Taipei | Highness Hotel Linkou | 07/08/2005 - Review

The Highness Hotel (Hua Hsia) is at a great location if you need to get to the science park located nearby. It's located opposite a hospital, in an area of medium scale commercial area. There are lots of eating places, and fast food restaurants are within walking distance. Supermarkets are located at almost every block, otherwise there's always 7-11. However, it isn't very close to Taipei, so if you want to be in the middle of action, this isn't the place to be.

I arrived just the day after the Matsa typhoon and it was raining the next day - eventhough it was a Sunday, I decided not to get wet just for a walkaround.

The room, as you can see is decorated with Chinese style furniture. At night, the room is too dim for my likinig, and the light above the study table doesn't help much. The bed and pillows provided are just adequate, not really very comfortable. Sun rise is at 6am so, couple that with the uncomfortable pillows, I was really tired at the end of my trip.

However it does come with unlimited broadband connection at no extra charges. And there are over 100 tv channels to choose from. I found that the HK Cantonese movies dubbed into Mandarin in Taiwan is actually quite entertaining - it didn't loose much of the originality and the voices doesn't seemed realistic. If you have watched the dubbed movies in Malaysia or Singapore, you would understand what I meant.

Breakfast was so-so. Since they start early, by the time I go downstairs at 0830, much of the food has been depleted. However, I was there for a week, so I basically managed to sample all of them. Coffee was the worst I had come across. It's so thin, you could see the cup - something like very dark tea!

Due to the fully booked flights, I could only fly back on Sunday. Again, there was a storm brewing in the south and I was adviced not to go sightseeing on Saturday just in case I get caught in the rain storm...so there I was in the hotel watching tv and snacking away.

OK, I guess if you have to come to this area, it would be for business and on that basis, it's good enough. Otherwise, there are better hotels to unwind.

Ciao.