at the counter on the 1st level. You are also required to scan your room card when you are going to your room level.Overall, we felt safe going in and out of the building.

Though the location is a bit far from the train station(15min walk) as compared to other hotels, the fact that it is located a bit more uphill gives it a better view than others. That is, if you stayed in the highest level like me. Hehe.

Very comfortable bed

 The bed is very comfortable at least to me, Mr Love had found it too soft for his liking as it seems like you will sink into it once you lied down. But that's the good part, its like the bed is hugging you to sleep. They also placed some bears by shelf beside the bed. I didn't touch them as am afraid of germs but nevertheless was happy to see them.

Bear bear by the bedside

Night view of Jiao Xi town

Breakfast is served on a small shop area beside the apartment. You will have to present your coupon to the counter. The breakfast served here are typical Taiwanese style, not much of a surprise or disappointment.

Egg tofu & I dunno wat

Some veggies

Fried cabbage

Condiments for porridge

 We met an elderly Singaporean couple here during breakfast. The wife recognises the way we speak, english,chinese and a bit of hokkien here n there, she said its typical Singaporean language:)

We were surprised they managed to find this home stay too as the others we met are either Taiwanese or Malaysians. Turns out that, they had hired a driver to drive them around Yilan and he recommended this home stay. Not bad, I felt like a local. whahah

You can make your own salad here

A must have for me- Coffee

 There is also a rooftop garden here, and we decided to come up n check out the view.

Overlooking JiaoXi Elementary school. We listened to their assembly. haha

Benches for you to sit & chat

Floweres blooming everywhere

Love the swing & the sun

 As we were rushing for time to move on to our next destination, we did not stop long here at the rooftop. I would love to sit on the swing, enjoy the breeze, read a book and drink a cuppa here. Perhaps next time when we visit Jiao Xi again, we will choose to stay more days here and plan a more relax itineary so that I can really sit here and laze.

台湾春天之旅 2013- Around Jiaoxi (礁溪)

Although armed with GPS, it took us quite a long while to locate our home stay for Happiness Hot Spring Home Stay (礁溪-幸福温泉行馆)。 Its located within an apartment blocks. I believe the owner had brought a few units to convert into home stay rooms and the others are local residents in that block.

Though it is 12pm when we reached and way early den the 3pm check-in time, the owner was nice enough to let us check in, how nice :).. We settled in and unpack a bit while changing into shorts as the weather is unforgiving. After lazing around for half an hr, we decided to go down to search for lunch and also checked out the super market nearby heheh..

We picked a random noodle shop and sat down to order some food. Took quite a while to order as its all written in chinese. Hubs ordered a wanton noodle while I went for sesame oil noddle. We also picked up a plate of side dish to go along.

小菜一碟

麻油拌面

馄饨面

The thing that amazes us bout Taiwanese food is that no matter what we ordered, they usually tastes good! This is also the reason why I leave out doing research for food. After a quick lunch, we went to the super market which I spotted earlier on our to the hotel to stock up some snacks. Hehe our favourite activity.

Excited about the vast selection of chips

Big ass coke

 We spent sometime here in the super market, grabbing quite some snacks and a small slice of cake for my birthday celebration. Not sure whether the things in SG are overpriced or the things in Taiwan is under priced. But its way way cheap to buy snacks here.

1 thing to take not though, as they are campaigning for a greener environment, the supermarts/convenience here charge a small fee for getting a bag for your purchases. This is to encourage 1 to bring their own bag when they do shopping. Good move though, I brought my own hehehe..

Taiwan beer here is wayyyyy cheaper than SG

Mr Love making himself comfortable while I unpack abit

We then went back to our home stay. This time, we stayed in for awhile, eating the newly brought snacks and watched a movie with the air con on @ full blast. But it is just not me to nuah inside the hotel, so I dragged Mr Love out, and we decided to go visit the town beside us, Yilan (宜兰)。

The homestay is located within this apartment blocks

We decided to take another route to the train station, checking out the surroundings. Found a hot spring park where people can soak their feet there F.O.C.. How cool is that?

Saw a lot of 伯伯 soaking their feet and chatting away.Relax life..The water seems hot as I can see their feet turning to a shade of red. Still, they continue sitting there. Perhaps they are used to it le.

Urged Mr Love to try on, but he didn't want to wet his feet..So we moved on.

See some1 sitting at the far end soaking their feet?

As we walked along,we found some stalls that has yet to open. It looks like there might be a mini night market here and we made a mental note to come back tonight after 宜兰。

To 宜兰, here we go!

礁溪站 is a pretty modest looking building

台湾春天之旅 2013 - Arriving Jiaoxi, Yilan (礁溪，宜兰)

After much considerations, we decided to stick to our favourite budget airlines -Jetstar to fly to Taiwan. Its the cheapest and also with the best timings among the airlines. Took the 1am flight out of Singapore with ETA at 6am. Clearing immigration was a breeze so early in the morning and we proceed to change Taiwanese currency.

Tot the rates would better from previous experience but then it was not. Guess too many tourist used this trick already hehe as I overheard some 1 commenting the rates were slightly lesser as compared to SG rates.

It was ard 7am after we settled the immigration, baggages and currency changing and we proceed to take sky train to T2 in search of breakie. Reason for not leaving airport immediately is we wanted to wait for telecoms to open at 8am to purchase the calling cards with comes with unlimited wifi plans. And it is only possible to purchase it at the airport.

6am look after touch down

Tao Yuan Airport Terminal 2

My breakfast

Mr Love's breakie

At 8 am sharp, we purchase the calling card at NTD 800. It comes with NTD 550 worth of talk time, in coming is free and unlimited 3G for 10days. There are shorter plans but since we are here for 8days, must as well buy the 10days package so that mummy will be able to keep track of our locations via my updates thru FB.

Went in search of buses to get us to Taipei Main station. Its a bit different this time as we are not getting off at Taipei hotel and thus we have more choices. Took 飞狗 bus which terminates at Taipei Main Station. From there, we purchased train tickets bound for Jiaoxi, Yilan (礁溪，宜兰)。

Had a choice of taking coach, but I chose train over it as I wanted to see the various stations along the way, and also the sceneries along the coastal line where the train will pass thru. More importantly, I wanted to try the famous TRA Bento (台铁便当)。 hur hur.

Main ticketing counters of Taipei Main station

The oh so familar platform

 Having been here for the 3rd time, I had already master the skill of taking Taiwan trains. Knowing which platform to go to, which train to board. As this is a main station, there are 4 platforms each serving hundreds of trains passing by everyday.

You must know which train you are taking, time it is arriving. If you are going to the smaller towns, some of the express trains do not stop there, thus it is essential for you to do your homework well and most importantly, understand Chinese.

Train tickets

Plots and plots of plantations greet us along the way

Journey is around 2hrs from Taipei, and hubs sleep thru it mostly. I was so excited that I could not fall asleep, also I wanted to keep an eye on our luggage and also ensure that we do not missed our stop.

Passed by Wai Ao(外澳) which was the place I initially wanted to stay. But the home stay is simply too expensive, at SGD 300 bucks a night. Which most of the time, we will not stay in the room, gave up the idea. 1 day, I might come, but not this time. Weather was good today and we are able to see the Turtle Island (龟岛） on the train. Due to short stay in Yilan (宜兰)， we gave it a miss this time. All these while, I was waiting patiently for the sale of 台铁便当。 hehe.. Mr Love was very amused by my interest in the bento.

Finally at 12pm, the announcement came on announcing sale of the bentos. Brought 1 eagerly, took some photos and immediately dig in. At NTD60 , it was a steal! There is a big piece of 卤肉， a 卤蛋 and a big serving of veggies. And truth to what people told me, it tastes Oooiiiishhiiii....Hubs gave it a missed as he was still sleeply..

See the slply head beside me

I finally get to eat 台铁便当

Woke him up as we are reaching

一个睡饱了，一个吃饱了， 我们到礁溪了！

 Mr Love nearly fainted to find no lift in Jiaoxi station, which means he will need to lug the 19kg luggage up n down the long stairways to exit the station and later tomorrow when we are leaving for Luo Dong (罗东)。 It turns out that the lift is still under construction.

The beri long stair ways

Hello JiaoXi

 We took a rest as soon as we exit the platform. 1 thing to note, you will have to surrender your train tickets to the staff manning the exit gates in the station. Took out the home stay information, trying to make out which way to go. In the end we decided to use my phone GPS since we are having unlimited 3G access..

Jiaoxi station, a small modest building.

Yaki Udon

Not able to eat this as it was sold out last nite while at Taka, I decided to take matters into my own hand and cook it! Should not be difficult as I have tired cooking this before but with different ingredients.

These are the ingredients this time : (serve 2)

1). 20 prawns (Deshell & devein)
2). 1 stick of carrot, thinly cut
3). 1& 1/2 clove of garlic, well-cut
4). 2 eggs
5). 2 tablespoon of Oyster sauce
6). 1/3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
7). 1/3 tablespoon of light soy sauce
8). 1/2 tablespoon of sesame Oil
9). 3 tablespoon of oil
10). 6 tablespoon of water
11). 2 packets of Udon

I took a bowl and add in the oyster sauce, dark& light soy sauces, sesame oil and water and mixed well. This will be more convenient later when adding in the sauces.

Carrots & garlic

Prawns- Deshell and devein

The udon noddles had also been boiled and drained dry and set aside. 

Boil the Udon 1st and drain it dry

Steps:

1). Add 1 tablespoon of oil to pan
2). Add egg and spread it out to cook
3). Wait for the side to turn brown before flipping to the other side
4).  Meanwhile, cut the egg up into smaller pieces while waiting for the side to be done.
5). Remove the egg and place it on a plate
6). Add 2 tablespoon of oil to pan
7). Add in the garlic, stir fry till turn fragrant
8). Add in prawns and stir fry for around 3 mins
9). Add in the carrots and continue to stir fry for 1 min.
10). Add in the udon noddles and mix well.
11). Add in the egg and stir well
12). Lower the heat and poured the pre-mixed sauces in.
13). Stir fry to mix well.
14). Cover the pan and simmer for 3mins.

It is then ready to serve.

Verdict: I find it abit bland, perhaps the I should go heavier bit on the sauce but den hubs say he prefer this way. Oh well. As long as he finds it ok...

End product- Yaki Udon

Allotment day

It's a love-hate affair with allotment day for me. In layman's term, its pay day but it's for my ships' crews.

Love it because it marks the end of a month where I will also be getting my pay and it indicates that we have survived another month in working..yayy...

Hate it because its especially stressful for me on this day. I am required to compute the USD equivalent amount of the crew who wish to receive their pay in Indian rupees and then advised my treasurer where he would called up the bank to buy the rates. It is usually done at 12pm where the Indian bankers start working and we have to wait patiently for the rates to be advised before inputting into our system and then lastly upload into our bank's system.

Besides this, I would need to do 1 final check on the sums of the various remittance to be done that day, double checking the correct bank to be remitted and then prepared files for the different type of  bank remittances. All these have to been done on the morning itself, else the system will reject the files.

Many a times, I have to battle with the short time frame, especially with the India rates where the approval time is at 3pm. Granted if we got our rates at 12pm exactly, it leaves us with 3 hrs to upload into the system, not forgetting sometimes, there will be errors within the file, system will be down, bosses' schedule for lunch, meetings etc.

We always have to be the last to go for lunch and only after confirmation that bank have received all our instructions den we are able to go for lunch with a peace of mind. On good days, we get to go at 12.30pm but during bad days 3pm is consider lucky.

So far after doing this for nearly a year, I'm glad to say I can handled the situations better as compared to when I 1st joined. Sometimes, there is a sense of accomplishment after the whole exercise. Knowing that the 200++ crews are counting on you and your team to pay them on time for their various expenses back home, you know you have alot on your shoulders :)

Unpredictable

Life is full of unpredictables, really. Was just chatting with my colleague via watsapp on friday nite, she got into an accident on sat evening and hurt her ankle pretty badly.

I onli learnt of this news on monday morning in office and was shocked by it.

Paid her a visit in the hospital though it was not advisable for my zodiac but then couldnt realli bear to leave her in lurch knowing that she needs all the support she can to get thru this ordeal.

Her skin on her feet came off and is currently waiting for skin grafting to be done, 4th toe got amputed which left her fearing for her feet. It did not help when the docs at CGH&SGH didnt gave her a rosy report. She was transferred to a private hospital where she got a 2nd opinion and a positive 1..

Was so happie for her. Back in the office, every 1 was holding their breath waiting for the doc's diagnosis today. It pains us all to see her suffer the pain and waited in fear for the report to be out. But seriously, there is so much that we can do only.

I cannot help out much, but in my own capacity, I tried my best. Not able to visit her often, I sent her a photo of my hammies (her fav pet) every morning and chatted with her abit. I was worried tat her morale will be down.

From experience, I learnt that a person's will plays an important part during difficult times. If you are strong enuff, you will be able get thru the difficult periods and emerge stronger. She was a cheerful and strong gal, but as human, we do have our weaker links.

Following the good news today, I hoped her road to recovery will be a smooth 1. May her pain be gone and let her recover her use of feet in time to come. After all, like I always tell her, we are all glad she is still in 1 good piece...

Wat married women do when they meet up..

Complain of cuz!! About their hubs, their family, their in-laws, everything they can think of.. Soon it will be the kids though bestie's Yong Tau Foo is still young and I'm not blessed with 1 yet..hehe

Lucnhie with bestie on 14.04.2013

Managed to catch up with bestie in J8 last Sunday when we went bak to my in-laws place. 2nd time seeing my god-son hehe and he was a gem tat afternoon. Slp thru while we had our lunch and I carried him for quite a while as we sat there chatting..Took us quite long to wake him up for his milk. Maybe too comfortable in my carry cuz of my fats..hur hur...

Feeding Baby G

Fed a baby for the 1st time while bestie guiding me along. Neber tot we will have this day..whahah Sometimes, seeing Baby G reminds me of my lost child who will be born around the same time as him..Once upon a time, bestie n I have this dream of letting our kids be best of fwens like us :) Nvm, we will try harder to haf 1 soon so that baby G will have a brother/sister soon. hehe

Back to the things women do when they meet up. Gone were the days when we tok about clothes, work...Now its all dosmetic topics..Especially complaining.Whaha its our only outlet of venting our fustrations without being judged.

 Even I do tok to my mum on these, she might not be able to see where I am coming from. Being from the same generation, bestie & I can understand the way we handle things. This helps, especially many a times, we just need a supporter/listener rather than a adviser..

Its certaninly good to noe there is some1 there who you can always count on when you wanna bitch.

Cheers to our 21 years of fwenship and still counting !!!