Checking into Far eastern hotel Taipei

Due to a Travel package offer, we decided to stay at Far Eastern Shangri Hotel instead of my ususal Le Suite Taipei.

One of the most distinct thing I missed from Le Suite is the use of free mobile phone, which i can make free calls. It was super convenient for me back then to be able to call the hotel concegiere at the push of one button if I had wanted to know where to go and have my fav food. It was really service at a touch of a button.

In Far Eastern, my first impression wasnt that great. We arrived at about 12pm and there was a mob of other check in guests due to some seminar. I was told my room wasnt ready but she will upgrade me and I should come back 1.5 hrs later. We left our bags with the bell boy and I bundled my husband into a cab and swiftly off to taipei 101 to get that done and over with.

We ended up having Japanese lunch at the top floor. I didnt want to ruin my appetite for my hotpot dinner later so I ordered a small sushi platter. My husband as typical man, refuse to heed my advice that it was too much and went ahead to order an udon noodle set for himself. (which did ruin his dinner appetite afterall)
The ironical thing was when my chef was preparing sushi platter came, my husband got all "jealous" that mine looked so inviting. As we were at our counter seat, the chef overheard my husband's playful indignant cries and started laughing when we started to banter, where I obviously refuse to share any of my sushi with my husband. I told the chef to proceed in helping me to "taunt" my husband in mandarin “请你继续吧！让他羡慕死吧！哈哈” The chef laughed and commented that my husband can always order another one which I explained he shant due to our early dinner reservations.

Of course, in the end, being the "dutiful" wife as I am, I split some of my sushi in half for my greedy guts husband to "appease" his gluttony guts. :)

We went back to the hotel 2 hours later, giving the hotel an extra half hour from the advised time. To my horror, I was told my room wasnt ready. Now, this really wasnt what I was expecting. In Le Suite, my room would always be ready before I am back, not to mention with the extra half hour I had given Far Eastern. I asked how long more I had to wait, and it ended up another 30mins wait. My husband was so dead tired (from all his biz trip flying and morning flight) that he fell asleep in the lobby lounge sofa. I was obviously not in my best mood either though I tried to be as understanding as possible. Still, I dont like to be "lied" to.

The room was unusually big and spacious. We had an extra living room area wih sofa set where the floor area could easily fit another kind size bed in the room and prob throw in another single bed and still have space to walk around. It was crazy that size.

The Tv however isnt plasma and kinda placed in a weird angle that can get pretty tirin to watch from the bed. What was the worst was the temperature. The room was perpetually freezing and the thermostat in the room didnt seem to work. We turn it up to 26degree and it still felt like freezing Antartic pole. However, under the bed quilt, it was all nice and warm and inviting to sleep. Just that everymoring we had to pile on the layers before shooting out of our room and bask ourselves in Taipei sunny warmth.

Housekeeping was efficient as well. The hotel has a rather nice rooftop view where the pool is.We get to see a good niteview of the city as well as Taipei 101 at nite with the lights all turned on. The pool is nicely deep at 1.95m but it so freaking warm that you cannot really do serious lap swims.

However lobby staff.... hmm.. receptionist isnt all warm and friendly, and concerige staff isnt all knowledgeable in the best travel time and methods. Other than that, the hotel is kinda out of the way from everything and a good 10mins walking distance from the nearest train station. Given a choice, I prob wont head back to this hotel in a hurry.