Taiwan Trip 2012 - Journey to Taichung & Tomato Rooms

September 08, 2012

Taiwan Trip 2012 - Journey to Taichung & Tomato Rooms

And so begins my crazy travelling journey of the night. Due to my extreme lack of time I decided to travel from Hua Lien, back to Taipei using the normal express train and then to Taichung via High Speed Rail. Thanks to the speed of the trains I was able to achieve this feat in about 4 hours, considering I had to travel 350KM and had to accommodate some waiting time. I was waiting for the lady selling food to pass by in the HuaLien - Taipei train but it didn't materialise and I had to starve for 3 hours. Not a very pleasant journey.

Ticket price of the bullet train is NTD700 for one way @_@

The interior design of the HSR looks like the interior of an aeroplane

Maximum speed of about 270km/h was achieved!

At around 11pm I arrived at Taichung High Speed Rail. Not wanting to take the bus in the middle of the night, I opted to take a taxi. Be sure to head for the designated taxi waiting area though as there are many touts around which may be a rip off.

The taxi driver brought me to my hostel, Tomato Rooms which is in the vicinity of the famous Feng Jia night market and the total journey costed me about NTD300. This B&B is about 5-10 minutes walk away from the night market. A very big thank you to the taxi driver who ensured that the lady from the hostel picked me up (by using his own phone to call the hostel's number) because this hostel does not have any clear signboards indicating its exact whereabouts. Unfortunately, this hostel will cease its operation on 1st November 2012 and it is really a pity. Not sure why though. My theory is that since there's a university nearby and accommodation is hard to get thus the hostels are renting rooms out to students instead and can make a better profit..? ~~(Update 12/1/2013: A recent check on their facebook page shows that their hostels are still in business!) Anyway I really had a good night at this hostel and at a very reasonable price too!~~

(Update 2015: They are officially closed :( )

At about NTD1000, I got this:

Pretty big room I must say

Toilet

My room number

Outside view during the day

Security in this hostel is also very tight as you have to scan your card at 2 doors and even in the elevator before you can reach your room. I forgotten to lock my doors when I left for the night market and everything was still intact when I came back, thankfully.