Taipei Ximen BackPackers

Roughing it out with an international crowd

I stayed herd for 4 nights - 8 to 11 Nov 2008. Here's a quick review:

Strengths:
a) 5 mins' walk to Xi Men Ding MRT and the shopping area itself
b) Sufficient amenities nearby - there's a KFC for fast-food junkies, more than enough convenience stores, local eateries, bakeries.
c) Friendly staff manning the hostel - 2 girls actually, Jan and Ice. They provide info on what to eat, where to go, what not to do :)
d) The hostel is split into two buildings, 5 min from each other. The main one houses all shared acommodation and reception. There're large hand-drawn maps and loads of brochures to tell you where to go.
e) Free internet access (only one terminal). It's always a give-and-take situation. I stayed at the other block so staff will try to let me use it first.
f) The hostelites are international (trust me)
g) Clean. Surprisingly for a hostel, the room i stayed in (though en-suite) was clean. My room had a TV, fridge, hair-dryer, shampoo, bath foam and extra blanket which was very warm.
h) The express bus from the airport stops directly outside the hostel. I took Freego for NT120.

Improvement points:
a) the fact that there're two buildings housing different accommodations. All shared rooms are with the recep area in one building while all en-suite rooms are in another building. The en-suite building (it was on the 4th floor) was a little old and slight dirty. But once you get to the 4th floor, it's fine.

The next building is very close and had zinc roofs. It was raining when i was there so the rain on the zinc roof made quite a noise that I can't fall alseep.

b) For slightly about NT1210, i felt it wasn't worth the money. For NT1600, there're 2 hotels down the road.
c) Not many breakfast places to eat, even though i found an awesome Taiwanese coffee place (they roast their own) nearby.
d) the room was dim (think it was the lights) and made it dreary to stay (at least for me and my mom)

Unique Quality: I think i would've enjoyed hanging out with the other hostelites, as they're really from all over the world. The warmth of the staff Jan and Ice made things so much better.