Taiwan Trip in the Southern Part after 12 years... with friends and kids

Taiwan is not very big, about the size of Pahang, Malaysia (~36,000 sqkm) but there are many different type of geological features such as mountain, river, seaside, lake, cliff, rocks etc. Each County has it's own unique attractions & experience. So this year 2024 we had our first family trip in Taiwan for 8D7N. 8-15 Mar. Celebrated my birthday, too.

General itinerary
Day 1,2: Kaohsiung
Day 3,4: Kenting
Day 5: Maolin
Day 6: Tainan
Day 7,8: Taoyuan

Took EVA flight for the first time from SIN-TPE. Also first time taking B-777. The plane is new, big, spacious and comfortable. The kids enjoyed the journey because of free flow juice and non-stop in-flight cartoon. Half way through H. spilled some orange juice, wet her clothes and changed into rapper style outfit.

The flight touched down on time at 6pm. Cleared immigration in about 30min. But the transit from Airport > MRT > THSR > MRT plus all the walking, we finally checked in to our first hotel at Yanchengpu at about 1030pm. Everyone slumbered into deep sleep almost immediately. 

Except of the little one... Already in her dreamland while on the road

Kaohsiung local transport is convenient. The MRT system is similar to SMRT. Distance-based fare system. Each trip cost us about NT20-30 per person. We keep reminding everyone that H. IS STILL 5-YO so all public transport is free. No seat though.

This time we only spent 1 day around the Southwestern part of Kaohsiung city along the Green LRT line places like Hamasen, the pier area and Dream Mall. We stopped by to witness the turning of the Great Harbor Bridge for the kids to learn a bit about civil engineering, for free.

From Kaohsiung to Kenting
Auntie E. pre-booked the local transport from 橘子猫 tttrips.com. The package include a local driver drove us around and provide tour guide service. Total cost shared between 8 person. We paid $584+$42 tips.

8人提供九人座VAN (中文司導) 費用共 NTD33500

2 Days in Kenting
a lot of walking in the mountain, park, lakeside, seaside, old town, night market.

Pingtung
Tandem paragliding at the age of fabulous 40-ish is something that I didn't plan for. When there is an opportunity, just seize it. 

Tainan
Guided by a local is totally a different experience. He brought us to places where we have not heard off. 

Taoyuan. Getting ready to go home
Before heading to Taoyuan, we visited the Kaohsiung Train Station currently under construction. The train station seems like located in the middle of a very big roundabout. 

Year 2024

Will look like this when completed in Year 2025

We can't really see anything beyond the hoarding, but the site is definitely quite big. We walked some more, ate some mos burger and went back to hotel to check out. 

Formosa Boulevard metro station 美麗島站

Learning from the first trip, our return trip on THSR was much more pleasant with food and drinks fully prepared. By noon, we checked in to our last hotel, Novotel at Taoyuan Airport. Purposely choose that place to catch the early flight on the next day. 

The hotel is chic, cozy but not cheap. 1-night is already more expensive then 2-night at Chateau de Chine. Room is quite small. 2 single beds must park together to fit all 4 of us. Sofa also serves as fall protection. Luckily everything is moveable. A giant panda took up some space, too.

After dropping off our luggage, we went back to the THSR train station for lunch and some shopping. There is a Gloria Outlet Mall. Walking around the compound already made me feel like spending. Exactly the same feeling I had at Genting Premium Outlet. Cooling weather always entice people to spend. But before that, we need food! There are many choices and non of the shops are crowded. Could that be any problem with the food? No... food is delicious, affordable, service is good. Completely opposite of Singapore food scene.

Hotel lobby is equipped with 3 iMac for guests. 2 young guests were spotted hoarding the iMac playing online game after a cheap Ippudo takeout meal. 

The next day is again a mad rush. Woke up at 6am. Packing up and left hotel at 730am. Good thing that Novotel provide complementary airport transfer. Once reached the Terminal 2, get tax refund. The process is very seamless. The staff just need to check the form completed by Gloria Outlet then we can tap our credit card at the kiosk. Less than 5 min we are done. Next stop, check in counter. Taoyuan Airport is very busy, full of people, long queue everywhere. Luckily we checked in online the day before otherwise how can we look so happy at the bag drop counter?

The remaining of the journey is basically relax, eat, drink, watch movie and play game on the flight. Vacation cannot be too long 6-8 days is just nice.