If you go ...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 09/26/2004 4:31 PM | Life

Getting there: A number of airlines, such as Garuda Indonesia, Eva Air and China Airlines, have direct flights from Jakarta to Taipei. Airfares average US$450 to $475 roundtrip. Tour packages are less expensive; a four-day tour package from Jakarta to Taipei, including hotels, local transportation, lunch and dinners, for example, sells for only about $700.

Eva Air, in cooperation with travel agents PT Dwidaya Tour and Travel and Mutiara Indah, offers tour packages in conjunction with special events, such as the celebration of the Double Tenth Day on Oct. 10.

Food: Taipei is a heaven for Chinese food lovers. Here, you can find a wide variety of Chinese food, each quite different both in aroma and taste. Chinese regional foods, such as from Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Hunan and Cantonese, are among the most popular in the country. Most Indonesians will find Cantonese food, similar to what they have tasted in Chinese restaurants back home, to their liking.

Western, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese dishes are also available in many Taipei restaurants. Various types of good but inexpensive restaurants can be found around the Xi Men Ting sidewalk market in downtown Taipei.

Accommodation: Taipei has a plenty of choices, from five-star hotels operated by international hotel chains to three-star accommodation. The room rate is between $150 to $185 a night, depending on their location, while those of three and four star hotels range between $50 and $95 a night.

Telephone: Public phones in Taipei and other parts of Taiwan are primarily the coin and card types. Coin phones accept coins in denominations of NT$1 and BT$10. There are two types of phone cards, but the most popular are IC cards which are available in NT$100, NT$200 and NT$300. The card can be used for international calls and is quite cheap compared to hotel phones. You can also use your Indonesian mobile but it will be quite expensive due to the roaming charges.

Currency: Taiwan's currency is called the New Taiwan dollar or NT$, which has five denominations in paper money and five in coins. The banknote comes in NT$2,000, NT$1,000, NT$200 and NT$100, while the coin denominations are NT$1, NT$5, NT$10, NT$20 and NT$50.

Foreign currencies can be exchanged at designated banks or certain hotels. Receipts are given when currency is exchanged, and they are needed for exchanging the unused NT dollars before departure.The currency's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is 0.33 cents or about Rp 285.

Transportation: In Taipei, public transportation is relatively cheap compared to other big cities. Taking a bus or a subway costs only about 50 U.S. cents, while an all-day subway pass is US$3.

-- Hendarsyah Tarmizi

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