Howard International House Taipei

Hubby and I spent our first night in Taipei at Howard International House Taipei since our plane landed at 10:30PM local time, a tad too late to be meeting with any landlord ^.^ We also went with their airport pick up service since we didn't want to have to deal with public transportation, not knowing when the last train/bus stops running and such. Let's just say thank goodness we did, because by the time we got our luggage, it was already 11:30PM and the poor driver had been waiting for 1 hour! The ride (in a poshy Mercedes ^.^) from the airport to the hotel was another 30 minutes, and when we got to our room, it was 12:30AM on the dot! 

This Howard International House Taipei was among the several hotels recommended by my school, and I picked it solely for its proximity to our apartment. Aside from the pretty pictures on their website, I could only think of the timing and location and left hubby to make the reservation for us via email in since my Mandarin isn't exactly up to snuff (...yet :P). When we got to our room though, we were both pleasantly surprised to have gotten a huge suite with a queen bed ^.^ Not sure how that happened since we didn't exactly pay an arm or a leg both the room as well as the airport pick up ride.

But let me tell you, it was so so so nice to have such a space after spending the previous 24 hours shuffling around airports! We flew Eva Air for the first time, and it was a quite a decent experience, especially when the flight was half full and we got a whole row of seat to ourselves xD Yet even so we still felt compressed and cramped and this hotel room and all its glorious space was a godsend!

It wasn't just the space we loved. The bed was firm and comfortable, and most important of all, there were no bugs ^.^ We checked very carefully. 

Both the room and the bathroom was clean, well kept, and well lit.

We were on the 13th floor and this was the view from our window :)

Breakfast the next morning was really decent too. There was a huge buffet with a bunch of local and Western choices.

I went for the local stuff since I already had my fill Western style breakfast all my life. I got hot soy milk and steamed bun with sweet red bean paste (anko), although it was nowhere as sweet as its Japanese counterpart. They were so yummy I went back for a second round, this time getting some porridge (粥) with pickled squash and cut fried dough stick (油條), and brown sugar steamed bun (饅頭). 

Oh, and they had star fruits! It's been more than a decade since I last had star fruits! What a way to start our trip in Taipei ^.^ Love it!