When you go on a holiday with a toddler in tow, you don’t really get a holiday. You simply get to take care of your kid in an overseas location. (I think someone wise said something along these lines on the internet). YAHHHH… truer words have never been spoken. It’s possible to feel more tired after returning from a holiday which should have left you recharged, rejuvenated, revitalized. Oh well. This trip was really planned with MELODY in mind. The hotels I picked are the ridiculously expensive ones because they have prime locations, kid-friendly facilities, yadda yadda. BUT… before you start feeling sorry for me, I did have my own little bit of fun starting with Changi Airport. We found this store called times TRAVEL (yes as in Times bookstores) but it mainly sold bags we’ve never seen before (and that are oh-so-cool and “airport exclusive”) and plush toys and stuff. Hence the pic of the Barbie bags above. Of course, I got Hello Kitty ones – a backpack for Melody and a tote for me. You might see them in other upcoming blogposts. They cost just over a hundred SGD each. We lugged those onto the plane along with our cabin luggage OMG… all the way to Taiwan… and then back. A bit siao but then… chio bags are a must-buy and the tote I wanted was the LAST PIECE AVAILABLE!
So… anyway, we got onto the plane and took our first row seats. We spent just over $1K on Scoot airfare for this whole trip. Hubz and I had booked seats on both sides of the aisle, which means we also sat beside other passengers. The flight to Taiwan ended quite horrendously as Melody suddenly threw a fit, rejected her infant seatbelt, and was struggling and flailing her arms and legs about, and wailing so loudly she probably gave the flight attendants in front of us PTSD after and caused the ovaries of the young ladies seated on my right to shrink. Don’t have kids, people! If you value your sleep, your sanity, and your precious holidays, PLEASE do not have children. You have been warned!
*Also… I’d never imagined that another parent would come up to us at the start of a flight and request for a diaper! The lady said her son had been wearing his diaper for the longest time and she did not have a new one for him blah blah blah. And so I gave her the only diaper we’d brought onto the flight. (If Melody pooped during the flight, we are d.e.a.d) We’d actually changed Melody’s diaper before we went to the boarding gate… and thought other parents would do the same too. Apparently not. *shrug* (Also hor… never even offer to pay us for the expensive ninonana diaper pffft Some people.)
A BIG PLUS of bringing a young kid (or elderly person) to Taiwan is that you get to use the speedy Priority lane to get through Immigration! Instead of queuing with the 100+ travelers ahead of you in the regular lane, the priority lane has probably just 2 people in line.
It was a different story once we went out the doors of the Arrival hall at Taoyuan airport and on our right was just a MASSIVE group of travelers all queuing and waiting for their chance to win at the lucky draw (if you haven’t already heard, you have to preregister before flying to Taiwan, then go do the draw when you reach, and you might win something like NTD5000 in hotel vouchers or easycard credits (as good as cash) if you are indeed so fortunate.)
Anyway, that same night, we went to Ningxia Night Market (took an Uber taxi there for just NTD130) and Melody took a nap in hub’s carrier. Good thing we never sleep-trained her so she can sleep on trains, on planes, in cars, in shopping malls, and even in a noisy night market environment. 
*Because of the carseat requirement, we could not take the regular Uber vehicles. It had to be Uber Taxi or the pricier Ubers which had carseats (and may not be that common). Same thing in Singapore. Melody doesn’t need a carseat in a taxi, but would need one in a Grab. Super weird. Like accidents will only happen if a kid is in a regular private hire vehicle but not when they are in taxis. (@_@)
Since Melody had fallen asleep, we decided to get takeaways instead of eating at the night market. We bought a delicious serving of grilled chicken drumstick w/fried rice (NTD145), chilled eggplant (NTD35), dumpling noodles (NTD125), grass jelly drink (NTD60), a small serving of yummy ‘crackling skin pork’ (NTD200) and oyster omelette (NTD80).
As for our second evening in Taipei, we visited Shihlin Night Market. Once again, Melody fell asleep so we could check out the claw machines without a toddler constantly asking for more coins. And she woke up just in time for the fishing game stall…
Initially, Melody required some help from us… but this girl learns real fast so in no time at all, she was able to scoop the fish out on her own!
Apart from night markets, we did also visit Ximending but we walked past Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodles AND DID NOT ORDER. Maybe we were too full or put off by the large number of tourists. But my darling went to Chen Ji Mian Xian bright and early one morning to get this truly yummilicious breakfast for us! He had to take a train to the nearest station, walk a couple hundred metres, get the food dabaoed and when he got back, it was still piping hot!
Anyway… I snapped a photo of this guy selling balloons in the middle of Ximending. Macam entrance to Disneyland. Most people would be taking the trains so they wouldn’t actually be able to bring a ballon onboard, I think. Not sure if this is the right place but good luck to him:
Another thing I couldn’t resist buying was the My Melody easycard! The Taiwanese are so creative. Some of their easycard ‘charms’ feature a rice cooker, or a famous brand of beauty cream, etc. The SG equivalent would be an ezlink charm that’s in the iconic shape of the TigerBalm jars or like a Vicks inhaler. Ahahaha! Idea hor?!
Oh yah… at Ximending, we also popped into the Uniqlo store and instead of spending time doing some shopping, we were at the kids’ corner where there are books, toys, etc. Melody did not want to leave.
We did also use Google Maps to help locate the Hello Kitty 7-eleven store. Definitely worth a visit.
And now… for the hotel. We stayed at Roaders Plus Hotel Taipei Station. It’s within walking distance from Taipei Main Station (take the Airport MRT to get here). The hotel is right at the exit Z8 of the underground mall… which also has an intimidating flight of stairs and no lift. So it’s best to drag luggage and/or stroller or wheelchair to another nearby exit with a lift and walk over. (@_@)
Here’s one of the play areas. Melody loves the slide and she can go up and down repeatedly. Honestly, I think the play area is a tad small. For such a popular hotel, you’d expect something four times bigger. Because (1) toddlers like Melody do not share and (2) if it’s too crowded, you might see injuries or fighting, and no one wants that, right?
And one of the main reasons I booked this hotel was ‘cos I saw that they had a ball pit. But when we got there… dum dum dum~~~ ball my arse wor…
We stayed at Roaders Plus Hotel Taipei Station for 2 nights and it cost all of S$827.60. And the ball pit has NO balls. My goodness. We did have a view of Taipei 101 from our room though.
We stayed at the 33rd floor, in room 3301. (Waiting for the lifts was a pain) I didn’t take a pic of the view cos Taipei 101 looked really tiny and far. XD As for the room, everything was clean, there were no bugs. And there were two washbasins in the toilet.
They also provided 3 toilet rolls for a 2-night stay. The next hotel we went to provided 1 roll only for a 3-night stay. Go figure.
Most of the hotels serve complimentary finger foods during teatime – 2pm to 4pm. So if yours is an early flight, you’ll make it in time. Roaders Plus Hotel has REALLY good wintermelon tea at teatime. I saw one Chinese dude bring his personal PET bottle to try and fill it with the tea till his girlfriend/wife stopped him. XD
And one of the perks of staying here is that you can scan a QR code at the reception to sign up for membership which is free and then you get to pick 2 freebies. I chose 2 cans of Taiwan beer – the Pineapple one is yum! Hubz did the same and got another 2 cans!
We did also pop by the Reception on multiple occasions. For one, I couldn’t figure out how to switch the waterflow from showerhead to rainshower. And apparently I’m not the only guest who’s asked them this question because they had a LAMINATED SHEET with instructions. Why not just place a little arrow sticker or something so it’s less troublesome for guests?
Despite the pricey room, there was no ‘free’ breakfast. There’s a little ‘food truck’ kinda booth though and these are the prices…
One thing I really love about Taiwan is their claw machines. We went to Starbeary (Z2 exit of the underground mall, not too far from our hotel exit which is Z8). We clawed all sorts of things – from edibles (milk tea, kinder bueno, super ring, etc) to plushies and keychains, and even things like wet wipes and tissues! The best part is each machine actually has a display screen which tells you two things: 1) What is the amount that must be inserted before a guaranteed catch, e.g. NTD300, and 2) What is the amount that has already been inserted, e.g. NTD 200. So then you can calculate the difference, and decide if paying NTD100 is worth it for the item. So much more humane than in SG… where you can pay and play and pay and play and you won’t know when/if the guaranteed catch is happening, and you can easily bust your gaming budget.
For my next blogpost, we’ll be heading to Yilan! Stay tuned!