Day 3 : Sun Moon Lake 日月潭

So fast it's already day 3 in Taiwan. Today we will be visiting Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村). We had our early breakfast in Star Villa and we gotta depart to Sun Moon Lake at 9.00am by the shared transportation service.

Luckily we had a valid SIM card to make calls because we almost got left out by the driver. Thank God it is all good and we head on to Sun Moon Lake and reach there in around one and a half hour. Carrying our luggage to travel from one place to another has made easy by this shared transportation service. Even though public transport is quite convenient here, yet by paying a little bit more to ease your burden, why not? By the way, it is only TWD 300 per person.

This is the love with his luggage upon our arrival.

There are altogether three jetty in Sun Moon Lake which are Shueishe (水社), Syuanguang (玄光寺) and Yidashao (伊达邵). So we are staying at Shueishe tonight at MeiJen House (美真馆). MeiJen is very helpful and you can contact her through WhatsApp if you have any queries. She helped us a lot in solving our transportation queries. We were a bit lost when we reach the Tourist Centre, and then we started to look for our "home", and then here we are <3

Note: We took the room photo after we check-in in the evening.

It is too early to check-in (their check-in time is 3.00pm) and MeiJen was asking about our itinerary. She gave us a few suggestions. There are two ways to reach to the cable car station, either by ferry or by bus. Due to time limitation, we choose to go by bus and have our lake tour tomorrow by ferry. We waited for the bus for around 15mins and the journey took another 15mins to reach the cable car station. The bus will alert you the next station and the driver will also inform you when that is the cable car station. 

Formosan Village tickets includes free cable car service. So if you have bought the entrance ticket to Formosan Village, you are not required to purchase another tickets for cable car. Luckily it is not very crowded so we got one cable car for 2 person only :) Doesn't need to mix with others <3 

I forgotten how long the journey takes because we were busying "whoah" on the scenery. Hahaha... The last cable car to go back is on 4.30pm which is kinda rush for us. So we had decided to take bus after we finish our visit which MeiJen has already told us where and when. Good service :)

This is the main entrance after you come down from the cable car. The friendly staff will remind you that their last fetch is at 4.30pm. We were a bit lost and don't know where to go because we saw another cable car station @.@ We thought it is the same but in fact it is not. This area is the village, sort of museum type.  

So this cable car actually leads you to here...

Hahaha... we got bit excited even though we are not familiar with this series :P The love immediately bought one souvenir from the shop. Upon purchasing, the cashier gave us a little pamphlet. We are required to collect the character stamps from different station, collect 7 stamps and above to get a mystery gift. We managed to get 6 only :( Just one more to grab the mystery gift :( 

This blog post will be flooded with many many photos because it is kinda hard not to take photo here :P You will definitely go crazy if you're a One-Piece fans. Just the weather is not so good because it was raining and we have to carry the umbrella all the way :(

So we went to watch this 3D animation, saw a lot of people queuing and we just join the crowd. There are only selected time to watch the animation and they can take up to 300 audience for one show. 

After the show, following the map and we enter this thing call One Piece Memorial Log. I'm not quite sure what is the theme like but there are a lot of One Piece character inside which you can take photo non-stop @.@ We are glad that the crowd was not the bad and we still can easily squeeze ourselves in for photo opportunity.

The below photo was taken at Straw Hat Crew, Play Play Play (草帽海贼团). This is more of an interactive museum with a lot of props for you to take photo. You can see all the props are in tip-top condition despite their huge crowd over the days. Look at the photo on the bottom right corner, can you see the big hand?  

You definitely don't want to miss this before you leave. These are located at the Europe Garden (欧洲花园). By the time we visited the garden the rain has stopped. Perfect weather to marvel at this wonderful scenery. 

It is a beautiful garden. It is HUGE and filled with Lavender. Lovely!!!

Two ways to go back to Sun Moon Lake Tourist Centre:-
(1) Nantou Bus (南投客运) -> Sun Moon Lake (日月潭)
     The last Nantou Bus to Sun Moon Lake Tourist Centre is at 5.30pm. So make sure you're at the bus stop on time because if you missed this, your only choice is Taxi. It is only TWD 26 per person. Do make sure you have enough small change before boarding.

(2) Taxi
     There will be taxi driver who approach you offering you TWD 400 to the Tourist Centre. Since we're not rushing so we choose to wait for the bus. There are plenty of them so no worries if you want to stay a bit latter. The price are all stated on the carving board on top of the bus stop.

This ends our beautiful day at this beautiful place. Tomorrow we need to wake up early to catch a boat to visit the spots around the lake and we gonna depart to Taipei!

Stay tuned~

Where to stay in Sun Moon Lake?
(1) MeiJen House 日月潭美真馆
     Website: http://www.mayzen.com.tw 
      Address: 南投县鱼池乡日月潭中山路125号
     Contact: 0922 203 830 (Can Whatsapp / LINE)
     Email: am11262000@yahoo.com.tw

Where to visit?
(1) Sun Moon Lake 日月潭
     Website: http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw

(2) Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村)
     Website: http://www.nine.com.tw 

     Address: 55544 南投县鱼池乡大林村金天巷45号

      Contact: 049 289 5361
     Operation Hours:
     Normal Day: 9.00am - 5.00pm
     Holiday: 9.00am - 5.30pm

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

      

Day 1 @ Taiwan : FengJia Night Market

After the arrival at the airport, we need to look for King Bus (国光客运) to reach Tai Chung Chou Ma Station （台中朝马站). It is very convenient to get to the ticket counter, they are several options such as FeiGou飞狗 and Tong Lian 统联. We got our tickets from King Bus at NTD 240 per person. The customer service personnel will label your luggage and later on you can redeem your luggage from the driver by showing the tag. For our case, we need to carry ourselves because the driver ask us so :( 

Due to traffic jam, we took around 2 and a half hours to reach ChouMa Station. We were walking around to see if we can get a prepaid sim card to stay connected. Just in case we need to make any calls to our hostel. 7-11 is everywhere but we couldn't get one. Some said sold out some said the worker is not around. We give up and get a taxi to get back to our "home" for the first night in Taiwan - Eiffel Tower Hostel. 

I personally highly recommended this hostel because it is new, spacious and clean. I think this is the best among the 4 places that we stayed throughout our journey. It is only TWD 1200 per night for two person. Basic facilities are provided like water heater, TV, hair dryer and of cause, the room is air-conditioned. Free Wifi too :) Remember to bring along one Universal Traveler Adapter because it is different from what Malaysia use.

If you forgotten to bring any of the followings, no worries, because these are all provided:- tooth brush, tooth paste, shampoo, shower creme, shower cap, indoor slipper, soap and razor. The weather is only 18' Celsius but it doesn't really affect us. It's just like you're in Cameron Highlands. FengJia Night Market is just within walking distance.  

It takes around 5-8 minutes to walk from our hostel to the night market. Along the way, there are many shop lots that will capture your attention away. We almost missed the entrance to night market while we walked down the streets. We also managed to get our prepaid sim card at TWD 800 for 7Days (Unlimited Internet Access + Free Calls) We only get one plan, cause the internet can be shared via hotspot. It is much convenient to have one valid phone number to call and let others to reach you. I feel safer by having this.

Right, present to you the FengJia Night Market. It is very crowded even on a weekday's night. We don't really know where to start and we keep looking around to ensure we are familiar with our surroundings. This is to ensure we know our way out, it will be quite funny if we got lost inside the night market itself :P  

We were quite hungry after a long journey on the bus, plus carrying our luggage walking around town to look for 7-11 :( The first thing we had is this -

This is a heavenly drumstick, and you can choose any flavour you like. By eating this, I don't know I need to run how many kilometer to burn them all. It is juicy, crunchy and heavenly. We bought two, one is original flavor and another one is curry. For curry they will just pour the curry powder on the drumstick and it is not spicy at all. Highly recommended if you happen to see one :) 

There are lots of foods along the street and you might have hard time to choose from. Here are some photos because we can't manage to try them all. 

The second thing we had is this - Grilled rice :) Looks like Sushi and but taste is not. It is something new because I never see it in Malaysia yet. Most importantly, it is HOT, so it is a perfect food to match the cold weather :P 

We were then continue to walk around until we feel the rain drops. Ohhhhh, we forgotten to bring our umbrella. :( A lot of people are wearing raincoat and get their umbrella out. I have not seen people in Malaysia wear disposable raincoat in night market, but it is quite common in Taiwan. To hide ourselves from the rain, we found ourselves a restaurant to have a proper dinner. Taiwanese likes to have their food served with black pepper. I had pork-rib rice and the love got himself drumstick rice. Both are served with black pepper powder @.@

The rain did not get any smaller and we have to walk + run all the way back to our hostel. The wind get stronger and we were shivering. Poor little tourist who were first day in Taiwan only :( 

Not much photo after the rain pour and we just want to reach our "home" and get ourselves clean and happy!!

Stay tune for more <3

Where to stay?
Eiffel Tower Hostel 逢甲艾菲尔
Address: 台中市西屯區福星北一街
Website: fccheaphostel.fengchia.tw
Contact:
(i) LINE ID: eiffel_tower
(ii) Email: fccheaphostel@gmail.com
(iii) Mobile: 0972-793539

Fly Back from the Heart of Asia

Hello, I'm back!

Taiwan is amazingly awesome, I wish the time will just freeze at that point of time because I seriously do not want to come back :’( It is a total of 9D8N trip to Taiwan and our itinerary consists of Taichung and Taipei only. Some people might ask “huh, 9 days only Taichung and Taipei?” Yes, only Taichung and Taipei, me and my love enjoy ourselves so much!

I’m gonna write a super long-winded and detailed post about my Taiwan trip, you can skip only to photos if you think that this is boring (please don’t). This is a free and easy trip and we managed to visit every place we intended to and visited few additional places as well.

We had our itinerary after few months’ hard work on researching. I shall share with you the actual one for our 9days trip.

Day1   : Malaysia LCCT – Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport – TaiChung – FengJia Night Market – Accomodation: Eiffel Tower Hostel 
Day2   :TaiChung – CingJing Farm – Accomodation: Star Villa 
Day3   : CingJing – Sun Moon Lake – Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village – Accomodation: Mei Jen House 
Day4   :Sun Moon Lake – TaiChung High Speed Rail Station – Taipei MainStation – Xi Men Ding – Long Shan Temple – HuaXi Night Market 
Day5   : Yehliu Geo Park – Jiu Fen – Shi Fen 
Day6   : YangMingShan National Park – Bei Tou – Tam Shui Village – Shi Da Night Market – He Bin Gong Yuan 
Day7   : The Palace Museum – Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence - Martyrs' Shrine in 228 Memorial Park - Chiang Kai‑shek Memorial Hall - Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park – Shi Lin Night Market 
Day8   : Mr. J French Italian Restaurant – Taipei 101 – Wu Fen Pu – Mao Kong 
Day9   : Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport – Malaysia :’(

Some people suggested us to rent a car + driver to bring us around. But since there are only 2 of us, it is not worth it (and to cut budget) so we decided to walk on our own. After all it is very convenient because their transportation system is superb. Okay, let's get the journey started. 

It takes around 4 hours and 20 minutes from LCCT to reach Taoyuan International Airport. We brought 2 x 24" luggage and the checked-in weight is only 19kgs for both. We bought 35kgs :( We also pre-order meals, Terriyaki Chicken for the love and I had Chicken Rice. Each pre-booked meal comes with a 300ml Mineral Water. AirAsia being AirAsia, I wonder why they don't served pre-book meals first until we have to ask from them, and they are still blur and said they have to check whether they have any of this left @.@ If there isn't any left, so what is the meaning of pre-booked leh? Well, here's a pic of that "finally arrived pre-booked meal".

After 4hours of flying, finally, ta-daa.... Taoyuan International Airport!! Get to the immigration gate and claimed our baggage. Ready, get-set, go!!! These are some photos took in the airport upon the arrival. Welcome to Taiwan <3

Stay tuned for upcoming post and I will share with you my amazing Taiwan trip!