Mia's Taiwan Travelogue: Jia's Inn Liouhe

This is my 2nd time travelling to Taiwan and yet again, it's a brief (overnight) stop at Kaohsiung after we touched down at Taoyuan airport before we head off for Alishan. After researching intensively on our accommodation, we decided on Jia's Inn Liouhe. 

Located somewhere in between Formosa Boulevard Station and City Council Station on the Kaohsiung Metro, you can choose to change lines at Formosa Boulevard station to get to City Council station (if you're coming from the TSHR/TRA) and exit from Exit 4 for a slightly shorter walking route. Otherwise, take Exit 11 directly from Formosa Boulevard, locate the Liouhe Tourist Night Market (towards your left) and walk right through the entire bustling stretch of stalls and Jia's Inn will eventually be on your right.

You'll be greeted by a couple of white statues that's the perfect combination of creepiness and quirkiness as you enter from the main door.

After a confirming on the breakfast location and wifi password with the friendly staff at the concierge, we headed up the lift to our rooms, and like most boutique hotels, it was relatively quiet and peaceful along the corridors and lobby. A big reason why I shun 'big hotels' is because of the crowd that can get pretty rowdy when vying for the precious, limited space in the perceptually full lifts.

We were extremely happy with our rooms, that's both cozy and pretty! Really love the small couch beside our bed. It's a shame that we're only staying here for one night. 

TV was clear and had a decent selection of Mandarin & English (movie) channels. And yes, that's my pink luggage that's very easy to spot on the luggage belt. T actually spotted it 3 belts away (but I actually said it's not my luggage). 

Didn't get to try out the complementary drinks, but those salted veggie crackers actually do taste pretty good, like the double decker crackers. 

The bathroom, though without a bathtub (meaning no playing of bath bombs), was still well equipped with standing rain shower and the necessities like hair dryer, disposable toothbrushes, shavers and shower caps. 

And the breakfast place (the hotel's bistro) is just plain awesome. 

The setup can totally get it listed as some top 20 hipster cafes in Singapore or something. 

The choice of food was pretty limited and mediocre. It doesn't really bothers me much through, since I'm more of a buttered toast with coffee morning person. 

A plus point of Jia's Inn Liouhe is that you have the Liouhe Tourist Night Market (almost) at your doorstep! The crowd at the night market is also much more bearable as compared to the night markets in Taipei. And for Liouhe night market, I'll highly recommend visiting for a seafood feast! 

The garlic scallop on shell was a big disappointment due to an overload of garlic with extremely fishy and slightly undercooked roe. It was quite a horrifying experience for me and I gagged on it. Fortunately there was a big cup of bubble milk tea for me to wash away the nausea. The clam also tasted slightly raw, but it wasn't unpleasant for they're really fresh. As for the salt-grilled big head prawns and mantis prawns, they were simply heavenly! If you're passing by Liouhe Night Market, do not forget to grab a few of these yummy prawns for supper! 

For booking of Jia's Inn Liouhe, visit booking.com, hotels.com, agoda.com or expedia.com for better deals!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Bangkok Travelogue: Cacha Hotel Bangkok

Yes, I went to Bangkok for some senseless shopping and cafehopping once again to celebrate my new found (1 week's worth of) unemployment!

This time round, I found another interesting looking boutique hotel, Cacha Hotel, located around the Pratunam area, along Petchburi Road and about 15 minutes walk from Ratchathewi BTS. Though not conveniently located at the 'best' area (eg. in the middle of pratuman market), you can still get to major shopping places like Pratunam and Siam area on foot. 

But we did cabbed to Pratunam Market on our last day in Bangkok (to save time) and it cost us 40 baht on meter. 

And true to some reviews I've found along the way, the concierge isn't the most welcoming one you can find, but they're also not the most lacking in courtesy I've experienced. Something to note is the luggage deposit right beside the concierge counter. There's no form of acknowledgement or registration to deposit or withdraw your luggage and on both times we collected our luggage, the staff at the concierge didn't even bother to give us a look. So, to be on the safe side, keep all your valuables with you while you leave your belongings at their luggage deposit. 

Didn't get to try their in-house cafe food as our reservation does not come with breakfast. But due to their location, there's really no need to get their breakfast as there's a cluster of hippie eating places right beside Ratchathewi BTS and if you believe your stomach is strong enough, you can try out the entire stretch of roadside stalls that lined the way from the BTS station to Cacha Hotel. 

Cacha actually means "elephant" in Thai, which explains the hotel logo and many other motifs of elephant all around the hotel. The hotel was converted from an old shophouse, and combines the unique style of the industrial look of modern Thai design with the rustic charm of wooden logs taken from an old railway, which were used to build their hand-drilled bed heads, floors and rooftop.

To create a truly unique and atmospheric art hotel, Cacha collaborated with 7 renowned SEA street artists to create the beautiful artwork featured in all the rooms and public areas of the hotel. 

Really love the motif on the wall.

And the rustic bedside lamp that is on a rotating hinge. 

The bathroom comes equipped with shower gel and shampoo, but no shower caps, toothbrushes or toothpaste were provided. 

The hot water was exceptionally easy to tweak, and the temperature transition smooth and comfortable. I know how exasperating it can be when the shower either wants to cook you alive or freeze you to death.

Other than having no bathtub, one item we wished we had was the mini fridge. Other than not being able to have icy cold drinks at any time we fancy, the deluxe room we had was really nice, clean and comfortable. Although there's no fanciful selection of TV channels on the TV, we were still able to enjoy clear channels of HBO, AXN, and Discovery (however, with the programmes dubbed in Thai).

The room also got slightly too dim at night (there should be another ceiling light above the bed for a more comfortable LUX level) and we cannot possibly keep the curtains opened as we're only on the 2nd storey and our balcony faces the driveway of the neighbouring building, stationed with a security guard/traffic controller all ready to make eye contact and wave hello at you.

But, just the slight dimness and lack of cold drinks readily available doesn't minus off much brownie points Cacha Hotel has earned with their unique blend of art, modern Thai design and timeless local culture, and the tranquil peacefulness of the whole hotel in general. T really appreciate the tranquility of the place after staying at Baiyoke Sky Suites during his previous Bangkok trip. (Hint: Snatching places in the lift with tons of rowdy Chinese tourists)

Cacha Art Hotel Bangkok is located at 156/5-9 Petchburi Road, Ratchathewi.
For more information, visit their website HERE

For booking of Cacha Hotel, visit booking.com, hotels.com, agoda.com or expedia.com for better deals!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Travelogue - Bangkok: Budacco Hotel

Yes, it's yet another travel log from me. But since it's the ever so familiar Bangkok, I shall not do any day by day detailed run through of my itinerary but just pick out special 'landmarks' or areas to do a review. And so I shall start off with the most important place of my 4D3N trip, my hotel!

Budacco - The Living Place. 

Apparently, this small boutique hotel is very not well known, even among locals and even unknown to the stallholders tending stalls merely 20 metres away. =.="

We hopped onto a taxi from the airport and the driver totally gave us a blank face and say, "Budacco, I don't know! Big hotel, I know. Small hotel, many, I don't know!" 

And so, we gave him Budacco front desk number and he got directions from the hotel staff himself, and yet.... we still couldn't find the hotel. 

In the end, the driver, who was near a mental breakdown, called the hotel again and the friendly and helpful staff actually came out to fetch us. Taxi fare on meter (with slightly slow traffic) from the airport, with addition of airport surcharge and toll fee, amounts to THB $300. 

If you're thinking of staying at Budacco Hotel, rest assured that the location is actually very good, within walking distance to Pratunam Market, Platinum Mall, Palladium Mall, Shibuya 19, and the entire stretch of other malls. If you're feeling the lack of exercise, you can continue walking along the BTS trackway and get to Siam area too. But really not advisable with Bangkok's unforgiving hot weather. 

Nevertheless, getting to the hotel for the first time might be slightly challenging. My tip is, get the taxi driver to drop you at Baiyoke Hotel, at the road that house Indra Square and entrance to Pratunam Market as well, and walk in yourself. Walk from Indra Square down to Baiyoke Hotel, and turn left at the first junction and then right at the first small lane. You will pass by some bag and watch stalls, Indian restaurant and Blue Spa Massage before coming to Budacco Hotel located right at the end.

 I was pretty surprise to find the lobby and cafe so small. It looks so much bigger on the photographs on their website. Turns out it's all wide-lens at work. Hahaha!

The corridor is pretty well lit with the bright wall light right at the door.

Once again, wide-lens' work on the website photos. But we still really liked the room for it's clean and cosy. Look at those towels folded into an elephant on the bed! How cute! :)

As for the bathroom, as though there's no long bath, we're still given a good handheld shower with heater function.

There's also cute bottles of shampoo and body wash, along with cotton buds and shower cap provided by the wash basin.

And right in between the wash basin and bathroom area lies the wardrobe with clean bathrobes and a safe provided. :)

Their breakfast is pretty decent, though not fantastic. There's a small variety of food that comprises of Thai food staple (Thai style rice and noodles), western breakfast like sausage, ham and mashed potatoes, toasts, cereals and yoghurt. Their breakfast coffee is pretty decent too! 

So was their Iced Coffee from the cafe menu. Haha, we were too hungry to venture out to find food when we check in and so we decided to try out their cafe food.

 Green Curry with Chicken

This is again, pretty decent, but we could have gotten better tasting yet much cheaper green curry elsewhere. They're quite generous with the ingredient, but I would have preferred it to be spicier and of thicker consistency.

Breaded Chicken Cutlet

Quite enjoyed this. But once again, unless you're dying of hunger and doesn't mind paying Singapore pricing for Bangkok food, do try this out.

For booking of Budacco Hotel, visit booking.com, hotels.com, agoda.com or expedia.com for better deals!

Till then,
Mia

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