Hotel Puri : Taipei Station

For our Taipei Trip, we decided to stay at Hotel Puri, Taipei Station. It was about 10 minutes walk from Taipei station. We booked a standard twin room for 2 adults. While we were searching for our accommodation, we noticed that most affordable rooms in Taipei are dormitory style with shared bathroom. We wanted a room where we have privacy, own bathroom but still at an affordable price. I think Hotel Puri is the only one that fits these criteria. 

Location: 

Location is near the central station. It is around 10 minutes walk from the station. There are several 7/11 shops around and small restaurants / food stalls where you can buy your meals.

Price: 

I think the price for this is really great. We paid P5,478.86 (144 AUD) for 2 nights standard twin room with private bathroom. There were 2 single bed, safety box, water heater (for tea), complimentary tea bags, coffee, and water. 

Cleanliness: 

The room is very clean. They also do the beddings every day, change towels and refill the supplies. 

Others:

There is no breakfast included for this booking but they do have a mini pantry/kitchen near the reception area. There you can get extra water, tea, coffee and they have snacks available in the morning. I think I saw cereals, milk, and popcorn there (didn't go there for breakfast because we always eat out). If you arrive earlier than the standard check-in time, they allow guest to leave their luggage at the hotel. We did advise them that we might come back late and they said it's ok to do late check-in because they already have our luggage in their storage. Overall, I think this is a great place to stay at an affordable price and does not sacrifice privacy.😁

Taipei : Maokong Gondola

The Maokong Gondola has three (3) stops. Taipei Zoo Station, Zhinan Temple Station, and Maokong Station.

First stop, Taipei Zoo Station. We stayed and went around the zoo for about 2 hours. We didn't spend a lot of time here because our main reason for going is to experience riding the "Gondola" 😉. I'll post the picture from the zoo in a separate blog post. 

We also went down at Zhinan Temple Station because we saw the Giant Dragon Statue from the gondola. We thought since we're already there, why not take some pictures with the dragon? (Insert Dragon Ball Z OST here!😀). The station is still far from the actual temple. There are a lot of Taxis waiting near the station though. So if you're planning on going to the temple and haven't arranged a service in advance, you can take the taxi here. We didn't bother to check how much they are charging. We are in a hurry to get back to the Gondola to reach Maokong Station. 😁

Finally, after 2 stops, we reached Maokong Station! There is a tourist information centre inside the station. There is also a convenience store and several souvenir shops. However, the best part is across the street from the station. They have lots of different tea houses offering a variety of food and drinks. The whole road (maybe about 1-2 km) is filled with tea houses. If you are not keen on walking, there is a big food court (hawker-centre style) just a few minutes from the station. We tried their oyster pancake, milk tea, and lemon tea. The oyster pancake was so yummy! You can also try this pancake at Raohe Night Market. We saw several stores selling it there as well.