Name: Flower Heart Bed and Breakfast
Address: No.92, Fuji Rd., Hualien, Hualien, Hualien, 97068, Taiwan
Rating: 10

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Hualien Airport

Flower Heart Bed and Breakfast

Hualien

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Hualien has many minsus, it's unbelievable. My friend and I finally settled on this minsu based on the excellent reviews by other reviewers, and we absolutely did not regret one bit. 花漾蓮芯民宿 is conveniently located behind the train station. It's a comfortable 5-6 minutes walk from the station. If you inform ah-yee early enough, she will pick you up at the station. 

Ah Yee and her husband are passionate Hualien folks. When we arrived, she literally sat us down, and explained the landscape and possible itineraries. She even has her own map of hualien, indicating where the good food are located. A quick tip: take a photo of the map. It is VERY useful. As my friend and I had not planned anything for a 3 night stay, ah yee immediately offered us a few itineraries and options - bus/ cab. We decided to rent a cab for 2 days, to explore places like taroko gorge, liyu lake, yunshanshui, shitiping etc. Great decision, it made the whole journey so much more pleasant and enjoyable. Just remember not to go to this charcoal factory because both of us got bitten by many insects! 

Besides the warm hospitality from the hosts, another highlight of the minsu was definitely the breakfast. I rate their breakfast as the best throughout our entire taiwan trip. The wholesome, pretty, hearty breakfast comes with a massive salad, thick toast, eggs, fruits and soy bean drink/ soup. Ah yee very thoughtfully waited for us to be ready for breakfast before serving, so that breakfast would be served hot. 

The minsu has a number of rooms, each decorated differently. The room we had was clean, comfy and cutely decorated. The bed was a tad too soft for our liking though. The laminate flooring might be a little slippery, so just be careful when you walk. Take note that you will need to climb up a flight of stairs to the rooms. I did notice that there is one room on the ground floor, may be better for the older folks. 

Oh, almost forgot to mention. Ah Yee lent us her bicycles to cycle around town, which we did. Well, you do need to be pretty skilled to cycle there, especially during the peak hours, as traffic can be quite heavy. You will need to navigate around the cars, trucks, and motorcycles. So just exercise extra caution when cycling. The drivers are all quite patient though, which was a great help to us. 

Another tip, remember to buy lots of fruits in Hualien. It's so much fresher and cheaper compared to Taipei. And stay in 花漾蓮芯民宿, you won't regret it. We didn't.

hualien 花漾蓮芯民宿 filled with love

Zan Ah Yi (the owner) was very nice to offer us a lift from the train station when we reached Hua Lien, even though it was actually a 5-7 mins walk. In addition, she also offered to help us book a one-day tour to Taroko Gorge (even though I felt that this Taroko tour wasn't as good as the one which I went 5 years back). 
We booked 2 rooms as we had 4 people and 1 of the rooms was upgraded to the bigger room (Japanese style room). The room was spacious but the mattress was soft and caused my back to have a backache. 
Breakfast was provided and was home-cooked breakfast, with toast, fruits and vegetables and was tasty.
Overall, the Ah Yi was friendly and willing to help us wherever she could.
However, I would like to try other min su when I go back to Hua Lien next time.

Friendly Ah Yi and near to train station

My companion and I decided to book this minsu since it had such rave reviews from everyone here. After reading so many reviews on how helpful and warm Ah Yee was and how delicious the breakfast was, our expectations were set pretty high. Unfortunately we were disappointed.

THE ROOM
The room is relatively spacious. We were allocated the Bali Romance room for 2 (the orange room in the picture above). The room is reasonably clean, and the aircon works well. The shower has a good water flow but is positioned at an angle such that the water shoots out at the wall instead of at you. The beds are not made daily, although towels and amenities are replaced. One thing that did impress me was that they provided disposable amenities like a shower cap and toothbrushes. The en suite toilet is of a good size. The bed, however, was terrible - it was slanted, for some reason, and after a few nights there I had a backache that's lasted for since the trip until now (approx 2 weeks). If you're ok with a slanted bed, however, it's soft and otherwise comfortable. There is a hairdryer in the room as well - a good quality one, I might add. There are sufficient powerpoints to charge 3 devices at once. Our room had frosted glass panels in the wall that let in the light from the corridor. I found it too bright to sleep. The lack of windows also made it quite claustrophobic. 

THE BREAKFAST
The breakfast changes daily, but out of 2 of the 3 days we ate breakfast, we did not find the food to our liking. The first day was tuna with toast, salad with strawberry sauce and a hard boiled egg. The toast was very dry and fishy. My companion and I ate most of it to be polite. The second day was good, thick toast with pizza filling, with the same salad and egg, only this time the salad came with some other unidentifiable sauce. The third day was strange again - huge dumplings (in Chinese, 锅贴) with the same salad and egg, this time with the strawberry sauce from the first day. 

HELPFULNESS
Positive point was that Ah Yee picked us up from the station and accomodated us despite our late arrival. She arranged for someone else to pick us up however, and we were quite surprised to see a man waiting for us instead of Ah Yee. Where tours and itinerary was concerned, she was helpful, but we found out later that this was because she gets a commission from arranging these tours. However, when it came to more mundane stuff, we didn't find her particularly helpful. We had to get information on our own. I stayed at a similar setup in Jeju called Tae Gong Gak, and the owner was the soul of helpfulness, googling things for us, recommending us cheap places to eat, helping us plan our itinerary, providing us with maps, and even taking the initiative to check in on us repeatedly by phone when we were unable to find an attraction to make sure we weren't lost. Ah Yee doesn't really do these things. She's friendly enough when spoken to, but the feeling we got was definitely an arms length transaction. 

LOCATION
The minsu is located right behind the train station - about a 5 min walk. If it's raining, it's a pain as there are no covered walkways to hide in. There is no pavement to walk on either, so you will be dragging your luggage at the side of the road. The upside to staying near the train station is that it's always easy to find a cab. This place was about 10min from Ziqiang night market and about 20min from the city centre. There are eateries near the minsu, although the well known ones are in town.

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