Day 2 : Cing Jing Farm 清境农场

Day 2 in Taiwan, our planned itinerary is to go CingJing Farm by our pre-book shared transportation service, which we will share the car with other people but to the same destination. It is quite convenient for us and we do not have to travel by bus with our bulky luggage.

Well, we got the shock of our life thought that we overslept and missed the car cause when we woke up, the sky is so bright like 8.00am in Malaysia. In fact, it is only 6.30am @.@ 

We jumped up from the bed and I keep asking "What is the time now? What is the time now?" and the love is too gan-cheong and he read the watch upside down. 

He told me it's already 12.30pm @.@ I was like "shit, we missed the car. How are we going to CingJing today then?" 

I then grabbed my phone and notice that the time is only 6.30am. To further clarify, I even search for World Clock from my phone to double-check on the time. So the conclusion is that we didn't miss the car, we just need to wake up and get ourselves ready. What a way to start our day @.@ 

So this is me waiting for our car to arrive, it is really 8.30am in the morning :D Besides shared transportation service, you can also reach CingJing Farm by taking bus. 

The driver is quite punctual to reach right in front of our hostel at 9.00am as scheduled. It's a Volkswagen van and there are only 5 people inside the car. It's a 2-hour journey and the driver also explain to us about the history of Nantou (南投) district. 

Along the way we can see a lot of paddy fields, just like my hometown Alor Star. According to the driver, Nantou district is famous with three things; (i) Paddy (ii) Wine and (iii) Pretty Girl :D 

The driver will send you right to your hotel/hostel doorstep. See, here we are at our "home" for tonight at Star Villa. We reached at 11.15am and it is too early to check-in because their check-in time is 3.00pm. We settled our final payment and the boss asked whether we had our lunch yet. He showed us the map of the place and explain to us on how to get the journey done. They will send us to the tourist hub at that area and we can get our way to Evergreen Grasslands (青青草原), a must visit if you're here. Admission ticket is needed and we got ours from the hotel because it is slightly cheaper :) By night time if we want to come back, just give them a call and they will pick us up. Convenient huh :D

So we dropped our baggage and the owner send us to the tourist hub, where we can have brunch now and dinner later. It is a 2-storey building with different shop lots which consists of 7-11, MOS Burger, Tourist Centre and others. Tourist must take photo with the beautiful scenery first :)

These are all 7-11 outlets available in this area. 7-11 is one of our favourite place in Taiwan, easily access and loads of interesting stuff in there. Awww... I miss their 7-11 now. :( So we shop for our disposable raincoat because it might rain today according to weather forecast. 

We were looking for places for our brunch and we end up here :P The another available restaurant is for steamboat and we afraid that we might get smelly so we choose this. Hot burger plus perfect scenery = Blissful! One set of 2 person set meal cost us at TWD 299 only.

To cut the story short, we waited for the shuttle bus at 1.00pm, estimated to reach Evergreen Grasslands at 2.00pm to catch the show. Remember to have small change with you because we don't have enough and have to walk up all the way to the shop lots to change. The bus fare is TWD 20 per person. Around 10minutes journey and you will reach the main entrance. Ta-daa :D

Remember to stamp your hand with the stamp provided as you will go through few gates later and they will only recognized the stamp on your hand.

It is not very crowded and most of them are local Taiwanese. The view is amazing and you feel happy when you see the sheep. Meh... I think this is the first time I see so many sheep around on a green green field. Although I expect them to be a bit whiter :P There are few vending machines along the pathway where you can buy food for the sheep, it is TWD 100 per packet. Just put the food on your palm and the sheep will come to you. Do not feed the sheep with your MOS burger okay? :P

Well, you will feel just so relax when you're here. How often can you have this in the city? There's a sheep show at 2.30pm and we were finding our ways to the place. Directional signage are all around, do not have to worry that you might get lost in this huge green field :P This is the stage and this farm is managed by a man from New Zealand who can speak mandarin :)

As you can see it's raining and people are carrying umbrella so did not managed to catch any photo during the show. Raining actually spoil our mood a little bit and it is freaking cold and I only wear shorts on the day *padan muka* Remember to wear a pair of good shoes when you go to CingJing, the weather is unpredictable. The trail gets slippery when raining, so a good pair of shoes is needed :) 

Aren't you amazed? I'm totally in love with this beautiful place <3 

When we finished the whole area after walking down from this Great Wall Track (步步高升) which is 1.8km in length and has a total of 487 steps. I was complaining while walking down because it seems unending. Of coz we made it at the end but we didn't track how long does it take to complete this track. Our next stop is Little Swiss Garden (小瑞士花园).

What welcome you is this :) This is not the actual garden yet. There are some shop lots around which includes 7-11 (yes, they are all around). We decided to have our dinner settled before we visit Little Swiss Garden. There isn't much choices so we settled down in Carton King Creativity Park (纸箱王主题餐厅创意园区). If you're guessing, yes, everything inside is made by carton. Up to the curtain and the bench, everything is made by carton. Can you imagine? It is quite hard to believe until we see it with our own eyes. Unbelievable!! Check out the restaurant and the settings.

We were holding a cup, mine is paper cup with a "carton stand". The love is drinking his drinks from the box. Yes, it is a sealed box. Hahahaha... it looks very funny when you drink from a box right? 

The environment is perfect. The food is so-so if you asked me :P There's a minimum spend of TWD 80 per person which it can easily exceeded when you order one set meal. Had our early dinner and let's go to Little Swiss Garden. Maybe we reach a bit late and the scenery was not seem to be nice, probably because it is dark :( So please have Little Swiss Garden arranged in day time if you plan to be there.

This marks the end of the itinerary because there's nothing much to do in CingJing during night time. You can lepak in Starbucks or 7-11 if you do not want to go back to your hotel/hostel so early. We stay at the building for another half an hour to shop for souvenirs because we really do not want to go back so early, like 8.30pm? So we called our hotel guy and they pick us up in 5mins time (super fast). Here ends our wonderful day in CingJing. A super nice place <3

How to go CingJing from TaiZhong?

(1) Shared Car (共乘车服务)
     Website: http://blog.yahoo.com/_4BCDUVV6XOXAUE7V3YISTMA5FQ/articles/10193/category/%E5%8F%B0%E4%B8%AD%E6%A9%9F%E5%A0%B4%26%E5%8F%B0%E4%B8%AD%E9%AB%98%E9%90%B5%E7%AB%99+%E7%9B%B4%E9%81%94%E6%B8%85%E5%A2%83
     Email: h790310@gmail.com

(2) Nantou Bus (南投客运) 
     Website: www.ntbus.com.tw 
     
Where to Stay?

(1) Star Villa 清境摘星花园山庄
     Website: www.starvilla.com.tw
     Address: 清境農場仁和路 Renai Township, Nantou County, Taiwan 546
     Contact: +886 4 9280 2946
     Email: star96669@yahoo.com.tw 
     

Where to Visit?

(1) Evergreen Grasslands (青青草原)
     Website: http://www.cingjing.com.tw/mien 
     Operating Hours: Daily 8.00am - 5.00pm
     Admission Fees: TWD 160 / Adult (Normal Days) / TWD 200 / Adult (Holidays)

(2) Little Swiss Garden (小瑞士花园)
     Website http://www.cingjing.gov.tw/mien/index2.php
      Operating Hours: Daily 9.00am - 9.00pm
     Admission: TWD 120 / Adult