Travel with KKday

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It’s Fun! It’s Safe! It’s Easy!

Launched in 2014 and headquartered in Taiwan, KKday is the leading E-commerce platform allowing users to connect with local tours from all over the world. Believing that authentic experience is the core value of “Traveling”, KKday has collected more than 6000 worldwide experiences from a group of professional providers and unique local experts.

So on our recent Taipei / Kaohsiung trip, we had a chance to engage this much talked about service from KKday.

Firstly, since we are lodging at a smaller hotel, we do not have any hotel transfer services from the hotel. Hence, we decided to book a Private Driver for 4 hours. This would serve as our airport transfer and can double up as a short trip to one or two tourist attractions after we drop our luggage at the hotel.

The ride was smooth and safe. The driver saw that I was tall and invited me to sit behind the front passenger seat so that he can move the front seat further forward to accommodate more leg space for me. Little things like this makes a big difference.

Second service we took on from KKday was probably one of the best we can find for this trip. As we need to travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung, the best way is by High Speed Rail (HSR). It is the faster and more comfortable ride compared to taking the train.

The usual train ride will be about 3.5 hours depending on whether you take the faster (lesser stops) train or the slower (more stops) train. But with HSR, the traveling time was cut to only 1.5 hours. This is exceptionally important for us since we have limited time to enjoy ourselves in a new city we have never visited before in Taiwan. And of course for me, any long distance traveling will be super uncomfortable for me, I am totally for the shorter time, more comfortable ride.

KKday provided the solution. Online booking for HSR tickets is easy and ensures we get the tickets we want on the dates we need. Best of all, we save at least 20% compared to buying from the station directly. Upon booking, we just need to print out our confirmation slip and go to the HSR counter to redeem your train tickets. Easy as 1-2-3.

To complete the experience, don’t forget to buy the 铁路便当 while traveling on the HSR.

Orange Hotel - Guanqian @ Taipei

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When the opportunity knocks for a short trip to one of our favourite country, we immediately checked for our leave approvals, booked the flight and planned the itinerary!

Thanks to the nicest people from Omy, Kless and I were transported to the land of 珍珠奶茶 and 滷肉飯.
Best of all, we do not need to worry about our accommodation, as we were hosted by the Forte Hotel Group（福泰饭店集团).

If you are traveling to Taipei in the coming months, do consider the Orange Hotel @ Guanqian 桔子商旅—馆前店（台北）

It’s like most of the budget hotels in Taipei, small but fully equipped, truly living up to the name of 麻雀虽小，五脏俱全.

 

  

The place seems to be renovated just recently and I was pleasantly surprised to find a safe in the room.

 

Down at the lobby area, there are fresh fruits prepared for all guests and coffee tea. The fruits were a great welcome especially all the “sinful” street food in the night markets.

 

One thing new in this hotel is the breakfast system. Since the hotel is small, they saved the space from a dining restaurant for more rooms. Instead, we were given breakfast coupons for a few nearby eateries.

This was totally my type of service, because personally I prefer to eat breakfast with the locals rather than with a group of tourists.

So, we choose Yoshinoya!

 

And one funny incident during breakfast was witnessing an elderly Taiwanese man arguing in the Taiwan dialect, regarding why can’t he order Lemon Tea for takeaway. Seriously I didn’t understand the explanation as well, but I was more than amused to see how livid the elderly man was and how his wife just sat there watching the drama like it happens everyday.

So where is this hotel located? Glad you asked.

The nearest MRT station is Taipei Main Station. This is by far the most convenient station you can live near to. From this station we took the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung, and we didn’t have to drag our luggage too far from the hotel to the station. Walking distance within 5mins.

And just opposite the hotel is a shopping mall with almost everything you need, from stationeries to electrical, to fashion, to food, to beauty services, to massages and more.

It is really nice to see all these chinese signboards all around us. Gives us the “at home” feeling.

 

Overall experience
Since I do not wish to stay in any hotel room for a long time when I am traveling, the size of the hotel rooms is not my primary concern. As long as it is clean and relatively new, I am more than happy.

Orange Hotel @ Guanqian is conveniently located (near to one of the main MRT station and the one for HSR if you are planning to travel to another city within Taiwan). I could be greedier and ask for a place nearer to a night market, but I’m fine.

The amenities are much and with variety to choose from. 7-11, Family Mart, Watson, Cafes, Shopping Malls, McDonalds, Japanese Restaurants, etc. Should be good enough to curb any late night hunger pangs. Actually with 7-11, the 黑轮 is more than enough.

Staff are nice, though the cleaners are way friendlier than the front desk girls. Quite a surprise.

Wifi is available and signal is okay. Air-conditioning in the room is strong. We had to wear a sweater to bed (but that could just be me).

Security is excellent, even the main door at L1 is opened only by access card aka room key.

Taipei Family Trip (Part 3)

Last part of this family trip we took last Sep, I’m going to introduce to you a few places we visited on a 1-day trip to Jiufen (九份) and Shifen (十分).

If you are looking to read about my past posts, here there are: Taipei Family Trip (Part 1) & Taipei Family Trip (Part 2).

On this road trip, we visited Yehliu Geopark (野柳地質公園)). It’s a suggested place enroute to Jiufen, but if you are not so keen on nature stuff like rocks and fossils, then you can safely skip this place.

Do note that the place will be unsheltered almost 90%, so bring along an umbrella or wear a cap.

 

What can you expect to see? Like I said, lots of rocks, but very unique geological formations including the famous iconic “Queen’s Head” (女王頭).

Due to long-tern weathering and erosion, the appearance of the Queen’s Head is gradually wearing down. In order to preserve the original shape and elegance of the iconic attraction, a fiberglass replica was produced for tourists’ appreciation.

Mushroom Rocks
This formation is characterized by its mushroom-like shapes, with relatively thin stems topped by larger rocks. The caps of the mushroom rocks are rich in calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and are therefore relatively more resistant to weathering than the necks. Through time, the necks becomes narrower and narrower because of differential erosion.

It does looks like a tooth too right?

Monocline Structure
There are several monocline (cuesta) structures in Yehliu forming a distinctive landscape.

Statue of Mr. Lin Tien-chen, as a reminder of his brave actions in March 1964, when Mr. Lin tried to help a student who visited Yehliu and was swept to sea by the waves. Unfortunately, both Mr. Lin and the student lost their lives.

Even if you do not wish to join the long queue of people for the photo taking chance (mainly for Queen’s Head), just walk around the landscape and capture the beautiful unique rock formations, created and designed by nature.

This sort of reminds me of those movies on some other planets.

 

Any direction you turn towards, the view is simply spectacular.

Drop by the small market just outside the park, and quench your thirst with some super nice freshly squeezed juices. Great place to hide from the scorching sun too.

From Yehliu, we continued on to Jiufen. Apparently Jiufen is situated on a mountain top, which was something new to me.

The main road in Jiufen.

The gem of Jiufen are the old streets (老街). You have to weave through the 老街 and find the true spirit of this place. Littered with small eating corners and shops all throughout the place, you will not go hungry at all here.

I’ll let the photos do the talking.

 

And of the course, the super famous, not-to-be-missed Juifen Fenyuan (九份粉圆).

Joey was pulled into this shop where an old man was practicing his magic tricks.

What about buying a pair of clogs? Model not for sale.

You can find quite a few of these cafes situated just over the mountain slope, providing some of the best views for coffee and a break.

With the shades all over the entire street, we were mercifully sheltered in the cool and shopping was just more fun.

 

The 5 ladies with me.

Me? Just give me a cup of bubble tea, I will be satisfied.

After Jiufen, another 40mins or so, we arrived at Shifen, the land of Kong Ming Lantern Tian Deng (天燈).

If you ask me, this is really so “tourisy”. But since we are indeed tourists, let’s just do it.

 

 

Can you see my mother’s slightly annoyed face becos of the heat? =p

 

And off it goes.

   

The train station at Shifen is still in use, so be careful when you are there, don’t let the kids run on the tracks without supervision.

 

Behind the tracks, hidden from the crowd is the Jingan Suspension Bridge (静安桥). Built in 1947 for coal transportation, not it is just part of the tourist attractions in Shifen.

Last but definitely not least, we stopped over at Keelung Miaokou Night Market (基隆廟口夜市).

Only Jayne was tiredly looking at me.

There is nothing much here, only food. The night market shopping cannot be compared to those in Taipei, so if you are too tired to visit, you will not miss much.

But this 油饭 is something worth the trip.

Coupled with the soup, our dinner was settled.

A slow stroll along the streets before we finally called it a day and return to rest.

Hope you enjoyed all the posts on my Family Trip to Taiwan.