Taiwan 2013

Taiwan Day 2: 23/07/2013

Cing Jing Farm, Small Swiss Garden, Feng Jia Night Market

Good morning!!!!

Rise and shine early in the morning at 04:00 to catch the sunrise. I was a lil reluctant to get out of bed cos we really had a rough day 1 from the sleepless flight and the whole day of touring around.
Nonetheless, I didn't want to miss the beautiful sunrise on top of Taiwan too.

On day 1 as I was conversing with the driver about our activities for day 2, he said watching the sunrise on top of He Huan Shan is really beautiful. However that depends on luck since its on top of the mountain and its 05:00 in the morning, it'll sure get a lil misty. So he said not to pin such a high hope, but we can try our luck.

On the way up the mini bus that we paid NT$400ea together with other tourist, I was praying hard while half asleep that the weather would be good. And sure enough, God answered my prayers.

At 05:30 near to the top of He Huan Shan where we catch the break of dawn. 

Really love the colour of the sky as it changes from pitch black to orangey. 

Beautiful landscape.

If I didn't say, you might think this is somewhere in Scotland isn't it.

Breaking dawn. 

After the sun is fully up and we enjoyed a good 1hour of romantic time with the sun rising in front of us, we continued our mini tour on the mountain where the driver stopped us at 4 other locations to enjoy the scenery. I must say early bird really catches the worm. This is the perfect time of the day for such beautiful scenery.

Me wrapped up in towel. 

Honestly when my friends said that He Huan Shan was cold, I didn't expect it to be THIS cold. I mean, all of them went during the colder periods and when they said it was cold, I was thinking maybe because it was winter. Now its summer, it shouldn't be THAT cold. Besides, having to bring thick clothes to Taiwan during summer is a joke. So I thought wearing a sweater would be good enough. I played safe by bringing along one of our hotel towels just in case. 

I was wrong.

The journey up to watch the sunrise is about an hour drive. And with every 1km altitude up, it'll be about 5degree down. And while we're only about 15mins upwards, I was already freezing. We stepped out of the mini-bus for star-gazing but I was shaking profusely. My knees were trembling cos I was wearing shorts tmd. The driver was almost laughing at me when he saw me wearing shorts. I thought it wasn't that bad. But at the peak, I almost died. Thankfully the mini-bus has thick jackets available and I wore 2 sweaters, 1 jacket and wrapped the towel around my legs. I was still trembling. My toes almost broke off. But I survived. 

So we were back to our hotel around 07:00 and we took a short rest before preparing to head out again. 

We're visiting the Cing Jing Farm - Green Green Grassland and I was ever so excited even before I went to Taiwan! Cos I get to see my dear sheep friends. Hee. 

The minsu owner drove us to Green Green Grassland together with other guests at around 09:00. 

The view in Green Green Grassland was spectacular. The grass is really green and its very cooling to be sitting there.

Watching the sheeps running around during the sheep show.

Finally got the chance to feed the sheeps! 

We bought like 2 packets of food at NT$10/pack. 

We also bought tickets for horse-riding at NT$150/pair. If you wna ride it alone it'll be NT$100/pax. 

My OOTD to Green Green Grassland. 

Beautiful scenery for a kiss. 

Weather up there is really good. Sun is hot but it's really chilly.

After we had fun at Green Green Grassland, we proceed to another place nearby that had horse show. We're not really interested in horses so we took our time to walk around the place and enjoy the scenery.

The entrance fee for Green Green Grassland is NT$160/pax but we used our Taiwan Youth card so it's NT$100/pax which also permits the entrance to the other place where the horse show is.

Tried the goat milk ice-cream which sucks cos y'know how goat milk has this goat smell which stinks? I hate it.

Even though the entire area seems really big, but its still walkable distance. From Green Green Grassland, it only took us 25mins walk to get back to our minsu! But before that, we went back to Small Swiss Garden, which is right opposite our minsu, to explore and take pictures.

Me feeding the swan. Actually we saw people feeding ducks and decided to join but suddenly 2 swan flew over.

And they are super noisy keep "Quack quack QUACK!!" until people keep looking and I bo bian have to keep feeding them.

We bought entrance tickets at NT$120/pax and it comes with NT$100ea of coupon for you to spend inside.

So we shared a bowl of Mango Ice and Milk Tea in this hot hot weather.

After walking one round around Swiss Garden, our next destination is supposed to be Old England Hotel to have high-tea. So we collect our luggage at the reception and walked to the bus stop just below our minsu and got up the bus that can bring us to Old England Hotel. However, the bus driver totally forgot that we are alighting and didn't remind us or tell us where to stop until we're almost an hour into the ride where he stopped at another bus stop. He was very apologetic and since it was pointless to wait for another bus to bring us back, we just continued the journey to Taichung HSR since it's the same service number. 

The entire bus trip from our minsu in Cing Jing to Taichung HSR is 2hrs and cost about NT$255/pax after discount from the bus driver since he didn't stop for us. Btw the bus we took is Nantou service line and the bus interval varies so it's best to get a copy of the bus timetable or you might end up waiting for hours for a bus.

Alternatively you can also get sharing car from the minsu to Taichung HSR which cost about NT$500/pax. 

It was already 15:00 when we arrived at Taichung HSR and we're famished since we didn't get to have our high-tea. 

Bus #12 is a free shuttle bus from Taichung HSR to our minu in Taichung called Tomer Hostel. 

If you are taking bus from Taichung Railway instead, the free shuttle bus number should be #120. 

The shuttle service is only free if you produce HSR tickets of that day itself. Otherwise you'd have to pay bus fare. 

Our minsu is all the way at the last stop and we paid NT$31/pax. It took about 40mins.

After we reach the bus stop, we walked a fair bit before we got to our minsu cos we were kinda lost. We walked the long way instead. But in the end we found the way cos it didn't really look quite like a minsu. It really looked like a hostel, as the name suggests. 

As usual we took a short rest before heading to the Feng Jia Night Market which is right below our room! Not really. Maybe about 3mins walk. But it was really cool to have the night market below you. So convenient!

First night in a more "city" area where we can find "Koi" so we bought one. 

Feng Jia Night Market. 

We were already at our minsu where Jz spotted this stall and he wanted to dabao back to our room.

Looks really good and I liked it too.

Feng Jia Night Market is a mixture of food and shopping at the same time. There's this side alley where you can walk in and it'll lead you to some shopping building. The clothes there are cheaper than Singapore but I didn't buy at all cos I feel that I can get it somewhere else at a better deal. 

Once we're back to our minsu, we finish up our food and rested early for the night. Another day of play awaits us.