Osaka, Japan to Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Day 7

April 2, 2018

Onward to our next destination, Taiwan!!! (≧▽≦)

We checked out of the AirBnb around 8AM and left the keys in the mail box downstairs. From Namba station, we took the Nankai line to Kansai airport via limited express (¥920).

I booked our flights from Osaka to Taipei on Jetstar as it was the cheapest.
Flight for Two (Osaka to Taipei, around 3 hours) = ¥21480 (I booked it 1.5 months in advance)
I had to upgrade our checked bag to 25kg for an extra ¥32,000. Jetstar is a budget airline so it only allowed carry on unless you upgrade your seats or add in services for a fee. I also had to book my tickets in ¥ with my credit card and thus had to pay conversation fee as well. The tickets actually cost me just under $300 CND.

Our flight departs at 12:15PM so we had ~2 hours to spare. 

My stomach did not feel well when we left and I ended up having diarrhea several times at the airport. We did not eat breakfast as well, so my sister wanted to grab some noodles before checking in. I went with her and ordered some chicken karaage, it was quite expensive but I expected it since it was at the airport. (4 pieces was around ~¥500 - tiny pieces too! ಠ▃ಠ )

There is a lot to do in Kansai Airport so don't worry if you have too much time to spare. A lot of shopping and a lot of restaurants. 

Once checked in, we went souvenir shopping at the duty free shops. Since we had left over ¥, we went all out and bought a lot of souvenirs (FOOD). The line to pay was insane, it looped several times inside the store and then bypasses outside the store. Σ(･口･) The inside of the store was jammed with people and you literally had to push to walk around. We got the famous Shiroi Koibito chocolate biscuits. Also got a box of chocolate covered strawberries.

I bought this little guy with me on the airplane so I don't get hungry. Our flight does not provided a meal thus I need FOOOOOOD!! BTW, my sister and I did not sit together since we both opted for a window seat.

After landing in Taiwan, around 3PM, we had to make our way to exchange money $$$. We exchanged our USD in the airport. When we were exchanging the USD to NT, the cashier said they cannot accept some of our USD as they would only accept the new USD bills. My sister wanted to exchanged $1000 worth but I told her that is way too much and it was definitely too much as everything was pretty cheap and affordable in Taiwan. I still think $900 was too much as well. A lot of leftover money. 

**TIP: Bring a blank note book with you so that you can collect stamps at different attractions and stations. ٩(●ᴗ●)۶

Taoyuan Airport 

Once we picked up our luggage we had to go and buy an EasyPass and load money so that we can take the MRT. The EasyPass can be bought at 7-11, Family Mart, or electronic stored value cards service counter located at Terminal 1-1 Floor and Terminal 2-1 Floor.

Once the money has been loaded, we took the airport MRT to Taoyuan HSR station (commuter line-blue - 18 minutes, 35NT).

From Taoyuan HSR station we can take the high speed rail train to Kaohsiung. To do this, we had to exchange for our TSHR pass at the counter. I bought the TSHR pass on Kloot and it cost me $100 CND per person. We have booked our flight tickets wrong and I can't change it so we had no choice but to buy the TSHR pass. The TSHR pass allow you to stop at certain cities along it's path for 3 days (unlimited). We needed the pass so that we can get to Kaohsiung and on the third day return to Taipei.

When my sister went to exchange the voucher for the pass, it took forever, around 30 minutes. Not sure what the hold up was about. ┐(ﾟ～ﾟ)┌ But after it was done we had to make our way to another waiting area for the TSHR.

My sister was hungry so she went into a convenience store located inside the train station and bought a bento box. It was finished before we even got on the train. Tasted alright. 

Once we got on the high speed train it takes around 1.5-2 hours to Kaohsiung. We had to get off at the last stop, Zuoying Station (Kaohsiung). Then from Zuoying Station we had to take the MRT to Formosa station. 

Kaoshiung - Formosa Blvd Station (famous for the dome of light)

There's so many exits, had to look for exit 9.

LOOK AT HOW HIGH THE STAIRS ARE. We had to carry our luggage up these stairs!! (￣ε(#￣)

We reached the outside world of Kaohsiung!! v(｡･ω･｡)

The walk from Formosa Blvd station to our hotel, Golden Stone was 5-6 minutes away. Good thing GPS works offline.

Golden Stone Hotel was renovated several years ago so it does look a bit newer. Our room have two single beds and a medium sized washroom.  The room itself comes with a kettle as well as bottled waters and a mini fridge. I feel that the room is a pretty good size, not too small and not too big. The beds are comfortable as well.

Golden Stone Hotel  - The hotel also offered complimentary breakfast in the morning. The breakfast was mediocre, I never left full. Food was quite bland as well and not much variety as well. At least they have free Wifi and location wise it is considered quite affordable.

Cost for 2 nights: $88.52 CND (booked through expedia)
Check-in: 3PM and Checkout : 11AM

The neat thing about this hotel is that semiwhat across from the hotel is a restaurant called "Fishing Pond" and there you get to fish out your food (or so I read, after the fact). Everything is in Chinese though. 

After settling down, unpacked a bit as well as cleaned ourselves up, we headed out to enjoy the night market near our hotel. The night market was a couple of blocks away, several minutes of walking. I quite enjoy this night market as it was not too crowded compared to some of the others (which I experienced later on).

Liuhe Night Market (opens at 6 PM every night)

Liouhe Salted sticky rice balls. Cost 50NT

Sugar cane juice -so refreshing on a hot day.

Oyster omelette (interesting taste)

Next, we ordered one portion of fish noodle soup with chicken nuggets from a stall so that we can share.

After this we walked over to Lanhua Tourist Night market (they mostly sell garments).

I found my favorite takoyaki. It tasted fake though. It was pretty cheap if I recall, around $2.50 CAD. We only had 1000NT and had to break it down a lot. lol.

OMG. So we found a bubble tea place and they had a menu but it is all in Chinese. We did not buy a portable wifi so we cannot translate the Chinese characters. So I ordered by the pointing at a picture which is what you see below. To this day I still do not know what I have ordered as it tasted so bad and I had to force myself to drink it ALL. SO GROSS. At least it only cost like $2.50 Canadian. Back in Vancouver, bubble tea cost ~$4.50+

Papaya milk drink (this drink have won many awards)

Sausage in a sausage (I saw this and it looked pretty good but it was very annoying to eat as I do not like onions and the sausage itself was hard to bite off) 30NT

After we went back to the hotel, I had to finish that nasty bubble tea while my sister sipped her papaya milk drink.