Third accommodation in Taiwan, this one is contributed by San!

In many ways this is an interesting one. Taipei doesn't have things like minsu, because of the tourist appeal the govt probably thinks its better to protect the hotel industry there and so minsu are sort of not allowed there. But many owners manage to find their way around this rule...creating the so-called 住宿套房....basically operating without a hotel license, they appear to be renting out their properties to tenants (which actually means tourists). So either the governing body is really oblivious to their existence (because o quick search on Google reveals so many of these places) or they just close one eye.

Our initial choices include a couple of hotels and this one...haha this one looks more appealing to me coz got amenities like washing machine and dryer. And location is great. Turns out that the dryer isn't working when we were there..oh well. But did make full use of the washing machine wash dirty laundry from the previous days and to prepare for the rest of our trip. Washing powder is also provided. In short the owner was right, tourists prefer to stay in this kind of accommodation sometimes coz they know quite well what tourists need...umbrellas, slippers etc also provided. Which came in pretty handy because we were in the midst of the typhoon season. No breakfast provided which isn't really an issue coz there were many breakfast places in Taipei. Anyway we ended up sleeping in everyday.

We reached late on Tuesday night....landlady, 茱丽姐, was rather chatty and we stood there chatting for a while after checking in as she explained the concept of 住宿套房 in Taipei and tips on our upcoming destinations. Room was supposed to be 3 pax only, but she removed the sofa set from the room and moved in a double decker, in addition to the existing single bed and queen sized bed so that it can fit 5 pax instead. So a tad cramped and not too much moving space but I suppose its still manageable.






Back to the "illegal" feel of this place...you don't find any signboards pointing us to the place. Entrance from ground floor look like a shop house..tap transponder to access the lift...pretty standard. Then when we reach our floor...suddenly it looks like a hotel corridor. Rows of room, each room door is fitted with a passcode lock in addition to the standard lock. Tight security hahah. Visited the McNair ppl when they were forced to detour to Taipei for a night and their's have even more layers of security lol.

Total damage, around NT$8400 for four nights, includes extra charges for aircon coz it's summer. Greatest strength is the location, right smack in the middle of 西门町 though I am not reli sure if there are any other around in the same area. McNair ppl's one is 15min walk from ours, and I think their's not too bad too. Bu basically, it's simple, just a place for us to rest after long days outside...so nothing too fancy. Yep.

Labels: taiwan