Taiwan Trip - Accommodation (Pt. 1)
This will be quite lengthy, but juicy... :p
Accommodation is a very very important concern when you are going to a place which you never been, I mean, very rare that a person will travel to another "whole new world" without pre-confirm a hotel or at least a shelter, right?
So were we! A very kind friend's friend, Eva (a Taiwanese) offer a place to keep all of us when we were in Taipei. She has 2 apartments, both very near to 101 tower, just that one of the apartment is not fully furnished, there's only 1 big king size bed in a room, so some of us has to bring sleeping bag. Well I'm not a camp person, so, I do not has one, in my mind I'm actually planning something else, but I need to take few things into consideration: cannot be too far from my mates because we are travel in group, it's always good that we can stay together when I do not has my own transport to meet up with them and silly me forgot to call my telco to put my line roaming, so communication with my girls is another problem.
Our trip is a 7d 6n trip. Where did I spent my 6 nights? This is my first trip where I need to nomed every night.
1st night - Qiao Li (Ladies) Sauna.
1 of our friend, Joanne, she is very familiar with Taipei, because she goes Taipei every years, and sometimes she need to travel alone and she will stay in this kind of sauna. Because she is going to overnight there, so, me and another friend just tagged along.
This is a very interesting place... where should I start? If you ever been to Japan or Korea, this might not be something strange, but for me, this is my 1st time experience. It's very affordable, NTD500 for 12 hours. Believe me, 12 hours is more than enough, because rest comfortably and enjoy the hotel fascilities are not our objectives of the trip.
We reached there about 11pm, Joanne signed a scrub + massage package with them, I followed, I signed myself only the scrub. But we were very very full after the Ma La steamboat (all you can eat) dinner, so, I asked the lady to do my scrub early next morning.
When we entered, a lady (I think the average age of all the worker, ladies of course, is around 45) passed us a plastic bag to keep our shoes, then we were led to our lockers. Each of us were given a big towel, yes, from the locker onwards, you need to strip off everything already. For an old-fashion minded like me, it's ahem...
Then we walked downstairs, where all fascilities are there, 3 pools with different temp, 13˚C, 29˚C and 43˚C, a steam room, a sauna, about 18 shower cubicles with no doors or curtain and a scrub area with curtain.
Well, when we shower, we tried not to peep others, and I tried to shower as fast as I can and put on my towel. hahaha, then we all went to the sauna, with our towels on. Gosh, you will never never imagine what we saw in the room. There's one TV on the wall, but not everyone was watching, an old lady (quite plum and flabby) was applying slimming cream, yes naked in front of everybody, then started her regime (hitting and pinching her fat), then another middle age lady, covering her face with small towel, naked too but body quite hot, was doing yoga inside, one younger lady, naked too, is doing exercise, side lying on the bench, moving her leg up and down... I think Jo is quite used to it, but me and another friend exchange a sight and we decided to concentrate on the TV.
After sauna, we were suppose to cool our body temp down by soaking in the 13˚C pool, but I wasn't really ready to be naked in front of everybody, so, I shower again and proceed to a room where we can get the bathrobe (Japanese type) and get to the sleeping area.
When we came out from the shower area, there is a dressing area with lotion, comb, blower, big mirror and chairs, further in is a canteen and the sleeping rooms are after the canteen. Each sleeping room has 2 layers, bottom layers is sleeping capsules, with bed, comforter and curtain; the upper area is furnished with sleeping couches. I'm afraid of cold, so, I chose the capsule...
It's so comfortable, way beyond my expectation, I had a wonderful rest that night.
The next day, I woke up at 8am for my scrub. At first the lady wasn't very happy with me, because if I do my scrub the night before, she would has a better rest and can off from work at 6am. She asked me to soak myself in the pool for 20 minutes then sit in the steam room for 10 minutes, I never did this kind of scrub before, and I soaked myself in a wrong pool, should be in 43˚C, instead of 29˚C, I was shivering in the pool, then I lied on the bed with my towel on, and the lady raising her voice, one finger pointing at my towel, "what's the towel doing on your body?" Luckily it was very early where nobody was there yet, or I will be in deep deep shit of embarassment. She pulled my towel away (felt like being rapped, :( hehe) and started scrubing with a sponge, nothing else...
She was complaining why I did that in odd hour, complaining why my body was so cold (because I was in wrong pool)... then I said, "sorry, I'm not Taiwanese, I don't understand your hokkien". Wow, you never expected that the lady's mood can change so fast, she became so friendly, although the scrubing was still very rough, every now and then, she will pour hot water to keep my body warm enough for the scrub, and each time when she poured, I got a shock. You can never felt asleep or relax with this kind of scrub.
She started chatting with me, explaining the procedure, showing the dirt that she scrub out of my body (I never know I was that dirty, I scrub myself every fortnight), she even gave me discount!!! For me and my friend.
After scrub, I can feel my skin was like a newborn, very smooth and silky... So, don't look down on this traditional scrubing. The scrub costed NTD500, with the discount voucher that she gave me, my room stay was only NTD180, in total, NTD680 for a good rest and effective scrub. Wohoo...
Jo signed a massage + scrub, so, she has a free breaky, and we got to "steal" some food from her plate. Later that morning, we see ladies coming in for facial, reflexology, manicure, padicure... Although the type of business or the business setting is a bit old-fashion, but I would say, it's good enough and it's really a good "runaway/ get away" place for us. :) Next time if you has no idea where to stay? Give this a try, you will never regret.
