Saturday, August 13, 2011

Taipei, 6-14Aug 2011

This was a business trip, which turned out to be a memorable holiday.

We stayed at Sheraton Taipei Hotel and it was perfect. Excellent breakfast buffet. French toast is very popular and there's perpetual queue in front of that counter. Easy access to all the good shopping areas. Electronics market is within walking distance (I didn't go there, but my friends did lot of shopping there and claimed that the prices of cameras & tablets were about 20% lower than in India). Shandao Train Station is nearby too if you want to use it.

Taipei is mecca for shoppers. I enjoyed shopping at following stores and markets for women's fashion:
1. New Sogo & Taipei 101 for Luxury Brands. You can find nice shoes for reasonable prices at New Sogo too.
2. Old Sogo and surrounding area for mid-range apparel, shoes and accessories.
3. Mitsukoshi - you can get instant VAT refund in the store itself on purchases of NTD3,000 or more. VAT refund can be claimed on the day of the invoice only and you'll need to present your passport. Plus there's the added convenience of submitting the VAT refund form for approval & verification at the airport before checking in. It's too much trouble for getting back 5% of the amount back, if you ask me.
4. Silk Market (i think it's WuFenPu, not sure) was the best if you want to shop for fabric for dresses, curtains, costumes... you name it, they have it. There are tailors too, in case you want to get something made immediately. Visit to the silk market was a revelation

We went to Shilin Night Market as well. It's supposed to be one of the bigger and popular night markets. I wasn't impressed. It was whole lot of junk at exorbitant prices.

All the department stores have food court, plus there are restaurants in all the shopping areas so finding food is not a problem.

If you walk into any market and foul smell hits you and makes you want to turn back and run... it's just stinky tofu. People love it here.

Sheraton offers 14 tours. We went on three half-day tours and they were all good.
1. Wulai aboriginal village tour - it included trip to wulai waterfall (it's about an hour's drive from the hotel... very beautiful), push-car ride, aborigine folk dance (it's an hour long prformance... gets interesting in the last 15 mins), stop at swallow lake for photos (lovely view).
2. Chiufen village & northeast coast tour - highlights were the drive by the coast, chiufen village market where you can get custom-made shoes, two-colored bay, and the rock formations.
3. Northern coast tour - rock formations in yehliu park were interesting.

Monday, January 17, 2011

5 Days Spa Vacation in Jordan!

I was looking for a spa vacation package and I stumbled upon this great 5 day spa package by Movenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea. I booked the package online, worked out the schedule for my 11 spa treatments with the spa team and booked airport pickup & day excursions with the travel desk - the entire process worked like a breeze. I got the visa on arrival for 10JOD.

Movenpick is a beautiful Arabian Village resort with a lovely beach (yeah, you can really float in dead sea and read magazine :)). The Deluxe room was very spacious & comfortable.
















The food at the resort was sinful! The Arabian Wrap at 'The Village Cafe' was to die for. Their main restaurant Al Saraya serves multi-cuisine buffet for breakfast, lunch & dinner. It's hard not to overeat. Plus you can have movenpick ice cream for FREE any time of the day!

Then there was the whole Zara Spa experience which was unreal. I loved almost all the treatments: Thalgo Facial, Hot & Cold Stone Massage, Sea Salt Scrub & Relaxing Mud Wraps, Oriental Massage, Swedish Massage, Pedicure, Manicure, Hydrobath Therapy, Aroma Therapy Massage...

I had set aside full day for shopping in Amman and I was sorely disappointed. The two malls I visited, Mecca Mall & Abdoun Mall didn't have much to offer in terms of variety & quality of women's apparel, shoes & accessories. BTW, there were hardly any people in the mall on a Sunday - agreed it's a working day for them, but still malls are supposed to be buzzing with shoppers! There's a lot to see and do in Amman, so i intend to go back for more (soon I hope!). The dining experience at the hilltop Kan Zaman Castle Restaurant was nice.














 
I went on a day trip to Petra, the ancient city known for it's rock cut architecture. The site is 17kms across. That means you can easily spend couple of days exploring it. It makes for a good trekking excursion. The walk thru' the gorge (Siq) & the amphitheater cut into the hillside was awe-inspiring. Again I need to go back for a longer visit. The right way to enjoy Petra is to go on the night tour that happens every  Monday, Wednesday & Thursday from 8:30pm-10:00pm. And then spend the next day exploring the site. There's Movenpick Hotel in Petra too. The traditional Jordanian food at the "Magic Restaurant" is not to be missed!

 (Courtesy: Wikipedia)















There are two access routes to Petra from Dead Sea. One is the desert highway which takes about ~3.5hrs each way ,and the other is the Dana Nature Reserve route that takes about ~5hrs onward and ~3.5 hrs or so return. The Dana Nature Reserve route is incredibly scenic. You have to see it to believe it.

Last but not the least, Ma'in Spa, thermal mineral springs. It's about an hour's drive from Dead Sea. Again the route is very scenic with some breath taking views of the lush green mountains & Dead Sea. Three waterfalls were open to public. Apparently there are others that are reserved for Spa guests only. The water was deliciously hot, for a cold winter day!















All in all, it was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to go back for more!