February 2010 Archives

I've made my Blackberry Bold SIM-unlocked, because the Blackberry I bought in Japan was locked to NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese mobile phone carrier, so when I was abroad I had to fear the phone bill charging highly expensive roaming prices.

Unlocking was easy: I got an unlock code for my device at http://expressunlockcode.com/bbexpress.aspx by paying $19.99 and giving the IMEI for my device, phone model, carrier name locked to and my country to the unlock code provider. Several hours later from paying I got an unlock code for the IMEI I gave. Then I unlocked it by following the instructions at http://www.mobileslate.com/blog/2008/11/14/how-to-unlock-rim-blackberry-9000-bold/. Once unlocked, you can use not only NTT DoCoMo's SIM card but Softbank's, as shown in the above picture.
(Blackberry services aren't available with Softbank's SIM card, though)

On the last day, I gave up sightseeing in the downtown because I had not so much time, then I went straight to the airport from the hotel.

What I ate at the airport until the flight to Japan:

Luroufan, xiaolongbao and roasted duck.

See you again, Taiwan!

Note: all photos taken in Taiwan are uploaded on Flickr.

I stayed at Novotel Hotel near Taipei International Airport for this trip. I took this hotel online on Expedia.co.jp. It was super gorgeous, with a clean and modern room and a wide bed with two pillows.

You can see an airplane taking off from the guest room window because this hotel is located right beside a runway.

One problem: as it's very close to an airport, when a plane takes off at midnight its roaring sound will wake you up :-( It's recommended to avoid staying near an airport.