Taiwan Trip Day 1 Part 1: Taoyuan Airport, getting to Taipei and Cosmos Hotel

Soooo here is the start of a new series!

I have not been to Taiwan.... in a long time? The previous time I went I was quite young and I barely remember a thing. Sooooooo tbh my mum planned the bulk of this trip (while I planned Korea) so I will try my best to recount my Taiwan trip with clear instructions on how to get to places so that you can go too!

At the airport, we immediately saw this counter and proceeded to get our easy money cards from there.

Cards were bought at 100 and then we topped up like... 500 at one go for each card hehe.

Honestly the cards... not nice sia. I saw ppl have the gudetama one :<

We then looked for all the signs to go to the platform for the mrt... which was very easy la it was just in the basement of Taoyuan Airport, fantastic!

Unfortunately... we could not figure out how to get to the express train and ended up taking the commuter train instead, which was a longer journey and the seats were less comfortable :(

We actually waited like... almost 10 minutes at the platform and decided just to take the first train that came... coz the display at the station was useless... it only told us a train was coming at 1.50pm. Like thanks I also know. Tell me the subsequent trains la?!

Ok nvm.

We then headed to our hotel which is COSMOS HOTEL. This hotel is best. Thanks mother. You da best.

While the Taipei Main Station was confusing (airport rail AND high speed rail AND normal rail AND MRT... sure confused one!), this hotel was really located just at the M3 exit of the mrt. So for the convenience... really worth it (we are not comissioned by them.... but tbh we couldn't find better airbnbs either :/)

but to get there from the airport rail line... took a long walk. My tip? Just walk towards the direction of the mrt. The red and blue lines. When you get there, only then will the exits be marked clearly as M1 2 3 4 5 6 etc.

Seoul 2017 Day 6: Ewha University, Sinchon and Tax Refund at airport

Soooo I am down to the last day of my trip and I AM SUPER SAD that it is ending but super proud of how I planned this trip and enjoyed my itinerary.

We ate Isaac Toast again in the morning :D but hungry so no pictures there.

Then we headed to Ewha University area to take pictures at the university and to shop. Really easy to head there, just walk straight up after exit 2 or 3 to this long road to the super pretty campus.

Maybe you are wondering why I so weird, need to shop at so many places?

A lot of people visit hongdae, sinchon and edae areas on the same day. But they are all different and you might wanna spend more time in some over others
Edae - mix of expensive clothes (think 42SGD, 39,000 won) and cheap ones (goto mall prices of 5,000 won or 10,000 won) but FASHION HERE is excellent. Like a lot of their items look more fashionable than what I see in Hongdae or in Gotomall. Terrible selection of clothes for men, and finding food is a bit hard coz the area covered is quite big

Sinchon - walkable distance from the back of Edae to the back of Sinchon, but because we did not have the red angel's map (the tourist map!) since we arrived too early, we made a whole big round and I was so scared we would be late for our checkout :((

There are more food options here in terms of cafes and speciality shops (bingsu) and bbq places

Hongdae - A mix of food and shops, more happening at night with busking and stuff. Shops sell more generic stuff and sometimes at higher prices sooooo while I loved walking about, I wouldn't want to hit this area on day one coz I feel I will pay a bit more than usual for stuff.

Back to Edae, so there was a lotte Elcube here that SOLD A LOT OF THE APRIL SKIN HAIR DYE AND CREAM AND WHAT NOT. But even olive young here was in full stock. I work so hard on days 1 2 3 to find hair dye for what sia here all have?!

Inside this elcube was a line store as well as an area selling YG stuff. interesting

and then we started shopping in the area... I actually bought quite a lot of tops this time. Oversized shirts are in right now, while in 2014 I struggled to buy clothes coz fashion dictated that crop tops were in. yucks.

This bubble tea shop we found along the small streets was really good! We ordered a grapefruit ade with jelly and finished it in minutes lol

So cute their menu so many languages. smart :D why singapore no liddis?

Shoutout to this particular clothing store which was HUGE inside yet easy to miss on the outside. She gave us a whopping 5,000 won discount for just buying two pieces amounting to 30,000 (instead of 35,000). wah that's a lot of money leh, taiwan give me 80 cents off I laugh already.

We headed back to Sinchon after coz I wanted to eat bbq just one more time before we flew back hehehe thanks mummy u da best

We saw this the previous night and thought it was THE place that we ate back in 2014 that was really good. Unfortunately whatever we remembered of it... it doesn't seem to be the same when we ate it for lunch.

But in comparison, I'd much rather eat here which cooks my food over legit coal rather than just a gas stove la.

It was time to go boohoo and with heavy hearts... or was it just me... we headed to the airport and did my worst nightmare... TAX REFUND

Okay honestly no matter what the online info I got from websites and blogs just made things so confusing. SO HERE. IS. A SIMPLE. GUIDE. TO. TAX. REFUND.

1. There is IMMEDIATE tax refund at some shops (esp touristy areas like hongdae, myeongdong), which IMMEDIATELY deducts tax from your total amount PROVIDED you spend above certain limits
1. some places like innisfree hongdae told me to spend about 100,000 and I got like 6,000 won refunded to me (coz I was already at 96,000 won... haha) which was deducted immediately and reflected on the receipt
2. most places seem to have min spending of 30,000 won
2. There is TAX REFUND that you have to do at the airport for some other shops PROVIDED you (again) spend above certain limits
1. Make sure you ask for tax refund, then they have to print super long receipts and give it to you in an envelope
2. there are MULTIPLE tax refund companies (like whut why... global blue.... global tax free.... blue colour orange colour like WHY) but IT DID NOT MATTER WHEN I WAS AT THE AIRPORT
3. There are things to fill in on the receipt (credit card no.... passport no... address).. BUT NO NEED TO WRITE

This tax refund counter has people sitting there (during office hours only... unfortunately) who can speak to you in english. They scanned my passport then took my 5 receipts and scanned its barcodes.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

Then they told me to go into the departure hall area and find Gate 27/28 which is near gucci and I can collect my money (cash or credit) there.

And surely enough...

I got 9,600 won back from here. like wowww great.

This was a much better experience than 2014 where I had to.... nvm go read it yourself again if you want haha it is in my seoul tag :P

Although no one asked me to open my bag and declare the items I bought (I mean... 1 shorts 1 shirt 1 bag of stuff from LINE I still can declare la) but I would think that for luxury items and expensive items they would indeed ask you to show it to them.

So hope that helps! :D and I'm off now to rest before I blog about... TAIWAN :>

Seoul 2017 Day 5 Part 2: CoEx Mall, Gangnam Underground Shopping and Sinchon Dinner

From common ground we headed to CoEx Mall.

Online a lot of people liken this to Singapore's Suntec City mall... and I agree. The mall is HUGE AND CONFUSING. Like there is only one floor but the floor space is.... sooooooo huge. Got lost a couple of times, coz we walk walk walk until we somehow ended up at the casino and cannot go back. When you enter the mall... look left AND TAKE AN ENGLISH MAP. PLS LOL.

We also... did not find this place very interesting for shopping:/ The most interesting thing was actually this amazing display of books. Supposedly it was a library... really wonder how does it works??

Like wowwwww

There were too many restaurants elsewhere and coz we hungry we ended up going to the food court and just ordering all the korean food haha.

We skipped the aquarium... coz we lazy.

aiyo this place is just seriously huge larrrrr

one of the main attractions for CoEx mall was the SM Town area. There were displays to see for costumes etc as well as the awards won by SM Artists. This place is quite easy to spot once you exit the mrt, but we went there last.

Not bad lah! Quite a lot to see :D

But the merch. lol. super ex. like who can even afford these?! Oh but anyway you can get albums here too. Even albums as old as 2012... I think

I was stopped from taking photos and videos so okay.

There was a cafe as well but.... nope

on the top floor there was even a movie theater for like holograph movie what not, and also a panel of posters that you can actually purchase and put in your room O_O

We then headed to Gangnam Shopping Centre which is located just above gangnam station. We were a bit confused as to which exit, but just anyhow leave la haha...

Look at the crowd wahhh

There is actually a lot of shops but... I see a lot of repetitions in terms of the clothing, the layout was quite confusing as well and the design of the clothes.... seemed to pale in comparison to goto mall. Perhaps I have already bought a lot of stuff, so that is why it was boring. But please do not go during the peak hour... it is a mess.

We walked up to ground level of gangnam and walked from gangnam station to sinnonhyeon station. Along the way there is actually a lot of place to eat... but tbh there is very little blogs talking about gangnam area and the food...

sooooo we headed to Sinchon instead to look for samgyupsal and other bbq food.
We thought every branch would be good. NO. Tbh we cannot know which restaurant is really the best and we were looking around for a restaurant..... argh whatever

I must say though, we ate beef twice at two different restaurants... and it was terrible. Even if they call it premium whatever nonsense... it tasted bad. Only the pork tasted good enough...

We ate here.... not nice. Not recommended :/ Though it looks good la

Sinchon has a lot of things to see and eat like cafes and bingsu and mostly bbq places. But we were very very very tired and it was already like 10pm wow...

And that ends out second last day in Seoul!

Seoul 2017 Day 5 Part 1: Cream Fields and Common Ground

Sooooo I follow Joan Kim on youtube and she recommended this cafe over at Hongdae area.

Cream Fields
Opening Hours: 10 am to 11pm Mon to Sat, 1pm to 9pm on Sunday
Address: 서울시 서대문구 연희맛로 33, 2F aka 33, Yeonhuimat-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea

Okay not really but from Hongdae, between exit 8 and 9, we took a bus for two stops up to the cafe area (bus 7612 or 7739). The distance is quite far although it was just two stops.... so just take a bus guys.

Once you alight, cross the road and look out for Kuchen Brot. Walk past it into the inner street and then look right. You should be able to see Holly's Coffee and Cream field's banner.

The street where you will see Kuchen Brot, walk through it

And to your right you will see this (Holly's Coffee is most noticable)

Then just behind it... this building (ACTUALLY IT'S LIKE A HOUSE?! LOL) is where Cream Fields is located.

Need to walk up some stairs!

And you'd have reached :D

This was THE BEST. CAFE. I. HAVE. EVER. BEEN. TO. In terms of the food and ambience la. I have to put Bau Haus a bit behind coz it is technically.... not a cafe... haha.

Look at the cakes and cupcakes and decor KYAAAH. Photo dump time if not I will keep squealing.

We got two cakes, a monster latte (with rainbow meringues!!) and a caramel macchiato. I actually did not like the taste of the monster latter because I am not a latte person, but it was so insta-worthy and the meringues were delicious too. I wish we had more people so we could order more to share but honestly the pastries were amazingly good. If only I could find the same in Singapore.

We then headed over to Common Ground, another insta-worthy place that people keep taking pictures at and uploading it on Instagram.

Go to Konkuk University Station, Exit 6 and then head straight until you see the very obvious blue containers.

Address: 200, Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul

서울특별시 광진구 아차산로 200 (자양동)

Opening Hours: 11am to 10pm

If I could describe this place for a Singaporean... it would be an atas version of *Scape. There are quite a number of stores here selling fashion mostly, but tbh we did not find anything of value to buy. Either it was a big brand (Dr Marts... Vans...) or too expensive...

We also did not find any of the restaurants here appealing. Due to the hot weather we did not want to eat the street food vendors/food truck meals either so we... left ;/

Everyone want to take photo at this spot lol

Oh. notice the banner on the right? There was an APINK pop-up store that day. Selling merch and there was this one place with all of their photos in high definition print outs and pasted all over the walls like a museum. (why no BTS one :()

I saw a dore dore cafe here and was soooooo attracted to the rainbow cake but NO. We need proper food :<

We then headed to CoEx mall, so check that out in Part II :D