Travel Blog: Taiwan Trip Preparations - Taiwan Tourism Board Singapore Office

Anyone traveling to Taiwan should and must visit the Taiwan Tourism Board Singapore Office before they depart for the beautiful island. Why is that so? For the kiasu Singaporean, there are plenty of freebies to redeem. The types of freebies change once in a while, so do call their office and enquire on what freebie you would be getting before you go down to their office. However, the redemption of freebies is only applicable to those doing free and easy. From what we understand, the freebies are usually bus vouchers or discounted tickets for entry to theme parks. Specific supporting documents are required to be presented for the redemption of freebies, please check with the Taiwan Tourism Board Singapore Office before going down as they may change their requirements.

During our last two trips to Taiwan in 2015 and 2016, we redeemed free one-way bus vouchers, which saved us NT$115, which was about S$5 per pax. And for both trips, we were also given discounted tickets to the Window On China Theme Park (小人国). Definitely worth a trip down to Raffles Place to pick up these freebies, since the office is so centrally located right in the middle of CBD at Chevron House.

Who doesn't like freebies?

Well, if you're not into freebies and just want maps, brochures and information, there are plenty of those for the whole of Taiwan, or by region. It certainly is a good place to start if you're headless as to how to prepare for a free and easy tour to Taiwan. Sometimes you might even find free keychains, souvenirs and other interesting items at the office. Yes, souvenirs even before you are in Taiwan! So, let's go! What are you waiting for?

Taiwan Tourism Board Singapore Office
Website: http://www.taiwantourismsg.com/
Operating Hours: Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 5pm, excluding weekends and public holidays
Address: Chevron House #10-01, 30 Raffles Place, S(048622)
Tel: 6223-6546
Email Address: tbrocsin@singnet.com.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TTBSIN/

Tip: Visit their Facebook page before going down to their office to find out the latest freebies they are giving away.



How to get to Taiwan Tourism Board Singapore Office?

Take an MRT train to Raffles Place station.
Take either Exit A or B and you will see Chevron House on your left or right.
Take the very prominent long escalator up to the security counter and exchange for a pass.
The security guards will direct you to the leftmost gantry to enter.
Take the lift up to the 10th floor.
You've reached TTB Singapore Office!

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Foodie Review: Picnic @ Wisma Atria

We found this new and interesting restaurant at Wisma Atria by chance when we were passing by. Decided to give it a go since it is a brand new restaurant. At first glance, it looked like the same concept as that of Marche. And true enough, after looking through the map at the entrance, it is indeed a place full of food trucks. Yes, stalls were designed like food trucks with each selling a different variety of food such as Taiwanese, Western, Japanese, Korean and Mexican. The best thing was how they introduced technology and cashless concept from the ordering to the notification that your food is ready for collection, and of course payment. All you need is the "buzzer".

The buzzer is a handheld device that everyone gets when they enter the restaurant, regardless of whether you are the one ordering the food. The buzzer is almost the size of a smartphone. When you are ready to order food from a stall, simply use the touchscreen menu at each stall and select the item you want, place the buzzer on the reader, and your item gets prepared by the staff. You get a receipt from the reader and happily go back to your seat and wait for the buzzer to...buzz. When your food is ready, it even shows you the name of the item and the stall you need to go to for collection of your order. Pretty neat concept. It totally eliminates the need for patrons to queue at each stall, forming long queues and causing a human jam.

And right at the end, at the exit, you return the buzzer to the staff, who lets the machine read off the items you have ordered using that buzzer, before telling you the final amount for payment.

This is how technology improves a dining experience.

We checked out every single menu at each stall and finally decided to order some beef bulgogi tacos from the Korean food stall, mentaiko spaghetti from the pizza and pasta stall, and nutella crepe from the dessert stall.

One thing we noticed was that since almost everyone seems to be new to this concept, everyone would be hogging the one and only touch-screen menu at each stall, scrolling through the menu, before deciding whether or not to even order an item. People might be queuing behind in frustration to find someone at the front of the queue taking their own sweet time scrolling through the menu and end up walking off not ordering anything. The management should probably ensure all stalls contain a physical menu as well. This would prevent a first-time customer taking a long time in front of each touchscreen, and worse if there was a long queue behind them and they decided not to order anything after browsing.

Time to have a picnic!

Let's order some food with this buzzer.

Japanese food stall.

Mexican food stall.

Korean and Taiwanese.

Pastas and pizzas.

Desserts for those with a sweet tooth.

And some pies to go along.

And cupcakes too.

We decided on nutella crepes instead.

A very cosy atmosphere.

Oh! "Your crepe is ready", says our buzzer.

The Nutella Crepe was the first to be ready, which was kind of expected. It was quite a huge piece folded into quarter size, filled with not-so-generous serving of nutella in between and over the top, but still a satisfying dessert.

Freshly made Nutella Crepe $6

Next to be ready was the Beef Bulgogi Tacos from the Korean food stall. This dish was amazing! We loved the taste of the succulent beef bulgogi with the generous serving of veggies. There was also some salad at the side. Loved the combination, but would be better if they provided more beef bulgogi.

Beef Bulgogi Tacos $17 - our favourite item.

Nice quote on the wall.

Last item was the Mentaiko Pasta from the Flour & Water, or the 'Pastas and Pizzas' stall. This was a very disappointing dish as the spaghetti was kinda tough and really dry. There was a generous amount of mentaiko but too little seaweed. Not really an enjoyment to our taste buds.

We didn't really enjoy the Mentaiko Pasta $18 as it was too tough.

A bar area to order drinks like coffee, beer and cocktails.

Finally, when it was time to leave, we proceeded to the exit area where there were four payment machines. All we had to do was to return the buzzer to the staff, who would let the machine read the items off the buzzer, then bill us.

The payment area.

And that concludes our first experience at Picnic. A new experience and definitely worth a try. Our only complaint was that they could probably come up with more dishes/varieties and have more stalls. Also, the mentaiko pasta had to be improved. Something worth complimenting was the way the stalls were designed, the cosy atmosphere and the beautiful decor, and of course the wonderful buzzer. And there was no service charge, so only 7% GST on the final bill.

Website: http://www.picnicsg.com/

Address:
Wisma Atria, #03-15
435 Orchard Road

Singapore 238877

Opening hours: 10am to 10pm (trucks start at 11am, last order at 9.30pm)

Tel: +65 6734 8352

Email: hello@picnicsg.com

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Cool Concerts: Beautiful Sunday - Symphonic Broadway

It's another Beautiful Sunday and another concert by the Singapore Wind Symphony Youth Winds. This time they bring us Symphonic Broadway, giving us hits from Broadway like Miss Saigon and Les Miserables. Momo Dear is a fan of Les Miserables and very much wanted to listen to its songs. Therefore we rushed down to Esplanade to catch these talented musicians perform these hits. Other songs from Annie and My Fair Lady were performed too. We were not familiar with these songs but enjoyed the performance nonetheless.

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Cool Concerts: Beautiful Sunday - Dreams of Disney by Mus’Art Youth Wind Orchestra

Dear was looking forward to this for a long time. Being a fan of everything cute, like Disney characters, she wanted to attend this concert by hook or by crook. We went to the Esplanade as early as 2pm to queue up for good seats. Therefore we got the seats we wanted at the Circle 1 area, which offered a much higher view of the stage area. It definitely gave a much better view than those at the foyer area.

This time round, it was a full-house. Even the seats behind the performers were used, as can be seen in this picture. This was the first time we witnessed such an attendance that they actually opened up those seats behind.

Cute Mickey ears on almost every performer.

And once the performers marched in, we could see almost every one of them wearing some cute little Mickey ears to go with the theme.

Dear really enjoyed herself as they played songs from many famous Disney cartoons like The Lion King, Tangled, and of course the most popular animation to date, Frozen. Wonderful performance by these youngsters.

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Cool Concerts: Beautiful Sunday - Symphonic G-on! by AudioImage Wind Ensemble

We finally got to watch a Beautiful Sunday concert. The last time we wanted to watch a Beautiful Sunday concert back in January, we missed the entry time by ten minutes or so. This time round, we reached at 2:20pm, about forty minutes before the concert started. It's a free concert, therefore it's recommended that you reach at least an hour before the concert starts. We were ushered into the Esplanade Theatre around 2:30pm, and proceeded to choose the seats of our liking. It's our umpteenth time watching a concert at the Esplanade Theatre.

Another Beautiful Sunday!

Freaking awesome performances for the day. The songs were based on games from the past to present, such as Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time medley, Sonic the Hedgehog medley, Super Mario Brothers medley, The Planet's Crisis and One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7, Pokemon medley and even a medley of current smartphone smash hits like Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies, Clash of Clans, Candy Crush. Truly an awesome experience for a gamer like me who has played almost all of the games that were featured. Really look forward to the next concert featuring games.

Solo performance on an ocarina!

Thank you AudioImage Wind Ensemble.

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