Day 4: Our First Homestay in Taiwan...

~17th March 2014~

Pinky studying the map... whoever says women can't read maps, please come see us..

Upon arrival at Taipei High Speed Rail station, we're as good as completely lost. There were so many exits in different floors. We were so lost that we ended up walking in circles. The minsu (homestay) that we're going to, the name of the street cannot be found on the map. It must be somewhere secluded. Gone are we and we were thinking of getting Taipei's Rapid Transit and then walk to the minsu. Guess what? We can't find anything and we didn't get our Easy Card yet. We're still walking in circles until we finally decide to get out from one of the exits and hail a cab. We're not tired from flying. We're tired from being disorientated upon arrival.

The angel carrying our luggage....

Now... now... where's the elevator or escalator? Don't have? How are we going to carry our luggage up? My energy level was almost zilch~! You know, God has been watching. He sent an angel to help us. Out of nowhere, there was this young man who appeared and asked whether we needed help. We haven't even answer him and he took hold of two our luggage and flew up the double flight of steps. He was really fast. We haven't thank him and he disappeared into the crowd. Whoa~! *Thank you Lord for walking with us*

Our first taxi ride in Taipei...

We jumped into a yellow cab and Pinky showed the driver the address to our place in her phone. You know I have no idea where we're going to stay even though she has sent me the places that we're going to stay. Everything is in Chinese *sigh*... and Google map has the name of roads in Chinese as well. How do you expect me to type in Chinese? I wish Chinese is my first language, but it ain't. So, let her handle everything. 

The building we're staying in...

That's where we're going to stay for 3 days and 2 nights. I was praying that the place better be good. The route from the train station to Xinsheng North Road wasn't looking good. It seemed like I was staring into rundown places as in really old buildings. You don't believe me? I show you~!

Looks that kill the excitement...

Look at those~! You should see my face~! I could tell you I have both my hands wringing Pinky's neck and shaking her like a rag doll! What on earth is this place? What the heck? This is the worst place ever to live in. I know I don't mind cheap places but not to the extend of unhygienic place. It's filthy~! Pinky looked like she was going to faint as well. We didn't know what to expect or what to do except for walking in and she has paid the deposit. The building looks like it's older than three of our ages add up together. Was the place going to stink like the dumpster? We're going to stay on the 7th floor, any elevator in the building? I can't lug everything up the seventh floor. You heard of the saying, "Never judge a book by it's cover"?

Our temporary nest....

The place was huge~! There's an elevator that's working no doubt it's really slow. The interior of the room has been done up to perfection. There's a divider with a television set and even extension cords for chargers. The mattress was really comfortable. Enough pillows for everyone. Love that place. Just don't look outside. But on the second night, I was sitting and staring outside and taking photos of nothingness.

That sink...

The sink is not in the bathroom. Easier that way, right? We realize that the light switches are the way opposite from ours. You see that light switch on the wall? It has been pressed down but that means the light is off. You click it up, then it means it's up. Weird... well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So in Taiwan, do as the Taiwanese do. You know you see the water jug to heat water up? We made a jug of hot water for drinking. The owner of the place, Miss Chen *Miss Tan in Malaysia* mention something about drinking water from the mineral bottles provided but overly-smart us boiled water for drinking. Will tell you the story later...

Our mess...

We're terrible. The spacious room has been turned upside down by us the moment we walked in. Talk about neatness. None of us has it. We made full use of the space that we paid for. By the way, per night is only RM51 per person. I know it's very cheap... very cheap but we failed to get the same room for our round-island visit to come back to Taipei on our last two days. We wanted to play smart, look at the place first or else we will go somewhere else. The place proved to be good.