Hi Charlieliu, thanks for your advice!
I've some follow-up qns, you mention you engage the private driver for 3 days.
1. Can I ask whether the 3 days is consecutive?
2. Did we have to pay (top-up) for the driver accommodation? I assuming he need to stay somewhere.
3. Does his service include transport within an area/city or only between area/area? For example, you mention Lu Kang. Did he drive you between place of interest within Lu Kang or just drop just at one spot?
Separately, I'm just curious is the traveling tiring to tainan from cingjing?
fxsgsc, my replies which is applicable for Mr Wang's service to me.
1. Can I ask whether the 3 days is consecutive?
Charile: Yes, the 3 days are consecutive which is the middle part of my North to South Taiwan tour. Mr Wang is Taichung based. So I did not explore him for my Taipei and Kaoshiung part. Although I think it may be possible for me to contract him for my last day in Taipei to cover Yeh Liu->Jiufen->Shifen in addition to the 3 days I mentioned, but I did not do so as I wanted to of try the Taiwan local train from Ruifeng to Shifen. That also mean I cannot cover Yeh Liu in the same day. Hence I requested him to bring me to Yeh Liu before moving on to Taichung. The trade off is that some parts in Taichung (Lavander Farm, Shengxin Station) was not covered due to time limitation, which I am ok. (he told me I spent shall have spent one more day in Taichung, haha).
2. Did we have to pay (top-up) for the driver accommodation? I assuming he need to stay somewhere.
Charlie: This has to be confirmed with the driver during the quotaton (through Weechat, whattsapp, etc). For my case, I do not have to pay his accomodation which is confirmed prior to my departure from Singapore. Mr Wang has the choice of returning to Taichung after dropping me at Cinjing, and travel from Taichung to Cinjing to pick me up the next day. But as he dropped us at the resort quite late, he decided to sleep somewhere and pick me up the next day. He declined my offer for his accommodation.
3. Does his service include transport within an area/city or only between area/area? For example, you mention Lu Kang. Did he drive you between place of interest within Lu Kang or just drop just at one spot?
Charlie: In the three days service, he is our dedicated private driver. There is no need for other form of transportation except our legs which I think applies to all private hire cars. One different I found in Mr Wang's quote is: Add Time, Add Money, no Add Price. Within the day time (more than 8 hours, but I tried not to exceed 10 hours, mostly 9 am to 7 pm when it is very dark in december), he will drive us to any places we want to go (itinery recommended by him, but I can make changes based on my own research). So he drives us within city between places, e.g. in Tainan, he suggested Anping Old Street where there is old port, tree house, old street which are all at the same place. He also suggested another place (Lin Mu Ning Park). But I wanted to visit the Confuscious Temple (Kong Miao). So he drove us to Confuscious Temple, then drove us to Anping Old Street. But I cannot expect him to be a tour guide as he need to take care of the car. So on the way, he told us about the old street, recommend what to buy/eat. He drop us at the old street,give us direction. My family then visited the old street, port and tree house within the area. After we are done, we called him and he would appear within minutes to drive us to the next destination. Different from guided tour, there is no hurrying from him. He will give direction and recommendation. It is up to us to decide how long we want to spent at each place before he drives us to the next place. There is more than enough places to occupy the day time.
In Cinjing Green Green Farmland, he drop us at the entrance (higher hill) and wait for us at the exit (lower hill).
For Lu Kang, all the concentrations were in the Lu Kang Old Street which is next to the temple. There is no issue if we want to visit other areas in Lu Kang. We also visited the 彰化八卦山大佛 before moving on to Cinjing.
The only place that he decline to drive us is to see sun rise at Hehungshan (which is the reason why I stay one night at Cinjing). The reason is that the journery starts at 4 am, so he will be a zombie if he is to drive until 7 pm to KaoShiung. But I have no regret spending NTD400 per pax to take the red bus (book via the minsu) to Hehuangshan. The guides are professionals who stop on one of the moutains to explain the stars, the aborgin villages in the valley, and different vegetation on the mountains, and know exactly when the sun will rise. It is an education tour that I think cab drivers are not able to deliver.