Shin Guang Jau Feng Recreational Farm

My Chinese language teacher made a decision for our class to have a class outing. I really didn’t have time for the outing because I have been busy with my part-time work and Chinese courses but I’m really glad that I decided to go in the end; this trip really helped me to grow closer to my classmates.

My Chinese class originally had six students. Besides me, there is DaFu from Japan, HaoYi from Canada, JinSong from Vietnam, RuoYi from Thailand and Marcus from Germany. Marcus ended up having to drop out of the class and currently RuoYi and DaFu come when they can because they are soon going to being their first semester as undergraduate students in Taiwan. JinSong & Marus could not make it to join our trip.

I guess my grammar is the worst out of all the students but Marcus was not really around enough for me to tell much about his Chinese language ability. Anyway, I am trying to slowly improve and recently I take more changes to practice my speaking. I meet with my tutor more often and am trying to get all my homework done in time so I can hand it into my teacher for grading. I think all the students really enjoy the class and we pretty much have a fun time now that we've grown accustomed to one another. We always joke around during class and give the teacher a hard time. He's a nice guy though and can joke around with us as well.

The trip we took was to Hualien. We chose Hualien because it was the only place in Taiwan that all of us had never been to. Well HaoYi had gone but when she was a child and she couldn’t recall the trip at all.

I really can’t tell you all the places we went to in Hualien because I really felt a lot of the places looked the same and many of them reminded me of my hometown in Kentucky. Maybe it was all the mountains and the greenery.

The first day we took the Toroko Express from Taipei to Hualien. It’s quite comfortable and much better than what I’ve expected. This Taiwan Railway train requires you to purchase a seat so no one can buy a standing ticket to disturb the passengers. Our teacher could not join us because he has something else to do that day so we ventured to Hualien on our own. Before the trip I was not really familiar with DaFu but with a 2 hour train ride ahead of ourselves, we eventually found ourselves chatting about our lives. We mostly gossiped about the language teachers at National Central University.

After arriving we went straight to the bathroom and then received a call from the driver the travel agency arranged for us. He was in a rush and drove crazily to the Shin Guang Jau Feng Recreational Farm. I consider it more of a zoo than a farm. We rented a golf cart and drove around the farm for about two and a half hours seeing animals and not being able to attend any of the live shows because of bad timing.

I suggest you not to eat any of their dairy products because the ice cream tasted like cheese (so weird!) but we all finished our ice cream (which was hard as a rock) because we didn’t want to waste the money. For those that are going here (even though I’d recommend you not to go…ha) please do not buy any souvenirs until you get to the gate of the place where there is a sort of small museum and coffee shop. The first floor is filled with all the same stuff you can buy on the “farm” but this way you don’t need to carry it around with you all day long. One last thing, it looked pretty bad there. I heard it's been hit strongly by typhoons so that could be one reason but it just looked not very well taken care of to me.

More to come in the future….

Just Sleep Hotel XiMenDing

During one of my most recent visits to Taipei I had a very unique hotel experience at one of the newest and hottest hotel chains in Taiwan, Just Sleep. They currently have one hotel in XiMenDing with plans of opening another branch in LinSen in the near future. This hotel seems to be targeting the younger generation with its trendy room design, inexpensive priced rooms, and fun service personnel. The experience I had at Just Sleep was different than any other hotel experience I have had in Taiwan or anywhere else abroad. I'll talk about my hotel experience while taking several aspects of the hotel in consideration: location, price, facilities, dining, and lastly service.


First location and price. For those that are not familiar with Taiwan and wish to visit, you should consider this hotel as one of your first choices if you have a tight budget. All the rooms are quite affordable, even for students. They have several different room types from which you can choose including:

• Superior Room (1 Double Bed aka Queen Bed):NT$2,500 (about $75US) includes 1 breakfast voucher
• Deluxe Room (1 Double Bed aka Queen Bed): NT$3,000 (about $90US) includes 2 breakfast coupons)
• Superior Twin (2 Twin Beds): NT$2,800, (about $85US) includes 2 breakfast vouchers
• Hollywood Twin (2 Twin Beds): NT$2,800 (about $85US) includes 2 breakfast vouchers
• Triple Room (3 Twin Beds): NT$3,800, (about $115US) includes 3 breakfast vouchers
• Executive Twin (2 Full Beds): NT$4,800, (about $145US) includes 4 breakfast vouchers

These prices are only for those that hold a valid Taiwanese Identification Card or those possessing a Taiwanese Alien Resident Certificate. Those without one of the above-mentioned IDs would need to try to book through another website or inquire directly with Just Sleep regarding the room rates. Service charges are included for all the room quotes above (I took it all from their website). The difference between the Superior Twin and Hollywood Twin are the size of the room and the layout of the beds. The difference between the superior and deluxe rooms also has to do with the size of the room.

I stayed in the Hollywood twin. You can actually push the two twin beds together to "make" a bigger bed if that's what you desire. :)

The location of XiMenDing hotel is excellent. XiMenDing is one of the hottest places to visit while in Taiwan with lots of restaurants, activities, shops, and theaters. You can easily arrive via the Taiwan MRT at the XiMenDing stop via exit 5 or you can take Bus 207 from in front of the Taipei Main Station if arriving to Taipei from another destination in Taiwan. The bus stop for the hotel is just one stop from the Taipei Main Station. You'll need to cross the street to the hotel.

The hotel is newly built. It's one of the newer style hotels that is actually situated inside an office building. The first few floors of the building are the hotel with many of the higher floors occupied by office space. Don't worry though, you will not get lost since there is a front desk in the lobby of the building. As far as amenities goes for the rooms, you have free bottled water, instant tea and instant coffee. Wireless internet is also available but you can also use two computers with Internet access located in the Just Cafe.

Everything in the hotel has been designed to fit the tastes of a younger generation of guests (or those of us with young hearts!). The interior is very stylish and modern. Let me first talk about their small vending machine area. It was my first impression of the hotel. Very cute and stylish. They have a place to buy some simple food and drinks and some cute sofas to lounge on. I have to mention that there is no in house restaurant but there is a convenient Domino's Pizza button on your room phone that you can call and have pizza delivered to your room.

Speaking of food, at the time I checked into the hotel they were only providing rooms with breakfast but I surfed around on some websites and it seems now they are providing rooms without breakfast as well. I would recommend that you take advantage of the breakfast because all the ingredients used in the breakfast buffet are of some of the highest quality available in Taiwan and abroad. There were several little signs hung up explaining the origin of all the dishes. They provided a selection of drinks including orange juice, tomato juice, coffee, milk, water, etc. Also salad, fruit, various types of bread, Chinese style congee breakfast items, as well as cured duck and ham. I thought all their cured meats were excellent as well as their coffee. I also loved their soft-boiled eggs that each had their own individualized number! At least that is what the lady setting up the buffet told me! She was also very friendly to me and even brought out some freshly warmed yummy leek rolls for me to try! There were also other items such as cereal, preserved fruits and vegetables, and lots of other additions but I didn't really have a chance to try them.

Maybe because of the name "Just Sleep" I assumed that was one of their biggest sellers since I guess they want you to go to the room and enjoy your sleep. The bed was comfortable and the room was more than wonderful. I do have to admit that the room was small but if you look at how unique and stylish the room is, that will not be a big deal. Also, you have to consider the price you are paying for the room. Actually, the prices I quoted above are what Just Sleep is selling the rooms for but you can find the rooms cheaper by booking them on-line through other websites. The thing I loved the best about the room was how cute everything was from the mini classic refrigerator to the do not disturb door hangers, everything was extra special, extra stylish. They have an "open style" closet that adds to the modern feel of the room in the same way in which the open ceilings in the Just Cafe added to your dining experience. I guess the pictures can speak for themselves.

Another great part about my experience was the friendliness of the staff. Their demeanor is not what you usually expect from hotel staff: sterile and cold. They are all very friendly and their uniforms are not the traditional monkey suits, quite far from it. I regret I didn't get a picture with one of the staff of the hotel. Maybe I can do this in the future. Their uniforms look comfortable, very hip, and very stylish. From the moment I checked in until the moment I checked out every time a staff member encountered me they greeted me with a hearty "hello" or other such salutation. The front desk staff spoke immaculate English. They were also very knowledgeable and were able to provide me with the answers to all the questions I had during my stay.

I think you can tell by the photos how different this hotel experience can be for you. I really want to recommend all my friends to check out this hotel for their next stay in Taipei. I keep thinking that my sister would love to have the chance to stay in one of these rooms.