It may sound quirky and my first impression is there must be whales inside the hotel and I was right, through paintings and posters! Our itineraries were given a day before our trip to Taipei, Taiwan. This was the husband's company perk for those who had stayed five years and above, I was just tagged along as the bosses noted a family member can be brought along for the trip so they can also meet their loyal employee's family.

Hotel Papa Whale sounded very gimmicky but it surely can wake up the curiosity of tourists looking for accommodation in Taipei. Since we were just given the itineraries, it was the company's designated team who had arranged everything for us, from the accommodation down to the day-to-day trips and tours. It was only after the trip that we found out we can opt to not be included in their planned itineraries, we just have to let them know beforehand.

Anyway, it was almost noontime when we arrived at our hotel, check-in time was at three in the afternoon so we had some time to roam around the Ximending District after lunch. The husband and I opted for a photo walk around the vicinity. Hotel Papa Whale is easy to locate in Google Maps so there was no problem going around, we found our way back to the hotel almost three in the afternoon.

I missed taking photos of the room though so I will only talk about the details of the room in this blog, no photos nor videos will be included.

Rustic with industrial accents, this is how I would describe the reception hall and the front desk lobby of the hotel. There were no whales here yet. The huge marquee light-up Papa Whale letter sign is up on the front desk, I like how the hanging lights are also randomly hanged up in the ceiling and what can you say about those iron chains?

A few steps away from the front desk, a few antique items were displayed. But what caught our attention was their library-kind of book display. In that area is also a cafe, guests can sit here and browse through their large selection of books, we tried to look for a book but they were all in Chinese, we couldn't find anything that's written in English though.

But we found a spot great for photography so we tried taking photos of each corner. These images were taken with different cameras so the editing was quite not the same.

On the far end is a wall with prints of whales and some quotes. It was a good spot for book lovers. There's a comfort room opposite this area, very neat and accessible.

Our room keys were given to us right away and staff told us it is in the basement area. We took some time looking for our room.

Located near the hallway in the basement, I figured there will be no windows and no view of the city but that's fine as we will only be staying here in this room at night, most of our days will be out for tours.

It was a double room with a spacious work desk and another desk which has a refrigerator and an electric kettle on it. The bed is comfortable, there were free water, coffee, and tea as well as cups.

The dresser was on the opposite side with hangers available. A huge television opposite to our bed with a lot of channels to choose from but we never really had the chance to check the list because we often arrive late and would just resort to sleeping right away.

My favorite part of the room was the shower. The walls were transparent and the curtains outside were the only way to cover the person taking a bath inside. On our first day, I took a shower and didn't know that my husband was just watching me while I was inside the shower, he told me about it after I finished.

Hot showers are my favorite and I always appreciate hotel rooms that come with them. Aside from that, the towels are always clean, they have daily room service and as long as the towels are placed in the laundry bag, they'd change it with a new one. The same goes with the toiletries too! We were given new toothbrush sets and soaps!

Because our room is in the basement, the data connection here isn't good but they have free wifi which is okay as well.

Our accommodation includes a complimentary breakfast, so it was always a hotpot breakfast for us all the four mornings that we stayed in the hotel. It was all good in the first two days until I got over it in the third and fourth breakfast yet it is better to dine here than to go outside while the bosses didn't avail of the free breakfast the second morning.

The hotpot opens at seven in the morning, we were always ready before the restaurant opens and we get to eat first because our days were always filled with scheduled tours.

It was our first time to try the Taiwanese kind of hotpot though. But aside from the hotpot, they also serve coffee, juice, some bread and butter, and jam combination, and more so on our third day, I went for the carbs instead.

On our last day in the hotel, my husband and I spent some time roaming around the vicinity of the hotel. We found out that the rooms on the upper floors were designed differently, they got some industrial designs and so we took some photos.

Then we found huge clipboards too with whales drawn on them. These have writings of the guests who had stayed in the hotel who left their messages on the board. These boards are so huge that it is bigger than my husband.

Hotel Papa Whale is located in Ximending District which means it is very near to shops, restaurants, and most especially the Ximending Night Market. On our first day, we had our time to roam around the city on foot. We also had our first-night market experience. The following nights, it was all raining so going out on the first night was a good idea.